Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
It was a night of rainbows, reminiscence, and reflection at the Landmark Theater Sunset in West Hollywood on the mid-October night of the Studio One Forever screening. In attendance were some of the film’s prime interviewees including, but not limited to, Bruce Vilanch, Rosalyn Kind, Lesley Ann Warren, A sprightly 94 Year Old James Gypsy Haake (most widely known for his role as Uncle Otto on Married with Children), Singer Kiki Ebsen (daughter of Buddy Ebsen), Susan Blakely, Cayman Cardiff (aka Guy Dollman of Barbenheimer) along with Film Producer and Former West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran.
The documentary celebrating the Studio One Discotheque (circa 1974-1993) as a third space of hope and self-actualization, (via a primarily still closeted Hollywood), takes the audience through the highs and lows of the contemporary zeitgeist of the times. Most notably underscored in the documentary: the club’s swift ascent in popularity, diversifying to include a nightly cabaret/dinner theatre, which would eventually culminate in a home away from home to some of Hollywood’s most classic and contemporary luminaries alike! All of the above tempered of course by existing prejudices of the times, followed by the AIDS crisis.
Pauley Perrette, of NCIS fame, and one of the film’s producers decked out in a most striking rainbow sundress, kicked off the evening by declaring pride not only for her glorious community, but the documentary itself introducing it as not only a “history of us as a society” but “what we fought for and what future generations will have to continue to fight for.”
“I started this project in 2019 as an IOU to the world,” according to director Marc Saltarelli.
And as to the film, once viewed, The LA Beat can safely confirm, it is something of which the world has most decidedly been in need!
Established in 1974 by ophthalmologist Scott Forbes, resembling a curlier-haired version of David Birney (if that’s even possible), Studio One was initially converted from a 1960s-style night club called The Factory owned by Joan Collins and Anthony Newley (and possibly Rosalind Russell). Originally built as a camera factory (hence the original club namesake), responsible for furnishing The Wizard of Oz with some of its most reliable equipment, the long, elevated boxcar-style structure with the hyper reinforced floors (perfect for all manner of torrid dancing) was then converted to a munitions storage facility during World War II. From the late 60s to 1973, the 60s supper/nightclub reigned supreme until Forbes took over with his partner Ernie Caruthers. According to Forbes, it was like the first LA Disco/Gay Secret Society.
Studio One Opened May 19, 1974, and by 10 o’clock it was still totally empty. Closer to midnight, however, the man helming the door ran in and said he needed help. Down the block, and then block after block, was the longest line ever seen!
Singular to the club were long marble counters featuring lines and lines of cocaine (for better or worse) after which one could order up a sensible drink at the ornate, well-stocked bar. Eventually erotic male dancers were added into the mix along with a fabled bathtub somewhere in the venue housing five separate dance rooms!
(On Halloween, it has been said, tents were raised and carnival acts invited to perform. And don’t even get anyone started on all the costumes — Halloween or otherwise!)
Notable year round entertainers at the Disco included Thelma Houston who began performing at Studio One at the tender age of 23. It was her epic song Don’t Leave me this Way that helped salve the pain of having to say “Goodbye” to Discos all over the nation.
Sylvester, whose Disco-inspired You Make me Feel Mighty Real rose to the number one spot on the American Billboard Chart in 1978, performed there on the regular and was non-binary before the discovery and/or term had even been coined.
Eventually a record store was opened off to the side which included the sale of coke mirrors, Amyl Nitrate aka Poppers and LUBE!! (all different flavors and consistencies).
Soon, and a bear’s post-hibernation pace after the Disco had opened, a Cheeta walked in and took command, well, that of Chita Rivera. It was this siren of song and dance who would establish the Backlot Cabaret/Dinner Theatre just to the Disco’s aft.
Some signature Backlot performances included a most stellar Bette Davis Cabaret Act of which Geraldine Paige was a key inspiration, along with regular performances by Eartha Kitt, Liza Minnelli, Joan Rivers, and in later years, Geri Jewell, Rosie O’Donnell and Roseanne Barr along with one of the most fruitful performers the lot over Julie Budd. Open mic nights were also par for the course and turned out some fresh young stars such as Broadway Luminary Brian Lane Green, Platinum Recording Artist Sam Harris.
From there on out, The Backlot and Studio One alike would welcome a cavalcade of celebrities from old and new Hollywood alike in the form of Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball (escorted by James ‘Gypsy” Haake) Farrah Fawcett, Elton John, Paul and Linda McCartney Rock Hudson, Tina Turner and indefatigable activists Joan and Melissa Rivers to name a few.
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
Steve Rubel and Halston even paid it a visit in the mid-seventies, thus obtaining their own idea for Studio 54, which would only stay open for 3 years, a pale of comparison to Studio One’s 19.
One of the signature experiences inherent upon staying at The Backlot after 10 or 11 pm was the distinctive booming and pulsating that would slip through the ceilings and walls once the Discotheque got pumpin’!
“[It felt like the gay movement] was just being born. We’d just come out of the sexual revolution and all of a sudden, we were out creating our own culture,” quoth one of the film’s producers’ John Duran.
But said liberation through art and immense joy was not without problems.
Racism and Sexism were unfortunately inherent in the Disco’s early days, ironic in particular as it was half owned by a black man and business partner to Scott Forbes – Ernie Caruthers.
As declared by one interviewee essentially “Oppressed people sometimes oppress other oppressed people.” One woman admitted to dressing up as a man just to get in to the club. She looked quite convincing. It was a success! All the same, Studio One generally catered unto white, chiefly gay, and preferably handsome, men as the rule rather than the exception.
Photo by Jennifer K. Hugus for The Los Angeles Beat
And of course, through it all, beyond the fortress of the club’s allegorical cocoon, homophobia still ran rampant. One of the most harrowing remembrances came from current Hollywood Publicist – Harlan Boll. Not even old enough to drink on the eve of his 21st birthday, he wanted nothing more than to join in on the festivities at the legendary club. As circumstance would have it, on his first night in attempted attendance he observed one of his co-workers entering the establishment while he was still in the car with his date. Not wanting to get “found out” as was the contemporary inclination, he and his date went to a West Hollywood Park, sat on a bench and talked. Some kissing ensued only to be interrupted by a stranger berating them for their lifestyle causing them to flee, first on foot, then via vehicle. The ornery interloper followed them, crashed into the driver’s side, killing the soon-to-be 21-year old’s date. When the police arrived, one could be heard to mutter to the other, “just another dead F3ggot.” Eventually, the angry agitator went to jail. When he got out, the Hollywood Publicist received a call from the offender stating that after all these years, he wanted to make amends, and that after some time in prison, he had figured out his sexuality and was truly sorry for having taken it out on Boll and his date.
All in all, quite the storied and colorful past, to speak nothing of its harrowing and dramatic through line. As a catalyst to the documentation of the club’s ascent through its demise, West Hollywood resident Natalie Garcia discovered a box of old slides and photos in an abandoned garage a stone’s throw from her apartment, and so the cataloguing began.
Upon first discovery Natalie remarked on the abundance of dancing men, many of them shirtless, having the time of their lives. In certain instances, she would notice what looked like men sneezing into their fists, and/or putting their hand up to their faces as if to stifle a cough in more frequent fashion than would be considered the norm in such a vibrant and ostensibly non-nasally aggravating of a setting. Eventually she would come to realize that what the camera had captured was random men caught in the act of ingesting poppers/Amyl Nitrate – one of the first determined lifestyle habits to coincide with rampant Kaposi’s Sarcoma, infecting men primarily, in nightclubs in the early 1980s and one of the first signs of AIDS. Originally labeled GRID upon first discovery as an acronym for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, doctors initially considered this activity a possible key factor in the development of the disease.
The onset of this mysterious plague cast a dark pall on the nightly club scene, particularly in the early/mid-eighties.
Joan and Melissa Rivers would eventually host an AIDS Fundraiser at Studio One to death threats.
One former club goer reflected, upon looking at an old group photo, that, of the 105 participants, only two were still alive.
John Duran West Hollywood City Councilmember shared a harrowing story of a series of phone messages received from a friend the week he and his partner were away on vacation. Though left from a hospital bed, the messages started out upbeat enough, a la “Oh I’ve just got this upper respiratory thing, the doctor’s going to keep me on observation in the hospital for the night,” to “I don’t know where you guys are. I’m really sick,” to, “I’m really scared and I don’t know how much time I have left.” “There were no cell phones back then,” lamented Duran. When you stepped away from home, you essentially stepped away from all familiarity of daily your life.
It was Duran who oversaw countless City Council Meetings around 2020 regarding the fate of the Factory-turned-Disco. Eventually, it was determined that Studio One would be, not demolished, but dismantled and put into storage — double reinforced floors and all!
“It was disassembled…put in crates and stored… One of the promises we secured out of the developer…is that there be a permanent display and recognition of the history of Studio One with photos and items and video, declared Duran to Outfest LA Film Festival in the summer of 2023. “I really wanted to preserve the Disco, but the sad thing is, a lot of our young LGBTQ + People… they don’t really dance anymore they Grindr…they Tinder,” Duran mused, closing in melancholy fashion.
Not for nothing, but in all fair and balanced observation, it is the LA Beat’s reflection that young people set up dates to meet at dance clubs via dating sites. Avalon and The Academy in particular seem to be wild Hollywood favorites of today’s Gen Zers and Millennials.
At the end of the day the old 652 La Peer Ave Property was bought up by The Robertson Lane Project to make way for a Hotel, Nightclub, Retail Facilities, Parking (natch), Ballroom, and dinning establishments etc…
In light of the above, and incumbent upon all the above imagery obtained from the mysterious, abandoned garage, a mission was set forth the collate and organize it all and convert it all into a documentary entitled Studio One: Forever, a task that began in 2020 and culminated in 2023 when the film was distributed to the film festivals.
According to Michael Koth, one of Studio One’s most active and enthusiastic devotees, and one of the film’s participants, “History’s repeating itself…We started filming it when Covid hit. It’s a little different than AIDS but in a sense it’s the same thing… Because I was there [at Studio One] 6 or 7 days a week for 10 years… What we [see] in the film [was] a normal day for me. So, [it was a big challenge] coming out of that… Like when you’re up here every single day…when that stops, [and] everything comes to an end at some point, then what? … How do you process thousands of people that you’ve lost? I couldn’t keep up. We don’t talk about all of it but 4, 5, 6 funerals every weekend…that’s another piece of it that I put aside… [So] the film is really cathartic. It’s helping to heal a lot of people that come to see it. They see the faces, go into the memories, and that’s really important as well.”
In terms of social movements and catharses in their own rights, the overall sentiment pertaining to the gay rights movement, within the context of the film, in the geography-based realm stand as follows:
New York had Stonewall,
San Francisco had Harvey Milk,
LA had Studio One.
Michael Alden, film producer, closed out the sentiments on the red carpet with a message of love and hope: “At this time when human rights are once again at stake, to remind people that fighting and continuing to fight does pay off is something that the arts [is highly capable of]. I’m in the film business. It’s how I can communicate, and I think that this film stands as a testament to people that are willing to rise up for human well-being, and human rights.”
For more information on Studio One and Studio One: Forever, please visit:
