Steve Rubell (December 2, 1943 - July 25, 1989) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
and co-owner of the
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
discoA discothèque, , is an entertainment venue or club with recorded music played by Disc jockeys through a PA system, rather than an on-stage band.Prior to the discothèque, most bars and nightclubs used live bands as entertainment.- Etymology :...
Studio 54Studio 54 is a New York City Broadway theater and former discothèque located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. The disco opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in March 1986 and briefly reopened in 1994 after a multi-million dollar renovation...
.
Rubell and his brother Don spent their childhoods with their parents in
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. His father worked for the U.S. Postal Service and later became a
tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
pro. Rubell attended Wingate High School, and was also an avid tennis player, but decided against playing professionally.
Entering
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded as a university in 1870, but its roots can be traced back to a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College...
has the intention of becoming a dentist, but failed his courses.
He switched majors, studying finance and history.
Steve Rubell (December 2, 1943 - July 25, 1989) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entrepreneurAn entrepreneur is a person who has possession of an enterprise, or venture, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. It is an ambitious leader who combines land, labor, and capital to often create and market new goods or services. ... The term is a loanword...
and co-owner of the
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
discoA discothèque, , is an entertainment venue or club with recorded music played by Disc jockeys through a PA system, rather than an on-stage band.Prior to the discothèque, most bars and nightclubs used live bands as entertainment.- Etymology :...
Studio 54Studio 54 is a New York City Broadway theater and former discothèque located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. The disco opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in March 1986 and briefly reopened in 1994 after a multi-million dollar renovation...
.
Early Life
Rubell and his brother Don spent their childhoods with their parents in
BrooklynBrooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located southwest of Queens on the western tip of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. His father worked for the U.S. Postal Service and later became a
tennisTennis is a sport played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court....
pro. Rubell attended Wingate High School, and was also an avid tennis player, but decided against playing professionally.
Education
Entering
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded as a university in 1870, but its roots can be traced back to a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College...
has the intention of becoming a dentist, but failed his courses.
He switched majors, studying finance and history. He was not a good student, reportedly, but managed to complete his studies, going on to complete a Master's degree in Finance.
While attending college Rubell met
Ian SchragerIan Schrager is an American hotelier and real estate developer. Often associated with co-creating of the Boutique Hotel genre. Originally, he gained fame as co-owner & co-founder of Studio 54.-Early life:...
, that turned into a lifelong friend and business partner.
Business
Rubell joined the
National GuardThe National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States...
, returning to New York after a tour of duty in the military intelligence unit, he worked at a brokerage firm after his return.
Then he decided to start his own business and opened up two restaurants, one in Queens, New York and the other in New Haven,
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and New York to the west and south ....
.
Studio 54 Era
In 1974, Rubell teamed up with Schrager to run a chain of steak restaurants, and after spending some time in the NY nightclub scene, the two decided to open a club of their own.
They opened two clubs to start with, one in Boston, the other, called
The Enchanted Garden, in
QueensQueens is the largest in area, the second-largest in population, and the easternmost of the Five Boroughs which form New York City. The Borough of Queens' boundaries are identical to those of the County of Queens , a subdivision of the State of New York in the Northeastern United States.Located on...
. In April 1977, they opened
Studio 54Studio 54 is a New York City Broadway theater and former discothèque located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan. The disco opened on April 26, 1977 and closed in March 1986 and briefly reopened in 1994 after a multi-million dollar renovation...
in an old television studio on West
54th Street54th Street is a two-mile-long, one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-West Side Highway:*The route begins at the West Side Highway...
. Rubell became a familiar face in front of the building, turning people down at the door and only letting in those who met his specific standards. Sometimes he would dismiss unwanted patrons by telling them that they were ugly, or that they should go home and change their clothes. Rubell also dealt with the club's celebrity patrons, ensuring that they were thrown lavish parties and given gifts. His tactics worked, and the club made $7 million during its first year.
In December 1978, Studio 54 was raided after Rubell was quoted as saying that only the
MafiaThe Mafia is a Sicilian criminal society which is believed to have emerged in late 19th century Sicily, and the first such society to be referred to as a mafia . It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct...
made more money than the club brought in. In June 1979, Rubell and Schrager were charged with
tax evasionTax avoidance is the legal utilization of the tax regime to one's own advantage, to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. By contrast tax evasion is the general term for efforts to not pay taxes by illegal means...
,
obstruction of justiceThe crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by judges, prosecutors, attorneys general, and elected officials in general. It is misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance in the conduct of the office. Most commonly it is prosecuted as a crime for perjury by a non governmental official...
, and conspiracy for reportedly skimming nearly $2.5 million in unreported income from the club's receipts, in a system Rubell called "cash-in, cash-out and skim."
A second raid occurred in December 1979. The pair hired
Roy CohnRoy Marcus Cohn was an American conservative lawyer who became famous during Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigations into Communist infiltration of U.S. government, and especially during the Army-McCarthy Hearings...
to defend them, but on January 18, 1980, they were sentenced to three and a half years in prison and a $20,000 fine each for the tax evasion charge.
On February 4, 1980, Rubell and Schrager went to prison.
Studio 54 was sold in November 1980 for $4.75 million.
In January 1981, Rubell and Schrager were released from prison after handing over the names of other club owners involved in tax evasion.
Hotels
Once released, Rubell and Schrager purchased the Executive Hotel on
Madison AveMadison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and Harlem...
and renamed it Morgan's. Rubell later opened the Palladium, a large dance club famous for displaying art by
Keith HaringKeith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
,
Jean-Michel BasquiatJean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist and the first African-American painter to become an international art star. He gained popularity first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist...
and
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, and considered central to the New York club scene in the 1980s.
Recently, The Palladium was demolished so that
New York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian, research university in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
dorms could be built in its place.
Pop Culture
Mike MyersMichael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian-English actor, comedian, screenwriter and film producer. He was a long-time cast member on the NBC sketch show Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and the early 1990s and starred as the title characters in the films Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and ...
played the part of Steve Rubell in the movie
5454 or Studio 54 is a 1998 film starring Salma Hayek, Ryan Phillippe and Neve Campbell. It also stars Mike Myers as Steve Rubell, the cofounder of Studio 54, a New York City disco club famous in the late 1970s and the setting for the film. The film was directed by Mark Christopher who also wrote the...
.
Steve Rubell: Lord of the Disco was an episode of
BiographyBiography is a documentary television series. Originally a half-hour filmed series produced for syndication by David Wolper in 1962-63 and hosted by Mike Wallace, the A&E Network later re-ran it and has produced new episodes since 1987...
.
Death
In 1985, Rubell, who was
closetedThe Closet may refer to:* The Closet , Chinese film* The Closet , French film* The closet, a reference to homosexuality...
for most of his life, discovered he had
AIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus ....
.
He began taking AZT, but his illness was furthered by his continued drugs usage and drinking, which affected his already compromised immune system.
Rubell died on July 25, 1989. The official cause of death was listed as
hepatitisHepatitis implies injury to the liver characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. The name is from ancient Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation"...
.
External links