An Interview With Ian Schrager

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I.S.: Uh, you know, I think it's nice. Um, I can't second-guess what those guys had in mind. I had no emotional attachment to it, quite frankly. But I think from a business point of view, I would've done something different. But I don't know what criteria they were using and why they did it. And I think it was a very risky move. They were vulnerable to being criticized. But I can't second-guess them. I didn't have all the facts at hand that they may have had. There may even be some emotional issues involved, maybe making a complete break with me, I'm not really sure. I know we were planning on doing a renovation when I was still there, but we were going to put more of the emphasis in the rooms and sort of polish up and refine the lobby. But basically we liked to think that what we did was classic and timeless and would stay, even though it was incredibly provocative. I mean, I've never changed any of my other lobbies. The Morgans lobby is still the same lobby as it was in 1984.

L.G.: You and I have never talked before, so help me out here. When you say something looks "nice," is that a compliment?

I.S.: Uh, yes. I mean, what am I supposed to say? I'm not sure what they're doing now. I rely on product distinction, and I see the industry as falling into the same trap it did before I got started. Even though the design may be heightened, the places are beginning to look monotonously similar to each other. I don't think the public is going to get a benefit off of that.

L.G.: Of course that company has had more than a spot of bother lately. [In September, Morgans' chief executive, W. Edward Scheetz, a 42-year-old father of two who had been Schrager's biggest investor, was forced to resign "to address personal issues" after he found his 23-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Lynn Hatchel, lying dead in his Las Vegas apartment, apparently having overdosed on cocaine and oxycodone.]

I.S.: It's sad. It's a sad thing.

L.G.: I don't know if you're still friendly.

I.S.: Yes, I am.

L.G.: As someone who's been through crucibles of your own, have you reached out to him?

I.S.: Yes, I have. You never wish anybody to get hurt and take a fall. Even an enemy. It's bad karma. Having been through my own kind of sadness, I know that if you play it right, people forget and you can go on. If you do it the way O.J. did it, you won't be able to go on, people won't forget. Maybe if O.J. would have laid low for a year or so, he would've been in a different situation than he's in now. But it is a very sad thing. To me it's a pity actually. I think it could've happened to anybody, to tell you the truth.

L.G.: By the way, I don't think people have forgotten what you've been through, but I think it kind of adds something to, if you will, the myth of Ian Schrager and the fact that there are indeed second acts in American lives.

I.S.: More than second acts. But people do forget to the extent that the stain comes out and the stigma goes away. Maybe it does add cachet, but I, for one, don't find any of that appeal in what happened to me. It could've destroyed me, so I really want to forget about it.

L.G.: But in my reading I found something that's interesting: The prosecutor came by the Palladium [the nightclub Schrager and Rubell opened in the early 1980s after getting out of prison] and said "Alright guys, just don't fuck this up." So it was almost like his endorsement, like he was rooting for you.

I.S.: Well, we think we were good guys who got intoxicated and lost our way, did something stupid. You know, we were guys from Brooklyn, didn't have any money, we kept our values intact, and we remained friends with the same people. We loved our parents and family. But we just got intoxicated with the whole thing and did stupid things. I think we're proof that the system works.

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