Studio 54 was a Manhattan"discotheque at the the center of the New York City social scene for most of the1970s Steve Rubell opened this dance club in a run-down warehouse, designing it to appeal to the hip and trendy "beautiful people" bored by ordinary discotheques. Studio 54 admitted only a select few each night. Large crowds of wannabes stood in line for hours a chance to be admitted or to see movie stars, famous athletes, or political celebrities coming and going. The club was the focus of durg investigations in 1979 after President Jimmy Carter's chief aide, Hamilton Jordan, was reported to have sampled cocaine there. Insiders claimed celebrity customers commonly snorted and purchased cocaine in the nightclub. When the disco craze faded by decade's end, Lubell became disenchanted with the celebrity life and later served a prison sentence for tax evasion. By 1988 he had invested...