Studio One Forever (2023) Movie Script

1
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
(CAMERA WHIRS)
()
MAN 1:
When I read this was gonna
be demolished,
it made me sick.
MAN 2:
Well, it was a big,
ugly building.
It was an eyesore, frankly.
MAN 3:
When I first heard
that somebody had bought it,
I thought, "Uh-oh,
potential threat."
MAN 4:
I felt very angry.
MAN 5:
It was a landmark building
and it was a landmark in time.
MAN 6:
The building itself was
a tin can.
How does it stand up?
MAN 7:
It was a place where I could go
and feel safe.
MAN 8:
It was an explosion.
MAN 9:
I had so many memories there.
MAN 10:
A complete immersion.
()
Hello, anybody here?
Look at this place.
Wow. It's like Follies.
MEN:
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Yeah.
(CHUCKLES)
Didn't you all used
to be 20-something?
-Yeah, exactly.
-You all got old, man.
You all got old.
All right, all right.
I'm going to warn you
before we go in.
Prepare your eyes.
It's not what it used
to look like.
Okay.
(INDISTINCT MURMURS)
Okay, guys.
It used to be paradise.
It's a straight club now.
It's a straight club.
For so many people,
this was the happiest place
on earth for them.
What is a gemstone
in the history of LGBT America,
the very first disco.
And even if somebody opens a new
nightclub in West Hollywood,
it would never be what
we had in the '70s and '80s.
Why?
Because in the '70s and '80s,
we were a secret society.
This is the place we came
to find our tribe.
What a trip seeing this
like this now.
Run away, turn away,
run away, turn away
For me, it was really
my entrance into life.
I was wide-eyed.
It was Hollywood.
Holly, Hollywood
Yeah
Holly, Hollywood,
All right
LLOYD:
A very haunting
and moving experience
to walk in.
It was kind of like going back
to see your old house
and the memories instantly
come alive.
And it was at that moment I
realized what a monument it was.
They're talking about
demolishing the whole thing.
Wow.
And a lot of us on council
said, "You cannot."
I said, "What?"
You know, Studio One
has been part of my life off
and on since 1975.
Maybe my Disco Dolly days
were long gone
and behind me.
I assumed that there
would always be a place.
All these years.
Studio!
One!
Anybody who tells you
that they were there in the '70s
and remembers it, wasn't there.
MAN 11:
As you were in the middle
of a group
of the most beautiful men
you'd ever seen.
You could feel the energy
move throughout the whole room.
THELMAN:
I would go there
and dance on Thursday nights.
All of my best friends,
they were hairdressers
and stylists
and after I got a hit,
I was performing.
Sweat and hell.
Because I was raised
in the church,
it felt like the pits of hell
and the-- with the lights
and the fire.
Everything came together to make
a wonderful explosion
of happiness.
If you could dance,
you forgot
about everything else.
An assault of the sound
and these beautiful people.
It was such a rush.
I loved seeing the happiness
of everybody getting together.
Everybody was so close.
It was like you had
to watch your feet.
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
The opening night.
You had 1500 people, bum, bum
and the turntable would jump.
I said to Scott, "Call RCA,
get someone down here
to fix that damn turntable."
When you crossed over
into the threshold
of the dance floor was a kind
of alternative reality.
BRUCE:
It was so chemically induced
for most people.
They're beyond
misty water-colored memory.
They're sludge-colored memories.
ROBERT:
MDA was my favorite.
People were doing coke
on the dance floor.
They had little bottles.
They'd...
(MIMICS OPENING BOTTLE)
Everybody did drugs back then.
MICHAEL:
Here, especially in the '70s,
cocaine was the thing.
It was not uncommon
for somebody to come in
and put whatever cocaine
they had on the bar.
I'd have a thing of straws here,
and we would just take from
the pile as it went along
and went back to serving drugs.
My-- or serving drugs.
Serving drinks.
The alternative, you know,
everybody's favorite,
crystal meth.
At first it was fun,
then it was fun with problems,
and then it was just problems.
But during that time,
during the '80s,
it made me feel normal.
Whether you were drunk,
whether you were high,
whether you were stone sober,
it was surreal.
And you felt embraced,
accepted,
and loved
with over a thousand men.
There was this disco song,
Menergy.
Coming here,
there was a lot of menergy.
It was still light outside,
but it was pitch black in here,
and the bartenders
would be setting up
and getting things ready.
And we would just
bring in our roller skates,
because roller skating
was huge back then.
We just kind of snuck in.
I was not like other boys.
I was very shy.
There was a guy that I asked
to dance,
and this guy said, "No",
scarred me for life.
MARK:
And I started shaking,
and I was nervous,
and they said,
"Come and dance with us."
And we were sort of dancing
and moving,
and a Donna Summer song
came on.
I literally started to cry,
and I was shaking,
and they held onto me.
And if you're a 23-year-old kid
from Kansas City,
I never thought there would be
a place for me to be myself.
'Cause tonight
it's all the way
Woah, baby
Turn up the old Victrola
Gonna dance the night away
()
Okay, guys, the front bar.
Michael, that's the first place
I laid eyes on you...
-...40 years ago.
-Yeah, I remember, John.
It was about right
in this corner, wasn't it?
JOHN:
40 years ago.
MICHAEL:
There would always already
be a line forming outside,
and we opened precisely
at 9:00.
The second
that the doors opened,
this place would completely
fill up,
um, and it would be nonstop
till 2:00 in the morning.
If I was horny, I would go
and I'd spend time
in the front bar,
which was, for me,
easier to talk to people.
Michael Koth worked there,
and we were friends.
He was a good guy,
and it's fun to see
that he's around.
I mean, there's so few of us
that are still around
from that period.
JOHN:
Those relationships that
we created in Studio One,
those friendships,
that bonding
became the cornerstone
what had to happen next.
Studio One canopy, you remember,
and the line would go
all the way down La Peer,
and all the excitement of
just being right here.
Who are you gonna meet?
MAN 12:
Tape rolling.
Best Friend,
and show number 11, 8-29-84.
ANNOUNCER 1:
This is the Studio One Video
Network.
MAN 13:
I just remember Scott Forbes
being a host.
Okay, welcome back.
Okay, here we go
into our final round here,
which anyone can win.
He was a gorgeous, hot guy
who wanted to run a disco,
and he was as much of
a stereotype as he wanted to be.
We had a working relationship,
'cause I was always
doing shows back there,
so we laughed a lot.
It was as far as it got,
but that's not
because I didn't try very hard.
I never went to Studio One
before I met Scott.
The night I met Scott
really changed my life.
I recognized him immediately,
because I had read articles
and seen pictures of him.
We just started talking,
and when I told him I worked
at Disneyland,
that was something that really
got his attention,
but it was like
I'd known him a long time,
like a brother.
I ended up riding
on the Freedom Float
with Troy Perry
and Morris Kight.
They recruited me to be part
of the Human Rights Coalition,
and Scott said,
"You should move in with me."
I mean, we were spending
all our time together
and I don't know,
it just made sense.
So Vivian said,
"So, are you and Scott,
you know, an item?"
I'm living with him,
but in the other bedroom.
(CHUCKLES)
CAROL: It seemed
like a strange question,
because Scott is so gay.
He definitely had a type.
He went for young,
very young, blonde.
He was known for that type.
I'm originally from Detroit.
I had always ever since I was
a little kid, uh,
watching television,
I always knew I would end up
in Los Angeles,
where they were
making television.
Bachelor number two
is originally from Detroit,
Michigan.
MICHAEL:
Scott wanted me to do it,
so he asked me.
Was hesitant.
I didn't really want to do it.
He was trying to get it to
where it would be televised.
SCOTT:
When a man is courting a woman,
he usually brings her
flowers and candy.
If you were courting me,
what would you bring me?
HOST 1:
Could it be that getting
a good date is just
as difficult in the gay world
as it is in the straight world?
No, not really.
It's not-- it's not difficult
to get good dates.
Um, but--
If you look like him, it's not
hard to get a good date.
(CHUCKLES)
Some of us
it's a little bit hard.
I'm doing it for a date.
Remember that.
Still probably 18
when I moved here,
19 when I started here.
Shh.
It was so new in all ways.
I mean the music
and the dance floor,
and we could hear the sound
and the boom, boom, boom
and in the back lot
with the stage.
GARY:
When I was in the back lot,
could go up
a little hallway to get
into the dance floor
and it was very dark
in that area.
As you walked through there,
you might see a couple guys
making out or something
and you could smell poppers.
Before Studio One opened,
a lot of gay bars were shuttered
and hidden away
from the community.
Along Santa Monica especially,
you couldn't see
what was going on,
because it was a gay bar.
You want to get in there
and don't let people know
that you are going
into that bar.
You would literally sometimes
look around
and see if we knew anybody.
When I first came out here,
there were issues.
There wasn't the freedom that
we enjoyed even into the '70s.
There was no touching.
How did gay people
in Los Angeles
get the ability
to dance together?
Before 1971, two men
or two women
touching each other,
a hand on the shoulder,
was considered a crime
and could be arrested for lewd
and lascivious conduct.
He made known his own bias
against gays.
Then, I think the average
police officer felt freer
to let their own particular
prejudices come out.
And we don't charge
that every officer in the LAPD
has a prejudice against
gay people,
but we do know
there are many that do.
DON:
Late in 1971,
the Gay Liberation Front
organized a touch-in at the farm
on Santa Monica Boulevard
and the plan was that
on a given Friday night
at 10:00 p.m.,
we would reach out
and touch each other.
Five sheriff's cars show up.
Those gay men did not move.
They were holding
each other's hands.
The police walked out,
they drove away,
and a revolution in gay bars
took place.
MICHAEL:
For me, it was free here.
Coming from Detroit, everything
was behind a closed door.
It was a little freer
when I moved to Houston.
I worked briefly at a place
called "the Chicken Coop".
I didn't know what chicken
meant at the time,
even though I was one.
I felt, "Wow,
this I've arrived."
People were expressing
themselves out on the streets.
Um, that's not to say that
there wasn't people driving by
throwing bottles,
but it seemed like
there were so many of us here
that-- that there was
some empowerment.
At least I felt that.
DAVID:
Studio One represented
an alternative.
Gay men could now be
who they are
or at least figure out
who they are.
GREGORY:
To understand the origins
of The Factory,
we have to go back to 1929.
The silent era of Hollywood
ended
and the talkies took over.
The Mitchell Camera Factory
opened in 1929
and it was one of the first
buildings here
in West Hollywood.
MAN 14:
Industry on Parade turns
its cameras
on one of the companies
that have made
American motion pictures
the finest in the world.
GREGORY:
The factory manufactured
motion picture cameras
for most of the iconic
films of the Golden Age,
which included Technicolor
design cameras
to capture The Wizard of Oz
and Gone with the Wind.
During World War II,
the building became
a munition storage facility
and the floor was reinforced.
It was very fortunate
that Studio One
had these reinforced floors,
because when you have
a thousand sweaty men
dancing wildly,
you want it to be safe.
In 1967, the building gained
a new life as The Factory.
The Factory was like
a private discotheque.
People like Sammy Davis Jr.,
Rosalind Russell,
and a lot of movie stars.
GREGORY:
The owners of the club
included Peter Lawford,
Anthony Newley,
and Paul Newman.
The club was short-lived
and closed in 1973.
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
Once I got out of college
and got to LA,
I said, "Katie, bar the door."
It was, for me, nirvana.
I had a group of friends
that I rode with.
We were all gay guys.
We rode Harleys.
We were a gorgeous group
of guys.
And The Factory was
the new hangout for Hollywood.
So, one night I was up there,
uh, here comes Scott.
Scott Forbes.
And he says, "Michael,
what are you doing here?"
He wanted to turn it
into a disco,
because disco was just starting
in the early '70s.
Scott was an eye doctor,
and he had a big practice
in Boston.
And this is how it goes.
"Hello?
Ma?
I'm closing my practice
in Boston.
No, I'm not gonna be
an eye doctor anymore.
I'm gonna open up
a gay disco in Los Angeles."
Click.
MAN 15:
Ernie Caruthers was one
of the co-owners.
John Adams
and Dino Lopez
were also co-owners.
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
And Scott told all of us,
"I want to hear names
for the club."
So, I came with the name
Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.
But I envisioned we would have
some drag queen say,
"Hi, boys.
Come on in," you know.
My name got tossed out
right away,
but I didn't have many others.
Scott finally after dinner
said, "Okay, I've got the name.
Studio One."
I was a little bit stunned,
'cause I hadn't heard
that name.
Scott just came up with it.
But he wanted us all to
feel like we had a say in it.
That's what I thought.
I want to thank you all
for coming this evening.
My name is Scott Forbes.
And I will be one of your hosts,
among several others
who are much more famous.
GARY:
I was working at a bar
called "Oliver" on La Cienega.
And one day he came in
and told me
he was opening this club
and he said, "I'd like
you to be my bartender,
but I want you to come over
and-- and check the place out."
And he gave me
a tour of the dance floor.
And they were painting
the walls,
getting it all ready to open.
I was painting.
We were all keeping busy.
So, on opening night
when we opened the doors
for business,
it would be perfect.
Bartenders are all in place.
The doors were opening at 9:00.
So, I'm standing with Ernie.
We're just thinking people
are gonna be coming in,
you know.
Nobody came in.
GARY:
I looked at my watch.
I said, "Oh shit, it's 9:30."
The DJ's playing music,
but it's 10:00.
And at 10:00,
maybe I see two people come
up the stairs.
I said, "Ernie, what did we do?"
"Well, come on.
Let's you and me go out.
We're gonna have a dance
right under the ball.
We'll have one dance
in our club."
It must have been about 10:30.
The guy, whoever's on the door,
runs up the steps saying,
"Hey, hey,
I need some help here."
So Ernie and I ran
down the steps after him
and there was a crowd.
I-- I couldn't see the end
of the line.
And we were just getting them in
as fast as we could
at that point.
Uh, the rest is history.
That was Penguin
and this is the Studio One Club
in Hollywood called
"Tommy's Place"
just for tonight.
We've been transported
by the magic of television
to La Peer Avenue right here.
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
Linda and Paul McCartney
came here.
Paul and Linda McCartney,
did you enjoy the film?
Really, very much.
It was lovely, David.
Thank you.
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
You had Ann-Margret,
Elton John, Diana Ross,
all these people in one room,
plus the royalty
of both rock and roll
and Hollywood, old and new.
Everyone was so high.
I know I had a good time,
because I can't remember
too much of it.
As the mighty pinball
competition gets underway,
on my right Elton John,
assisted by second Mr. Stigwood.
Next to him is Ann-Margret here,
assisted by her second,
Mr. Pete Townshend.
And here, Miss Diana Ross
all on her own.
Ready, steady, go!
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
Scott was a businessman.
Every square foot of
that place had to pay.
So, we go into the back room,
it was dead.
And I said,
"Why don't you put a showroom
back here?"
He was casting about for a name.
And I remember saying to him,
"Scott, every studio in town has
a back lot.
This is our Backlot."
ANNOUNCER 3:
Welcome to an evening
at Studio One's Backlot.
The Backlot started
as a nightclub
when Bob Fosse had
a heart attack.
This is the theater
of Hamilton now.
But it was the theater
of Chicago.
And we had a great time
going in
and out of the stage door.
This street has fabulous
memories for me.
And all that jazz
CHITA:
Well, when I was in Chicago
with Gwen Verdon,
Bob Fosse created,
I think, a piece of genius work.
Well, we were all called in
on this specific date.
Well, we found out then
and there
that Bobby had just had
a heart attack.
Now, what do you do?
Most of all, is Bobby gonna
be all right?
Everybody was out of work on
Chicago for about three months.
Liza decided that this
would be a good time for Chita
to put a nightclub act together.
Liza was married to
Jack Haley at the time.
Jack and Liza said,
"Why don't we do
a nightclub act?"
And I said, "I can't do
a nightclub act.
I--
I don't have one, first of all.
Second of all, the--
there are people out there.
And I have to play me?
I don't even know who me is."
BRUCE:
She and John Kander,
and Fred Ebb
put this act together.
Then they did it in New York.
And then they said, "It's got
to be seen by people in LA."
So, Liza Minnelli
and Vince Minnelli
booked a room
for Chita Rivera
to come to West Hollywood.
When I got out to California,
it was this great dance hall.
And guys were dancing with guys.
We came through the dance hall
hearing that music,
and that thumping,
and that joy.
You can't walk through.
You have to boogie.
Liza and Jack said,
"Let's invite a lot of
celebrities."
Well, you name it.
Baryshnikov, anybody
that you can think of.
But that particular
performance, knowing that
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire,
all of these great stars, were
coming through this dance hall
just made me laugh
and I-- I adored it.
I thought the worlds
were combining
and it was a very exciting time.
And all that jazz
The most appreciative audiences.
I'm all in goosebumps.
The heart was so connected
to my run there.
The flowers filled
the entire stage.
I had never seen that.
She was wonderful.
And I got to learn more
about myself
by playing the Backlot
and being close to the audience.
Seeing their faces.
Chita was seeing their faces.
Not a character, but Chita.
So I was learning about myself.
I was having a blast.
The Backlot,
these are great moments
that made my life
much, much, much better.
All of a sudden
it became a room.
Everyone in Hollywood
turned out.
GREGORY:
Eartha Kitt was a regular
performer at the Backlot.
And one night,
she was surprised
when Elton John came in
with a bouquet of flowers.
So, I started doing Follow
Spot here April of '78.
All of a sudden, I looked over
and I see Cary Grant
walk through the doors.
He was here to see Nino Tempo
and April Stevens.
And he looked over at April
and went,
"April, April, I haven't seen
you in such a long time."
Oh my God.
It's Cary Grant.
Big Hollywood elite
loved coming there
because they liked the idea
of being in,
quote, a gay bar
in a different setting.
It was much more
like a New York scene
than it was an LA scene.
To see Rock Hudson,
I thought, "Wow."
The whole place was
packed with celebrities.
LIZ:
Gary Mortimer was the bartender.
And he was gorgeous.
Everybody was after him.
And he could rock a pair
of shorts
and tube socks.
RANDY:
I was there one night
when Sal Mineo walked in.
And you know,
it was Sal Mineo.
And I liked those
little short, dark types.
My house was
on Sunset Plaza Drive,
which was five minutes
from studio.
I had a telescope.
I could look down
and see the side door
from the parking lot.
And through my tele,
I could see people on the step.
I could pick people out.
Before I ever worked there,
I heard it was
the place to work.
It had such class.
And you just really felt like
you were in an expensive,
high-end nightclub.
I loved it.
In the beginning, the '70s,
it was a black box.
They had dinner.
MICHAEL CHILDERS:
We were considered to be
Hollywood's first out couple.
Yeah, the paparazzi were
everywhere.
LIZ:
I remember hanging out
with Debbie Reynolds one night
and I sat next to Jimmy Stewart.
Oh, good God, Jimmy Stewart.
It's that Hollywood was
a magical place at that time.
And this place, it was a magnet.
One day,
Lucille Ball calls me up.
So she said,
"What's this Studio One like?
Does she have to go
through this and that?"
"Are you up for that?"
She said,
"Oh, for Christ's sake, yes."
She was babushka'd out.
Everybody knew who it was.
Your opening night,
you wanted to have
the press around
and all that,
so you would try
and get somebody famous
to bring you to the stage,
to lubricate your entrance,
as it were.
Cabaret had a big renaissance
in the '70s.
Most of the clubs were gay,
so it became kind of a circuit.
So if you played New York,
you usually played Reno Sweeney
or the grand finale.
Geraldine Fitzgerald,
she had moved to New York
in 1946.
I booked her
for a two-week engagement.
Bette Davis
and Geraldine
had appeared together
in Dark Victory.
The AFI was about to do
their salute to Bette Davis.
ANNOUNCER 4:
Geraldine Fitzgerald.
The reason that I came
from New York to Hollywood
tonight is Bette Davis.
And the reason that
I came to Hollywood in 1939,
was Betty Davis.
And I coordinated it,
so that she did the AFI
and it opened at the Backlot
a week later.
I had her ask Bette Davis
if she would be willing
to introduce her on
opening night at the Backlot.
Davis said yes.
I made up invitations that
said, "Bette Davis
cordially invites you."
(ALAN CHUCKLING)
ALAN:
And everybody thought that
they were being invited
by Bette Davis.
So, we had great responses.
She recently treated
Los Angeles audiences to
her new cabaret act
right here at Studio One,
which brought out
all of the notables.
Was that a great experience
for you, Geraldine?
Because the papers here were
filled with glowing notices
of your cabaret act.
-At Studio One?
-Yeah.
Yes, I was terrified.
Really, very, very scared.
'Cause I hadn't been back here
for-- for years.
ALAN:
Going up to the Backlot,
the steps were lined by
I think every gay person
in West Hollywood
who wanted to see Bette Davis.
This throng of gay people
cheering and screaming.
Betty Davis' party that night
included Olivia de Havilland,
Paul Henreid.
I invited Gregory Peck,
and I got a phone call
from his wife.
If it was possible to bring
their friends as well.
And the friends turned out
to be Kirk Douglas
and Roger Moore.
Charles Pierce came that night
and that was the first time
he ever actually met her
face to face.
And it was like the thrill
of his life
to meet Bette Davis.
So, that night when I went up
to Bette Davis
to explain what we were doing,
she acted like
it was the first time
she heard that she was gonna
be introducing Geraldine.
And she was angry.
She was kind of stern
and I wasn't gonna
argue with her.
So, I said,
"Well that's all right."
You know,
and I started to walk away.
And that's when she stopped me
and she said,
"Does Geraldine expect me
to do it?"
And I said, "Yes."
And she said,
"Well, then I'll do it."
Once she agreed to do it,
she was fine.
And in the picture you can see
I'm directing her.
I'm directing Bette Davis
on what we're gonna be doing.
And she did a nice introduction.
She got a lot of applause.
And when it was over,
Bette Davis jumped back
on the stage,
which was not planned.
And she said to Geraldine,
"What a world
you've given us tonight.
It was amazing."
ROSLYN:
She was at my first show
with my mom.
And the second time I think
was the Disco Pants,
because she came
with Carole Bayer Sager
and Marvin Hamlisch.
They were right up front.
I did a song called,
"Squeeze Me".
Daddy squeeze me,
squeeze me
So I had all this
great double entendre stuff.
(CHUCKLES)
ROSLYN:
And my sister said, "How could
you sing that in front of mom?"
I lost my innocence.
When I work
and my sister's in the room,
they look at her looking at me.
Well, Bud and I knew each other
since we were kids.
You know, he wanted
to write the first show
where I confronted the fact
that I'm Barbara's sister,
because you've got to say it
before they do it.
Backlit, profile,
the scarf came off the neck.
And I hit people.
The gasps were like phenomenal.
I was like, "Oh my God",
my heart was sinking.
And then when I went
into I Gotta Be Me,
they would-- the laughing began
and the cheers began.
Bud was right.
I had to listen to him.
The more I ignored that fact,
the more they just wrote
about it.
MAN 16:
It was gay
and straight audiences.
We had a lot of celebrities.
So a lot of them came in
and said,
"Oh, let's just go
and have a dance in the disco."
It was very free in here
where the Hollywood people
could let their hair down
a little bit.
The dance floor
was definitively a gay club.
So it was integrated
in those ways
and it was spectacular.
By the back restroom,
because you had
to pass the restrooms.
And the restrooms were
for the disco and the Backlot.
MAN 17:
I was always surprised to see
some of the faces
that were here.
'Cause, you know,
when you see a face
you recognize from television
or something else, it--
it kind of makes
you feel a little more accepted.
The show that we've been
doing in New York,
we did it here at the Backlot
and everybody came out
to see us.
People are being seen.
Or people are gonna get signed.
Something's gonna
happen when you played here.
So we got a lot
of gigs afterwards
and then we signed
with Columbia Records.
Studio!
One!
I would start dancing
with someone
and move to someone else
and move to someone else.
It was a communal experience.
Most of the guys
were shirtless.
One giant human Jacuzzi.
You felt like you belonged.
Well, in 1974, Halston
and Steve Rubell,
the two men that would
make Studio 54,
they came to Studio One.
BRUCE:
'Cause Scott Forbes was
a pal of theirs.
They saw what was
happening there
and I can't help but think
that it influenced them a lot.
DAVID:
And what they discovered
was pretty much a blueprint
for any nightclub.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
I wanna be star
A big star
Studio 54 was around
for three years.
Studio One was around
for 19 years.
My problem with 54,
it was class conscious.
It wasn't necessarily gay.
Studio One was gay.
CAROL:
In the lobby,
there was a storage room.
So one day Scott said,
"You should put a record store
in there."
That people could hear a song
in the club
and say,
"Oh I want that."
And then in addition to records,
I sold, um, mirrors
with little grooves in them.
I'm not gonna say
what that was for.
Little razor blades, lube,
both the hot variety
and the regular variety.
And um, bottles of amyl nitrite.
They would stop
and purchase on their way in.
And then on their way out,
they would stop
and purchase the record.
Poppers were very popular
at Studio One.
My record store smelled of 'em.
(CHUCKLES)
JOHN:
Poppers were these
little bottles
that said record cleaner.
Gave me and all of us
an incredible head rush.
You really had to be moving
and dancing to use the poppers.
And plus, if a lot of
people are doing it,
you get high as well,
because it permeates the air.
Hey, is it going to be alright?
No, no, no, no,
no exit.
-No exit.
-I wanna be with him!
I'm going to tell
a lot of questions.
DAVID:
Alexander: The Other
Side of Dawn
was a sequel to Dawn,
Portrait of a Teenage Runaway.
I was an extra.
They filmed here
for about four days
and closed everything off.
LEIGH:
Yeah, I heard
of Studio One before.
It had the reputation
of famous people,
lots of cocaine,
no open-toed shoes.
(CHUCKLES)
LEIGH:
It was very famous,
'cause there were hundreds
of people,
and everybody who was anybody,
especially in the gay community,
showed up,
because it was this gathering
of this is a film about us.
I remember it as being
a bit like a whirlwind.
You know when you-- you
don't really have a memory
much more of-- you feel the--
you remember the energy?
There was so much excitement,
that I felt more swept along.
Where are you living?
How you living?
I got a job.
Must pay pretty well.
Hello.
What can I help you with?
Well, we're looking
for material on Studio One,
the disco.
In West Hollywood?
Yes, West Hollywood.
That's the one.
-The shrine.
-MICHAEL C: Yes!
Excellent.
We have files.
-Show me your files.
-Okay, this way.
-Come on this way?
-Yeah.
My guide.
Walking through the stacks
of the One Archives
was revelatory, eye-opening.
Somebody actually has collected
this stuff.
There used to be an old saying,
"Well, there
is no gay community,
there's just a whole bunch
of guys who like to sleep
with each other."
So, it wasn't like there was
a culture
or there
was any kind of history.
This has been changed now.
You know,
we're codifying ourselves
and part of it is,
because we had our own
sort of holocaust.
So how long have you been
researching Studio One?
You know, I was one of
the survivors of Studio One.
Okay, here we go.
BRUCE:
Alright.
Mmm.
Wow.
That's quite a lot of stuff.
You know what's amazing is
these boxes are all acid-free,
which is something Studio One
was not.
The biggest party
we have is the one
that Elton John attended.
Oh, I have the Merry Christmas
from Studio 1 in 1976
with a group shot.
Then there's Colin,
and Jerry,
and then it was of course
an advertisement built in--
Oh, look, Wayland--
Wayland flowers.
Built into the holidays.
Yeah, Wayland and Adam.
I came across this,
which was the-- the protest.
It started
with the open-toed shoes.
I remember that
the open-toed shoes thing
was a problem,
because I showed up once
in sandals
and they wouldn't let me in.
They claimed that there was
a problem with people getting
hurt on the dance floor
with their toes getting cut.
There was no question
that was just an excuse.
And he admitted that
with me,
but it was to keep the bar
from turning
into a mixed club.
I remember Sandy Duncan
was in front of me trying
to get into the club
and she had perfectly
normal shoes on
and they simply would not
let her in.
They said,
"We need your passport."
I really respect Scott
for sticking to that.
It was the reason why
the club was so successful.
As much as I enjoyed
the dream of having
all of these guys who
looked like you,
for a while you'd walk in
and there was this, "Oh my God,
I'm in this sort of
Prince Charming fantasy."
And then you know,
"Where are the other people?"
CHARLO:
I started coming out
here with Bette in 1973.
Uh, it was very festive
and it was very white.
It was, uh,
not very friendly to me.
At that time
I was executive director
at the Gay and Lesbian Center.
We were getting reports
at the community center
about the discrimination
against black men,
black gay men, and women.
If you had closed-toed shoes,
they'd ask for two forms of ID.
They had to be
the right kinds of ID,
like a license and a passport.
If you had those,
suddenly you need
a third form of ID.
You need a birth certificate.
And then
if you fulfilled everything,
suddenly a manager
would show up.
A protest began almost
immediately.
And these protests
were broad range.
I think Scott wanted it
to be a gay male place.
If you were a young guy,
they might look the other way.
So, I dressed up as a guy.
I had short hair at the time.
I slicked it back.
I wore his clothes.
And so standing in line,
I was very nervous.
Was it gonna work?
And they just kind of
waved us in.
GEORGE:
The bar owners wanted
only white people
and that was it.
They'd hassle them coming in.
But since I was the one
that was not getting hassled,
I didn't really see it.
CHARLO:
And I came with some white
male friends of mine.
I had to have two forms
of ID to get in here.
So it was a bit restrictive.
For anyone to say "I didn't know
that was going on", is a lie.
The LA Times ran
a front page article.
For not having blacks come in
was unusual
because one of the co-owners
was a black man.
He was a wonderful guy.
DON:
It's outrageous that
a black person would be
adhering to that.
Why didn't he speak up?
They were making money
head over fist.
But that's one of the issues
that happens many times
is an oppressed people can
also become an oppressor.
In 1975,
I confronted Scott Forbes
at a meeting
of the Gay Community Center.
It got very heated.
And his justification was
if black people were there
it's going
to become dangerous.
It's going to involve drugs.
The idea that gang members
would show up.
Come on, give me a break.
Gang members are gonna show up
at the Day Disco
in West Hollywood?
He would promise
to make changes,
but he never followed
through with 'em.
Um, in 1984,
I really didn't feel
that there was a lot of racism.
Maybe I was just very optimistic
and I didn't really-- didn't
experience anything going
out dancing.
DON:
Till the very end,
Scott Forbes continued
to practice the black
discrimination policy.
It became a tad less
discriminatory,
but it was still going on.
DISCO DAN:
And I used to go out
multiple times a week.
It would all depend on how
the spirit moved me.
As long as the music was really
good, I was having a great time.
I would take everybody
on a journey.
We were able to be artistic
in what we were doing.
DJ JEFF:
In the disco era,
one of the big things
was the disco chant.
"Ooh, ooh."
You know,
and the whole crowd
you know
would do that disco chant.
Ooh, ooh
Do you agree that it was
about the music?
When I listen to these
old songs, it brings me
right back to that
time on the dance floor.
So-- that's true.
You make me feel
BRUCE:
I had met Sylvester
in San Francisco
where he was a mainstay.
So he was sort of of that sex
which is neither sex,
but there was no such thing
as non-binary in those days.
So, he was just Sylvester.
Watching him
and all of his artifice
made you feel mighty real
in yourself,
'cause he was doing
what was mighty real for him.
So, it's a great message.
Y, M, C, A
After one or two cocktails,
I had a tribal war call.
(WAR CRIES)
They would look at each other
and go, "Felipe's in."
FELIPE:
There were two parts of Felipe.
There was the one
with the Village People.
And so then when I was home,
my house on West North Street
in West Hollywood,
then Felipe, the normal guy,
just jeans and a T-shirt,
would go to Studio One,
just blend in.
NARRATOR 1:
It's the musical extravaganza
that raunches the '80s.
It's Alan Carr's
Can't Stop the Music.
You can't stop the music
BRUCE:
Part of Can't Stop the Music
was filmed here.
I had written the first
draft of Can't Stop the Music
in the Village People movie,
and I quit.
FELIPE:
By the time
it was put together,
the movie really was not
about the group anymore.
Oh yeah.
-How's it going?
-Oh, I guess it's going okay.
He hasn't played any
of his stuff yet.
All the movie had
like eight titles.
One of the last titles was Disco
Land Where the Music Never Ends.
Alan Carr was just flamboyant,
extravagant, with the caftans,
the big glasses.
DON BLANTON:
So I started doing
the Alan Carr parties.
Of course, Alan was
friends with Scott Forbes.
In fact, on the cushions
in Alan's disco,
he had named Steve Rubell,
uh, Scott Forbes,
the Kings of Disco,
he called 'em.
Take over the next set
for me, huh?
Sure.
Hey, your stuff is terrific.
He said,
I will write a role for you.
So he wrote me in as myself
with a scene
with Steven Guttenberg.
FELIPE:
So, there's a huge dance scene
where I'm on the bar dancing.
They announced that Friday
night we're just gonna pull
the ripcord,
we're just gonna let everybody
just dance
and we'll just film for hours.
The trailers were
in the back lot.
So it was
like a little city there.
We all dropped acid on that.
(CHUCKLES)
Just to dance
the whole night away.
DON BLANTON:
That set was really crazy.
People were having sex
all over Studio One,
in the parking lot,
in the trailers.
FELIPE:
Nancy Walker, Rhoda's mother?
I don't even know how
she became the director
of the movie.
Overall, she was a nice lady,
nice little old lady.
Does she know what she's doing?
She was the nastiest person.
She was so mean to me, she goes,
"You only got the part
because of Alan Carr,
I didn't pick you."
Alan Carr got Scott
on the dance floor,
which was funny,
because Scott actually never
danced on the dance floor.
Can't Stop the Music was a flop.
The industry, disco changed.
FELIPE:
Disco died,
killed off by the record labels,
it was just too much.
Everybody started recording
Disco Duck, Ethel Merman
singing disco music.
And then suddenly,
it just wasn't fun anymore.
The male vocalist,
$100,000 winner is Sam Harris!
SAM:
People, they look
at these TV talent shows
and they're like,
"Well, I can do that,
I do that in my shower."
But it takes years.
By the time I got
to Star Search,
which was when I was 22,
I was ready at the time
that opportunity was ready.
The Backlot was a big part
of that for me.
It was 1980,
and I was 19 years old,
and playing these
crappy, nasty clubs.
Then we were building toward
this sort of debut
at The Backlot.
Now
(CHEERING)
SAM:
I gotta get through here!
There was so much buzz
and vibe about the place.
It was star-studded.
Cary Grant was there.
And I'm like,
why is Cary Grant at my show?
I mean, I was thrilled.
SAM:
We did shoot
my first music video
for my first album with Motown.
And the first part
of it's in black
and white with me going up
those metal stairs,
and I'm wearing red,
sparkly tennis shoes
that were like the Wizard of Oz.
And I'm walking up,
and I opened the door
and everything became in color,
and I did this serious dance.
Didn't know where to stand
With nobody here
And then after the record
came out,
I went to Studio One
and did a-- a record promotion
where you sing
to track to hundreds
of shirtless, sweaty,
beautiful men.
NARRATOR 2:
The Backlot became a magnet
for talent in the '80s.
BRIAN:
Raised in Tennessee.
And my dad was a minister.
When I was 5 years old,
I sat my mom
and dad down in the living room
and said,
"I want to be a singer."
Music was like a solace for me.
A place to land that was safe.
That was my home.
I used to sing on the PTL club
with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
I was steeped in religion
and in turn,
judgment as well for who I was.
In '82, I moved to Hollywood.
I heard about the open mic
at the Backlot.
Every Monday there would
be a new celebrity host,
Sally Struthers,
Charles Nelson Reilly.
BRIAN:
That was the excitement
of that room,
because you never knew who was
gonna be in the house.
My manager sent the tape
to casting people
for Big River on Broadway.
NARRATOR 2:
Brian made his Broadway
debut as Huck Finn in Big
River.
He was cast based on his
performance at the Backlot.
BRIAN:
You know, the staircase
that you had to go up,
that was a commitment.
That was a decision to make,
to walk up those stairs.
For me, my life was never
the same after.
You climb up these factory
steps,
you know these iron steps
into this fantasy world,
you know.
So, it triggered so many things
for me.
I started writing a little bit.
I called Mitch
and we got together
and wrote a couple of songs.
The songs were most
definitely based on Studio One.
That staircase
and what it meant,
it symbolized commitment.
You had to walk up those stairs
to get to the top.
Will you welcome
Miss Julie Budd.
Julie.
I'll make a brand new
start of it
I worked at the Backlot
almost 18 years,
'cause I always lived
in New York City
and every time
my flight landed,
my first stop was to run
to Scott's office.
Everybody came to the Backlot.
It was the place to go,
'cause a lot of people used
to say, "Oh, you know, L.A.
is such a television town."
It brought a total level of
sophistication to Los Angeles.
You had
to time the show perfectly.
If your show ran over,
you heard, boom, boom, boom.
Well, the first time
that happened to me,
I thought it was an earthquake.
"Are we having an earthquake?"
The audience answered
and they said,
"It's the disco!"
ANNOUNCER 5:
Direct from Hollywood
is Wayland Flowers
and Madame!
Good evening, everybody.
Welcome to the Backlot.
MARLENA:
You know, Wayland loved
playing at the Backlot.
He lived in West Hollywood.
I met Wayland Flowers
through a first cousin of mine.
And the first thing that Madame
did was spritz a perfume on me.
And Wayland and I became
immediate friends.
When I moved to L.A.
to come work with him,
he picked me up
in his Volkswagen convertible.
He had Madame on.
There they were like
standing outside.
It was the craziest,
I couldn't believe.
I would have gone Instagram
live if it was, you know, today.
MARLENA:
Madame started in the mid '70s
in P-Town.
In those days he knew Divine,
Paul Lynde.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Wayland Flowers.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
MARLENA:
He said, "Of course he was
invited to parties
all the time."
When he did get an invitation,
they wanted Madame.
And he was upset,
"Why aren't they inviting me?
Why aren't I as good as Madame?"
Anyone that knew her
dealt with her as real,
not a puppet.
Since I've seen you last,
I've been on a lot of things.
I've been on Andy Williams,
I've been on Don Ho,
and I've been on Quaaludes.
(CHUCKLES)
And then he realized that Madame
could not hold the whole show.
He came up with Jiffy.
You Village People are
my kind of people.
Tacky.
(LAUGHS)
MARLENA:
You can't do Jiffy today.
He never cared about
politically anything correct.
It's never good
when the cops show up
JOHN:
It's a-- it's a straight club
now called "Penthouse".
It's an urban hip-hop club.
You know, what had been
really a sanctuary for gay men
had become something
that seemed almost antithetical
to gay existence.
LLOYD:
What used to be our crown
achievement was
the Backlot Theater.
And when we first walked in,
in the very center was
a stripper pole
and a bathtub.
I was mortified.
Lloyd. Take one.
LLOYD:
You know, I grew up a Mormon.
I knew I was gay growing up.
I knew I was different.
But it wasn't allowed
in my church.
First night I ever came
to Studio One was 1978.
Just turned 22 years old.
At that time, even in the '70s
and early '80s,
if I were to make it known
that I was gay,
I would lose my job.
So, I lived a double life.
I was actually born in
Hollywood, believe it or not.
I was the son of a Holocaust
survivor,
so I had a tough childhood.
And I remember thinking,
"I want to date somebody that--
that carries a briefcase."
That was Lloyd.
He was a professional.
He got me.
He doesn't know this,
but I had seen Gary,
well, I don't want
to say always here,
but every time I came,
he was here.
He was the one who stood out
in the crowd.
And I just used to look at him
and go,
"Gee, I'd like to know that guy.
He's got such
a beautiful smile."
We did everything.
GARY STEINBERG:
Lloyd would design a poster.
LLOYD:
And then we had to go
put up all the posters
on all the telephone poles
in the city.
After a Monday night show
at the Backlot,
a whole group of us,
including Wayland Flowers,
uh, went out to Ben Frank's
on Sunset.
Asked them to put together
tables,
so that we could all
sit together.
And the restaurant refused.
So, Wayland always had Madame
inside his little piece
of luggage.
He takes Madame out
of the luggage
and proceeds to go around
to everybody
individually, in the restaurant,
telling them to fuck off.
(CHUCKLES)
"Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!"
(SCREAMS)
(INDISTINCT SPEECH)
this the first time, too.
We made no money.
(CHUCKLES)
We made nothing.
GARY STEINBERG:
We had been having all kinds
of mostly financial issues.
I felt like I was carrying
the whole load,
selling vacuum cleaner belts,
and this big dream in my head
was all just starting to fizzle.
You know, it's sad to see
this building go,
'cause when you're in here,
you realize there's no place
that was ever like it
in this city.
We gave everybody a stage
and a platform,
because there was a celebrity
introducing them.
Roseanne Barr,
Sandra Bernhard.
GARY STEINBERG:
I was in a show that
had Rosie O'Donnell in it.
There was another performance
that stands out,
because Charles Nelson Reilly
was in the lineup with me
and I was delighted
to meet him that night.
See, I performed there
four times.
One time was a friend of mine,
and we did one song together,
and it was the first time
I ever sang publicly.
And it was, "I'll meet you
halfway from the parking space."
But what prevented me from going
there more frequently
was the stairs.
And truthfully,
a lot of my fans
had disabilities,
who were wheelchair users,
so there was really no way
they could come there
to see me perform.
And I remember
when I did those stairs,
I was scared shitless.
I was like, "Hold on to me!"
I never was offered an elevator.
And long before ADA.
So many memories stirred up just
walking around Studio One
and the Backlot.
So many friends
I wish were still here.
It was like ghosts
and spirits all over that place.
So there's a proposal now to
actually tear the building down.
And destroy Studio One,
and I know I'm on the council,
I gotta do something about this,
but it-- it's like my temple.
It's my sanctuary.
And the thing is, a lot
of young, gay millennials,
they just don't know
the history.
I mean, 'cause I--
New York has got Stonewall,
San Francisco has got
the assassination
of Harvey Milk,
and LA never gets its--
Well, we had Studio One.
We did.
But there were so many
shocking things on Facebook,
back and forth,
back and forth,
how they're gonna
destroy the building.
It's gonna be history.
They won't be around anymore.
GEORGE:
Remember,
Halloween was the big thing.
You remember people's costumes
and they went all out.
It wasn't like the street
would have the costumes.
You'd go to Studio One.
That was the only place
really to go.
So I went over
to Western Costume.
I thought, "Ah, cheerleader,
those guys are kind of hot,
and it's still kind of straight
enough to let mom and dad think
that I'm just being
a cheerleader."
CAROL:
Every year,
I would be a guest judge,
and all the other judges
were celebrities.
Scott had me there.
I was good at math
and I didn't drink alcohol.
Most of the judges
were drinking.
MICHAEL:
We had tented the parking lot.
The whole parking lot had
green glitter on the floor.
But it was all night long,
and there were thousands
of people here.
JULIE:
The first year I worked there,
Scott had a huge
Halloween party.
The next year,
there were so many people.
They had to close the boulevard.
MICHAEL:
Divine was one of my favorite
memories in the dance floor.
And she had no problem standing
right here
slinging cocktails
with the best of 'em.
GREG:
Well, Divine was one
of my closest friends.
I met Divine through Tab Hunter
when they were
getting ready to shoot
Lust in the-- in the Dust,
and we ended up going up
to these two dykes ranch up
in Mission Hills.
I had to shoot Divine
with a jackass,
and the jackass was scared
to death of Divine.
To talk about Divine
is to automatically put
a smile on your face.
Now, John Waters never
cared for me as an actor.
"Gypsy doing Pink Flamingos?
No."
We'd had a great weekend.
We'd had dinner
at City Restaurant,
and Divine had kind
of a soft, effeminate voice,
and we were having dinner.
And of course, everybody that
would see him would think
he was gonna take a shit
on the table or something.
And the waiter came up,
and he's gonna make,
and Divine says,
"I'll have a Caesar salad,
pork chops, and spinach,
and don't bring me
any of those fag portions!"
And that was Divine.
I mean, he always had just
an amazing sense of humor.
To Brussels
for the Disco Convention.
GREG:
He'd gotten
this fantastic review
from Pauline Kael for Hairspray.
They were all
at the Lingerie Restaurant.
He asked me personally
if I would come,
so I had to break off
between two shows
that I was doing at La Cage,
and I went down in costume,
and he made
this big announcement
that he's going
to play Uncle Otto
on Married with Children,
and he had this big contract,
and um, how fabulous it was.
When I picked up the phone,
they said,
"Weren't you good friends
with Divine?"
I go, "I'm really good friends
with Divine.
What do you mean?"
"Well, he's dead."
(SIGHS)
Pierre and I actually
was the person
that helped get the body out,
which was not easy.
300-plus pounds coming
from an upstairs apartment.
Not only was it a shock,
but another shock
that I got his role.
Otto!
Peggy!
Katie Segal told the producers
to get a hold of my agent,
and they promised me
his contract.
And I never got his contract.
It's always about money
when it comes to that.
GARY STEINBERG:
Scott was like the king.
I mean, Scott saw the money,
and he saw it,
and he received the money,
and we saw the glory,
and we got the glory.
MICHAEL:
I came here to apply for a job.
Scott interviewed me right then.
Uh, we were
in the front office back here.
One of the first things
he asked me to do was
to take my shirt off.
And--
And I said, "Why?"
I did take my shirt off.
The sparks flew from then.
I'm like,
"I'm not an object, you know,
and you're treating me one,
and I don't like it."
The formal meeting was
he called me into his office,
and he was doing
the formal interview.
And all of a sudden,
he pulls a Polaroid camera
out of his desk
and just takes a picture of me.
I was--
I started wondering,
"Am I becoming part
of his little scrapbook?"
GEORGE:
What are we,
30, how many years now?
30 years, okay.
Studio One was more
of a special place for us to go,
'cause we were underage.
Illegally.
Could I still get in trouble
for that?
Scott Forbes liking
to bring minors in,
and asked me to serve.
And I told him,
"If you want him
to have a drink,
you come back
and give him a drink.
I'm not."
But I was told that Scott
had buried his money
in the backyard.
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
Everyone thinks there were
bags of money floating around.
Uh, I didn't see too much
of that.
Most of the backyard
was a swimming pool.
But Scott never took a loan out.
He paid cash for everything.
Although, I didn't hear that
Scott was actually
burying money,
I do know that Scott went
through his own period
of severe paranoia.
I call it "my cocaine era".
And I talked about people
you know coming in
and putting an eight ball
of coke on the bar.
There was a reason why
I could get away with that.
And that's because the owner
wasn't that far behind me.
Does it matter now?
That's all water
under the bridge.
I-- I certainly don't care.
Oh, I love it that you have
Joanne Dering's picture.
Your comics are people, too.
LLOYD:
All these talent agents were
coming to see her,
so we were getting her
show together, presenting it,
and Roseanne Barr
and Rosie O'Donnell,
all 1, 2, 3.
And Scott walked in
on a Saturday afternoon
and said,
"What are the lights doing on?"
"Scott, we're rehearsing
the show, your biggest opening."
Yeah, I basically seized upon
what I thought was
a golden opportunity.
Uh, I was in the room
and I heard the, uh,
talkings were going on
between Lloyd and Scott.
Scott turned off the lights?
I said, "Well, Scott,
what are you doing?"
And he goes, "These lights
don't pay for themselves.
If you want to pay me rent."
And I said, "What?"
I in an instant saw where
Scott and I could never work
together again,
and I never regretted it.
Well, we'll see how well
our other crew does up here.
And I saw that the shows
were still very popular,
and um, having a background
in entertainment myself,
we made an arrangement
that I would yes, take it over.
JUDE:
Les Stevens did a show there,
uh,
the Les Stevens Cocktail Hour.
And we also had Lachlan
the hypnotist would come in
and hypnotize people on stage,
and other than things like that.
It was quite a tale how
that place even existed
back then,
and then survived
for 19 years.
Do you know what Studio One was?
No, I don't.
It was the one magic place
that I was fortunate enough
to work at.
Back in the '80s, I was still
kind of a timid kid, very shy,
didn't really know what
he wanted out of life.
Studio One kind of empowered me
to participate.
Just happened to be
in the right place
at the right time.
The event that I was
hired to DJ at first was
a whipped cream wrestling
event.
Big Ed was hosting.
It was a lot of fun, you know,
sitting there
watching them wrestle around.
And then I started
playing music
and kept everybody around
dancing
for about an hour and a half.
I was celebrating
my 21st birthday,
and it was my first time
in the West Hollywood area.
My first boyfriend's birthday
had just preceded mine,
and he'd turned 21.
We parked right across
the street,
and the dumb thing is that
kept us from going in a club
is I recognized someone
from my work.
In retrospect, we realized
if they were there,
I shouldn't have been worried.
We went down Robertson,
and we went into the park,
and we talked,
and uh, wound up kissing.
A gentleman
who clearly had had too much
to drink
started giving us a hard time,
and then yelling at us,
and then just quoting Scripture.
He followed us for a while
and then he gave up.
By that time, I'd realized
I wasn't gonna be able
to walk him into a club,
and decided,
"No, we'll go home."
I was on the passenger side,
and we were talking
over the car.
I noticed a gray truck headed
our way.
Just for--
It took a second to realize
it was the same guy
who had been cursing us
earlier,
and he was clearly
picking up speed.
The guy hit the back of the car
and took Michael out,
he crushed him
between the door.
Um, he was-- I was--
he was killed instantly.
The driver of the truck
lost control,
crossed the street,
and crashed into Studio One.
The police came.
I swear to you,
I heard an officer say,
"It's nothing.
It's another dead faggot."
His, uh, family
was more concerned
about him being identified
as a gay man.
His father plea bargained
for his killer.
He wound up with five years,
uh, and he got out in three.
About the fifth year,
I had reached a certain amount
of success,
and I was in TV Guide.
The guy saw my name.
He wanted to meet with me
and he apologized.
He wrote a letter to my agent,
who gave me the letter,
uh, and he'd realized
he was gay himself.
Jail was the best thing
that could have happened to him,
because he came to grips
with who he was.
CAROL:
I knew that people
were in the closet.
When they're at a club
where they feel at home,
they can be themselves.
You don't see the other side.
It was like
two different people.
The one that was at the clubs
was the really happy person
and I loved seeing that.
I was working at Disneyland
in Fantasyland,
which I always thought
was very appropriate
with all the fairies.
I would see gay people come
into the park.
You know, what would be
really cool is
to have a completely
private party, you know,
exclusively for gay people.
Of course, I knew Disney
would never go for that.
This was the '70s.
Orange County was
ultra-conservative.
It could never be
presented to Disneyland as
"Hey, we want
to have a gay party!"
And we needed to make sure
that they didn't find out.
Scott who is so proud
of Studio One just can't
help himself bragging
about Studio One
and his great club.
He ends up getting
Studio One into the title.
I just knew they were going
to start saying,
"Hey, we want to come up there."
We finally convinced them
to come during the day.
The walls in the disco
had nothing.
You know, they--
it was all lights.
Because I can do voices,
he had me calling some
of the people up at Disneyland
pretending I was
different people.
They tried to stop it,
once they found out
that it was gay people.
Their first instinct
was to cancel.
But the legal counsel
told them no.
Uh, we had already sold tickets.
I would never have done anything
that would have hurt
Disney's reputation.
I made it very clear to people
not to show up drunk or stoned.
I wanted us to give
a great impression,
because I saw this
as a real opportunity
for changing the perception.
At least,
being the beginning of a change.
The management at Disneyland
wanted to keep it quiet.
They didn't want the public
to know.
They didn't even want
the employees to know.
We were selling so many tickets
at the bars.
Why would we stay open?
Everybody's going to Disneyland.
So all these bars in Southern
California ended up closing,
chartering their own buses.
DON:
I remember that night.
People flew in from all over
the world to be able to go
on Pirates of the Caribbean
and hold a guy's hand
was like phenomenal.
Well, I met Rose long before
her Studio One days
and she would
have groups of attractive guys
over at our house
all the time.
She just showed up
at Studio One
with a camera
and she would take pictures.
And then the next night they
would be projected on the wall.
MICHAEL:
There were hundreds of 'em
and right when you entered
you couldn't get into the club
without seeing the slides.
Scott had a real fondness
for Rose
and he helped her out.
She grew into being
a pretty good photographer
if she hadn't been cocktailing
too much.
RICHARD:
The name was not Dusty Rose.
It was Angel Dust Rose.
Unfortunately, someone came up
with this drug
called "Angel Dust".
She was an Angel Dust dealer
in the '60s.
Well, she gave me a box.
One of them was titled
Mike and Mark
and Mark was my ex.
Ultimately, I ended up
selling, uh, the Forbes house
for the estate
and there was a pile in
the basement that looked huge.
I said, "These are important.
What's going to happen
with 'em?"
GREG:
Over 100,000 stills taken
by Rose DeCastro
throughout Studio One's
19-year history are missing.
-Wanna go upstairs?
-Sure.
BILL:
The movie Leo and Lance
was a ground-breaking moment.
These guys were in love.
They looked
and seemed very free
and that was something that I
didn't know was available to me.
BILL MCNEELEY:
I meet Lance
and we hit it off right away.
Unfortunately,
he had crystal meth
and I did it.
He loved attention.
We'd come to Studio One
where everybody would
recognize him, you know,
and he really enjoyed that.
DAVID VANDERVELDE:
When I met him, it wasn't just
how he looked.
It was his personality,
his energy.
Everybody turned around
when he would come into a room.
He was definitely
like a male version
of Marilyn Monroe.
Candle in the Wind.
I was very attracted to that.
Lance had groups around him.
You had to get through them
to find out.
And then he'd be like,
"Hey, I'm Lance."
I knew Leo Ford very well
and loved him a lot.
He was a great guy.
And I introduced him to Divine
and he was actually
Divine's last boyfriend.
It was a strange pairing,
but they got along really well,
and Leo really loved him,
and uh, they had a lot
of fun together.
BILL:
Leo Ford, I met, we were
at an event at Studio One.
I was blown away to meet him.
He was incredibly kind,
and accessible, and sweet.
And meeting him,
I was fumfery.
And not very articulate
and probably very high.
BILLY:
He was like a god to people.
MICHAEL:
There would be the people
in here
that were looking
for their next star.
That was a day in the life
of being at Studio One.
PAULO:
I grew up in Inglewood,
believe it or not.
I went to Inglewood High.
Drug violence,
drive-by shootings, gay.
So, I was a little cha-cha queen
from Arena Disco in 1991
when I first stepped
into Studio One.
The gay boys had attitude
and I mean-- I mean attitude.
They were frosty.
I looked around and I was like,
"Oh my God.
I want this."
I want to be this.
And there was like the attitude
that's like confident.
The Backlot was actually
called "the Kissing Booth",
and that's where we would
take the boys in the '90s.
It was empty so I played
with a lot of wieners
in the Backlot.
SPEAKER 1:
At the 15-year reunion,
Scott unveiled
an extensive remodeling.
By that time,
the club had introduced
male dancers
to entice customers.
BILL:
It's also the first time
I saw go-go boys.
They were on boxes.
I remember the way the light
was hitting them
and how sculptural they were.
How thrilled I was.
BILL:
You know,
they were boys my age
and they were in
possession of their sexuality.
Dancing at Studio One
was incredible.
You would get lost in the music
on the dance floor.
SPEAKER:
Jimmy was a star in our eyes.
You're in a lot of calendars.
Which one is the best
of all you've done?
What are you proudest of?
Stud's n' Spurs.
JOAN RIVERS:
Why?
Because I'm throughout
the whole calendar.
-(AUDIENCE CHUCKLING)
-JOAN RIVERS: Okay. That's it.
(ALL LAUGH)
JIMMY:
And I walked out to that stage
and it was like
the parting of the Red Sea.
Everyone on that dance floor
stood still
and turned their head
towards the stage.
And so a bunch of us were
driving in a car
and he pulled up next to us
in a deep dark-haired line
and we all gagged.
We were just like,
"Oh my God, that's Jimmy."
JIMMY:
I was a big celebrity
in this small little area
of West Hollywood.
I would go to the pavilions
on Santa Monica Boulevard
and people would recognize me
and go,
"There's that dancer
from Studio One."
You know, I had sheiks
that would come in.
I had princes.
What I wouldn't tolerate is
when someone would say,
"Dick dancer, box dancer."
First of all, it wasn't a box.
That stage I danced on
at Studio One was a stage
that was underlit.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
JOHN:
We'll now move
to public comment section
of the meeting.
At the present time
there are 67 of you
that have signed up to speak
on item 3D.
So the way it works
is I'm one of five members
of the city council
and I'm supposed
to keep an open mind.
But obviously I had
a vested historical interest
in this particular project.
So, the developer took me out
for lunch.
I think I was mostly
shell-shocked.
It sounded like
he was talking about
what would be there
after he tore it down.
Yeah, we were gonna
demolish the building.
It's-- it's-- it is old,
it's tired,
and from a structural
point of view, you know,
it has its challenges.
JOHN:
Council member John Heilman
and myself,
we were regular attendees
in the '70s and '80s.
He must have figured, "Okay,
it's important
to these two old guys."
I've been waiting
for about two hours now.
I've shortened my talk
quite a bit,
but I want to get the main point
across to them,
how important it is
for us to save that building.
JOHN:
It was fascinating to watch
the people that came in.
I started working at Studio One
Backlot Theater
in April of 1978.
It was the beginning of one
of the best times in my life.
And the first place that I came
was the Backlot.
JOHN:
A lot of the people were
either 60 years old and above,
those that had survived
the great tribulation,
or those that
were 40 and below,
just curious about its history.
We're missing hundreds
of thousands of us.
And that was, and that is,
the story of Studio One
and what happened there.
So, I don't take this decision
lightly.
LLOYD:
Uh, Gary
and I fell out of town
for quite a few years.
I got in touch with Gary again,
and the first thing
I did was tell him
that I wanted to have a reunion.
Wouldn't it be fun
to just put on a show?
Oh my God,
you're taking me back, Jason!
Oh, my very first gay bar,
Studio One!
We've got Gary Steinberg
and Lloyd Coleman,
and we are going to talk
about the history, the legacy,
the legend of Studio One
and the upcoming event.
The one person I would
always see was this guy.
-Oh.
-This handsome man.
JOHN:
Oh, wow.
And I just thought,
"One of these days,
I'm going to have the courage
to walk up to him
and talk to him."
JOHN:
40 years later.
And here we are,
40 years later
and we're still standing.
Best of friends.
I have a personal history
with Studio One,
and you know,
I feel like I've got the ghost
and the spirits of the past.
That is the-- what instigated
this event.
We're gonna remember
what we did at the Backlot,
and we want to remember
our experiences at Studio One.
LLOYD:
We spent probably
a good six months
trying to find people.
One of those people
was Bruce Vilanch.
When I was told about it,
I said, "Well, I'll let him
see it if Jimmy Fallon
isn't available."
I have actual history there.
Lloyd was on the horn
calling them,
and it was really tough,
and it was still kind
of this airy-fairy dream.
That's why I wanted
to get with you,
because you're gonna be
the brains that tell me how
to make it all work.
Well, Lloyd was really
persistent with me,
and I frankly started thinking
about all the times
I had there, all the friends.
NATALIE:
I am looking at a lot of
topless men getting down
real sweaty,
and this one is actually
how I figured out
what I was looking at,
as it says Studio One
in the background.
I live
in a West Hollywood apartment.
Um, it's one of those typical
four-unit buildings.
I always notice
that this one garage has
always been locked,
and one day,
I noticed that
they cut the locks off.
All the way to the back,
I noticed all these boxes
of slides of men
without their shirts on dancing
what looks like a really
fun club in the '70s.
So right away,
I was very excited.
A, because I'm gay,
and so I love history.
I love gay history.
I was like,
"These are gay men dancing,
and I am thrilled by this."
Since I'm in the gay community,
start talking to everyone
I knew
and asking them if they
knew about Studio One.
It kind of came
from all directions
where it's almost like
these slides were reaching out
and were supposed to be found.
Um, as I was doing my research
and just looking
at every single slide,
of course, I was creating
my own narrative of these people
and I started just feeling
really close to them,
and like a man
that I named Mesh Shirt.
He clearly made his shirt.
He clearly cut it off
and then sewed mesh on,
so you could just see
his bulging muscles
and his picture is
just like this
on the dance floor,
just owning it.
I loved that guy
and I remember...
So, I was able to ask Michael,
"Do you know this person?
Do you remember this person?"
And of course, he did,
and unfortunately, most of them
had passed from AIDS.
And it broke my heart,
because in my mind
I really wanted
to find these people
and say, "Hey,
I have this picture of you."
And they're gone.
Yeah, he's gone.
He's gone.
He's gone.
That so-and-so,
he's gone.
Like it's just, it's shocking.
One picture that I really love,
it's this guy,
he's shirtless
with another man,
and he's like kind of
holding him,
but it's just this moment of,
I don't know,
they just feel safe.
Also, the few people
that I thought were sneezing
and were being polite,
and I found
out they were doing poppers.
So there's that.
(CHUCKLES)
This is a slide
from New Year's Eve, 1980.
Obviously, outside world
wasn't great,
but in this club,
it just felt safe.
Balloons are falling
in these pictures,
they're kissing,
they're dancing,
they're being free.
()
Seeing somebody alive one week
and then learning
the next week that they had
died of pneumonia suddenly.
"Am I next? What--
Is this the last time
I'm gonna see you?
What-- what is happening?
What-- what is going on?"
And there was talk, of course,
of poppers being the cause,
which was not the truth.
People were afraid to go
in any gay establishment.
Suddenly, poppers became
very unsupportable
and people just stopped.
There was a bit of a-- a taboo
to be going to the clubs.
You know, because of AIDS,
people were freaked out.
Even my own mother said,
"Don't go to West Hollywood.
You know,
there's AIDS over there."
One of the bartenders here,
his name was Craig.
I took him home
and not even 30 minutes later,
I got this really breathy call
from him.
Went to Cedars-Sinai
and he had passed away.
He had drowned to death.
And he had worked this night.
He didn't even know he had it.
When I was going
to a psychiatrist,
And I said, "When am I ever
going to get over
all the trauma
of the last decade?"
And his reassuring remark was,
"Never".
And he was right.
The government wasn't
gonna do anything about it.
And those of us who were
in show business said,
"Well, we can raise money.
We-- we can put on a show."
And it was very difficult,
because nobody wanted
to be associated
with this disease.
Uh, it was a pariah.
Joan Rivers was the first one
to really come forward
and galvanize the community.
She stepped in
and organized this first benefit
which was held here
with Sylvester.
You, Charles, and I did a show
at Studio One.
Up until the end, she said,
"You know, give me six gay men
in the front row
and I know it's gonna
be a good show."
Did that first show for AIDS.
The first benefit for AIDS.
Before anyone did it.
And I want to say thank you.
-And I want to thank you--
-Thank you.
I was asked to represent
APLA at the event.
BRUCE:
It was a very emotional evening.
And people were afraid to come.
"Why are you helping this thing?
This is awful.
You're gonna
get sick yourself."
And it was-- it was pretty grim.
People in the business
saying, "Don't do it.
It's career suicide."
It was fear.
People were really outraged.
Here was someone who was
at one of the peaks
of her career,
hostessing the Tonight Show
basically saying,
"I'm taking a stand."
DISCO DAN:
There was a lot of anxiety
about what was going
to happen at the event.
We didn't know whether mayhem
and chaos were going to ensue.
MELISSA:
Our family received threats.
And not just to my mother,
but to my father, and to me.
So there was an extra
layer of security
that I don't remember coming
to any event here at Studio.
Right before the event,
the threats were so big
and so frightening
that I was sent to school
with bodyguards.
It hit such a nerve.
I mean, the fact that they made
the decision to bring me
with them the night
of the fundraiser
and their feeling was
if something is gonna happen,
the place is gonna
get blown up.
At least, we're all there
together.
I always tried
to stay optimistic,
but it was really,
really coming at me,
because I really felt
like I could be next.
I knew it was just God
that has me here today.
So you're scared--
You're scared to meet anyone.
You're scared to have sex.
So you use drugs to have sex.
You know, there were
the people that were positive
who were scared
and you know,
struggling to stay alive.
And then there were
people who were negative.
A lot of, um, you know, fear
and anger.
You know, how do you cope?
How do you navigate
the survivor guilt?
I had a great friend,
a guy named Michael Katz.
He used to always say to me,
"Don't tell me
there's not a war on."
I said to him once,
"What can I do for you?"
And he said, "Remember my name."
I have a picture at home.
It was a staff picture.
I-- probably '80, '81 maybe.
There were 105 people
in the picture
and there's two of us
left alive.
What was one time fun
and a glass over top
of the bar like this became
I had to have this in order
to get through the day.
Now my first friend
who died, Scott Fleeney,
or somebody I would dance
with upstairs.
And Scott was, uh,
was the funniest gay man.
Handsome, tall,
striking, gorgeous male model.
Anyway, I went on vacation
for a week
and back then there were
recording devices
that would record your messages.
So, I got back from vacation
and there were
like 14 messages.
I'm like, "What is going on?"
So I hit play.
"Hey guys, it's Scott.
Um, hey, I'm at Hoag Hospital.
Um, I'm really sick.
They think I have pneumonia.
Can you guys give me a call
or come see me?"
Beep.
"Hey guys, it's Scott.
I'm calling again.
I'm still at Hoag.
And yeah, I have pneumonia
and I think it's whatever's
going around.
And can you come see me?
I really need some support."
Beep.
"Guys, I can't believe
you're not return--"
(WHIMPERS)
Sorry.
Fuck.
40 years ago, it's still there.
"Can't believe
you're not calling me back.
Are you afraid of catching it?"
Beep.
"Guys, I'm really sick.
You need to come see me."
And finally, the last message.
Beep.
"Guys, it's Debra.
We lost Scotty.
This morning."
And that's what happened is that
it was just like within a week.
If you lost touch for a moment--
There were no cell phones.
You just went on vacation.
And you took a trip.
You'd come back to find out
who had died.
You know,
whenever they say make a list.
I started making a list
and I just can't, you know,
I can't-- I couldn't look
at that quilt again.
I mean, I run across a name
I'd forgotten about.
And I go, I get shell-shocked.
The thing about AIDS was
not only did you lose people.
Um, who were, um, not um--
I've got to stop.
It's so horrible.
I-- just give me a--
DAVID VANDERVELDE:
Lance had AIDS
and was dying.
BILL:
He wanted to go to
the hospice to visit him.
It-- it was shocking.
He was 27
and he looked like he was,
you know, 87.
DAVID VANDERVELDE:
I think his energy,
he still had that spark.
Especially, when I looked
in his eyes, those blue eyes,
light was still there.
That was the only spark
that was left.
You know,
and he was rebellious.
He was like smoking cigarettes
in the AIDS hospice in bed
with oxygen.
He just wanted to do
what he wanted to do
and he was gonna do it
until he couldn't do it anymore.
I think about him all the time.
I've only really loved
three people in my life
and he was one of 'em for sure.
There have been some
cathartic moments,
um, where I think I've gotten
through it.
Um, but it, you know,
yeah, it bothered me a lot.
Those people are
not replaceable.
BRUCE:
This happened 40 years ago.
We were in the midst
of the gay liberation movement
and it converted
to the AIDS movement.
We had to get together
in order to save ourselves.
Because of that,
was a movement,
a political movement
that could then tackle
marriage equality,
because that is the one thing
that guarantees us
first-class citizenship.
Think tragedy, trauma.
That which says, "I thought
it was about this
but it's not.
It's much more important
than this."
And you are responsible
to those who come after you.
And if you can put it together
and say,
"This is why it matters",
you allow the next generation
to go,
"You see I'm part of a story
that isn't yet told."
But in the telling we're
discovering it's much richer
than the one we thought
we were to tell.
You've got to appreciate
those people that really
gave their lives.
I carry it in my heart.
Some songs just trigger
my memories
uh, because they were-- I--
I see all of these people
that I used to dance with at
the clubs were now deceased.
And...
See, I mean this is, what,
30 years later
and I still get very emotional
about it.
JOHN:
Some of them accepted death
peacefully.
Most did not.
Death did not come calmly.
We have that PTSD,
but we-- I still feel connected
to a lot of the spirits
of these men that were there
with me dancing upstairs.
And I just need to have just
a moment, whew, for me
and my friends
who are still here.
For us just to let that time go.
Even though
I've gone through, uh,
three decades of processing
with it
and many, many years of therapy
and getting sober,
I still wonder sitting here,
um, what my--
What my life would feel like
if those people were still here?
Um...
And that doesn't go away.
It will-- it will never go away.
I refer to these people now
as my angels.
CAROL:
I met Michael like
all the other employees really
and I attended parties.
Where we're both
in a picture together.
Um, you just kind of realize,
that they're all gone.
I think that's when it really
hit Scott in the '90s.
It just didn't have
the same spirit.
It was just too sad.
When Scott called
and said, "Michael, do you have
any objection to if--
if we sell?"
I said, "Not at all.
I'm ready.
I haven't been in
the damn thing for five years."
We opened Escrow on the sale
in December 1st of '92.
I hadn't seen Scott in a while.
He continued his advocacy
for the community.
CAROL:
The whole thing was just
so devastating.
So Scott went in
for elective surgery.
MICHAEL SOLOMON:
It was silly.
It was a plastic surgery
of something.
He experienced some kind
of a medical emergency
and they transferred him
to Midway Hospital,
not Cedars-Sinai,
but I felt it was all part
of a cover-up.
I mean, obviously,
it was a shock.
To me, he was the most
influential person in my life.
I would just be driving along.
I would think of him
and I would start bawling
my eyes out.
JOHN:
He was warned by his doctors
not to have this procedure
that wasn't necessary,
because he had been
HIV positive for many years.
He did share that with me,
but he didn't talk
about it really at all.
He felt that it would really
negatively impact the business
if people knew.
After he passed away,
they actually asked that
donations went to the city
of West Hollywood.
I went back to school.
I went 15 years
and got my doctorate
in clinical psychology.
First and foremost,
to try to figure me out.
I was working in a dream job
at a place that provided
mental health service
provision for all of LA County.
There's a saying in AA
that says,
"We can't keep it
if you don't give it away."
And so I thought, "Okay,
I'm giving it away to--
to people
and this is really,
I'm doing good with this."
I relapsed again
while working there
and ended up demolished
and evicted from my house
and I just broke.
Crystal meth was really
what brought me to my knees.
When you asked me years later,
eight years to be precise,
to come
and film this documentary,
the opening shot we walk
up the stairs
and the first recall
that I had is,
that's where I slept
when I was homeless.
I slept on a cinder block.
I-- I went back to a place
that was safe for me.
Um, as safe as could be
considering
you were on the streets.
Three times I had West
Hollywood Sheriff's Department
find me there,
let me stay rather
than arrest me.
My file said, "Do not arrest."
I don't know why.
One of the police officers said
to me, um,
he said,
"Michael, you're too bright of--
You're too bright of a light
to be
out here in the darkness
like this."
The community reached out
and helped me to recover
and all of the angels,
all of those angels appeared
through other people
and helped me along the way
and I know
that's why I'm still here.
That's why I'm willing to sit
in this chair
and go back into these places is
to bring honor to those that
sacrificed their life for us
to move through it.
This night had to happen,
because West Hollywood lost
10,000 people between 1981
and 1995
and their spirits
I believe are still here,
because this was the place where
they were happiest in life.
There would not be wedding
cakes for gay
and lesbian couples today
had it not been for the
sacrifice of those men
who sat in the Backlot
and danced at Studio One.
This night we are all sharing
this moment of history
as young LGBT people
can look back
and realize that something
profound happened here
on Robertson
and we can never forget it.
God bless Studio One forever.
(CHEERING)
And the road
we've been travelling
Lost so many on the way
BRUCE:
It-- it had an almost
spiritual moment.
A spiritual moment
that you can have
in a great big gay bar
with people drinking
flaming margaritas.
LLOYD:
I, in my heart of hearts,
knew this was going to
draw the people who
loved Studio One Backlot.
There were thousands
of some people
standing out in line trying
to get in.
Honey, I'm known
as the fairy godmother, you guys
and I've helped almost
$10 million
for AIDS organizations
all over the country
and that is what I will do
until the day I die.
It's kind of a magical
nostalgic night.
Pete Buttigieg was running
around in pampers
when I started coming
to Studio One.
In 1979 I came to Studio One
where he worked.
I worked here in the Backlot
and also in the disco.
And we've been together
for a little over 40 years.
INTERVIEWER:
Wow.
Ever since.
And we're two
of the three Tinas.
Yeah, we used to dr--
We've been dressing as Tina
since the '80s.
Worth the price
The price we've had to pay
It's like many years ago,
the excitement
and uh, the only thing
Lance isn't here.
That would have been really
spectacular.
Right, because that spot right
where that white car is
is where we were
when we got hit by the truck.
So,
and Michael died right there.
So that's-- when you asked
how I was doing
I thought,
"I'm doing real good.
I'm holding myself together
pretty good, so."
Um, I'm okay.
You cannot overstate
the historical impact
of this building.
If these walls could talk,
which that's-- this documentary
is gonna be doing.
I saw Barbra Streisand,
Sally Kellerman.
All the stars that were
beginning back then
are big stars now.
So I was positioned next
to the stage behind a tree.
And Liz,
who was in a wheelchair,
could not get on the stage.
So she kind of wheeled herself
to the foot of the stage.
They, thankfully,
put a spot on her.
You know, it's like old times.
You see the boys in loincloths
and the women in sequin gowns.
PAULO:
Like that staircase
was iconic to me.
I took a shitload of selfies,
because I didn't know
it was going to happen.
Like sinking in your gut
that it's all going
to be demolished.
MICHAEL:
It was such a wonderful night
and the joy
and the incredible talent
how I would like to
complete these memories.
Not only the pain
and the loss.
Once the show started,
the magic happened
and it was an event to remember.
(CHEERING)
SPEAKER 3:
Robbie Leslie,
this amazing DJ was spinning.
They started the music.
We got on the dance floor
and we just let loose.
If you want this night
And I just remember getting
ready to get down
and get dirty
with like the techno
and I don't hear any techno
at Studio One.
What's happening here, you know?
JOHN:
I danced.
Normally, it would have been
shirts off.
Now we got all these 60
and 70 years old, you know,
"We're not taking
our shirts off."
Got a little caught up.
All the images came
rushing back.
ANNOUNCER 6:
Please welcome to the stage,
Thelma Houston!
(INDISTINCT SINGING)
'Cause I can't exist
I did the last party
for the Studio 54,
the last party for the Saint,
the last one for Catch One.
All those friends that
we used to go to Studio One
just about all of them are gone.
Help me out over here,
come on!
Ah, baby!
MICHAEL:
This was a moment in time
recreated,
yet still having
to look around the room
not knowing for sure what
is the fate of this building.
There was a whole swath
of people, of souls
that were highly creative
and beautiful taken from us.
What can we do with that?
I know, I know
Where I've been, yeah
I thank God
There's nowhere
I ain't been
(CHEERING)
Thank you, Studio One Backlot.
()
You got me feeling
My heart is real
You got me feeling
My heart is real
Oh, it's starting to feel
unreal
You got me feeling
()
To our angels.
You can tear us down
But you can't stop
the music
No matter who you are
or where you're from
We will never come undone
So if you're here to try,
try to break us apart
You can turn it around,
sit your ass on the ground
'Cause we have been here
from the start
You can tear us down,
but you can't stop the music
Music, music, music
'Cause everyday
we keep coming back
We say try if you want,
but you can't stop it
Tear us down,
but you can't stop the music
If you call us out,
we won't go
You'll never stop the music
()
When you slip inside, you
break right into the future
Let people bring us back
stronger with age
We will always take
that stage
So if you're here to try
Try to stop the music
You might as well go away,
'cause we're here to stay
We will never go away
So you can tear us down,
but you can't stop the music
So West Hollywood,
Santa Monica Boulevard
was a ghost town.
So there was like this
heart-wrenching feeling of
we're losing these gay spaces.
When Rage nightclub closed
it was so shocking,
because it was an institution.
From the ashes of COVID,
comes heart.
Through craziness
like a pandemic,
you know, through a negative,
a huge positive came about.
We were able to take over
this spot.
You know, the iconic Rage
has been around
for four decades.
We can't forget
where we came from.
Uh, I have heard
of Studio One before.
It was a little bit ahead
of my time,
but they did tell me
the door was pretty crazy
to get into.
I definitely relate to Scott.
I mean, his vision is
a little different from mine
uh, 'cause of course
it's a different era.
Back in my day
and Scott's day, you know,
people went to clubs to dance
and I wanted to recreate that
with an incredible discotheque
right in the heart
of West Hollywood.
Ready to step up
and climb up
And claim what is mine
up at the top of the stairs
I'm ready to step up
and climb up
And claim what is mine
up at the top of the stairs
If I travel up
Let's go up
I will be changed
If I travel up
Let's go up
I know
I'll never be the same
Just like my mama
told me, baby
You gotta go on ahead,
don't be afraid
You gotta go
and take a hold of it
Just like my mama told me,
child, you gotta
You gotta run that
extra mile
You gotta go
and make the most of it
I'm ready to step up
and climb up
And claim what is mine up
at the top of the stairs
I'm ready to step up
and climb up
And claim what is mine up
at the top of the stairs
If I travel up
Let's go up
I will be changed
If I travel up
Let's go up
I know
I'll never be the same
If I travel up
Let's go up
I will be changed
If I travel up
Let's go up
I know
I'll never be the same
Travel, ooh
I hear the music
Travel, ooh
I hear the music
Travel, ooh
I hear the music
Travel, ooh
I hear the music
If I travel, ooh
I hear the music
If I travel up, ooh
I hear the music
If I travel up, ooh
I hear the music
Travel up
I hear the music
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
I am changed