Joan Rivers Sent Daughter Melissa to School with Bodyguards After Receiving 'Threats' for Hosting AIDS Benefit

Mar. 15, 2025

Joan Rivers in 2010.Photo:Larry Busacca/Getty

Larry Busacca/Getty

The lateJoan Riversis known as a pioneering woman in comedy, but she was also a pioneer in AIDS activism. The comedian was one of the first celebrities to lend her fame to the fight against AIDS in the 1980s.

Sadly, her compassion for the LGBTQ community led to threats against her family when she signed on to host a 1984 AIDS fundraiser at the legendary West Hollywood gay disco Studio One.

Some of her Hollywood colleagues warned her not to do the event, while much of the public condemned her for supporting the gay community.

From left: Joan Rivers, Edgar Rosenberg and Melissa Rivers in 1986.Getty

Getty

“People in the business [were] saying, ‘Don’t do it. It’s career suicide,’ " Melissa, 56, recalls in the documentary. “It was fear. People were really outraged. Here was someone who was at one of the peaks of her career, hostessingThe Tonight Show, basically saying, ‘I’m taking a stand.’ "

“Our family received threats. And not just to my mother, but my father and to me,” Melissa continues. “Right before the event, the threats were so big and so frightening that I was sent to school with bodyguards. It hit such a nerve, the fact that they made a decision to bring me with them the night of the fundraiser, and their feeling was, if something’s gonna happen, if the place is going to get blown up, at least we’re all there together.”

Singer Sylvester performs at Studio One in 1978.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

The film documents decades of LGBTQ history in West Hollywood through the story of the club that hosted numerous A-listers, includingElton John, Ann-Margret,Diana Ross,Burt Reynolds, Cary Grant,Rock Hudson,Liza MinnelliandBette Davis.

Studio One also featured a cabaret space called The Backlot that attracted performers includingChita Rivera, Thelma Houston,Bette MidlerandBarbra Streisand’s younger sister Roslyn Kind, who is interviewed in the documentary.

Workers and patrons who were connected to the club in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s also appear in the film.

Studio One Foreveris in theaters through Sept. 20 before its VOD release on Oct. 8.

source: people.com