In March 2020 , the Brooklyn Museum opened Studio 54 : Night Magic , an exhibition spearheaded by Matthew Yokobosky , the museum ’ s senior curator of fashion and material culture . Featuring photography , film footage , sketches , and countless artifacts recovered from the club ’ s lifespan , Night Magic is a comprehensive , chronological recounting of two and a half years of supercharged adrenaline .
While the Brooklyn exhibit was only open for the first day of its run before the pandemic shutdowns , it would re-open from September to November . Then , the exhibit packed up and headed north , where it is now installed at Toronto ’ s Art Gallery of Ontario ( AGO ). What makes the Toronto exhibit particularly special , however , is the involvement of the AGO ’ s installation technician , Paul Mathiesen . Mathiesen , a veteran lighting designer with over 40 years of experience , was a part of Studio 54 ’ s technical crew as a flyman and lighting technician prior to its opening in ’ 77 and well into its time as a bustling discothèque .
Mathiesen had been working as a lighting designer at the Equity Library Theater , a non-profit venue where actors , technicians , producers , and the like refined their craft for zero pay while putting on productions for attendees who could not afford to attend professional theatre productions . After a run of Godspell , Mathiesen was informed of an opportunity that had arisen elsewhere . He recalls being told of a disco opening in Manhattan at 54 th Street and Broadway that was seeking an electrician ; excited by the prospect of a paycheque , he took up the interview opportunity .
The interview was with Mark Kruger , the technical director and project manager of Studio 54 ’ s initial conception , and a partner of renowned lighting designers Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz ; Fisher and Marantz served as the club ’ s LDs through to 1979 . “ Very early in the interview it was apparent that I didn ’ t have the chops to be an electrician . I hadn ’ t done any rock and roll touring , I wasn ’ t a roadie , I didn ’ t have that experience of tying in power , that kind of thing ,” Mathiesen recounts . However , Kruger did see potential in Mathiesen as a flyman , responsible for rigging scenery , lighting , and whatever else would be required .
“ The place was a scramble and a total mess . When I had my interview , about a month before opening night , it was a zoo .” Regardless , he took up Kruger ’ s offer , though not without some reservation . “ I said , ‘ Well yeah , okay . I understand that I ’ m not right as an electrician , but I know even less about being a flyman ! I ’ ve never done that before .’” But Kruger was confident , and gave Mathiesen an opportunity to work with and quite literally learn the ropes with the Long Island firm Bestek , who were working on the initial installations at Studio 54 . Then , it was off to meet with venue co-owner Ian Schrager .
“‘ If Mark says so , you ’ re our flyman . Can you start right away ?’” Mathiesen recalls of his first meeting with Schrager . “ I said , ‘ Yeah , I can . What ’ s the pay ?’ and Ian said , ‘ Well , let ’ s not worry about that right now .’ I just thought , ‘ This looks like it ’ d be a good gig .’ I got along very well in that half hour or so with Mark , I knew about Jules Fisher , so I said ‘ Okay , let ’ s do it .’ And I started that afternoon , working with the rigging crew .”
From that day forward , Mathiesen and the Bestek crew would log “ eight- , ten- , twelve- , eighteen-hour days ” as the club ’ s opening approached , and Mathiesen would ultimately remain at Studio 54 full-time for the next year before branching off to start his own company , Mathiesen Lighting , Inc .
Once the club opened , Mathiesen essentially took up residence in the building , utilizing a dressing room left behind from the previous tenants , the mega-broadcaster CBS . “ I lived in the dressing room that belonged to Captain Kangaroo for the first winter in ’ 77 , for about three months . I was at the nightclub , you know , for 18- and 20-hour days .” At night , he would attend to his duties as the flyman , and he had also been tapped as a project and stage manager for special events , coordinating with clients booking the club and collaborating with Schrager to put them on .
“ They would come and say , ‘ Okay , we need a fashion show runway , this is what we want to do with the lighting . Here ’ s our pile of records , give these to the DJ .’ I was that kind of coordinator , working with Ian on all the special events ; birthdays for Liz Taylor , Bianca Jagger
on a horse , events big and small . Sit-down dinners on stage before the nightclub opened , so I ’ d have to arrange all the table business . I was the person who hired the crew , because right off the start it wasn ’ t enough to have just the lighting jockey on an old autotransformer board backstage and myself at backstage right on the fly rail ; we needed extra help with all the setup and teardowns of all these special events and shows ,” he casually explains .
Indeed , Mathiesen was present for some of the most iconic moments from the club ’ s history , perhaps the most famous being Bianca Jagger ’ s gallant horseback birthday stroll through the venue . Unfortunately , the horse is not one of the artifacts present in the AGO ’ s exhibit .
“ So , I was the person who took care of getting the crew , and I worked with Ian on setting the hours and whatever the look was , if the event coming in had some special glitter , or needed the glitter bag changed to snow , or they wanted dry ice to come in 15 minutes after midnight ,” Mathiesen says , explaining that atmospheric effects were just as much part of the Studio 54 experience as the scenery and lighting . It also wasn ’ t uncommon for attendees to be treated to brief spells of extra entertainment amidst the hustle and bustle .
“ We had a drop in the middle of the stage called the ‘ cut drop ’. It was a black scrim designed by Aerographics , who did most of the scenery at Studio 54 . It was a curtain that you could see through if there ’ s no light behind it . It looks okay if it ’ s got a painting in front of it , or an applique of some kind , which I ’ d put on ; and that would be the curtain that divided the private party that was upstage by the back wall from the 500 or 600 people who ’ d already shown up by midnight , dancing and drinking out front . If there was a fashion show that
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INSTALLATION VIEW , STUDIO 54 : NIGHT MAGIC , ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO / PHOTO : AGO