Studio 54 Hardcover – September 5, 2017 by Ian Schrager (Editor), Bob Colacello (Foreword) (Rizzoli)

2017 marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of Studio 54, probably the greatest of discos. Ian Schrager, one of the three co-owners, has just put out this volume. I have followed the history of Studio 54 from a Vanity Fair piece by Andy Warhol associate Bob Colacello, a History Channel documentary, and other material about the 1970's so it was no surprise I'd want to read Schrager's book. While not a night life person, I do enjoy a tale of high decadence. The book is not a terrible one, but if you are expecting an in-depth look at Studio 54's rise and fall as told by one of its leading members, you will be disappointed. The book is more a celebratory remembrance, recalling the good times and glossing over some of the uglier incidents. Schager kept scrapbooks and reproduces pages of news bits about the glory days of Studio 54. There are great photos of the famous and the lesser known but spectacular denizens. If you want to experience nostalgia or a wish you could have been there, this book will succeed. I suppose I should caution potential buyers by noting that they will be paying a lot for what amounts to the deluxe edition of Ian Schrager's scrapbook. Still, at least Schrager was part of something that was very fascinating, even four decades later

On the timeline of New York nightlife, the heyday of Studio 54 barely registers as a blip. Just three years separate the club’s celeb-mobbed 1977 opening and the raucous “going-away party” that proprietors Ian Schrager and the late Steve Rubell hosted before being carted off to jail for tax evasion. But in the four decades since that famous coke-snorting crescent moon first rose over the dance floor, no other nightclub has made quite as indelible an ­impression on the city’s social scene. From 10 p.m. until sunrise, A-list movie stars mingled with drag queens on roller skates, Park Avenue swans had (pre-AIDS-crisis) bathroom sex with downtown artists, and some of the 20th-century’s greatest literary lights watched it all from the infamous banquettes. Now, thanks to a new book, those who never made it past the velvet ropes—or are too young to have even tried—have a window into that wild-and-crazy magic. Studio 54 (Rizzoli), edited by Schrager, now impresario of a slew of hotels including the new Public Hotel, is equal parts oral history, personal scrapbook, and photo album, bringing together the reminiscences of regulars with star-studded snapshots and reams of gossip columns. Schrager, it seems, saved everything