Documentaries to Watch: Time and Place in History

And the first documentary I'm going to talk about today is called Studio 54.

Now, some may have never even heard of Studio 54, and I wouldn't be all that surprised because I myself hadn't heard of it until I watched this documentary.

It was before my time because these events took place in the 70s, so it's not something I would have remembered seeing in the news or anything like that.

The documentary details the glorious rise and fall of the notorious discotheque club called Studio 54, which opened in April of 1977 and closed its doors in February of 1980.

Its success was short-lived but legendary.

And like most legends, fraught with scandal.

Now as far as the documentary itself, I will agree with those that said it is pretty standard, straightforward, there's nothing overly glamorous about it, and that the interest in watching it would heavily depend on whether or not you're interested in the subject matter.

And I would argue that's true for any documentary, honestly.

The truth is, you have to be very interested to sit there and listen to someone talk about something.

And I don't remember how I first heard about Studio 54 and how I got turned on to the documentary to even want to watch it in the first place.

But I will say that for me, it was more of the interest about the story because the story itself is pretty sensational.

So there's a number of reasons why I think that this story of what was happening, particularly at Studio 54, like I said, not so much the film itself, but the story of Studio 54, that was particularly interesting.

So I'm going to go into a couple of those details about What was so sensational? What did people think was just the greatest thing since sliced bread? And why did this particular piece of time in New York City history become such a big deal? And why is it still talked about, at least in some circles? So in the beginning, the building was built in the 20s, started out as an opera house, and then it was used for a CBS television studio.

So that right there already solidifies a really cool backstory for the building itself.

So these two gentlemen, Steve and Ian, decide to open this nightclub.

In 1977, they opened.

It's pretty much an instant success.

And one of the things that was noted several times in the documentary was because this was considered the absolute place to be, it was one of those places that became notorious for turning away sometimes even high-profile celebrity guests.

There were people who were always admitted into the club because they were a favorite of the owner.

But in one of the interviews, one of the gals recounts, there in fact was a list of people who had to pay to get in, people who could get in, people who could not.

and the list of celebrities who got free drugs.

And by all accounts, these club nights were absolutely unhinged.

In the documentary, of course, there's tons of crazy photos and depictions of just like you had to be there moments of people riding horses and feeding a cheetah at the bar.

I mean, you'd really have to see it to believe it.

And there's all these things that regularly took place there that you'd see in the pictures and the archives and think, man, if those walls could talk.