Night Fever guest · Season 1, Episode 2
Michael Musto
The gossip columnist who wrote the nightlife down as it happened - every single night.
Timeline
1955
Born in Brooklyn, New York.
1984
Launches his "La Dolce Musto" column in the Village Voice.
1980s–90s
Chronicles Studio 54, the Warhol circle, a young RuPaul and the Club Kid years - including the Michael Alig case.
2023
W Magazine runs "Michael Musto Shares His Life in Parties".
2025
Interviewed about the scene's legacy and announces a cabaret singing turn in New York.
What they are doing now
Still writing and commentating on nightlife, drag and pop culture - and now performing a little himself, love it!
Scenes & rooms
In the episodes
41 mentions across all episodes - S1E2 7 · S1E3 11 · S1E7 1 · S2E3 2 · S3E6 1 · S4E8 1 · S6E1 13 · S6E3 5
- S6E1 · James St. James · 13 mentions in this episode
Village Voice columnist; James's early mentor and plus-one; champion of the Pop Tarts
- S1E2 · Michael Musto · 7 mentions in this episode
The guest: Village Voice nightlife and gossip columnist ('La Dolce Musto'), author and self-styled oldest club kid. Links to his Night Fever episode on WOW
FashionChronicler of downtown looks; his own early nerd look is in the Mood tab
- S1E3 · Lisa Edelstein · 11 mentions in this episode
Always nearby with Stephen Saban; recommended Lisa to Maureen Dowd; Lisa says he later asked her about AIDS symptoms. Links to his Night Fever episode
- S2E3 · Susanne Bartsch · 2 mentions in this episode
First person at the door of Savage on night one, head to toe in a look. Links to his Night Fever episode
FashionDressed head to toe in a look
- S3E6 · Eric Goode · 1 mention in this episode
Wrote the famous Village Voice piece after Warhol's death. Links to his Night Fever episode
- S1E7 · Rudolf Piper · 1 mention in this episode
A judge at Michael Alig's first Danceteria party, the Filthy Mouth contest. Links to his Night Fever episode
- S4E8 · Richie Rich · 1 mention in this episode
On the Joan Rivers couch with the club kids. Links to his Night Fever episode
- S6E3 · Chi Chi Valenti & Johnny Dynell · 5 mentions in this episode
As Johnny tells it, Musto was intrigued by the Club Kids while Johnny couldn't see it
On the scene timeline
26 April 1977 · 254 West 54th Street
Studio 54 opens
Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager turn a West 54th Street theatre into the most photographed door in the world.
November 1983 · 656 Sixth Avenue
Peter Gatien turns a church into Limelight
A deconsecrated Episcopal church on Sixth Avenue becomes the most notorious room in the city, and the first brick of Gatien's empire.
1984 · The Village Voice
La Dolce Musto begins in the Village Voice
Michael Musto starts the column that becomes the written record of thirty years of New York nights.
1986 · Harlem and downtown
Harlem's ball scene meets downtown
Voguing crosses from the uptown balls into the downtown clubs, five years before Paris Is Burning puts it on screen.
1990 · US daytime television
The Club Kids invade daytime television
Michael Alig's crew take their looks onto Geraldo, Donahue and Joan Rivers, turning going out into a national spectacle.
1991 · Cinemas worldwide
Paris Is Burning reaches cinemas
Jennie Livingston's documentary makes the Harlem ball houses legible to the world and hands drag its vocabulary.
1993 · New York
RuPaul's Supermodel (You Better Work) charts
The Pyramid Club's own goes from Wigstock stages to the Billboard charts, and World of Wonder starts filming.
1996 · New York
The Club Kid era ends with the Angel Melendez case
Michael Alig kills Andre "Angel" Melendez and later pleads guilty to manslaughter. The case collapses the scene just as Gatien's clubs face a federal drug investigation.
2021 · World of Wonder, Los Angeles
Night Fever starts recording the survivors
World of Wonder's podcast sits the scene's originals down one by one, and they keep naming each other.
1987 ·
AIDS crisis
Politicised Musto's column from 1987
1987 ·
Death of Andy Warhol (1987)
Musto says Warhol was the centrepiece of the scene and his death left a vacuum in the clubs
1996 ·
Disappearance of Angel Melendez
Page Six's April 1996 'Mystery of the Missing Club Kid' built on Musto's items
1985 ·
Williamsburg Bridge outlaw party
Vito Bruno's 1985 party; the news aired it late, buying 25 minutes before the police came
1989 ·
Nelson Sullivan's death (4 July 1989)
Trade was with him on his last day
2017 ·
Club 57 exhibition at MoMA
MoMA's 2017–18 show on Club 57; links to the club's Wikipedia page, which covers it
1984 ·
Malcolm McLaren's Fans party at Area
Party for McLaren's 1984 album Fans; James's favourite party ever