Six and every celebrity-based platform after that," she says of the club's culture. "The tension in the city was so high that New York needed a place to let off steam, and a place for gays and women to come out."

Kamali was part of a group of creative types who were treated with particular reverence while letting their hair down. Roy Frowick -- better known as Halston -- reigned supreme over a rotating cast of fashion industry regulars that included Calvin Klein, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan, Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent.

"At that time, the movie stars in New York were the fashion designers," Schrager remembers. "The waters parted when they came."

Designers Karl Lagerfeld and Valentino at Studio 54. Credit: Courtesy Anton Perich

But the rich, famous andStill, Schrager did witness some of the club's most iconic moments -- and maintains they haven't largely been exaggerated.

Bianca Jagger riding through the club on a white horse in 1977, Schrager says, actually happened as people retell it.

"It wasn't planned for Bianca to get on the horse," he says, adding they had intended for it to be ridden solely by a nude model posing as Lady Godiva, led by another nude model in painted-on clothes. Press photographers invited to capture celebrity guests sent the image far and wide. "That was the mother of all photo ops," Schrager adds.

It also began what would be a series of live animals brought in for special occasions, including doves for Jagger's birthday, livestock at a party for Dolly Parton, an elephant that