Queer spaces have become a fairly common sight in modern times, with most large cities having at least one bar catering to the LGBTQ+ community. Of course, that's not always the case; I grew up in a town that has never had a queer space, but is also rampantly homophobic. Times are still hard, but they also feel like they've mostly gotten better. If you ask most queer people about the history of queer bars and clubs they'd name the Stonewall Inn, but there's another place that deserves to be spoken about, Studio One.
Opened in 1974 in Los Angeles, Studio One was a disco dance club, filled with drinks, drugs, and topless men, and a live music venue that would host some of the biggest names in Hollywood as both acts and patrons. Created during a period where homophobia was rife, where two men simply holding hands on the street would be enough to get them a beating from the police, and when raids on queer establishments was a regular occurrence, the opening of Studio One was an act of defiance in a world that punished the queer community. However, thanks to the desperate need for a space such as this, and the glamour of LA, Studio One not only survived, but thrived.
The new documentary film, Studio One Forever, delves into the history of the establishment, featuring first hand accounts from the people that called it home. The documentary was spurred on in large part by that fact that in 2019 a development plan proposed the destruction of the building where Studio One was once based, a building seen as a historic landmark by many. Thanks to the fact that two of the people on the council were once patrons of the bar during the 70's and 80's, attention was given to the situation, and the community was called to rally to save this piece of history.
The film charts this journey, but also goes into the origins of Studio One. We learn about the need of the space, hearing first hand accounts of how hostile LA was to queer people at the time, and how Studio One gave them a place where they could be themselves. Through interviews, and using footage and photographs from the time we're able to see how much Studio One meant to people, and are able to witness the open joy of young queer people able to be themselves, to dance, celebrate, and love openly.
It's interesting to see the duality of Studio One as well. One side of the building was a heaving dance club, filled with shirtless, sweaty men dancing to loud music, an experience enhanced by both drink and drugs. The other side, however, is presented as a more 'high-class' establishment, with a stage where live performances would be held to a room of seated guests who were wined and dined across the evening. This latter part of Studio One, named the Backlot, would host names like Sammy Davis Jr, Joan Rivers, Tina Turner, and Paul Newman. The club was a creature of two halves that somehow worked together to create a unique space that was able to go beyond just the queer community, and became an icon of the city.
For those that we see campaigning the city to keep Studio One alive, these were the stories they shared, the successes, the celebrations. However, the film also shows us the darker side of this history as we move from the 70's into the late 80's and early 90's, to the height of the AIDs epidemic. Anyone who knows about the AIDs crisis knows how much it harmed the queer community, so much so that many have twisted the narrative of the disease's history into being a 'gay disease', despite it affecting anyone and everyone, no matter their sexuality or gender. But, because it was harming the queer community the most a response to AIDs was slow coming, and many, many lives were lost.
This is the most affecting part of the documentary, as the film covers this period. The people who were there at the time, who are speaking now list name after name of those who were lost. They describe how one week their friends would be alive, and the next they'd be dead. A treasure trove of rediscovered photos from Studio One became a slideshow of faces of the dead. The people who speak during the documentary, people like Lloyd Coleman, Gary Mortimer, Gary Steinberg, Ron Hamill, and John Duran reach a point where they're unable to keep speaking more than once. We get to watch them relive the deep trauma of this period as they tell stories about people who were left to die by an uncaring world.
Studio One Forever isn't just a story about a nightclub, it's a story about the people who called it home, who had it as a refuge, people who very few of are still with us today. It's a documentary about a unique and often amusing venue that would be entertaining enough on its own, but it's also a monument to those we as the queer community have lost, and a lesson as to why preserving this history is a hugely important thing. I never knew about Studio One before watching this film, but I came away believing that it's an incredibly important story, one that deserves its time on the screen.
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