Late ’70s Disco Clubs
Bill Bernstein’s photographs at the Museum of Sex in New York
The exhibition “Night Fever: New York Disco 1977–1979, the Bill Bernstein Photographs,” at the Museum of Sex in New York through February 17, explores the radical sexuality and multiculturalism embraced by the New York disco clubs of the late ’70s. Highlighted clubs include: Xenon, Studio 54, Ice Palace, Crisco Disco, Paradise Garage, GG’s Barnum Room, Le Clique, Electric Circus, the Fun House and Hurrah. These clubs allowed for unprecedented interaction between groups—straights danced with gays, whites with blacks and Latinos, young with old, and rich with poor—creating revolutionary boundary-crossing communities of possibility and joy. “Night Fever” is an immersive experience, designed as a pop-up disco complete with an original Richard Long Audio System and guest appearances by disco-era DJs. A fully operating bar will offer a retro ’70s cocktail menu at retro ’70s prices (admission is free). The show features 40 photographs from Bernstein, taken from 1977 to 1979, accompanied by audio interviews. While paparazzi chased Halston and Lisa Minnelli at Studio 54, Bernstein captured the equally charismatic party people those celebrities gathered to see. “I am just happy that I was there, in the late 1970s, with my camera, to document this amazing time of acceptance and celebration of individuality,” says Bernstein. “It was a ‘sneak peak’ at a world of inclusion that we are just beginning to see in our culture today.”
