IN the ’70s and ’80s, thousands of would-be artists and as-yet-unknowns swept into New York City with fantasies of making it big.

Susanne Bartsch, the Swiss party hostess who is now known for her outrageous get-ups and association with the drag scene here, wasn’t quite one of them. She first visited New York in 1977 to go to Studio 54, and wasn’t all that enthralled ...