From studio 54 to assisted suicide in Switzerland – Corriere.it

There will be no farewell partyHe said before boarding the Los Angeles-Zurich flight, assisted suicide at the last stop. there Nice way outso he called it, which ended years of suffering from a neurological disease that was never accurately diagnosed and that had robbed him of the ability to walk and express himself for the past six years. Mark Fleishman He died at the age of 82, his famous curls were torn from the past by age and disease, but in his eyes there are still some flashes of light as always and the same caustic New York sense of humor: My wife is forced to help me sleep, I can’t get dressed or put on my shoes, I can’t speak Now fucked.

special place

Fleischmann was one of the giants of the nightlife of the 80s: he bought it at the beginning of the decade, in 1980, Study 54 By the founders who ended up in jail (tax receipts weren’t in fashion The newest nightclub ever: In the year of its opening, two of them declared their income at seven thousand dollars) and reopened it in September 1981 in an attempt to keep the flame of that special place alive.
On the evening of the reopening day, there were ten thousand people in line In front of the entrance, 254 West 54th Street, the police had to put up barricades and close the street to traffic, Academy Award winner Mary Tyler More Along with many other celebrities he stayed abroad and John Belushi and Jack Nicholson were only able to get in because of someone He took them from behind, through the maze used by champagne sellers and who knows what else.

From Warhol to Madonna

Fleischmann continued to organize unforgettable parties, and in the room there were always Andy Warhol, Calvin Klein, Halston, Lisa Minnelli, Cher, Grace Jones and Elio Fiorucci who Study 54 It opened in 1977. many hollywood starsArtists and Models, Young Madonna, Children of Life, Champagne, cocaine and colored pills. A recipe for life living at full size, decimal tall for ten years.
Underneath the neon moon statue Snorting cocaine – the legendary man in the moon has now finished entertaining tourists in Las Vegas, no longer with a spoon for the child – it all happened, to the delight of Fleischman. When it comes to psychotropic substances, he fears no competitorsas he recalls years later in his autobiography.

endless nights

studio 54 books, You could have destroyed me too. I could have been home at four or five in the morning when we closed the club doors, but I never did. Night after night, I jumped in my limousine and I used to go to night clubsor stay in Studio 54 messing around with a throng of VIP regulars, actors, and inevitable passengers to be sent off in search of cocaine. The liters of drinks served by the house were flowing profuselyand always kept Variety of drugs to please my guests. Then we would sit in my office and talk about our lives. and then, about nine o’clock, rubbing our eyes, we left the dark space of the disco to enter the dazzling morning light. And while ordinary people ran up and down Broadway to work, I was finally going home.

Back to the stage

But the infrequent atmosphere of the record was destined to die of natural causes: it happened in 1986 End of the era of absolute freedom It was founded in 1977. Today Studio 54 is again what it was at its birth in the 1920s: a theater, then an opera house, and today it is a prose theatre. From this magic remain extraordinary images, memories of those who were therethe inevitable envy of those who were not there and would have liked to be there, at least for one night.