Some New Yorkers remember the songs and times of Donna Summer. (via The New York Times)
Howard Rosenman, movie producer: “There was one night at the Saint. Do you know that club? It was a planetarium on Second Avenue in the East Village and at around 3 o’clock in the morning, suddenly from the stars, out came this woman. And it was Donna Summer. She sang one of her songs and the dancers went totally insane. People were tripping out of their minds and there she was. I can’t remember the song. Maybe it was ‘Dim all the Lights.’ Or else it was ‘Bad Girls.’”
Terry Sherman, a Saint DJ: “Donna Summer did not perform at the Saint. She wanted too much money.”
Jellybean Benitez, D.J. and executive producer at “Studio 54 Radio,” at Sirius XM: “You had this woman moaning and groaning, like she was having an orgasm. And it went on forever. But no one seemed to mind. You’d just play that record and turn the lights off. Seventeen minutes was enough time to fulfill a lot of fantasies.”
Patricia Field, clothing designer and stylist: “Her music embodied that era. Dancing and drugs, it all went together like a beautiful salad. I was never that heavy a drug user. But poppers I used to enjoy when I was on the dance floor shooting for the stars. I was having a mad love affair with a woman named Dorothy that lasted a year and a half. We’d go to 12 West together and dance and get lost. We loved ‘Love to Love You Baby.’ ”
Stephen Burrows, fashion designer, Studio 54 regular: “People would be on the balcony at Studio 54 actually doing it while that song was playing.”
Joel Schumacher, film director: “I was doing a lot of speed. We were all out of our minds. Sweat and Speedos and Donna Summer and gorgeous beauty and being wrecked out of our brains. That’s what it was all about.”
Joey Arias, performance artist: “It became a ritual when that song came on. Find that person in the club you could go home and sleep with. Or make love to. That new partner. That’s what the ‘last dance’ was. It was the last chance for love, so go on the dance floor, shake your booty one more time and make sure you find that person. And you usually did. And then you’d pass out, and wake up and do it all again.”
Karen Erickson, a founder of Erickson Beamon: “I moved to New York in ’79 and I went to Studio 54 all the time. There was Andy Warhol and Halston and Disco Sally and Rollerina, and there was no difference between who was famous and who was not famous. If you were there, you thought you were famous. Everybody would be sitting and drinking and having a good time, and when ‘Last Dance’ came on, you’d run to the floor. To this day I hear that song and I want to start spinning around.”
Diane von Furstenberg: “ ‘Last Dance’ was the song of that era, and of course it actually was the last dance. It was a moment of freedom that was never to be repeated again because there was no AIDS, and that makes all the difference.”
