Matt Tyrner ptured the notor gay matchmaker’s unique view of the stars.
Contents:
GAY HISTORY – APRIL 26, 1977: STUD 54 OPENS NEW YORK CY
‘We wanted a mix of rich, poor, gay, straight, old and young … somebody topls uld dance wh a woman ballgown and tiara’ * was ian schrager gay *
It was a time, post-Stonewall, when “the gay populatn were settg the absolute cultural standard this town.
” And he and Rubell went to gay clubs bee he thought straight on “felt ntrived, and I always felt unfortable, ” he says. “I would go to the gay nightclubs and there was this vibe: There was sex everywhere. Schrager’s ecstatic memori of gay life the ’70s are one of the odr thgs about him, given that he is heterosexual (married twice, both tim to ballet dancers, wh five kids).
Stud, and the publicy around , helped take gay culture, or at least a gltery image of , to the mastream. And yet, for the longt time, he somehow didn’t know that Rubell, whom he’s scribed as someone he had such a close bs partnership wh he was practilly married to, was himself gay.
* was ian schrager gay *
You n’t argue that the gays haven’t been good to them, though. “What stck me, and was touchg, is this is a story about a gay guy (Rubell) and straight guy (Schrager) who were born the ‘40s, growg up the ‘60s, and gay guys weren’t out back then, but to them, didn’t matter.
The adult’s Disneyland arose agast Watergate, Vietnam, the sexual revolutn of the pill, and gay liberatn.
“Dis had been emergg as a sensatn, but Schrager and Rubell brought the ncept of the unrground, gay black cultural movement, and phed to a stratosphere that was prevly unknown. It led to a wipeout of what wrer Fran Leibovz lled, “the bt dyg” where gay talent was murred by the HIV epimic. Rubell — wh whom he opened the Palladium nightclub and created the boutique hotel tegory after they got out of jail — was gay until very near his ath om plitns of AIDS 1989.