'It was the time of your life,' the actress told ET.
Suzanne Somers is looking back on the time of her life. The same week that Mark Fleischman, a former owner of Studio 54, died by physicians assisted suicide, ET spoke with Somers, who recalled having unforgettable nights at the iconic New York City club.
"Oh, what a time it was," Somers tells ET of the late '70s and early '80s, when she was starring on Three's Company and frequently stepped out at Studio 54. "... There's no red carpet experience I've ever had that compared to walking into Studio 54. I didn't even think about the snobbery of it, that there were red velvet ropes and that when our car pulled up, the doors were automatically opened and there was [Studio 54 co-owner] Steve Rubell saying, 'Come, come, come.'"
While there would be "people screaming" outside the club, as soon as you walked inside, Somers remembered, "you couldn't hear anybody's voices" over the "loud and wonderful" music.
"All I did was dance and dance. Disco dancing was the dancing that you could do that you didn't even know how to dance. It wasn't necessary," Somers says, adding that regulars at the club included Halston, Bianca Jagger, Diana Ross, Andy Warhol and Liza Minnelli.
Somers also met Donald Trump at the club, though she didn't remember the encounter until recently, when she was sitting at the same table as the former president at an event.
"He said, 'Remember when we first met?' And I said, 'I really don't.' He said, 'Yep. It was 44 years ago,'" Somers recalls. "I didn't even know what he was talking about. And then I put it together and I thought, 'Oh, you were that guy sitting up there with Halston and Bianca.'"
As for why she didn't recall seeing Trump at Studio 54, Somers quips, "Frankly, I never noticed him because I was more famous than he was at that time."
Though there were too many incredible memories to pick a favorite, most of the unforgettable moments happened on the club's dance floor.
"I remember one night wearing a white cashmere dress that twirled when I turned, and I kept turning and turning and turning," Somers shares. "One New Year's Eve, they had ropes hanging from the ceiling and dancers... They were in nude body suits, but they looked nude, climbing up and down the ropes and the music and the twirling, twirling... It was the time of your life. That's the only way I can describe it."
Frequently, Somers would be at the club with her husband, Alan Hamel. They'd dance until "the wee hours of the morning," before taking a limo back to a "fabulous" hotel to conclude the night.
"We had the best time ever. We loved it. And then I'd come back to Los Angeles and I'd go in the studio and do Three's Company, and then at night I'd do magazine covers, and then [on] the weekend we'd fly to New York," she says. "What a life, huh?"
Somers believes the Studio 54 experience was made so special largely because it was before the internet and cell phones.
"There was no selfie-taking. It was all paparazzi and paparazzi are exciting, because it's click, click, flash, flash. I think it'll never be that great again because of social media... All the pictures from that era were genuine and real," she tells ET. "When you look up [photos from] Studio 54 with Alan and I... what you'll mainly see on my face is pure joy and excitement. That's what Studio 54 was. Pure joy and excitement and a thrill, a real thrill."
Though her time at Studio 54 is behind her, Somers, who has a thrice-weekly Facebook Live and IGTV show with her family, and is busy promoting her Gut Renew smoothie mix, said her life today is "probably the best it's ever been."
"Who says that at 75?" she jokes. "I love my age. I love the way I look. I love my husband, I'm in love. This is the best time of my life."
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