An Old Timey Podcast - 62: Disco Demolition Night Didn’t Stop the Boogie

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

In the late 70s, disco was everywhere. Songs like “Disco Inferno,” “I Will Survive” and “Brick House” topped the charts. Disco had been created and embraced by Black people, Latino people, LGBT+ people, and women. It was fun and funky. It was freeing and empowering. …but *some* folks didn’t like having disco balls shoved in their faces. So, when a 24-year-old Chicago shock jock began hosting “death to disco” rallies at local bars, he developed a loyal following of young, disgruntled dudes. The shock jock’s popularity soon caught the eye of the Chicago White Sox. They needed to sell tickets for an upcoming doubleheader. What if they ran a “Disco Demolition Night” promotion? It would be totally fun! Things definitely wouldn’t get out of hand! Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Kristin pulled from: The documentary, “The Saint of Second Chances” The documentary, “The War on Disco” “When ‘Disco Sucks!’ echoed around the world,” by Tony Scalafani for Today.com “Disco demolition: Bell-bottoms be gone!” by Andy Behrens for ESPNChicago.com “We rock ‘n’ rollers will resist – and we will triumph!” by Kirstin Butler for PBS.org “Forty years later, disagreement about disco demolition night,” by Gary Waleik for WBUR.org “Baseball’s showman,” by Nick Acocella for ESPN.com Are you enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Then please leave us a 5-star rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts! Are you *really* enjoying An Old Timey Podcast? Well, calm down, history ho! You can get more of us on Patreon at patreon.com/oldtimeypodcast. At the $5 level, you’ll get a monthly bonus episode (with video!), access to our 90’s style chat room, plus the entire back catalog of bonus episodes from Kristin’s previous podcast, Let’s Go To Court.

Hear ye, hear ye. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Kristen Caruso. And I'm Norman Caruso. And on this episode, I'll be talking about disco demolition night. Woo! What the hell is that? You know about disco demolition night. Don't be coy, Norm. You know all about it. I'm not. I'm not being a coy boy. I don't know what you're talking about. You really don't? No.

My shirt is a hint. Sports-related? It's sports-related. The people have spoken. They said, Kristen, you know so much about sports. Your last episode about 10-cent beer night, which was very sporty, was not enough sporty spice for us. So they demanded this one. They were amazed by your baseball knowledge.

Well, prepare to be amazed again, because this story has the same amount of baseball in it as that last one did. Really? Yeah, just a sprinkling, which is how I like it. Hang, I got sound like my phone. Oh, wow. I was silenced. Oh, okay, great. Turns out.

Anything else you need to do? Got to walk the dogs. Uh-huh. Take a quick pee break. Get a snack. You know, Norm, some of us are just barely surviving. We're here on DayQuil and a prayer. Oh, yeah.

Kristen's been sick. Hey, I've not been dramatic about it. Don't worry. But we'll see if I survive this episode. It's a real touch and go because I have this deadly thing called a cold. We're praying like hell for you, Kristen. Thoughts and prayers are appreciated. Thank you, everyone.

You caught it from me after we kissed one night. Huge mistake. It'll never happen again. Started out with a kiss. How did it end up like this? Is that what that song's about? Yeah, that's what Mr. Brightside's about. A guy smooches a girl and gets a cold.

Norm, do you have a plug for us? Damn right, I got a plug. Let's hear it. Folks, I hope you all had a while. wonderful independence day, the birthday of these United States. Kristen, our country is 249 years old. Can you believe it? I guess.

You don't seem too enthusiastic about it. Listen, I saw a video of this woman the other day who was like, I just want everyone to know that I painted my nails red, not because I'm patriotic, but because I'm a slut. And I just really liked that a lot. That is good. That is good. And, you know, we accept not only patriots to this podcast, but also slut. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

If you're ready to go all the way with us, you've got to get in on that $10 pig butter investor tier. You'll get bonus episodes, sign card and stickers, early ad-free video episodes, access to our monthly trivia parties, 10% off all merch, and add free episodes of Kristen's old decrepit rotting podcast. Let's go to court. So head on over to patreon.com slash old-timey podcast to sign up. Thank you. And let's begin today's episode. Are you ready for this, Norm? I'm ready.

Okay. I've got disco fever. That's the perfect type of fever to have for this episode. I recommend we all develop a little right now. Picture it. It was the 1970s and disco was in, baby. Songs like Disco Inferno, I Will Survive. And Brick.

Da-na-na-House. Top the charts. In 1977, Saturday Night Fever became one of the highest grossing films of the decade. Everybody loved disco. It was fun and funky, glittery, and flashy, and wow, that clip was really short. It was music you could dance to, music you could swing a bell bottom to. It had started out small. Disco music had been shaped and embraced primarily by black people, Latin people, LGBT people, and women.

Disco music was freeing and empowering. It was about feeling good and looking good. What about white people? White people love disco music. Not all of them, as you'll come to find out. Well, I got to tell you, my mom's white, and she really liked to just go. Yeah, your mom's a woman. She's also white.

After all, how could you get into Studio 54 if your hair wasn't properly feathered? If your afro wasn't perfectly round, if your shoes weren't platforms, if your dress wasn't metallic, if your button down didn't reveal a thick crop, a chest. tear. Ooh. In that sense, disco was a little exclusive. Just try getting into the club

wearing a pair of Levi's and a concert tea. I dare you! Disco embraced people who maybe hadn't been embraced by the culture at large. But hold on. Hmm?

Oh my God. By the late 70s, disco was everywhere. See, business dudes had discovered that disco records made a lot of money. And soon everyone was trying their hand at it. Oh, yeah. As soon as corporations get a hold of something. Then it gets really fun. It's not cool. No, then it becomes even cooler because we love corporations. And it's not cool anymore. Weird that you say that because I'm

about to throw some really great examples in your face. We can't get mad, nor about the corporations getting involved, because if disco hadn't been everywhere, we wouldn't have gotten such classic hits as Disco Duck. Oh, this is a real song. Oh, we know it. We love it. This duck sounds like he's done. How did you include such a long clip of Disco Duck, but such a short clip of Night Fever,

Chris. Yes. This is the first time you are using the soundboard. Yes. You gave me the instructions with plenty of disco songs, uh-huh. To use the chorus of each song. Okay, okay. That is how long the chorus is of disco duck, which sounds like the duck, it's either constipated or dying in that song.

But I followed the instructions. Okay, but I kind of said just the chorus because I was too lazy to actually look anything up. What I was hoping you would do is measure with your heart, which when it comes to disco music should be three times larger than average. Well, I got to tell you, Disco Duck had me feeling a certain way, so I made it extra long. Another great example? Uh-huh. If Disco hadn't been everywhere, we wouldn't have Rod Stewart's five-minute and 31-second chart topper. Do you think I'm sexy?

On my body and you think I'm sexy. Come on my sugar, let me know. No one asked for me to sing a lot. No one. I'm very sorry. This song, I am not kidding you. Everyone, I feel like we can listen to that amount of it and be like, oh, it's fun. Have you ever tried to listen to that whole song?

It goes on for days. It's a long song. It's a good song, but maybe a little too long. No, it's got a catchy. Yes. Okay. Anyone who agrees with Norm right now, stop everything and force yourself to listen to that entire song.

Because after two and a half minutes, you'll be like, all right, I get it. No, I agree. It's a good song. It's just a little too long. My favorite Rod Stewart song, Forever Young. Great song. Forever Young. Forever Young.

I'm sorry. I wish we could play that clip. We can only play disco duck. That's all I've got on here is all these disco songs. So are you upset that you said mean things about disco being everywhere and corporations getting involved? because clearly we got some real bangers. No. No, corporations ruin all the cool underground stuff.

They capitalize it. They monopolize it. Oh, boy. It's no longer cool anymore. This disco ducks getting on his disco soapbox. Disco soapbox, that's right. Here's a thing, Norm. Not everyone was happy with being teabagged by disco balls.

A tea bagged. By disco balls. Yes, it's a brand new sentence. and I just invented it. You're welcome, everyone. Okay. It really took a while for that to set in for you. It really took a while for it to settle onto your eyeballs.

It's a deep joke because I was like, tea bagged by a disco ball. And I was like, oh, wait, wait a minute. Oh, balls. Okay, tea bagged. By disco balls. And yeah, yeah. Took me a minute.

I'm a real deep thinker. That joke was not brought to you by too much NyQuil. That's for sure. Okay. This thing that was so black, so Latin, so LGBT, so feminine, you're not going to believe it, but it kind of triggered some folks. I'm talking, of course, about the rock and roll crowd, aka the white dudes. See, for a certain... That's me.

Congrats, Norm. Welcome to the party. See, for a certain segment of the population, the rise of disco was... deeply upsetting. To witness a modern version of this phenomenon, I'd recommend you ask your drunk uncle what he thinks of Taylor Swift. No, ask him what he thinks of Kendrick Lamar's halftime show at the Super Bowl. Oh, well, that, that, oh, God, I didn't even think about that. Yes.

Fuck! Oh, I, you know, I've been trying not to curse as much, and I just blew it. I blame it on disco duck, but no, you're right. Disco, fuck. Oh. Does you say fucking that song? Norm, did you sing Disco Duck? Are you disco duck?

Was that you in that costume? Are you a lot older than we think you are? Did I do a pretty good impression? It was a little too good. Frankly, it's a little upsetting. I need to work on it. Anyway, what were you saying? You're trying not to curse as much, but...

But that's a great example. Yeah. There was a weird, sort of unhinged hatred for disco music. And I would argue we see that with stuff today. And I'm just kind of frankly kicking myself because I came up with a little example, and you off the top of the dome, off the top of the noggin, came up with the best example. Very happy for you. Clearly the superior host of this podcast. Oh, okay.

Anyway. And few people embodied that hatred for disco, quite like a 24-year-old Chicago radio shock jock named Steve Doll. Steve Doll? Yes. D-O-L-L. D-A-H-L. Oh, like Roll Doll. That's exactly right.

No relation, I assume. Yeah. In Steve's defense, the story of how he began to hate disco is kind of comically perfect. Yeah, I'm curious how you hate disco because it's such a catchy music genre. Hold on. Okay, this just shows we're going too fast. What do you mean? I just told you came primarily from black people, Latino people, LGBT.

people, women. It was this kind of exclusive thing where now you were, the people getting into clubs might not have been the same people that used to get into clubs. And you're telling me you don't understand. No, I mean, I'm speaking purely from if you listen to disco and you're like, I don't like this. I don't see how you could listen to disco and be like, this sucks. It's just, it's very catchy pop music.

Thank you, Norm. I completely agree. I will be the first to admit I have bad taste. in music. And yet, I also have to tell you, disco's so good. Even bad disco is good. Yeah, it gets you both in it. It kind of is.

Yeah, I think you're right. It absolutely is. Even disco duck is. I know. I would still listen to disco ducks. It slaps and it's called disco duck. And there's a fucking duck singing the song. Yes.

When even the bad versions of disco are good, you've got something special. Sure. So this guy was just like racist, sex. asshole and that's why he didn't like disco. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You haven't even heard his villain origin story, Norm, calm down. Okay, I'm sorry. It really is like the most amazing villain origin story ever.

Picture it. Christmas Eve, 1978. Steve was working a food drive for the radio station and he was dressed as Santa Claus. And that night when he finished his shift, the radio station fired him. They were switching things up. The following Monday, they'd become a whole new radio station. They weren't playing rock and roll anymore. They were doing disco only, baby.

Wow, that is quite a switch. Yeah. And to fire someone on Christmas Eve, that sucks. It super sucks. Steve had to go home and tell his wife on Christmas Eve that he was out of a job, out of a job because of disco. Well, it's not because of disco. Right, right.

Management at the radio station, but whatever. No, that's like the meanest. That's the meanest thing. I hope they at least let him get out of his Santa Claus suit before they fired him. But the good news is Steve wasn't out of a job for long. He got a new gig at a rock and roll station. And as soon as he got back on the air, Steve made his enemy known to all. Every morning he played a disco record

And then Just before the bell bottoms really started rocking Steve screech Ran the needle across the record And he queued up the sound of an explosion Yeah Norm you're not as into this as you should be Because it's pretty fucking cool

I mean I guess he's limited because he's on the radio But What does that be? He's just to play audio sound I mean, I guess it's kind of like me with this soundboard. You're kind of limited. You're not better.

Yeah, like, I'm about to bust. I've got some fun stuff on here. You know, here's some. Okay. You know. Anyway, oh, wait, sexy times. There we go. So, he hates disco.

He plays a disco record, and then before the song ends, he plays an explosion. Yeah, like he blew it up. Like, he destroyed disco because he hates disco. I don't know if this is too tough a couple. So he's just a shock jock for a rock station. Just a shock jock, yes. What was the name of the station he worked for? WLUP 97.9, I think.

Willup. The loop. Willup, 979. Steve's audience ate it up. Okay, Norm? Yeah, of course he did. Unlike you, being so disrespectful, being like, oh, I've got a soundboard, ooh, blah, blah, blah.

No, they loved it. They had found a common enemy, and it was that funky hip beat. Steve's hate for disco became part of his schick. He began doing this adorable thing at local Chicago bars where people would bring in disco records and he'd dress up in a military uniform and smash the records over his head. Stolen valor. Yes, I think a lot of people were tricked. Oh, it was so fun.

He called these events, death to disco rallies. Ooh. Steve had a lot of young white male fans. and Steve really rang their bell. You can ring my bell. Classic disco song. You know, I did not expect you to know so many disco songs, Norm. I told her to my mom, a white woman, loved disco.

Listen, a lot of white ladies love disco. Yeah. She loves Abba. Yeah. Abba is her. Yeah. She loves Bejys, too, but Abba... Did it make you uncomfortable growing up when your mom was constantly pining after a man after midnight?

Um, yeah, it was... That's not a joke, but that's real life for a lot of us. It actually caused a lot of problems in my family, so thank you for bringing it up. I'm sorry. All those years in family therapy. Yeah. Just one big joke to you. Steve even recorded his own parody version of Rod Stewart's.

Again, very long song, do you think I'm sexy? Was it a good parody? You tell me, I've got some of the lyrics right here. Oh, let's see if he can beat next. Flanders, a PG version of the song. Oh, do you have it memorized? Of course you do. Ned Flanders just replaced the word sexy with cuddly.

Well done, Ned. No, Steve's was, Do you think I'm disco? Because I spend so much time blow drying out my hair. Do you think I'm disco? Because I know the dance steps. Learned them all at Fred Astaire. And if you think I'm bad at singing, you should hear Steve.

But the shittiness of that parody song didn't matter to Steve's fans. They loved it. By that point, they had a sense of community. Thanks in no small part to the super cool nickname that Steve gave them. You're ready to hear it? The insane coho lips. Wait, what? That's right.

In those days, if you were... Coho lips? Uh-huh. What does that mean? Oh, well, okay, it's a bit of a thinker here, okay? So put on your thinking cap. There was this gang at the time called the Insleeves. insane unknowns.

And there was also this fish called the Coho Salmon. So the ship name for Steve's fans became insane Coho Lips. It's very cool. And I don't think we should make fun of it at all. When you start off with the insane, I immediately go to Insane Clown Posse. Sure. Sure. But then you pivoted to Coho Lips, which.

It's a lot to think about. Mm-hmm. And I know as a very enthusiastic member, of the insane cloud and posse yourself, you don't really identify with any other group. And I respect that. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Soon, Steve's influence and the passion of the insane coho lips caught the attention of the Chicago white socks.

Oh, my God. What? What? Why? What do you mean? How big was this? What do you mean how big was this? Like how popular were the insane co-ho?

lips? At this point in time, at this point in the story, it would have been hard to say. You know, Steve's this 24-year-old shock jock kind of at a time when that was sort of a new thing. And he definitely had a following, but it was kind of hard to quantify how big that following was. You know, how many casual listeners does a person have versus people who are actually willing to go out to a little disco demolition night, you know? It's hard to know until you throw the Night. Am I right? Now I'm understanding disco demolition. Mm-hmm.

Okay. So the Chicago White Sox take a liking to this young man. So they're going to do like a promotional night? What's wrong with that, Norm? Are you against promotions? That's, isn't that, wait, where's your bobblehead? Didn't you have a bobblehead? Yeah, it's down here.

Oh, okay. Wow. It's third shelf, yeah. Oh, wow. Sorry. Norm has a bobblehead from the Kansas City Royals. You got it in a promotion. Apparently he's anti-promotion now.

I'll show it. Here you go. if you have the video version. This is the Kansas City Royals' original mascot. His name is Mr. Royal. Modeled after my father. He's just like a giant baseball with a crown. And a gigantic nose.

It does kind of look like your dad, actually. Yeah, got him on retro night. Okay, okay. See, at the time, the White Sox were owned by a guy named Bill Vec. And according to ESPN, Bill Vec was the last. last person to buy a major league team without having an independent fortune. Have you heard of this man? Sounds familiar.

Okay, okay. That makes sense that you would have at least heard the name. Now, when we talk about someone who owned a team but didn't have an independent fortune, we're not talking about someone middle class, we're not talking about an everyday guy. His dad had been the president of the Chicago Cubs. And before Bill bought the white socks, he'd previously owned and sold the Cleveland Indians, and the St. Louis Browns. He'd also previously owned the White Sox for a little bit before this, but, you know, details, shmeatails.

So then he bought him back? Yes. Okay. Several years later. So Bill Vec was no stranger to baseball, and baseball was no stranger to him. But unlike the typical sports team owner that we think of today, Bill didn't have just tons of money to burn. He needed butts in seats. He needed people to show up, buy a ticket, and he needed people to show up, buy a ticket, and he didn't have.

If it wasn't too much trouble, maybe watch some baseball. It is interesting how much, like, TV and the Internet has, like, exploded the money in sports. Like, all the TV deals and whatnot. So, yeah, I guess back then, you got to hustle to make some money with some of these teams. Sure. Yeah. What ideas would you have, Norm? How about, oh.

Are you going to act like you just invented disco demolition night? No. I came up with this idea on our vacation, and now I think I should implement it at baseball games. Norm, you don't own a team. I'm going to pitch it to teams. Okay, great. Let's hear it. Salad bar.

Oh, my God. Norm. Salad bar at baseball games. No one wants a salad at a baseball game. Why not? First of all. On a hot summer night, get a nice cool, crisp salad from the salad bar. What are we catching from that salad bar?

What do you mean? Not a fly ball. I just, I guarantee you that the salad's not going to be kept at the proper temperature. We will have ice trays to keep everything cool and at the right temperature. Okay. Well, I look forward to this, Norm. Everyone, you would be horrified to hear Norm's original idea. Do you want to tell them your original idea for the salad bar? Salad bars on airplanes. Right next to the bathroom. What's his idea? That my idea was, you know, it's hard to eat fresh when you're traveling. Sure, sure.

So why not for an extra fee? Put a salad bar on the airplane. It's right up front, kind of where the bathroom is. You know when you first walk in the plane? There's a bathroom, and then there's like a little, tiny little nook where the flight attendants put all their stuff. Yeah. So that's where the salad bar is. Sure, sure.

And so you walk up to the front of the plane. Uh-huh. And the flight attendant, there's going to be a flight attendant guarding the front of, of the plane. Very good. Yeah, we want safety first. And they say, are you here for the bathroom or the salad bar? And, you know, depending on if you purchased your ticket for the salad bar, you can get the salad,

perhaps you need to do both. You need to use the bathroom and get the salad bar. Sure, sure. Two things can be true. Right, as we say a lot on this podcast. And so if that's the case, you get your salad and then you use the bathroom because we don't want to contaminate the salad bar. Oh, yeah, that'd be disgusting.

Right. And this idea is definitely not disgusting. No, I think it's a good idea. I love a good salad bar. Sure. That's a thing I miss dearly from restaurants, salad bars. Yeah, and what I want in a salad bar is for it to be just inches from a toilet, mere inches. There's a door. Don't worry. Oh, I wish there wasn't. Anyhow.

But as far as actual real promotions. Uh-huh. T-shirts. People will come out for T-shirts. Will they? I know for Royals games, when there was a free T-shirt night, the stadium was always packed. Okay. So I feel like T-shirts.

What if the Royals were doing very, very, very badly? What a T-shirt do is? I mean, they were doing badly when we went to some of those games. And, yeah, a T-shirt brought people out. Okay. With all their kids. All right. T-shirts are great promotion.

Not Hot Dogs, though, because you remember that one story I told on your old DeCreferral. Rapid Rotting podcast. I do. The Royal's mascot with his hot dog gun. Sorry. Fired several rounds and hit a man in his eye. Don't Sicki fired several rounds. He did.

The hot dog gun, he fired the hot dog gun. Yes. And the ammunition was hot dogs. And the man was hurt. And so it's not funny. But why are you laughing? You're crying from laughing so hard. You said he fired several rounds.

He did. The rounds were hot dogs. Yes. Okay. So because Bill didn't have this big independent fortune and because he was a very creative guy, he was never afraid of doing something big to get people's attention. And sorry, I think this guy would have wiped his ass with your t-shirt idea, Norm. When he was coming up with ideas, he thought big. For example, he installed a scoreboard at Kamiski Park that had 10 electric pinwheels and wacky sound effects. It shot off fireworks anytime the White Sox scored a home run.

Very cool. Bill did that because in his mind, a home run was a big moment. But once that ball was gone, the moment was gone. But the spectacle of the pinwheels and the sounds and the fireworks kept the excitement going. Did he come up with that idea? Because most stadiums do that now. So a lot of the ideas that I'm going to bring up that it's like, well, yeah, of course, Bill came up with them. Okay.

And it was because he was kind of scrappy. He was innovative. Now, not all of his ideas were winners, and we're going to get to that. He had some kind of salad bar near the toilet ideas, too. Another idea he had was when a player hit a home run. He had the guy come out and do a little curtain call. Oh, hey, that's a little disrespectful. Why?

Unwritten rules of baseball, Kristen. Not supposed to be bragging when you hit a home run. You hit your home run. You walk around the bases. You go back to the dump. You celebrate in the dugout. You don't do a curtain call. Disrespectful. Norman. It is so funny to me that you are reacting this way. Because when I was reading about this, you know, a lot of the kind of stuck up owners of the other teams felt that same way about a lot of his ideas. And so it's just funny to be looking at a modern boy right in front of me who's like, to be honest, I think some of the unwritten rules of baseball are stupid and old-fashioned. Sure. And to MLB's credit, they've really tried to do away with some of them.

So, like, nowadays, they want players to celebrate home runs, you know. Sure. But you don't. No, I'm fine with it. I'm just commenting that back in the day, yeah, that would have been very disrespectful. If I hit a home run, I'd do twirls. I might whip my top off. Wow.

Or not. You know, it would depend on the feeling. But I don't think you have to worry about me hitting a home run. home run. Hain a home run seems like a superpower. Yeah. And that's why there should always be fireworks. Even when I played adult softball, when some of my teammates would hit a home run, I'm just

like, how did he do that? Also, during the seventh inning stretch, he had his announcer, Harry Carey sing, take me out to the ball game. Harry Carey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to know his logic?

What? I love this logic. He was like, Harry Carey is such a bad singer. that if he's the one singing it, everyone will join in. No one will feel intimidated. So this guy has a little bit of showmanship in him. He's like a PT Barnum of baseball a little bit. A bit, yeah.

Bill Vec really changed the game. He made baseball more of a show, more of an experience. He brought in elephants to walk the field. He brought in belly dancers. But as I mentioned earlier, his ideas were not all winners. For example, for a while, he had the White Sox play in shorts. The players hated it because you try sliding into home base in hot pants. That's disgusting.

Playing baseball in shorts. Now one wants to see that. It's funny because I feel like it'd be the kind of thing that like when you start the game, okay. But then like, my God, their legs would be so banged up. It'd be horrible. Yeah. If you have to slide, that would just be brutal. You'd tear your skin off.

Got to wear pants. Another attention-grabbing, but not quite great idea. He installed a shower in the center field bleachers in front of God and everybody. What? Just in case people wanted to cool off. A shower? Yes, yes. I'm sure it didn't attract any perves.

Don't work. Was it an open shower that people could look in and see. Norm, we are talking about a fully open shower. What? Again. Low publicity. One idea I didn't mention here was, I think this was before he was sent off for World War II. He had an idea to, I think it was by the Phillies.

And he was going to fire all the white players and hire black players. But he mentioned it to the commissioner. And the commissioner was like, hell no, goodbye. Wait, when did he suggest this? I think he came up with the idea before he went off to World War II. Oh, pre-Jackie Robinson. Yes, yes. Yeah, it was a hell no.

That's interesting. To the no, no, no. Yeah. So was he going to take players from like the Negro League? Yeah, yeah. Okay. You know, Major League Baseball only recently added Negro League statistics to their database. They now consider them like official statistics.

Well, sure. I'm sure previously those statistics hurt their feelings. Just like when I walk into a room and notice that I'm not the prettiest woman there, I just discount that woman entirely. She doesn't count, you see? Right. We don't count any attractive women in these statistics. Hmm. Hmm.

You've been watching too much Love Island, I feel like. I have been watching just enough Love Island, which, for those listening, that's a lot of Love Island. Yeah. We'll talk about Love Island more at the end of this episode. I'm getting lip fillers. Oh, no. And on top of it, I'm overlining my lips. So I look like a clown.

Oh, good. And then I'll begin talking to you like I'm on Love Island. And I'll say, can I pull you for a chat for a second? Mm-hmm. There's nothing sexier than a clown. I agree. All of this to say that Bill Vec had a reputation. He was innovative.

Other baseball team owners tended to dislike him because they firmly believed that baseball was. boring and should stay that way. But Bill needed to fill the stadium. And without a massive amount of money to fall back on, he had to get creative. But creativity only gets you so far, especially when you don't have the money to pay players what they deserve to be paid. And as a result, by the summer of 1979, the White Sox were playing baseball about as well as a literal pair of white socks that had been thrown out onto the field. Thank you. You know, he kind of reminds us. He kind of reminds me of, have you seen the Savannah

bananas? No. So they're a modern team, but they're kind of like the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, so they just do like wacky stunts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a lot of fun. Like they have a pitcher that's on stilts. That sounds exactly like this guy, yes. Yeah. Yeah, but

he was trying to do it within the confines of Major League Baseball, which, yeah, there are definitely rules you have to follow with a professional sports team, but I can see where his mind is. The shorts idea is just crazy. Yeah, some of the ideas were really bad. Some of them were exploitative, like, you know, having a little person go out there, you know, just... Sure. By the middle of the summer of 1979, the White Sox record was 3545.

Yeah. Sounds like a pretty average team. On average, less than 10,000 people attended their games. That's bad. Yeah. Especially when you consider that Comiskey Park was capable of holding a little over 50,000 people. It was embarrassing. And more than embarrassing, it was a problem. The White Sox needed something, something big to get people into the ballpark. By that point, Bill's son, Mike Vec, was in charge of promotions. And he was in his late 20s and he definitely had a chip on his shoulder. He wanted desperately to prove himself. He wasn't just a Nepo-Bet. baby. He was a big, independent baseball-loving boy. But, I mean, the thing is that until that

point, he hadn't really done anything to stand out. Yeah, I mean, what the VEC are you supposed to do? He needed a win. He needed to make his dad proud and prove once and for all that he deserved the position he'd been given. And when Mike found out about Shock Jock Steve Dahl, and specifically Steve's audience of young, enthusiastic men might got an idea. So one day he showed up at Steve's radio station and he said, What if we host a disco demolition night at Kamiski Park? It'll be so great. Everyone who shows up to the stadium with a disco record will see it blown up in the

middle of the field. Picture it! No! Yes, Norm, picture it. In the middle of the White Sox double header against the Detroit Tigers will put all disco records in a big box, rigged with explosives. No.

And we'll boom, trigger it. And just like that, disco will be demolished. No. Yeah, people will love it. No. Plus, hey, you ready for the cute part? They'll get into the game for just 98 cents because, you know, Steve worked at WLUP 97.9. They rounded up, but we forgive them.

It'll be cheap and fun and really cool and not at all weird or out of control. Okay. I can already see how terrible this is. If you... What? Norm are short-circuiting over this really good idea. No, I just feel like if you explode a bunch of disco records, it's going to be like shrapnel from a grenade and hurt people.

Vinyl records shattering into thousands of pieces would cut you up. Yeah, that could happen. But, you know, I guess if you're going to be a little bit of. about it, you could complain about it. I mean, you're the type to be afraid of a hot dog flying through the air. Yeah. Whoever got hurt from records, shards of records. I'm sure somebody.

Yeah. I mean, they're... Yeah. Am I on the right track here? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're definitely on the right track. Yeah, I knew right away. This is what was going to happen.

But they thought it was a great idea, huh? Yeah. How many people died? No one dies. No one dies. People were hurt. Emotions were also hurt. Oh my God.

Okay. Okay. So it all sounded like a great idea to everyone except for Norm. And we're all ignoring Norm, right? Right. So they agreed that disco demolition day would take place on July 12th, 1979. Steve did his best to promote the event. Like that Smashing Pumpkin song?

Huh? 1979. We don't eat anyone. What? Oh, oh. Smashy pumpkins? No, no, you're a bad singer. I mean, true.

Yes. Yeah, true. Sorry, you couldn't recognize the song. I could not recognize it at all. Yeah. Joe, could you dub over the actual song as I sing? No, please don't. People will be fooled.

Wow, he just sounds just like Billy Corrigan. So, Steve did his best to promote the event, but he was pretty nervous. It was one thing to fill a bar. It was another thing to try to fill a stadium. I'd tell you you fill a bar. How? One dollar mojitos. And 50 cents salad bar.

Oh, I'd be in there in a heartbeat. 50 cent salad bar? To be fair, Steve never dreamed that he'd actually fill the stadium. He just didn't want to be embarrassed by a poor turnout. Well, here's the other thing. It's a double header, right? Yes. Yeah, so it's even harder to fill the stadium on a double header day.

Because no one wants that amount of baseball. Am I right? Yeah, it's just a lot of baseball in one day. Especially the day game. Okay, the first game started at 5 p.m. Oh, kind of a late start for a doubleheader. A poor turnout was worth worrying about because at the time, the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers were the two worst teams in the American League.

Still, the event organizers hoped that this edgy anti-disco promotion would bring in 20,000 people? That'd be about double the turnout of a regular game. For what it's worth, Mike Vec, ever the optimist, believed in the event and was totally prepared for 35,000 people to show up to the 5 o'clock game. And so... I have a question. What? You said the tickets were 98 cents?

Yes. How much was a ticket usually at the time? Oh, I have no idea. I'm just wondering if that's, like, cheap. Well, it would have to be cheap. I mean, nobody does a promotion. They're like, and now it's more expensive. Okay, I didn't know if tickets were a dollar and now they're 98 cents, you know.

Just here to ask questions. A big gaping hole in my research. Clearly. I actually had that written out here, but I blew it up. So the only, like, big thing they're doing at this game is they're blowing up a bunch of disco records. The only big thing, you don't understand how much I hate disco, okay? We want it to die. It's very unhinged.

Please don't examine it. Okay. And so, July 12, 1979, came along. And wow. Mamma Mia! So did the people. Tons and tons of insane coho lips as far as the eye could see. They came with disco records.

They came with signs that read, Disco sucks! They wore rock and roll t-shirts. Did they care about baseball? Not really, but who cares? Soon the stadium reached capacity, an astounding 52,000 people filled the stadium. But here's the thing. There were more coming. So many more.

What? And the people who were pumped to destroy disco didn't tank kindly to being turned away. They snuck in. They shook the ticket booths. Were they hiding in that shower in center field? There's nowhere to hide. I don't know how to describe it to you, Normans. Out there for everybody.

I can't believe they sold this place out. They climbed the gates. They wanted to be part of the action. And of course, stadium security, which at that point was mostly out near the field, was like, oh, God, I guess we have to deal with this. So they did their best to manage the madness, but that was next to impossible. The insane coho lips were unstoppable. They were coming out in droves. By this point, the traffic coming to Kamiski Park was officially a problem. It was backed up from the park to Chicago O'Hare Airport.

That's like 17 miles deadlocked. Whoa. Chicago police closed the two expressway exits near the stadium in the hopes that people would just go home. Meanwhile, inside the stadium, the people that managed to get into the game were more than a little amped. They'd only paid 98 cents to get in. So why not blow the rest of their money on beer? Hell yeah. They got drunk.

They threw stuff onto the field. And if you're wondering what they threw, well, you should know that in the chaos of getting all those people into the stadium, the White Sox staff had oopsies kind of dropped the ball on collecting all the disco records. And let me tell you, you don't know fear until you've had a 45 whipped at you like a frisbee by a drunk Chicago man. It would be a deadly weapon. Of course, the crowd wasn't just drinking. I regret to inform you that some people in the stands might have shat their pants brought along their pet skunks.

What? Oh, weed? In fact, marijuana. One group of rowdy fans brought a big poster that read rock and roll on the bottom, and Normant had the strangest picture of a leaf over it. We just don't understand what was happening. As the manager of the Detroit Tigers later, put it, quote, beer and baseball go together. They have for years, but I think those kids were doing

things other than beer. Oh, someone brought a skunk to the game. It was a mess. The event was supposed to be a little wild, but this was too much. As the owner of the White Sox, Bill Vec later put it, sometimes a promotion can go too well. And yeah, it did go too well. Steve's fans were going nuts, and Nothing had even happened yet. Just a little baseball. In total, the White Sox had hoped to get 20,000 people to show up. But that day, an estimated 90,000 people came out to witness the disco demolition doubleheader.

Okay. Okay. Hang on a second. Uh-huh. I am flabbergasted why 90,000 people showed up to this promotion. And not everybody got in, obviously. Right. So I just Googled the average MLS.

B ticket price in 1979. Okay. $4.12. So $98. is very, very cheap to get into a professional baseball game. Does the ticket cover both games? Because it's a double

header. I assume. I assume. Holy moly. But you seem to be thinking that maybe some people in the crowd were just big baseball fans. Right from the start, the announcers were talking about how this was the youngest crowd they'd ever seen at a professional.

baseball game. That's not to say no one was there for baseball, but you look at this crowd and you go, not very many people are here for baseball. Imagine like, you know, Ruth and Ebenezer. Longtime White Sox fans got their season tickets behind Home Plate and Ruth's telling Ebenezer. Smells like skunks out here. Look at all these young kids. I don't like the looks of these teenagers.

They'd be leaving. Yep. I would hope. This was a disaster waiting to happen. But at this point, Mike Vec was thrilled. He'd done it. They'd had to close down parts of the highway because he'd been so awesome at his job. They had to close the gates of the stadium.

They hadn't even had to do that for the World Series. This was the biggest success ever. Oh, baby, my left butt cheek. Mike was in the big leagues now. So, the game got started. And if anybody had a bad feeling about how this would end, it was for sure drowned out by the constant chanting of the fans. Disco sucks.

Disco sucks. Disco sucks. Ultimately, the first game was nothing to write home about. The Tigers won four to one. Any other day, that might have been sad. but it's not like Ethel and Ebenezer were there rooting for the home team. Ruth and Ebenezer. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

He was having an affair with Ethel. Oh. I hate to, you know, bring that up, but it's just true. They were there to demolish disco. And as soon as the game ended, our little shock jock Steve doll did not disappoint. He circled the field in a military jeep wearing a helmet and army fatigues like he was going into battle. Don't stand too close to the explosives, Steve. Speaking of helmets, a lot of the players put on batting helmets,

because as I already mentioned, some of the disco records had been collected from the fans, but a lot of them hadn't. And now that the demolition was about to happen, people started really flinging them through the air. It was starting to get dangerous. But worrying about dangerous is not very rock and roll, so I'll stop talking about it. Because it's officially showtime.

The Jeep stopped in center field. And Steve grabbed the mic. He hyped up the crowd. He didn't prepare any remarks. Instead, he just spoke from the heart. He led them through chants. Disco sucks. Disco sucks.

Disco sucks. Sucks. Did he get out of breath and kind of mess up the chant? Yes, but please remember. The disco is the enemy and not Steve's cardiovascular health. But he was in a Jeep. Why is he out of breath? Fair questions.

Pretty soon they were ready for the main event. And Steve had inspiring words. He yelled, And we're never going to let him forget it. They're not going to shove it down our throats. We rock and rollers will resist and we will triumph. And then he directed their attention to centerfield. where a large box of disco records lay waiting to be destroyed.

Oh, boy. Someone lit the fuse. And our boy, Steve, who did not have great timing, said into the microphone. One, two, three, boom. And it hadn't exploded yet. So it took a while for the spark to make its way down the fuse. Did they have one of those awkward silence? They had one of those old cartoon plungers?

Oh, I don't know, because the first. the footage I watched didn't show the person lighting it, so I'm not sure about that. I just know that he said one, two, three, boom, which it's like, dude, let the explosion do the boom noise. And boom goes the dynamite. So there was this awkward silence and the crowd booed because those disco records were still a kicking, but then, oh wait, the spark started flying, and then... Smoke everywhere! Records everywhere! They're shot into the sky, shards of disco records splintering the night. Ow, ow.

It was so amazing. Cool. The crowd went wild. Steve yelled into the mic. Yeah, that blew up real good. This guy's a shock jockey? He doesn't really have a way with words. I think he might have been a little out of his element at this point.

That blew up real good. Yeah. But maybe it blew up a little. a little too good. And maybe the planning for this event had been a little lackluster. Because when they blew up the records, part of the box that contained the records caught fire. Okay, some people refer to it as a dumpster.

It didn't look like a dumpster in the footage. And I would suspect that a regular dumpster would not catch fire. Yeah, dumpsters are usually made a metal. Right. But this thing caught fire. And once again, this was in center field in the middle of a double header. Oh, no. Meaning that unfortunately there was more baseball to be played.

Well, and there's grass on the field. Very good point. But thanks to that explosion and the subsequent fire, a good portion of center field was just gone. Just charred. And anyone who knows anything about baseball knows that the center of the field is quite critical to the game itself. Don't you agree, Norm? You really got to keep it. You want to keep all of the field, ideally.

I mean, yeah. I don't know why center field specifically. It's quite important. Sure. It's quite important. usually the deepest part of the ballpark. Sure, quite deep, quite deep, and you want to keep all of it intact, ideally. Yeah.

That's enough baseball talk. Okay. I need to quiz you on some more baseball stuff. Because now you're doing your second baseball episode. Let's see if you've learned anything. The crowd was going bonkers, Norm. But the White Sox pitcher, a guy named Ken Kravick went out to the mound to start warming up for the next game. But those insane coho lips were still right in high.

from their disco demolition. And they wanted to get down onto the field. They wanted to buggy onto the field. No, they don't. They hate disco. And so they did. A guy on the upper deck slid down the foul pole. People in the center field bleachers jumped onto the field.

Thousands of them poured out onto the field. Were they singing, we are family? No, but they were enjoying the sense of community that they had built. Oh, poor Ken was like, yikes. He skedaddled off the field. And it was at that moment that the owner's son, Mike Vec, was standing behind second base. Oh, my God. He'd been riding a high all night, enjoying the success of his amazing promotion.

It really hadn't occurred to him until that moment that he might have come up with a really terrible idea. The crowd ran wild on the field, waving their homemade signs, lighting their homemade signs on fire for some reason. And then for funsies, you know, sliding into bases and literally stealing the base, which... This is 10-cent beer night all over again. Sure is. Sure is. Honestly, I do wish I could just go back and just be a spectator to this event. Are you...

Norm, do you know yourself? What? You would hate this. You would be Ebenezer in this situation. You would take one look at these teenagers and be like, Ethel, we're going home. That's true. Or Ruth... I'm also having an affair with Ethel.

I would want to watch from a television The comfort of my own home. The great news is you can watch footage of this event. You don't have to go back in time. Great. Great. In total, an estimated 7,000 people jump down onto the field. And the stadium's 35 security guards were helpless to try and stop them.

Or they like, hold the line. Hold! White Sox management wasn't sure quite what to do. I mean, in fairness, they did try everything. For example, they changed the scoreboard to read, please return to your seats. That'll do it. Everyone, look at the scoreboard.

Oh, wait, we shouldn't be doing this. Look what the scoreboard says. Announcer Harry Carey said, Holy cow! And then, hey, what say we all regain our seats so we can play baseball again? Not even Harry Carey is going to get these people back in their seats. Yeah, the crowd did not.

do that. They ripped up the grass in the infield. They whipped records through the air. Here's a fun thing. What's more dangerous than throwing a 45 through the air? How about shards of a 45? Oh, there it is. I'm surprised the explosion didn't hurt people. Do you think it did? It very well might have. I'm going to get to the, you know, this story is still in progress. It was chaos. Something needed to be done. But no one could quite agree on what needed to have. happen. See, Bill Vec, owner of the White Sox, tried to downplay what was going on. He was like, what's the problem? The crowd is just having a real good time. They're just so happy. Pretty soon everyone's going to calm down and we'll play our next game. But the manager of the

Tigers was like, dude, are you serious? This is a mess. You need to forfeit right now. Or postpone the game. Well, those two argued back and forth and argued back and forth until eventually someone had to call Daddy. And by Daddy, I mean the president of the American League. Oh, I thought you could say the president of the United States. No. Jimmy Carter, we'll take care of this. Anyhow, Daddy said, we're going to postpone the second game. Yeah, there it is.

There would be no more baseball that night. It was official. Everyone needed to leave. Right now. Yeah, put it on the scoreboard. Right now. Okay, on the count of three. One, two, three.

Get out of here. Yeah, a lot of people didn't want to leave. Hell no. And they were also, you know, pretty awesome at math because they were like, mm, 7,000 of us, 35 them. I think we'll stay. They've taken over. Yeah.

And who's going to stop them? I'll tell you who stopped him. This thing got resolved the old-fashioned way with Chicago police coming out on the field in riot gear. And when that wasn't enough, they brought in mounted police on horses. Ooh. That night, police arrested 39 people. for disorderly conduct, six people were injured in addition to all the disco records.

When word got out about what happened at the White Sox game, people were pretty disgusted. The stunt had been an absolute mess, a disgrace. The next day, American League President Lee McPhail, aka Daddy, ordered the White Sox to forfeit the second game to the Tigers. Oh. Yeah. That's the equivalent of a spanking. That doesn't happen very often.

That is a spanking for sure. What had happened at Disco Demolition Night was too much, but was little Stevie sorry? Not really. No, it's not his fault. He might have been able to calm the crowd a little bit, don't you think? He can't even hype him up. Oh, they were hyped. He was like, that blew up real good.

You think his words are going to, he's so uninspiring. He filled the stadium. That morning he was back on the radio. By that point, the calamity of disco demolition had hit the news, and the verdict was unanimous. Steve and his insane coho lips had been world-class assholes. Steve read a few headlines on air. He mocked them, and then he gave his thoughts. He said, I think for the most part everything was wonderful.

Some maniac cohoes got wild, went down on the field, which you shouldn't have done. Bad little co-hose. Gross. He's their daddy. Ew. In other words, sorry, not sorry. Yeah. But that dude should have been sorry.

A lot of people say that this event, Disco Demolition Night on July 12th, 1979, is the event that killed disco. People talk about it like a book burning. The effect... What? Kill Disco. That's what they say. The effect of it was devastating for a lot of artists,

and for people who really just loved the music or loved what it represented. And nowadays, modern coverage of Disco Demolition Night rightly addresses that the reason that hatred for disco spoke to so many people was that it was rooted in racism and homophobia and discomfort with something different. Oh, you don't like it, do you? No, I'm just thinking about it. Okay. A Chicago DJ named Darlene Jackson, who goes by DJ Lady D, was interviewed about it. And she said, quote, I think part of what Steve tapped into was a little bit of this unspoken transcript that this is the music of black people, of gay people, of Latino people, and we should not accept it. We should not try to be part of it. And so that's why people perceive it as a homophobic and a racist event. That unspoken transcript, a lot of us heard it. A historian named Ayana Conteras was interviewed for a documentary called The War on Disco.

And she said, yes, you had a perfect storm of disenfranchised youth and alcohol. But I don't think that Steve Dahl intended for a riot to happen. I think the ultimate point was that it was the other. That's what they were rallying against, the people who were not like themselves. As for Steve, well, he's still around, and he doesn't much care for the modern interpretation of disco demolition night. Yeah, what does Steve say? He said a lot of things over the years, but in an end of the time, interview, he said, the worst thing is people calling disco demolition homophobic or racist. It just

wasn't. It's really easy to look at it historically from this perspective and attach all those things to it. But we weren't thinking like that. What do you think? I think that's so stupid. First of all, I completely believe Steve, he's a 24-year-old shock jock. He's just trying to rile people up. Sure. I fully believe that at that point in time, he did not understand why people were responding so strongly to his hatred for disco. I would bet anything that he was just a guy trying to build his platform and he said something that caught on and maybe he didn't fully understand why it caught on, but he ran with it because that's what you do. Yeah. But it's always disappointing to me when years go by and people can't get beyond the thing of, but my intention was this.

But I didn't intend for that, you know? I think you've got to ask yourself, why did this catch on with people? Yeah. And I think it's obvious why it caught on. It was racism and it was homophobia. And yeah, I don't believe that Steve consciously did that. I don't think Mike Vec consciously did that. I think Mike Vec really was trying to fill seats.

And he had a chip on his shoulder. And, you know, this was going to be a big thing. Yeah. And, like, I feel like rock and roll fans have always been like that with, like, new, trendy genres of music. See, I think a lot of it comes down to who likes the music and who's making the music. So I've always thought, I've always thought it was so weird. Like, especially if anything takes off with teenage girls. As a white lady, that's what I'm going to pick up.

Okay. Teenage girls. Like, when Justin Bieber first came on the scene. Baby, baby, baby. Oh, and he had his little swishy haircut. If people were wondering what Justin Bieber sounded like. That's exactly. That wasn't a clip.

Believe it or not, that was Norm singing. But no, do you remember when he first came out on the scene? He's clearly a child making music for, other children. Yes. But like 40-year-old men made it their thing to like dunk on him and dunk on all the Justin Bieber. And it just seems like anytime there's anything that little girls like or, you know, some specific group likes, it's suddenly not weird at all for like 40-year-old dudes to talk shit on it, which I always think that's weird. If it's not for you, don't worry about it.

it. If it's not hurting anybody, don't worry about it. I remember when the rock and roll hall of fame announced they were going to start inducting hip hop artists. The old crotchety rock and roll fans lost their minds. Larding rock and roll, bra, bra, bra, you know. Very cool. No one should go to therapy. No one should examine it at all.

No. I didn't care about Justin Bieber because I heard Justin Bieber and was just like, Yeah, that's just what the young people like right now. That's a normal thing. That's just what happens. Yeah. It's like when you were young and Hanson came out. And I'm sure a bunch of old crotchety people were like,

are boys with long hair singing and bebopping on the keyboard. These girls are going crazy for it. You do a great impression of an old man. Thank you. Now, when Susan Boyle came out, boy was I all in. We all know it. We all know it, Norm. I dream, I dream.

It's funny. I've been thinking about that concept of you do something and it takes off with an audience and maybe you don't fully understand why. And the example that keeps coming to mind is from our real life. And I think I'm going to try to describe it. And if we have to cut it, we'll cut it. I'm going to try to be like really, really vague. So it's not clear who I'm talking about. And it might be so vague that it's not even worth mentioning.

But quite a while back, there was this YouTuber who made videos that I would watch them and be like, oh, these are sexist videos. Like, to me, it was not a mystery. They're sexist. Okay. So he's making these videos. He's developing this following. Okay. And then all of a sudden he did this video.

And it was about something sexist that happened to a woman. And he was talking about how bad it was. and his audience just went for him. They were so mad at him for having this take. And he was shocked, shocked by his audience's reaction. I think I know you're talking about. And I remember thinking, wow, that's so funny. This guy has been putting out these perhaps mildly sexist videos for however long,

building up an audience, but clearly he doesn't see them as sexist videos. Clearly, he doesn't understand what is striking a chord with his audience. Right. And so then he says something to defend a woman who's been the victim of something sexist, and he was just shocked by who his audience was. Yeah. What do you think? Was that worth bringing up? Sure.

But I want to get back to Mike Vick, Bill Vek's son. Okay. Because he had a take that I thought was kind of interesting. In the aftermath of that night, he felt so much shame. Now, I don't think he was seeing it through the lens of, oh, my God, what we've done here was, you know, hurtful to all the... No, he was just feeling shame. He's probably embarrassed.

Oh. I mean, we have to forfeit a game because of your fan's behavior. It's embarrassing. You're already a joke in the league, And this just further validates that feeling. Well, and you're trying to prove that you're not just the owner's son. And so you're racking your brain, trying to come up with some promotion that will get butts in seats. And, ooh, boy, you overshot.

Yeah. So that night, he resigned. Wow. And he apologized to his dad. But, of course, his dad didn't accept his resignation because, you know, there are perks to being an EPO baby. Gave him a kiss on the cheek. No, Bill, Bill didn't accept his son's resignation, and, you know, he took responsibility for what happened. But he did have to sell the team about a year later.

And Mike felt some responsibility for that. You know, Disco Demolition Night had been a disaster. Yeah. In a documentary about his life, he emphasized that the intention, of course, was just to fill seats. But he said he understands that the event was painful for a lot of people. and if he could go back in time, he wouldn't have done it. Yeah. For years, Mike stayed away from baseball, but he eventually got back in. He bought a minor league team, and then another, and then another.

And he continued the vect tradition of doing anything it took to get attention. He hired Daryl Strawberry when nobody wanted him. Daryl Strawberry. Uh-huh. New York Mets. He hired a woman named Ila Borders to pitch, and she became the first. woman to make the roster of a men's professional baseball team. Oh.

He did a lot of wacky gimmicks. Yeah. And his dad, Bill Vec, was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. And Mike Vec has definitely made a name for himself in baseball. But he is still, to this day, best known for spearheading the disastrous Disco Demolition Night. Poor Mike. But did Disco Demolition Night really killed?

disco or did it live on? Did it survive? Is it still staying alive? Whoa. In an interview, the fabulous Gloria Gaynor took issue with the idea that this event killed disco. Yeah, I do too. I honestly have never heard of this event and I feel like disco, I lost popularity, but to say that it killed disco. Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to say because people certainly say that and I hesitate to be the one who's like, well, I doubt it, you know, not really knowing. But I do think it's that thing of it was getting too corporate. It was over exposed. And then maybe there was a tipping point. But I want to share her quote because I think it's a good one. Okay. She says, my first reaction was that it was silly. If you don't like the music, don't listen. I still don't think it affected anything except the use of the word disco. The music's a lot. live and well. It just changed its name to protect the innocent. And if they did kill it, they didn't

kill me. Oh, who can't kill disco. Great song. Yeah. You know, one quote that I didn't include was, you know, people talking about watching footage of the event on TV. Yeah. And I can't remember who said it, but they were like, if that had been a bunch of black and brown kids, thousands of them jumping down onto the field, tearing stuff up, lighting stuff on fire, yeah, it would have ended differently, I think. Anyway, that's the story of Disco Demolition Night.

How have I never heard of that before? I don't know. It's funny. Tencent beer night I have heard of. Well, I think part of it is 10 cent beer night is just fun and goofy and just a disaster. Just go demolition night. It's not goofy, you know, because of homophobia and racism. It just brings in this other angle to it that is uncomfortable to reckon with.

And I feel like if you're trying to tell a fun story, this really isn't a fun story. Yeah, I mean, Tencent Beer Night was entertaining in that. Yeah, a lady with her hooters out in like the second inning. Yeah. It's too soon for Hooters. Yeah, I don't know. This one didn't seem as fun for sure. No, it wasn't as fun.

Yeah. It definitely wasn't. And it's funny because when I covered 10 cent beer night, we got a lot of recommendations to cover this one. And I was like, oh, that sounds so fun, just kind of seeing the highlights of it. But then you get into the deeper cultural implications and what it meant for different groups of people. And it's like, oh, God. This just sucks. Yeah, it kind of, it's a little.

deeper than 10 cent beer night. It's a lot deeper. Think of the cultural implications of 10 cent beer night, Kristen. I'm thinking about it right now. Oh, my thoughts are done. But no, I think it also Disco Demolition Night, I think it's an interesting study in how we reckon with the things we've done in life. Yeah. And do you get super defensive? and say, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what it was about. It wasn't about racism. It wasn't about homophobia. Or do you try to take a more nuanced take and realize, like, oh, shit, maybe that struck a chord with people.

Don't never underestimate the, like, yeah, the subconscious feelings, you know. Yeah. I'm just imagining if a team was like, we're having a hip-hop destruction night. Oh, God. We are sick of hip hop. Can you imagine? I think it'd be exactly like this. Well, yeah.

Yeah. It's funny, I hadn't thought of a modern version of that. Yeah. But yeah, it'd be terrible. It'd be a problem. Would not attend. I do have to tell you something else that I didn't include in the script, but I found really entertaining. Okay.

Okay. So this Mike, that guy, you know, long career, a lot of mistakes, a lot of good ideas. I would argue his biggest mistake was what he named his son. Do you want to know what he named his son? Yes. Night train. Night train veck? Night train veck.

And let me tell you, let me tell you, night train veck. Okay, did he say why he named his son? Yeah, because it was fucking cool, Norm. Oh, my bad. I didn't think about it like that. Duh, duh, it was cool. I saw footage of night train. He is the most average-looking non-threatening young man you've ever seen in your life.

It is hilarious that his name is Night Train, Beck. That poor boy. When he was interviewed, he was just like, yeah, I've got a weird last name, and I have a weird first name. And he was basically like, I know my dad thought that this would be cool, but I think he really underestimated how many people would tease me in elementary, middle, high school, and in business. Like, who's going to take night train seriously? Don't worry, boys. We're going to close this deal.

We're bringing in the night train. Yeah. Yeah, that's a tragedy. It is a tragedy for sure. Night train. Fuck, that sucks. It sure does. That sucks so much.

Poor guy. I just changed my name. I don't want my name to be fucking night train. Good God. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot to deal with. I love my name. Congratulations, Norm.

Yeah. Well, Kristen, thank you for that interesting tale. Surprisingly serious tale. Surprisingly serious since it was about disco and demolition and knights. Kristen, I promised the hose, the history hose. We would do a little commentary on Love Island USA, which you've been watching quite a bit. You have also been watching quite a bit. I have.

I have to act like this is something I'm doing on my own. I do have to admit, it's very well done reality show. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Everyone, if you haven't watched Love Island, let me describe it to you. It is softcore pornography with a lot of drama thrown in. Basically, yes. And if you think that there should be a limit to the amount of lip filler people get, this is not the show for you.

Nope. Not the show for you. The concept is there's a big old house on an island, and they'd, bring in... In Fiji. Mm-hmm. They bring in five single women in the beginning. They only bring in five, right?

It's so funny to me that you're worried about numbers when what people really need to know. It's an important part of the show. It's all aggressively hot people. And the only thing they're covering up are their buttholes, basically. Mm-hmm. That's the deal. Right. And I tell you what, if you want workout motivation, watch a bunch of 22-year-olds running around in thongs.

I'm like, I got to get back. on the stair master. This is really something. I got to get on Love Island. No, I'm not saying I want to get on Love Island. Although I do think a Love Island season full of just a real mix of middle-aged people. I'd watch it. Oh, it'd be hilarious.

It'd be hilarious. So they bring in like five single women and five single men. They're all hot and they all have to like pair up and become couples. and then... Make a connection. They have to make a connection. And then slowly they bring in more men and women, more hot dudes, more hot ladies. And then suddenly, oh, how strong is this connection?

Maybe I want to get with somebody new. And hijinks ensue. It's a pretty good show. I think it's way too long. There's like 40 episodes a season, which is insanely. There are a million episodes. And if you're thinking, oh, this is a half an hour show, absolutely not. It is a very long show.

It's a full commitment. You've got to really be in it for the long haul. And if you don't like the sounds of people sloppily making out with each other, this show is also not for you. They get that mic in close sometimes. Can you imagine being 22 years old and being on that show? Oh, God. I would have made an absolute fool of myself.

Oh, I would have been terrible on that show. I was so shy at 22. Yeah, but you know what? Here's what might have happened. America would have fallen in love with me. Sure, but also. And I wasn't in good shape either. Well, yeah, neither one of us would have made the show.

I'm just saying, this is fantasy land, Norm. I'm just saying, like, I can see in a situation like that where everyone is aggressively trying to couple up, a guy who's a little more quiet and reserved, people might be like, oh, my God, a mystery, man. I need to know him better when really you're just scared shitless and you're like, you know, hiding out, making avocado toast. for everyone. Oh, Norm's in the bathroom again. I hope he's okay. It's the nervous poops. This is just a lot of social interaction for me.

Looks like Norm's having toast again for breakfast. Oh, these boys are a lot bigger than me. I mean, it would be many things. It would be the social interactions. It would be being away from home, not sleeping in my own bed. in your mommy, sure. Yeah, I'd miss my mom, for sure. Yeah.

I lived with my mom when I was 22. I know. When Chris and I first started dating, I was living with my mom. Oh. Yeah. Love Island, I would not do very well. But it is very entertaining to watch. The conversations they have on the show are just...

Amazing. They're so deep. They might be too deep for you. On inspiring. For example, this is a true story. Norman and I just watched an epic. episode where this young couple started talking about how they had both seen the movie. Was it Avatar, The Last Airbender?

The show. TV show. Oh, TV show. Okay. So they'd both seen this show. Mm-hmm. Okay. Like, that's it.

They'd both seen a TV show. Right. Well, they were both blown away by this. Couldn't believe it. And in the confessionals afterward, they were talking about how amazing their conversation had been. Right. Amazing. They also discuss the film Shrek.

Which is a little known film. Not a lot of people have seen it. So when you find someone out in the wild who has also seen Shrek, you got to open-mouth kiss him. That's my deal. Yeah. Full ton. Wedding ring, off. Normal understand.

This dude's seen Shrek. This guy knows about Shrek. I'm fucked. Kristen's going to leave me. So do we give this tooth on? Up, 12 thumbs up, what do we give it? Love Island? Yeah.

Oh, two thumbs up. It's a good reality show. Okay. All right. There are some things they do in the show that I would change. Oh, okay. Tell me more. The challenges.

They don't mean anything. That's what I love about it. One, the chat. Well, they go on for way too long if they don't mean anything. I mean, you fast forward through a lot of them. Well, I do, because sometimes the challenges are disgusting. Yeah. It's really, the challenges are really about like trying to make people.

people jealous because a lot of them are like, okay, you grab this banner and then you go make out with so-and-so whoever's banner you grabbed. You don't understand enough about drama. That is the point of the challenge. You've got to have the drama. And my favorite, if I'm picking a favorite, is when they pick like, here's what America is saying about you. You have to guess what someone tweeted.

And then people get in their feelings and it's a whole thing. That's a good, that's actually a good challenge, actually. Yeah. Like reading America's feedback on them. The other thing I don't like about the show is that a lot of the contestants come on and they say how old they are and it makes me feel very old. And so I came up with a suggestion that when you come on the show, you don't say your age. You just say I was born before or after 9-11. And that gives me a much more general frame of reference.

It doesn't make me feel as bad. So, please. So bringing up 9-11 makes you feel better. And it wouldn't just be one time. It'd be every contestant. Right. I want the contestant come on and say, hi, I'm Nicholas. I was born after 9-11.

I'm 6'1, 205 pounds. And I love a girl with a big old booty, you know, something like that. This is right up there with your salad bar by the bathroom idea. Pure gold, solid gold. I will say, of course, you can't help but feel old watching Love Island. You also can't help but feel like a hypocrite if you're me because I was watching this for like a long time, just giggling at these people who would come on and be like, I'm Hannah, I'm 22, and I've really been through some stuff because I've been in two relationships. So I'm blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh my God, these kids, these kids.

And then I realized after like a long time of being like, these kids that I met my husband when I was 22. See, you're looking for love. That's all they're looking for. It's true. Except I didn't get any prize money when I paired up with you. It feels like a real missed opportunity. Wow. Were you paid to date me or something?

No, that's what I'm saying. It was all free. You deserved a prize. Was it that bad dating me? That's not what I'm saying. Oh, my God. Troubles brewing, folks. Speaking of bad, I just realized I never really filled out my sources for this.

So we'll see how it goes for our outro. Oh, boy. Okay. Should we wrap this episode up and see how Kristen does? Yeah, because my day quills really, you know, wearing off. And also, we've got more Love Island to watch. Absolutely. I have to know how my girl

Elandria's doing. Oh, and that's the other thing is Norm is obsessed with Alandria. I also am too, but Norm is more in like maybe he'll leave me for Olandria way. No, no, no. You only say that because What? She might have other prospects, is what I'm saying, Norm. Oh, okay. No, you are my one and only dear.

Thank you. Even though my parents paid you a prize money. Surprise money. I wish they had. I wish they had. Anyway, Kristen, you know what they say about history hosts? We always cite our sources, maybe. Yeah, and we always fill out our sources.

That's right. For this episode, I got my information from two documentaries, The Saint of Second Chances and the War on Disco, plus reporting from ESPN, WBUR, and PBS. That's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to an old-timey podcast. Please give us a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts. And while you're at it, subscribe.

Support us on Patreon at patreon.com slash old-timey podcast. Join the Reddit community, R-Sleash-old-Timey podcast. Follow us on Facebook and YouTube and Instagram at Old Timey Podcast. You can also follow us individually on Instagram. I'm at Kristen Pitts-Keruso. Hey, and he's at Gaming Historian. And until next time. Tooteloo, Tata, and Cheerio.

Bye! Bye! See ya. Mm-hmm.