Launched in September 1978, Anton Perich’s self-financed NIGHT magazine showcased New York City’s mix of fashion, art, and music at clubs like Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager’s Studio 54 and Howard Stein and Peppo Vanini’s Xenon, where nightlife and performance met. Distribution for the magazine’s early issues was provided by Italian fashion label Fiorucci through its stores in New York, Los Angeles and Milan.
Issue one of the large-size publication – the broadsheet measured 17in x 21in – featured Perich’s photographs of the faces at Studio 54, some advertisements from Halston and other fashion businesses, and news about Rod Stewart and then wife Alana Hamilton model Patti Hansen, (aka Mrs Keith Richards; that’s her above), and playboy and art patron Huntington Hartford.
NYC’s Gallery 98 has acquired a collection of some of the early issues (September 1978 to 1979) along with related promotional material, which are on sale along with a wealth of cultural ephemera.
Issue 1
Andy Warhol with a copy of NIGHT
NIGHT #2 October 1978
This issue featured several spreads of photos of Studio 54. Front cover features Mick and Bianca Jagger and boxer Joe Frazer and Denise Hayes.
NIGHT #3 October 1978
NIGHT Magazine, Vol. 1 #3, Xenon Special featuring Anton Perich, and cover stars Sylvester Stallone and Sasha Czach, as well as Muhammad Ali and his wife Veronica Porché. There is also a half page advert for Grace Jones at Roseland (with artwork by Richard Bernstein), and a few words from French fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent (1 August 1936 – 1 June 2008) on his new perfume, Opium.
NIGHT #4 November 1978
This issue focuses on Régine Zylberberg’s (26 December 1929 – 1 May 2022) Régine nightclub, with several of the photos shot there. The issue also includes an ad for the artist Colette’s upcoming exhibition – in ’78 she staged her own death at the Whitney Museum – interviews with Quentin Crisp, Collette, Martin Rev and Johnny Thunders (then of The New York Dolls) plus a full page ad by fashion illustrator Joe Eula.
Anton Perich
Artist and paparazzo Perich left his native Croatia for Paris where he became part of the Lettrist art movement and organised underground film screenings at the American Center. In 1970 he moved to New York lured, where he hooked into Andy Warhol’s expanding world of popular culture and mass media.
In New York he took pictures at Max’s Kansas City for Warhol’s Interview and other publications, started a cable TV show in 1973, often using Warhol stars like Taylor Mead and Candy Darling, and first visited Studio 54 soon after the club opened in April ’77 while on assignment for fashion editor Annie Flanders of the Soho Weekly News.
In 1980, Perich moved to suburban Katonah and NIGHT did not appear gin until the 90’s but AIDS and cultural shits made or a more muted, less free club scene. NIGHT persisted until its last issue #57 dated 2011.
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