Studio One Forever
Directed by Marc Saltarelli
Narrated by Bruce Vilanch and David Del Valle
Runtime: 96 minutes
Available digitally October 8

by Joe Carlough, Staff Writer

“I’m gonna warn you before we go in, prepare your eyes, it’s not what it used to look like. It used to be paradise, but it’s a straight club now.”

Studio One Forever is a loving tribute to a popular West Hollywood disco, Studio One, which ran from 1974-1993. On the verge of demolition to build a new hotel and restaurant, filmmaker Marc Saltarelli returns to the site to interview regulars of the once-glamorous location, collecting their memories, stories, exultations and lamentations. Like all the best cultural landmarks–and like most queer history–Studio One was as famous as it was infamous, and Studio One Forever provides an in-depth and heartwarming tribute to the place where many young gay men (and their friends and allies) found community in the ‘70s and ‘80s, preserving a piece of LGBTQ+ history during a time of renewed fervor to destroy it here in America. 

Founded by game show host and general “gorgeous hot guy” Scott Forbes (so says Bruce Vilanch), Studio One was a combination television studio and gay disco: the club was set in a giant warehouse with a backlot, and, large as it was, the dance floor was rarely empty. Forbes created and shot game shows based on those popular at the time but with a gay bent (think, The Gay Dating Game) in order to try to sell them to networks. He also hosted events, benefit dinners, awards ceremonies, things of the like that were centered around the LGBTQ+ scene. The nightclub was conceived against the backdrop of changing laws in California: prior to 1971, anything perceived as intimate touching was a punishable crime, and so many gay clubs were conducted secretly, behind closed doors and unseen by anyone not looking for them. But Studio One provided a new alternative, a place where you didn’t have to hide to be gay: lines for entrance stretched around the block. 

It’s not all glitz and glamor at Studio One, though: amid the major celebrity appearances–Cary Grant! Fred Astaire! Gene Kelly! Elton John!--a burgeoning AIDS crisis took its toll on the club, as it did every other LGBTQ+ social space at the time. The  lineup of interviewees, both club regulars and celebrities, give their stark memories of a time when their friends were disappearing, and the club scene waned as fear mounted. Joan Rivers hosted a two night gala benefit at Studio One to raise money for AIDS research. It was this crisis that eventually closed the nightclub, as the gay scene crumbled under the weight of the epidemic. 

The film gets a little stuck in the weeds midway through as more and more people tell story after story of celebrity sightings, but the archival footage and beautiful photographs of the time continued to draw me in regardless of a little story exhaustion. For me, the most poignant moment in the film comes halfway, as a group of Studio One regulars tours the club in its current state–a straight club replete with stages, dance poles, and backrooms–an ambience so heterosexual as to be antithetical to what the club once represented.

Studio One Forever is a great look into the heart and soul of the Hollywood gay scene in the late 70s and early 80s. In my press packet, I was privy to an interview with the film’s creator Marc Saltarelli. When asked about the significance of making this film now, he replied:

The MAGA right wing extremists that have taken over the Republican party are trying to ban our history and with it our long-fought struggle for civil rights.

This sentiment is at the heart of the documentary: it’s not just a wild story about a good time, not just a reverie for a nightclub that’s come and gone, but it’s a true story about LGBTQ+ people who built a place for themselves in an inhospitable environment. People who thrived amidst a turbulent political landscape that tried to push them out and extinguish their existence. For anyone despairing about the rights we’ve enjoyed that are currently under attack, this documentary stands to remind us not to give up the fight, that queer joy will always find a way to shine through, bolstered by our community, our support of each other, and by a whole lotta love.