Nearly 40 years after it opened its doors to a flood of party-hungry movie stars, fashion royalty and debaucherous disco dancers, Studio 54 remains the most famous night club America has ever known.
This month, Swedish-born photojournalist Hasse Persson releases a breathtaking compilation of his first-hand experiences at the New York discotheque, where he routinely captured the dizzying hedonism on film from 1977 to 1980.
Like a booze and drug fueled fever dream, Persson's 'Studio 54' freezes a red-hot moment in disco-era history into 200-plus pages of spellbinding, head-spinning imagery.
Standouts in the vivid, black and white shots are such colorful characters as Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and Bianca Jagger.
But, nearly always sharing the frame with these notables, are the professional level partyers whose presence made Studio 54 the white hot cultural touchstone it was for a brief but memorable 33 months and continues to be in society's collective memory.
As the tome is billed at artbook.com, 'Almost 35 years after the club's unceremonious and sudden closure, this beautiful hardback volume superbly documents the zeitgeist.'
Debauchery: New York's most iconic disco, Studio 54, was best known for its feverish debauchery and celebrity clientele who streamed in en mass for the club's brief but unforgettable 33 months in existence
Big names; Celebrities like Andy Warhol were a huge part of what Studio 54 was. Other big name regulars at the West 54th Street club included Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger, Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Michael Jackson, Calvin Klein, Elton John, John Travolta, Brooke Shields and Tina Turner to name just a few
Party people: Just as important as the celebrities were the hard-partying regulars who consistently danced the night away alongside them while dressed outlandishly with their heads full of any number of narcotics
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Pow pow: This photo offers a rare glimpse at the Swedish born photographer , Hasse Persson (left), whose book 'Studio 54' is released this month
Glittering: Cross-dressing was simply business as usual at the glittering club, so many patrons opted for the simply outlandish when they lined up on 54th street in Manhattan hoping to get in the door each party night
Special cocktails: Drugs, too, were a regular sight at Studio 54. In fact, the club was known as the 'epicenter of New York's drug culture' in disco-era Manhattan
Lucrative: By 1978, within a year of transforming it from a theatre to a nightclub, Studio 54 had made $7 million and co-owner Steve Rubell was quoted as saying 'only the Mafia made more money'
White horse: For Bianca Jagger's 30th birthday, a costumed show was performed by staff and professional dancers, and right at the end, Ms Jagger came riding out on the stage on a white horse
The music finally stopped on December 1979 when the club was raided by the IRS and bags full of money were found stashed throughout the building
Clink: Owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager were sentenced to three-and-a-half years for tax evasion of which they served 13 months after striking a deal with prosecutors
Prison send-ff: A final party and prison send-off was held in February 1980, and Diana Ross serenaded Rubell and Shrager in front of a packed crowd that included Richard Gere, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone and Gia Carangi
Unpredictable crowd: Adults of all shapes, ages, styles and parts of the world would flock to the club, which arguably has gone down in history as the best-known on the globe
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