Welcome to Big Blend Radio's Toast to the Art Show, where we celebrate books, music, visual, and the performing arts. Welcome everyone here on Big Blend Radio's Toast to the Art Show. We're going to talk about how the arts are so important because there's an amazing documentary. I hope you all see, especially for those who live in the Los Angeles area and West Hollywood. It's called Studio One Forever. I encourage you to go to the website studio oneforever.com and this is the untold story of America's iconic gay disco. I mean, you think about the days of disco, but this is like a beacon, a safety zone, a happy zone for gay folks. Starting back in 1974, the year I was born, we have award-winning director on the show with us. He is an award-winning director of Mark Saltirelli. He's award-winning director and also works in documentary filmmaking. When you see this, you're going to understand why I keep saying he's an award-winning director. So welcome, Mark. How are you? Oh, thank you so much, Lisa. It's so great to be here with you. Oh, man, watching this, I'm calling all my friends. I'm like, "Do you remember Studio One? I was not. I was here in this country for a year. I was a baby, and then I was in Africa, so I missed this part." But actually, a lady that was on our podcast was in their Irene Soderbergh. She was on there. Yeah, our friend Steve Stryker hooked us up and he was like, "No, you've got to put her on the show." And she was talking about all she did in regards to shows really standing up as fundraisers for what was going on in AIDS research and also just fundraisers for everyone that was sick at the time. And you had her in there. I jumped out of my chair because I know she's passed not that long ago. I was so happy to find her in the crowd of people. We had such a huge line waiting to get in for the reunion show, and it was delayed by an hour. So I had plenty of time to kind of find all of the people who appeared in the documentary and some who didn't. I think that ending sequence really shows how passionate everybody was about this place because it represented a lot of people's youth, particularly gay men, of course. And that whole generation of gay men is essentially a lost generation. I mean, so many of them passed for AIDS. And so it has all of that. The joy of the 70s, when it was just so exciting that all of these gay rights organizations and movements were happening, and then the 80s happened and it was tragedy. It was something that stays with people for the rest of their lives, a PTSD. And Studio One kind of not only became the haven, as you were saying, for gay men who were discriminated against, it was kind of volatile out there for gay people. You know, there was so much homophobia from people, from homophobes and the cops, harassed everywhere you could go. But when you stepped into this place, this huge former factory, camera factory, gay men could be who they were. They were safe. It was a haven. And then the 80s happened, and the place took a different turn. It became sort of a ground zero for fundraising. And one of the scenes shows that Joan Rivers hosted the first fundraiser with Sylvester and Charles Nelson Riley for APLA. And as Melissa Rivers, I was so happy when she said she would be in our film, because she wanted to finally give her mother Joan Rivers her due. So many people remember everything that Elizabeth Taylor did, which is wonderful. But Joan Rivers was really the first, and not many people know that. And I hope that our film could kind of set that record straight. And she did it when it was like at a crux of her career of it could make or break you, and she's like, "No, I'm going to do what's right." And I think, you know, because we've got the history of the AIDS epidemic and everything that happened at that time, but beforehand going into the 70s when it, you know, here's this empty studio that was really the cameras were being built for Wizard of Oz. And you do have, you know, someone in there with sparkly ruby red sneakers in there. I got the giggles when I saw that. But I think what is so important, you know, I've done so many shows and podcasts on, you know, gay life. And even to this day, we're dealing with teen suicide, you know, we're in September is, you know, suicide awareness month. And then it depending on where we are in the country, we travel full time. It seems to be a different outlook of safety. So there are some areas where, hey, you know, you could have young gay men and, you know, lesbian women and just anyone in the LGBTQ community who feel, "Oh, we're fine now." But they don't understand maybe sometimes what has gone in in the past. And I think this is so iconic in that it shows this community and it ties in its lows emotionally. And some negative things happened. And I'll never, I don't know, I'm gonna have to watch my shoes. That's what they always said to me is if they could tell, you know, a woman is a lesbian or not by your shoes. And then I'm watching this going, "Do I have open, open those shoes? What's this? I don't know what it is all about." But the shoe thing is a big deal. But really getting into the history, I think it's so important. And so many things were happening with this, with you doing the movie and everyone coming together, even finding those photos from it, from Angel Dustros, you know, Angel Dustros? That's a good name. But we all know about Angel Dust, right? But this history for the younger generation to understand, because I think some areas in this country, young teens that are battling with their gender identity, are needing to understand that there are places to go. We just have to find them out. Yeah, and obviously we have our main core audience or people who remember that those times. But what I really hope, and it's actually been happening, is that younger people spend 90 minutes, get away from TikTok for a few minutes, and watch this film and hope they have a better understanding of all of the people who fought to get the rights that we have now. And unfortunately, those rights are paid by thread. I mean, that's what the Supreme Court has its sights on next, is getting rid of gay marriage, and you know, they will. And that's why coming out at this moment, you know, it took four years to get this thing made, and then out, finally, after a year of festivals last year, and I think it couldn't be a more perfect moment right now, right before this commercial election. Yeah, yeah, can we take it to the Supreme Court too? Like, I think they need to see it. But really, it's so interesting because it comes down to this building, you know, Studio One and the Backlot, which I think is not only are we talking about a safe haven, but it was a place for, you know, artists of all kinds to grow and become something, the open mic. Oh my gosh, I wanted to be there. Like, I didn't know I wanted to be there, but I wish I could have, you know, this was just this really iconic history on so many different levels. But it started with this building going, Hey, we may have to tear this down, right? Is that what sparked your interest? Yeah, it all started. A friend of mine Clifford Bell was a friend of Lloyd Coleman, who's in the movie and his partner Gary Steinberg, and they were working with the developer to have one last hurrah basically at Studio One, a reunion, bringing back all of the people, remembering everything that happened there, you know, opening up the dance floor again. We had them in Houston, so you don't make me this way. And it was really John Duran, who was a former mayor of West Hollywood, who spearheaded the effort to not let the developer level the place, to save it, to, you know, drive home the historical importance of this kind of ugly building, frankly. But even before that, there were two lesbians, Kate and Chrissy, who were very much, they started what's what was called the Save the Factory building, and they collected a history, about 30 pages of history, and they interviewed all sorts of people that I would later interview, and I found it online, and, you know, I wasn't quite sure, you know, should I do this film, I know how much time and energy of your life you put into a film, but after reading this document and learning this history that I frankly had no idea, most of it, especially the 70s, I thought, you know, this is a story that somehow has never been told, and really kind of needs to be told on so many levels, you know, the importance of it for our community, preserving this history, and just reminding people, you know, what happened, I mean, it covers nearly 20 years of LGBT history, and so that's what I wanted to do, is use this club as sort of a lens into that whole time period, and what, you know, mostly men, but women too, of a certain age lived through, and it was really emotional just doing the interviews, you know, because it was like going back into your youth, and the excitement of the joy of having this freedom, of having this place that you could go to, and then ultimately, just like the movie, AIDS rears its ugly head, and this tragedy happens, and literally people are dying everywhere, and, you know, not knowing even what was going on at that time even. And the homophobia was just out of control at that point, you know, because we're lepers, essentially, people can see that. Yeah, I lived in South Africa when it broke out, and they were saying that it was coming down from trucks in Rhodesia to South Africa. I'm like, all right, and yeah, like what's going on here? This is some weird stuff, you know, and, but I think one of the, one of the gentlemen in the movie said, and the film said, you know, Studio One is iconic, this is like Los Angeles, like that's the history hub, right? There was some, you know, Harvey Milk, that was just, I mean, that story is, he was amazing, right? And he really showed how messed up politics was, too. Like, how pure can you be, right? I think it's like hard, Harvey Milk, and then you've got Stonewall in New York. Houston had, and in Texas, of all places, had a radio station that was really huge for even visitors ago, and find out, oh, there's this radio station, and they're talking to me. And that was an interesting thing. And I think you had a gentleman in the documentary that you've spotlighted on that it was in Houston, but LA, it was like, yeah, what does LA have? And this is it. And so many people probably don't know. And then for this, I think it's really cool for folks that have lived there and been part of it to get it, but in the preserving of history, USC, I did not know USC was keeping this as a history. But don't you think the film is? Because even all those photos tell everybody about these photos, that was like, oh my gosh, that's like a treasure trove. Absolutely, that's one of the best stories. You know, throughout the whole production, really, whenever we needed something, it seemed like it would, it would be there. And there are, there was a, she was called the official photographer, Angel Dust Rose, DiCastro. And she had over 100,000 stills, beautiful stills. We had a few of those, but they were lost, essentially, missing us. But a few moments later, like a day later, I did some work at Project Angel Food. I put together their videos for different events and their telethon. And I was working with an actor who was filming a sequence. And when we're driving to the location, he said, I was telling you about the film I was working on, Studio One, and he said, oh my God, I just met this woman, Natalie Garcia, at a party, a pool party. And she found the stash of stills that were about ready to be thrown away. And at the very same moment, my friend and co-producer, Laurie Gold, texted me and told me the same thing. So it was like it was coming from the direction. And I met her, she didn't know for sure what the slides were. And Michael Cough, who is sort of the heart of our film, he's the front bartender, who's story goes through to the end. And you really see what PTSD is like and what the addiction is like through his truthful sharing of his life. And I'm so grateful for you. It's a big heart. Listen, this has got all the feels. I'm just telling you all. And anyway, they got together and he said, yes indeed, that's Studio One and all of these photos, treasure from 1980, literally the moment when everything was still good, everybody was still happy. And then very shortly after that, of course, AIDS would start unraveling and the world changed. So let's set it up for folks to understand the studio. And again, everyone watched the video, watched the movie, but also watched the trailer to get a glimpse of this. Because the studio was like, here's the disco, but then you had the back lot where this is where this other style of entertainment was going on. And this was, I mean, if you think about what Palm Springs is now, I think it's like it had this like, it was kind of doing like almost the like it had like the vaudeville thing going on a little bit at some time, some different shows, like kind of Berlesky kind of jazz and everything. But then it would let people be what they were what they wanted to do as an artist, the open mics and then like, gosh, I mean, look at the music videos and everything that were made there and the movies that were made there at the village, man, come on. Now that was amazing. Right. So and everyone's taking guess it during that video. And the poppers. Oh, gosh, wait, the poppers explain the poppers. Yeah, I never understood that. But people would actually use these poppers. If you don't know what that is, it's Amal nitrate, I believe this. And it was this liquid that or back then they would pop something, I think, and you would inhale it and you would get a major rush off of it. And for some reason, people used it to dance with, I can't imagine it, but that's in the day, smell was permeating the air, I'm sure. And it was kind of gross, but it was the way it was. And then, and then, yeah, well, then they at first the early days of AIDS, when nobody knew anything, kind of like COVID, when nobody knew anything, they thought poppers could be the cause of AIDS, but first of all, so right. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of drugs going on, but it's also interesting about the the owner too. So he had all kinds of ideas is kind of visionary, but then he also, you know, got people getting into a little bit of protest mode with him. So there was that side. So like, this is so multifaceted. Did you know it was going to go like crazy like this once you started getting in? Well, I mean, I knew the bullet points and I knew that we had this, the third act essentially coming up that we would film. So I always knew that would be kind of the cap of the film when everybody gets back together and you see that it's so still so. But in terms of, you know, there's so much so many stories, you know, it was open for almost 20 years, a thousand people, it could hold every night. So everybody has a story. And as soon as we're got out that we were filming, I put Facebook posts, you know, people would send me direct messages and say, Oh, this is my story. Can you interview me interviewing some of them? And then of course, the stars that attended the backlight are just amazing. That's really probably what hooked me more than anything because that's so unique. I mean, Jimmy Stewart, Betty Davis, the first kind of merging of a gay establishment, the gay community with this Hollywood elite from the Golden Era, it was huge in the 70s. And you know, I think that really made a difference because when you experience people as people instead of some idea of, you know, the other, if you see them that they're human, that changes you and these these actors, these filmmakers who went there would then go and, you know, make their art and have some, some empathy, some compassion, an understanding of gay people. And that possibly had something to do with, you know, changing the way people received gay people. I think the backlight was kind of that good area for that. Like that's where a lot of like mingling happened, of course, on the disco. Heck yeah, that was, I mean, I remember one of the performers said like, Hey, you better, you better get your act intact. You don't want to go over time because the disco will drown you out. There's the disco time, right? Really? Yeah. You even had Barbara Streisand's sister in there. Oh, I didn't. Yeah. Well, sometimes she's just so wonderful. She appeared there quite a few times and Barbara actually was in the audience a few times. As she said, they would watch the audience was watching Barbara watch her. That's the way it is when Barbara Streisand is in the audience, apparently. But the greatest thing I think was Chita Rivera, who, who passed away a little over a year ago. And she's really the reason that the backlight took off to become what it was. And I was so excited when her assistant Rosie Bentink, I got in touch with her and she said that Chita is so excited to be a part of our film and to kind of set the record straight that she's the one who made the backlight what it was. And indeed, she did. She had a week of shows there and Liza invited all of her famous friends and the place became this huge hit all on its own, you know, separate from the disco. And you know, spending time with Chita and her generosity was incredible. We went to New York and I asked her, would you be willing to, you know, go outside the theater where Chicago was, was held and do a few faucet poses. I should backtrack here. The Faucet Faucet is a part of this too. A reason that Chita had time was because they were rehearsing the musical Chicago, the original, and Bob Faucet had a heart attack famously. And they had like six months of downtime. So Liza suggested that Chita put an act together, a one-woman show, and she did. And they took it to LA and made the backlight what it was. And she even changed the stage to accommodate her dancing. And so she really built that place. It's literally. Well, that was so fascinating because I always say Faucet Faucet, I always say that because just other movies and things. But that's the thing, the history that this building has, you know. And so it was there, you have to watch it, you have to watch it to see what happens to the building and everything or Google it, but go go watch it. It is going to be at Landmark Sunset in West Hollywood, September 13th through 19th. And then in Noho, right, in North Hollywood, it's going to be there October 3rd. And then available on all VOD platforms. So check that out October 8th. But if you're in LA, go to the actual performances while you can. Mark, I hope you do more with this story than what has happened. I know that is epic what you've already created, but I think you have 10,000 stories in there to tell. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm developing a narrative feature based on the film, basically. And of course, we can always do a series, a documentary series. I hope you do. The Blu-ray that we created has a lot of bonus features. You know, I couldn't fit so many great things into the 90-minute film. And some of them are in there. We have the whole Cheetah Rivera interview in there and commentary with Bruce Villanche who's been such a great supporter of our film. So if you go to www.studio1forever.com, you can learn more about the film and you can have the links. They're actually available for pre-order on Apple TV now. So we hope that we can come and see it. Thank you so much, Mark. Thank you. I really appreciate it, Lisa. Thanks for listening to Big Blend Radio's Toast to the Art Show. Please keep up with us at www.bigblendradio.com and keep up with Big Blend magazines at www.blendradioantv.com.
