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Disco Demolition Night

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Disco Demolition Night
DateJuly 12, 1979
Time6 pm and following
LocationComiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, US
Causepromotional event admitting those with a disco record for $0.98
ParticipantsSteve Dahl, Bill Veeck and several thousand attendees
OutcomeGame 2 of the Tigers/White Sox doubleheader forfeited to Detroit.
DeathsNone.
Non-fatal injuriesBetween 0 and 30
Property damageDamage to the field of Comiskey Park
SuspectsAbout 39
ChargesDisorderly conduct

Disco Demolition Night was an ill-fated baseball promotion that took place on July 12, 1979 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois. At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the twi-night doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Many of those in attendance had come to see the explosion rather than the game and rushed onto the field after the button was pressed. With the playing surface damaged both by the explosion and by the rowdy fans, the White Sox were required to forfeit Game 2 of the doubleheader to the Tigers.

A disco craze had swept America in the late 1970s, with the dance-oriented music featured in hit films such as Saturday Night Fever (1977). Although disco was popular, it also sparked a backlash from rock and roll fans, and by mid-1979 the genre was starting to fade. Disco and the pushback against it were prominent enough that the White Sox, seeking to fill seats at Comiskey Park in a bad season, engaged Chicago disc jockey and anti-disco campaigner Steve Dahl for the promotion at the July 12 doubleheader. Attendees would pay less than a dollar and bring a disco record; between games, Dahl would destroy the collected vinyl in an explosion.

White Sox officials had hoped for a crowd of 20,000, about 5,000 more than usual. Instead, tens of thousands of Dahl's adherents (dubbed "The Insane Coho Lips") packed the stadium, and continued to sneak in even after gates were closed. Many of the records were not collected by staff and were thrown like frisbees from the stands. After Dahl blew up the collected records, thousands of fans stormed the field and remained there until dispersed by riot police. The field was then deemed unplayable, forcing the White Sox to forfeit the second game. Disco Demolition Night remains well known as one of the most extreme promotions in major league history.

Background

Main article: Disco

The sound known as disco, named for its popularity in discotheques, evolved in inner-city New York clubs in the early 1970s, where disc jockeys would play imported dance music to get the crowd moving. With roots in African-American, Latino, and gay cultures, disco became midstream by the mid-1970s. Even white artists associated with a much more sedate style of music had disco-influenced hits, such as Barry Manilow with "Copacabana".[1] By 1977, it was all the rage in the United States, especially after the release that year of the hit movie Saturday Night Fever. Disco was even heard on the children's program Sesame Street. Despite disco's popularity, there were many who disliked it. Some felt the music too mechanical—Time magazine deemed it a "diabolical thump-and-shriek".[2][3] Others hated the music for the lifestyle associated with it, feeling that in the disco scene, personal appearance and style of dress were overly important.[2][3] The influence of disco entered the baseball world; the Pittsburgh Pirates, with the theme song "We Are Family", by Sister Sledge, would win the 1979 World Series.[3] However, by mid-1979, the disco craze was dying down, with young music listeners turning to such alternative formats as heavy metal, new wave, and punk rock.[1]

Chicago disc jockey Steve Dahl was fired from local radio station WDAI on Christmas Eve 1978 when the station switched formats from rock to disco. The 24-year-old DJ was subsequently hired by rival album-rock station WLUP, "The Loop". Sensing an incipient anti-disco backlash[3][4] and playing off the publicity surrounding his firing (Dahl frequently mocked WDAI's "Disco DAI" slogan on the air as "Disco DIE"), Dahl created a mock organization called "The Insane Coho Lips", an anti-disco army consisting of his listeners. Dahl and broadcast partner Garry Meier regularly mocked and heaped scorn on disco records on the air. Dahl also recorded his own parody: "Do You Think I'm Disco?", a satire of Rod Stewart's disco-oriented hit "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?".[5][6][7] According to Andy Behrens in his article on Disco Demolition Night for ESPN, Dahl and Meier "organized the Cohos around a simple and surprisingly powerful idea: Disco Sucks".[3]

Since the 1940s, Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck had been noted for using promotions to attract fan interest; he stated "you can draw more people with a losing team plus bread and circuses than with a losing team and a long, still silence".[8] His son, Mike, was in 1979 the promotions director for the White Sox. Mike Veeck wrote in a letter to a fan before the season that team management intended to make sure that whether the White Sox won or lost, the fans would have fun.[8]

On May 2, 1979 the Detroit Tigers-Chicago White Sox game at Comiskey Park was rained out. Officials scheduled it as part of a twi-night doubleheader on July 12.[9] Already scheduled for the evening of July 12 was a promotion aimed at teenagers, who could purchase tickets at half the regular price.[8]

The White Sox had had a "Disco Night" at Comiskey Park in 1977; Mike Veeck and WLUP sales executive Jeff Schwartz had then discussed the possibility of an anti-disco night. The matter was brought up again early in the 1979 season when Schwartz told Mike Veeck of Dahl and his plans to blow up a crate of disco records while live on the air from a shopping mall. The promotions director contacted Dahl and asked if he would be interested in blowing up records at Comiskey Park on July 12. Since the radio frequency of WLUP was 97.9, the promotion for "Disco Demolition Night" (in addition to the offer for teenagers) was that anyone who brought a disco record to the ballpark would be admitted for 98 cents. Dahl was to blow up the collected records between games of the doubleheader.[8]

Event

Comiskey Park (seen in 1990)

Dahl feared that the promotion would fail to draw people to the ballpark, and that he would be humiliated. The previous night's attendance had been 15,520, and Comiskey Park held about 52,000 people. The White Sox were not having a good year, and were 40–46 going into the July 12 doubleheader.[3] The White Sox and WLUP hoped for a crowd of 20,000.[9] Mike Veeck hired enough security for 35,000.[10]

Owner Bill Veeck, concerned the promotion might turn into a disaster, checked himself out of the hospital, where he had been undergoing tests.[10] The elder Veeck's fears were substantiated when he saw the people walking towards the ballpark that afternoon. Many carried signs, describing disco in profane terms.[3][8] The game sold out, leaving at least 20,000 people outside the ballpark.[8] Some were not content to remain there, leaping turnstiles, climbing fences, and entering through open windows.[11] Off-ramps from the Dan Ryan Expressway near Comiskey Park were closed when the stadium was filled to capacity and beyond.[3] Attendees were supposed to deposit their records into a large box, some 4 feet (1.2 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m) by 5 feet (1.5 m) tall; once the box was overflowing, many people continued to their seats with their discs.[12]

The first game was to begin at 6 pm, with the second game to follow.[13] Lorelei, a model who did public appearances for WLUP and who was very popular in Chicago that summer, threw out the first pitch.[14] As the first game began, Mike Veeck sent his security personnel to the stadium gates, attempting to put a stop to the flow of gate crashers. This left the field unattended, and fans began throwing the uncollected disco LPs and singles from the stands. Tigers outfielder Rusty Staub remembered that the records would slice through the air, and land sticking out of the ground. He urged teammates to wear batting helmets when playing their positions, "It wasn't just one, it was many. Oh, God almighty, I've never seen anything so dangerous in my life."[15] The disco records were not the only items thrown; firecrackers, empty liquor bottles, and lighters also flew. The game was stopped several times because of the rain of foreign objects.[8] White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray could see groups of people, who were clearly music rather than baseball fans, wandering through the stadium. Others sat intensely in their seats, awaiting the explosion.[16] Mike Veeck later remembered an odor of marijuana through the grandstand, and said of the attendees, "This is the Woodstock they never had."[10] The miasma permeated the press box, which both Caray and his broadcast partner, Jimmy Piersall, commented on over the air.[12] The crowds outside the stadium threw records as well, or gathered them together and burned them in bonfires.[15] Detroit won the first game, 4–1.[3]

Explosion

Garry Meier

Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and helmet, emerged onto the playing surface after the first game together with Meier and Lorelei. They proceeded to center field, first doing a lap of the field in a Jeep, showered (according to Dahl, lovingly) by his troops with firecrackers and beer. The large box containing the collected records had been rigged with explosives. Dahl and Meier warmed up the crowd, leading attendees in a chant of "disco sucks". Lorelei recalled that the view from center field was surreal. On the mound, White Sox pitcher Ken Kravec, scheduled to start the second game, began to warm up. Other White Sox, in the dugout and wearing batting helmets, looked out upon the scene. Fans who felt things were getting out of hand, and wished to leave the ballpark, had difficulty in doing so; in an effort to deny the intruders entry, security had padlocked all but one gate.[3][11]

Dahl told the crowd,

This is now officially the world's largest anti-disco rally! Now listen—we took all the disco records you brought tonight, we got 'em in a giant box, and we're gonna blow 'em up reeeeeeal goooood.[12]

Dahl set off the explosives, destroying the records and tearing a large hole in the outfield grass.[16] Immediately, the first of what would be thousands of attendees, including a 21-year-old Michael Clarke Duncan[17], rushed onto the field, causing Kravec to flee the mound and join his teammates in a barricaded clubhouse. Between 5,000 and 7,000 people are estimated to have taken the field. Some climbed the foul poles, others set records on fire, or ripped up the grass. The batting cage was destroyed; the bases were pulled up and stolen. During the melee, Duncan slid into third base, had a silver belt buckle stolen[17] and went home with a bat from the dugout.[18] As Bill Veeck stood with a microphone near where home plate had been, begging people to return to the stands, a bonfire raged in center field.[3][9][11][19]

Lorelei later remembered that she had been waving to the crowd when she was grabbed by two of the bodyguards who had accompanied the Jeep and placed back in the vehicle. The party was unable to return to home plate because of the rowdy fans, so the Jeep was driven out of the stadium and through the surrounding streets, to the delight of the many Cohos outside the stadium who recognized the occupants. They were driven to the front of the stadium, where they were ushered back inside, and taken up to the press room where they had spent most of the first game.[14]

Caray unsuccessfully attempted to restore order via the public address system. The scoreboard, flashing "PLEASE RETURN TO YOUR SEATS", was ignored as was the playing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game". Some of the attendees were dancing in circles around the burning vinyl shards.[12] Dahl offered his help in getting the rowdy fans to leave, but it was declined.[20]

The Chicago police, in full riot gear, arrived to the applause of the baseball fans in the stands. Those on the field hastily dispersed as soon as they saw the police. Thirty-nine people were arrested for disorderly conduct; estimates of injuries to those at the event range from none to over thirty.[11] Bill Veeck wanted the teams to play the second game once order was restored. Umpiring crew chief Dave Phillips called American League president Lee MacPhail, who after hearing a report on conditions, initially only postponed the second game to Sunday. Tigers manager Sparky Anderson, though, argued that only an act of God, under baseball's rules, can cause a postponement, and that the home team is deemed responsible for the condition of the field. The next day, MacPhail ruled that the White Sox had failed to provide acceptable playing conditions and forfeited the second game to the Tigers 9-0.[3][21][22]

Reaction and aftermath

Dahl in 2008

The morning after, Dahl began his regular broadcast by reading the indignant headlines in the local papers. He mocked the coverage, "I think for the most part everything was wonderful. Some maniac Cohos got wild, went down on the field. Which you shouldn't have done. Bad little Cohos."[3] Tigers manager Anderson stated of the events, "Beer and baseball go together, they have for years. But I think those kids were doing things other than beer."[3] Columnist David Israel of the Chicago Tribune commented on the day after that he was not surprised by what had occurred, "It would have happened any place 50,000 teenagers got together on a sultry summer night with beer and reefer."[23] White Sox pitcher Rich Wortham, a Texan, suggested, "This wouldn't have happened if they had country and western night."[23]

Although Bill Veeck took much of the public criticism for the fiasco, his son Mike suffered repercussions as the actual front-office promoter behind it. Mike Veeck remained with the White Sox until early 1980, when he resigned. As he could not get a job in baseball, he stated that he felt blackballed, and worked for a while for a jai-alai fronton in Florida, battling alcoholism.[24] As Mike Veeck related, "The second that first guy shimmied down the outfield wall, I knew my life was over!"[16] Mike Veeck has since become a successful owner of minor league baseball teams.[25] Steve Dahl remained a disc jockey and radio personality in Chicago until 2008; he has continued to reach his listeners through podcasting.[26]

The popularity of disco declined significantly in late 1979 and 1980. Many disco artists continued, but record companies began labeling their recordings as dance music.[1] Dahl stated in a 2004 interview with Keith Olbermann that disco was "probably on its way out. But I think it [Disco Demolition Night] hastened its demise".[27] According to The History Channel, Disco Demolition Night "is widely credited—or, depending on your perspective, blamed—with dealing disco its death blow".[9]

Music critic Dave Marsh recalled his feelings after Disco Demolition Night, "It was your most paranoid fantasy about where the ethnic cleansing of the rock radio could ultimately lead."[1] Nile Rodgers, producer and guitarist for the disco-era group Chic, deemed the event akin to Nazi book burning.[1] Gloria Gaynor, who had a huge disco hit with "I Will Survive", stated, "I’ve always believed it was an economic decision — an idea created by someone whose economic bottom line was being adversely affected by the popularity of disco music. So they got a mob mentality going."[1] Social activists have suggested that the backlash to disco was motivated in part by prejudice against a sound which had non-white origins. Nevertheless, Harry Wayne Casey, singer for disco act KC and the Sunshine Band, did not believe Disco Demolition Night itself was discriminatory, feeling that those involved were idiots. Dahl rejects the notion that prejudice was his motivation for Disco Demolition Night. "The worst thing is people calling Disco Demolition homophobic or racist. It just wasn't ... We weren't thinking like that."[3]

The unplayed second game remains the last American League game to be forfeited.[28] The last National League game to be forfeited was on August 10, 1995, when a baseball giveaway promotion at Dodger Stadium went awry, forcing the Los Angeles Dodgers to concede the game to the St. Louis Cardinals.[29] According to baseball analyst Jeremiah Graves, "To this day Disco Demolition Night stands in infamy as one of the most ill-advised promotions of all-time, but arguably one of the most successful as 30 years later we’re all still talking about it."[30]

Game results

Game 1:

July 12, 1979
day game 		Detroit Tigers 4 – 1 Chicago White Sox Comiskey Park
Attendance: 47,795
Umpires: HP: Dave Phillips (cc)
1B: Dan Morrison
2B: Dallas Parks
3B: Durwood Merrill
Boxscore

Game 2 forfeited to Detroit, 9-0, because of unplayable field.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Sciafani, Tony (July 10, 2009). "When 'Disco Sucks!' echoed around the world". TODAY.com. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
  2. ^ a b Young, p. 11.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Behrens, Andy (July 12, 2009). "Disco demolition: Bell-bottoms be gone!". ESPNChicago.com. ESPN.com. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
  4. ^ "Disco inferno". The Independent. December 11, 2004. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
  5. ^ Beaton, Rod (July 12, 2004). "No anniversary party for disco debacle". USA Today. p. C.03. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
  6. ^ "WLUP Chicago Reminisces". Billboard. 101 (16): 10. April 22, 1989.
  7. ^ Interview with Ben Jor Expatica.com
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Young, p. 12.
  9. ^ a b c d "Disco is dealt death blow by fans of Chicago White Sox". The History Channel. Retrieved February 13, 2013.
  10. ^ a b c Dickson, p. 314.
  11. ^ a b c d Young, p. 13.
  12. ^ a b c d Costello, Brian (July 9, 2009). "Postcards from Disco Demolition Night". Chicago Reader. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
  13. ^ "Baseball". Bangor Daily News. July 12, 1979. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  14. ^ a b Bova, George. "Flashing Back with Disco Demolition's Lorelei"". White Sox Interactive. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
  15. ^ a b Dickson, p. 315.
  16. ^ a b c Fingers, p. 144.
  17. ^ a b Zwecker, Bill (September 28, 2006). "Love may have bloomed again on set for 'Garden State' star". Chicago Sun-Times.
  18. ^ Caldarelli, Adam (May 20, 2006). "From the Cubicle". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  19. ^ Dickson, pp. 315–316.
  20. ^ "Disco Demolition embarrassed Sox". AP via Lawrence Journal-World. July 13, 1989. p. 5D. Retrieved February 15, 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |newspaper= (help)
  21. ^ "Disco riot rocks, rolls Chisox park". Youngstown Vindicator. July 13, 2013. p. 18. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
  22. ^ "Phister ousts Tim Gullikson". The Milwaukee Sentinel. July 14, 1979. p. 3, Part 2. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
  23. ^ a b Young, p. 15.
  24. ^ Dickson, p. 317.
  25. ^ Veeck, Mike (April 1, 2005). "How I did it: Mike Veeck". Inc. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  26. ^ Channick, Robert (August 5, 2012). "Steve Dahl's pay podcast marks 1st anniversary". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  27. ^ "'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' Complete Transcript for July 12, 2004". MSNBC.com. July 12, 2004. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
  28. ^ Lytle, Ken (April 15, 2011). The Little Book of Big F*#k Ups: 220 of History's Most-Regrettable Moments. Adams Media. p. 154. ISBN 1440512523.
  29. ^ Snyder, John (March 16, 2010). 365 Oddball Days in Dodgers History. Clerisy Press. ISBN 1578604524.
  30. ^ Graves, Jeremiah (July 12, 2009). "30 years later: Disco Demolition Night". Bleacher Report. Retrieved February 14, 2013.

Books and journals

Further reading

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