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Ron Duguay, who died of cancer Thursday at the age of 69, was legendary on the New York social scene. In 2019, on the premiere episode of the New York Post’s Rangers podcast, “Up In The Blue Seats,” Duguay told the story of the night he ran into Cher at Studio 54. Read the original article below:
Before there was Page Six Sean, there was Page Six Ron.
But there’s one story Rangers great Ron Duguay had never shared before, now revealing for the first time how he ended up in Gene Simmons’ bed with Cher after a night out at Studio 54.
“This is gonna be an exclusive thing because I’ve never been a kiss-and-tell type of guy,” Duguay said on the debut episode of “Up In The Blue Seats,” The Post’s New York Rangers podcast.
The Rangers had just defeated the Islanders at the Garden on Jan. 20, 1982, when Duguay went to celebrate at Studio 54, where he often went at the time despite drawing the ire of Herb Brooks — then the Rangers coach who led the “Miracle on Ice” USA squad over the Russians en route to a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics. (Duguay was traded to Detroit in June 1983.)
Duguay, who was 24 at the time, says he was minding his own business at Studio 54 when a woman pointed at him and called him over. It was Liza Minnelli, who said she’d always wanted to meet Duguay and liked the Rangers. After Duguay chatted with Minnelli’s husband, Minnelli invited Duguay to her house for a party later in the evening and asked if he’d like to meet someone. When he said yes, Minnelli called over none other than Cher, 35 at the time, who had been on the dance floor.
“If you know Cher, if she wants something, she goes after it,” Duguay says. “Grabs me by the arm and says, ‘You dance?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So we go and start dancing, we’re dancing to all this fun stuff back then — the Bee Gees, Rod Stewart, Billy Joel. To this day, if you Google ‘Ron Duguay and Cher,’ it breaks down to a slow song. Her head’s on my [shoulder]. She’s looking very comfortable. And you look at my face, and the expression on my face is like, ‘Oh my God, I’m dancing with Cher.’ I look like I don’t feel comfortable because I’m not comfortable, because I grew up as a Canadian watching ‘Sonny & Cher.'”
The moment Duguay references was captured perfectly by The Post’s Vernon Shibla at Studio 54, Cher resting her head on Duguay’s right shoulder with her eyes closed.
The two then went back to Minnelli’s table, where she said she and her husband were going back to their house. “C’mon, we’re going,” Cher told Duguay.
They were sitting in the lobby of Minnelli’s apartment building, waiting roughly 30 minutes for her arrival before Cher began to get angry. She had enough, so she and Duguay got in a taxi.
“Where are we going?” Duguay asked.
“Just come with me, son,” Cher answered.
The cab went five or six blocks to what Duguay described as a “beautiful” townhouse. Before Cher turned the key to open the door to the house, she turned around to tell Duguay, “By the way, I don’t beep, beep, beep on the first date.”
“Fill in the blank,” Duguay says on the podcast. “And I said, ‘I’m happy to just be here.'”
Duguay looked around at the gold records on the wall of the house, but he noticed they weren’t Cher records, but rather those of KISS. Cher then told Duguay they were at Simmons’ house.
“So I’m in Gene Simmons’ townhouse, not sure why I’m there. Next thing I know, she told me, ‘We’re not doing anything tonight,'” Duguay recalls. “Next thing you know, we’re sitting on his bed. And that’s where the story stops.”