Mark Fleischman, owner of New York nightclub Studio 54, has died at the age of 82. / AFP
Mark Fleishmanthe owner of the famous New York nightclub Studio 54 is dead the practice of assisted suicide in a clinic in Switzerland. Fleischman died at the age of 82 after several years unable to walk and with speech problems due to a disease that doctors could not diagnose.
Entrepreneur Mark Fleischman became famous for having managed to extend the life of the club Studio 54, then in decline, until its final closure in 1986.
This Thursday, July 14, 2022, his former partner Daniel Fitzgerald announced it BBC news of Mark Fleischman’s death. The businessman grew up in Long Island, New York (United States). He graduated from the Cornell School of Hospitality Management while experimenting with the Harlem jazz scene in the 1950s.
Mark Fleischman and his wife Mimi. In his later years, she had to do everything for him. Photo Vince Bucci / Getty Images)
The nightclub that has been a boom
In the late 1970s, Fleischman discovered the Studio 54 nightclub. Under the disco ball of this popular club, personalities such as Liza Minnelli, Elizabeth Taylor, Truman Capote or Andy Warhol. Fleischman began attending Studio 54 regularly and became close friends with the club’s owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell.
The writer Truman Capote, a regular at Studio 54.
Fleischman himself recalled that period and the owners of Studio 54 in his memoirs. “The owner of Studio 54 was a semi-celebrity. At 4 am he would select a group of people in the limo and we would go to the Crisco nightclub,” Fleischman said. In that nightclub, as the deceased in his day explained, the sex was mixed with good music and drugs.
“I liked being high. So I was taking drugs and drinking. Perhaps this state of health is due to the fact that I drank a lot and used drugs”, confessed the interviewee. The New York Post. Of course, he still added that “I don’t regret any part of my life“.
When both owners were convicted of tax evasion in 1980, Fleischman took over the club’s debt and bought the historic Studio 54. At the time, Fleischman managed to revive the declining nightclub and gave it a second life by scheduling shows from stars like Madonna, last last or Circle of culture.
Bianca Jagger, on horseback at Studio 54.
Likewise, personalities like Janet Jackson, Alec Baldwin, Jean-Michel Basquiat, LaToya Jackson or Cyndi Lauperamong other celebrities. Fleischman managed, for five years, to make the popular club shine again became a place of reference.
In 2017, Mark Fleischman published the memoir entitled Inside Studio 54 (Inside Studio 54)where it reveals the most hidden secrets e explains the adventures and life experiences that happened around the club.
Plus, I knew what I would post would have such an impact has taken out an insurance policy for millionaire defamation to cover in case someone sued you for revealing past matters.
How were your last years?
In recent years, Mark Fleischman’s life has had nothing to do with the revelry years and endless parties at Studio 54. In 2016 he began to develop mobility issues which eventually led to him being confined to a wheelchair. Doctors initially diagnosed him with Parkinson’s, however they were unable to make the correct diagnosis of what really happened to him.
Elton John and Rod Stewart at Studio 54.
In one of his latest interviews, in which he expressed his intention to undergo assisted suicide, he argued for his decision. “I can’t walk, I can barely express myself well and I can’t do anything for myselfmy wife helps me in bed and I can’t get dressed or put on shoes, ”Flieschman said The New York Post.
In the same interview he confessed it two years ago he decided it wasn’t worth living and that she took a dose of Xanax. The businessman ended up in the hospital, but he did not achieve his goal thanks to the work of the emergency doctors.
“Then I read a book about the end of life. I read that the easiest way is to choke. But I didn’t want the pain. I was going to buy a gun, but my wife interceded. We started looking for a place where it was legal to do so“explained the owner of Studio 54 a The New York Post.
Eventually, Mark Fleischman decided to travel to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, and took a lethal dose of barbiturates. She went through the whole process with the non-profit organization Dignitas, which was launched in 1998 and is dedicated to helping people commit suicide when their health deteriorates.
Source: La Vanguardia / Eñaut Zuazo
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Source: Clarin
