As the 1970s came to an end, the age of disco was also nearing its finale. But for all of its decadence and overexposure, disco didn’t quite die a natural death by collapsing under its own weight. Instead, it was killed by a public backlash that reached its peak on this day in 1979 with the infamous “Disco Demolition” night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. That incident, which led to at least nine injuries, 39 arrests and the cancellation and forfeit of a Major League Baseball game, is widely credited—or, depending on your perspective, blamed—with dealing disco its death blow.
The event was the brainchild of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, popular disk jockeys on Chicago’s WLUP “The Loop” FM. Dahl had only recently moved to WLUP from rival station WDAI when that station switched to an all-disco format—a relatively common reformatting trend in American radio in 1979. But however many other rock DJs were displaced by disco, only Dahl was inspired to launch a semi-comic vendetta aimed at “the eradication and elimination of the dreaded musical disease.”
On May 2, the rainout of a game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers led to the scheduling of a doubleheader on July 12. Dahl and Meier approached the White Sox with a rather unorthodox idea for an attendance-boosting promotion: Declare July 12 “Disco Demolition” night and allow Dahl to blow up a dumpster full of disco records between games of the doubleheader. White Sox executive Mike Veeck embraced the idea in the same spirit with which his father, legendary team-owner Bill Veeck, had once sent a little person to the plate in a major league ballgame in order to amuse the fans and draw a walk.
The first mistake organizers made on Disco Demolition night was grossly underestimating the appeal of the 98-cent discount tickets offered to anyone who brought a disco record to the park to add to the explosive-rigged dumpster. WLUP and the White Sox expected perhaps 5,000 more fans than the average draw of 15,000 or so at Comiskey Park. What they got instead was a raucous sellout crowd of 40,000-plus and an even more raucous overflow crowd of as many as 40,000 more outside on Shields Avenue. The second mistake was failing to actually collect those disco records, which would become dangerous projectiles in the hands of a crowd that was already out of control by the time Dahl detonated his dumpster in center field during warm-ups for the evening’s second game.
What followed was utter chaos, as fans by the thousands stormed the field and began to wreak havoc, shimmying up the foul poles, tearing up the grass and lighting vinyl bonfires on the diamond while the stadium scoreboard implored them to return to their seats. Conditions were judged too dangerous for the scheduled game to begin, and the Detroit Tigers were awarded a win by forfeit.
Good times.
Yes sir. They were indeed. “Up your nose wid’ a rubber hose”.
The madness of crowds. I don’t go anywhere near crowds anymore.
I remember that. I was in 7th grade. Death before disco became the mantra.
As I grew up in that era-I was going to be in the 8th grade in August of 1979- you really can pinpoint the decline of “Disco” music to this date. Radio was dominated by disco in the Summer of 79- songs like “Ring My Bell”, “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls”, and “Good Times”. After that Summer, there were only a handful of truly identifiable disco songs afterwards that were hits. Michael Jackson hit #1 with “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” at the end of that year, and in 1980, the only true disco #1s were “Funky Town” by Lipps Inc. and “Upside Down”, a Diana Ross song written and produced by the guy behind the disco band Chic. In my opinion, the very last disco hit was “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang in early 1981.
I was 29 and remember how when smoking a joint, the pot seeds would burn through my polyester shirts and pants.
“Who Love’s ya , baby?” …………..Telly
Maybe you guys don’t recall that Disco Fever was replaced by Country line-dancing. Horrors.
Like looking back at the weekends of your yute and finding some real dogs there; maybe a couple of trannies, your not sure.
Definitely won’t be dialing any numbers from that old matchbook collection that you’ve been saving in the event your wife recovers her sight or finds the glasses you hid from her.
I was in 11th grade when this happened and don’t even remember hearing about it. But when I was in high school, out mantra was “Disco sucks.” It was OK when I was in junior high and wanting to learn to dance to it, but after that, I was turned on to really good music that blew disco out of the water. Never turned back. Of course, when I was in elementary school, the hippy generation songs were popular, and I did like those. Some cool bands.
Hilarious! I hated disco but never heard that story before. Thanks.
Good riddance.