Rare Photos Of Celebrities Partying In The ’70s

This epic photo finds Blondie’s Debbie Harry partying with supermodel Jerry Hall, writer Truman Capote and legendary pop artist Andy Warhol at Studio 54. In 2019 Harry told Elle magazine that the club wasn’t her usual scene, but on that night, she was invited by Warhol. She gushed, “I met Truman Capote — I was so starstruck I could barely talk.”

Warhol appears again in this pic, crammed onto the busy New Year’s Eve dance floor at Studio 54 in 1978. Beside him is the model Bianca Jagger, who at that time had recently divorced her former husband Mick, of the Rolling Stones. Beside her is fashion designer Halston, who was recently immortalized by Ewan McGregor in a Netflix series.

Here is Bianca in happier times, and it’s one of the most memorable Studio 54 photos ever. On her 30th birthday, Mick put together an event that saw her enter the nightclub astride a beautiful white horse. Ostentatious? Yes. An inappropriate evening engagement for a horse? Definitely. But when has that ever stopped a celebrity?

The biggest factor in the Jaggers’ divorce was Mick’s affair with model Jerry Hall — and here he is in April 1978 taking her to Studio 54. In 2010 Hall told British newspaper The Guardian that she has total recall of all her ‘70s partying, because she never indulged in illegal substances, unlike most of her peers. It just goes to show you can have a good time simply dancing the night away!

Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor had her 46th birthday party at Studio 54 and it was a doozy. This photo shows her with Halston, posing in front of a cake with her face on it. But this is only the top part — it was actually a life-size cake version of Taylor’s entire body! There was plenty of Liz to go around.

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and the King of Pop Michael Jackson aren’t exactly two guys you’d imagine partying together. And yet, here they are at Studio 54’s Beatlemania party in 1977! At the time, Michael was in New York to shoot The Wiz, and Aerosmith were recording their fifth album Draw the Line in a derelict NYC convent.

In photographer Carrie Boretz’ book Street, she wrote about all the celebrities she snapped at Studio 54. She admitted to People magazine that she was starstruck by Woody Allen, who caught her taking pictures of him secretly. She chuckled, “One night he came up to me and said with a smile on his face, ‘Are you following me?’” before quickly adding, “I knew he was more than fine about it.” Here Allen is pictured rubbing shoulders with pop royalty: yes, Michael Jackson again.

Diana Ross is an icon of the music business, and this was true even way back in 1979 when she was throwing shapes on the Studio 54 dancefloor. After a stratospherically successful career as part of The Supremes, Ross went solo in the ’70s. In ’79 she had a number one single — “The Boss” — and followed that up in ’80 with another number one: “Upside Down.”

In the ’70s, Curtis Mayfield was flying high thanks to the stratospheric success of his 1972 album Super Fly. It was the soundtrack to the Blaxploitation film of the same name, and it sold a mind-boggling 12 million copies. Here he is being superfly on the Studio 54 dance floor in ’77!

In 1979 Ben Vereen starred in the movie musical All That Jazz, and Cheryl Ladd was one of the core trio of stars of Charlie’s Angels. The beautiful TV star seemed to be having a great time with the Tony Award-winning singer and dancer. Studio 54 really did bring celebs from every part of the entertainment industry together to dance together.

By 1979 Sidney Poitier — one of the greatest and most important actors in Hollywood history — had taken a break from the business. He had married actress Joanna Shimkus in 1976 and perhaps simply wanted some family time. Of course, as this picture proves, this included a night at Studio 54 for the happy couple!

This is a photo of Sylvester “Sly” Stallone and his wife Sasha taking a break between dance sessions at Studio 54 in 1978. At this point in his career, Stallone was on a high: one year previously, Rocky — the classic boxing film he wrote and in which he starred — had been nominated for ten Academy Awards. It won three, including Best Picture, and his life was never the same again.

You meet all kinds of people when you’re a country music icon attending the afterparty of one of your concerts. In this case, Dolly Parton got her hands on the massive torso of Lou Ferrigno, the bodybuilder and actor who starred in TV’s The Incredible Hulk. She looks genuinely delighted and shocked to be beside this mountain of a man.

This is from the same afterparty at which Parton met Ferrigno, but this time she’s chatting with legendary crooner Neil Diamond. Maybe they hit it off in this period, as they eventually wound up collaborating on a cover of The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” in 1993. Hey, sometimes these things just take a while to come together!

Country superstars Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge’s romance began on a Los Angeles to Memphis flight in 1971. In fact, Rita was known to remark that it had been “love at first flight!” They married in 1973 but sadly divorced in 1980 — only a year or so after this picture was taken at Studio 54.

Iconic In Cold Blood writer Truman Capote was a regular at Studio 54 in the late ‘70s. Here he is smiling for the camera at the tenth anniversary party for Interview, the celebrity magazine created by Andy Warhol. At this time, Warhol reportedly had a tape recorder in his pocket at all times and would grill the many celebs with whom he partied to generate content for the mag!

When this photo was taken in 1979, Robin Williams was on an upswing. He was dancing with his lady love — wife Valerie, whom he had wed in ’78 — and was the star of a hit sitcom on ABC: Mork & Mindy. In the ’80s he went on to even bigger and better things, with both his stand-up and acting careers taking off too.

The American Film Institute celebrated Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni in 1975 at the famed Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. At the time, Antonioni had just made The Passenger, a neo-noir starring Jack Nicholson; this was nine years on from his Blow-Up, a movie widely considered a classic. One of the many celebrity guests at this event was none other than Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie!

Speaking of Ziggy Stardust, Bowie — a man who played many characters in his career — actually retired the Stardust persona in 1973. This photo, which is something of a Who’s Who of musical talent at the time — Bowie, Mick Jagger, Lulu, and Lou Reed — was taken at London’s Café Royal. You see, Bowie held a star-studded shindig there after the concert in which he played Stardust for the final time!

By 1974 Elton John was on top of the world. His seventh album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road had been released at the end of the previous year and was a number-one smash-hit. During this period, John was known for being, shall we say, a bit of a party animal, and this pic is from one of his many substance-fueled nights out!

Here we see John cosying up to Hollywood superstar Goldie Hawn during a night of Studio 54 escapades. At this point, Hawn was likely gearing up to shoot Private Benjamin, the classic 1980 comedy that notched her second Academy Award nomination. John was riding high on the hoopla surrounding his shows in the Soviet Union — a place few other Western musicians had played.

This pic was taken at London’s China Garden venue during a party organized to celebrate Eric Clapton’s triumphant return to music. The Cream guitarist had struggled with addiction for many years but had kicked his habit with the help of friends and lover Pattie Boyd. That year he would release one of his most successful solo albums: 461 Ocean Boulevard. 

Quadrophenia, the movie inspired by The Who’s 1973 concept album of the same name, was released in 1979 to huge acclaim. This photo is from a Mudd Club party in New York for the release and it sees the band’s singer Roger Daltrey posing with Steve Van Zandt. “Little Steven,” as he was affectionately known, is the iconic guitarist of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band.

Record industry behemoth David Geffen came out in 1992. Still, in the ’70s he had a very public relationship with Cher. She once told Geffen’s biographer, “I was the first person to share his bed and to share his life. People don’t believe that, or they don’t want to believe it, or they don’t understand how it could be. But we were really crazy about each other.” 

The year 1977 was a defining one for Stevie Wonder — pictured here dressed to the nines and getting ready to party. He headlined Festac 1977 which was an Olympic Games-sized festival celebrating pan-African culture. It was held in Nigeria and saw the piano genius exploring his African roots. Indeed, this cultural exploration is why he had his hair braided with beads, as we see in the pic.

We’re sure Tom Jones had a great time celebrating his 34th trip around the Sun in Las Vegas in 1974 — we just wish someone had told his face! Anyway, it was a star-studded affair, as the picture can attest. Behind Jones is comedienne Joan Rivers, music superstars Sonny Bono, Liberace, and Dionne Warwick, and actor/dancers Debbie Reynolds and Joey Heatherton.

Jones was great friends with Elvis and wife Priscilla Presley, and the three must have spent many an evening partying together. In 2021 Jones told People magazine, “Elvis was a one-off, believe me. He was fantastic.” Indeed, when they first met in 1965, Elvis sang one of Jones’ songs to him and he thought, “My God, if the boys back home could see me now!”

When it comes to ‘70s partying, not everyone was going wild at Studio 54. Take Robert Redford for instance — that guy made partying classy. He wore nice suits to book parties; he wined and dined political movers and shakers at cocktail parties; and he attended premieres dressed smart casual, with his lovely wife Lola in tow. 

This photo finds Hoffman and De Niro stepping out with their first wives Anne Byrne Hoffman and Diahnne Abbott in 1977. By this point, both actors were riding high, which was a far cry from their first meeting in 1969. De Niro revealed in 2013 that he first met Hoffman at a benefit dinner in which he was his waiter — but Hoffman had no idea!

When film fans think of Martin Scorsese, they probably don’t think of New York, New York, his maligned box-office flop from 1977. The musical starred De Niro and Liza Minnelli, both of whom are pictured here alongside Scorsese at the premiere. We hope they had fun partying the night away — before they woke up to the middling reviews the next morning!

As fame enveloped Al Pacino in the ’70s, there wasn’t a party he wouldn’t gladly attend — although that mightn’t have been good for him. In 2015 he told British newspaper The Sun, “I was a drinker, for sure; my career was exploding in the ’70s and, I’m sorry, but I don’t remember much of the ’70s.” It’s a good job he has photos such as this to remind him of his exploits!

Supermodel Grace Jones was a legend in the ’70s New York party scene. In her memoir, she wrote that Studio 54 “offered a self-indulgent, excessive, even amoral form of freedom, and was a place where I could let it all hang out.” She added, “The music was magical, and the DJs were crowd-grabbing showmen,” and concluded, “It all contributed to creating this special atmosphere.” Here she’s snapped with American columnist and agent Robert Couri Hay and British fashion designer Xandra Rhodes. 

This 1975 pic finds Sean Connery and Michael Caine at the premiere for The Man Who Would Be King along with Caine’s wife Shakira. The two leading men had previously shared many a boozy night out. Caine once told newspaper the Daily Star about their escapades as young hellraisers, saying, “Every girl in London was running after us. Sean used to have parties called ‘Bring a Bottle and a Bird’. I couldn’t afford a bottle then, so I took two birds!”

In the ’70s, Beatty and Nicholson lived on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. They had such a reputation for partying that the street became known as “Bad Boy Drive.” Heck, there’s even a rumor that the two Hollywood A-listers had secret tunnels under their houses which led directly to the Playboy Mansion! Take that with a pinch of salt, though.

At the 47th Academy Awards, Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor for his role in Chinatown. He took girlfriend Anjelica Huston — daughter of John Huston, legendary director, and Nicholson’s co-star in the movie. The two lovebirds would go on to have a tumultuous relationship — constantly breaking up and getting back together — until it finally ended in 1990.

This photo — taken on November 18, 1978, at the Atlantic City Celebrity Ball — sees young actress Jamie Lee Curtis posing with guitarist Johnny Lee Schell. The date is notable, though, because Curtis’ film debut Halloween was released on October 25. This means she’d only been a celeb for just over three weeks! 

John Travolta had just been nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars when this photo was taken at a party for CBS movie critic David Sheehan. You see, Sheehan had championed Travolta’s performance in Saturday Night Fever so much that Travolta believed he was responsible for the nomination. He repaid him by dancing up a storm with actress Marilu Henner at his big bash!

The Laurel Canyon home of Cass Elliott — better known as Mama Cass — was a meeting-place for many young musicians in the early ’70s. They all hung out, had fun, and partied into the wee hours — as people in the music biz tend to do! Here is folk icon Joni Mitchell taking a breather at a party Cass threw in 1972 after a John Denver gig in L.A.

Model Pattie Boyd was married to George Harrison at the height of Beatlemania. She experienced an awful lot of parties, but also saw the darker side of the craze. She once recalled trying to leave a Beatles gig to magazine Harper’s Bazaar, saying, “There were these girls behind me. They followed us out, and they were kicking me and pulling my hair and pushing us all the way down this long passageway.” Yikes!

In 1977 — the year this picture was taken in Studio 54 — Cheryl Ladd became a household name. She took over from Farah Fawcett in the second season of Charlie’s Angels and stayed on the show for four years. Her husband David starred in episodes of Kojak and Police Story but would make his mark much later as a producer of films like The Mod Squad, A Guy Thing and Hart’s War.