Disco Divas

Remember these ladies?


Hawaiian born Yvonne Elliman's claim to fame is the 'Saturday Night Fever' #1 hit, 'If I Can't Have You'. The Bee Gees had originally wanted Yvonne to sing their big hit 'How Deep Is Your Love'.


Can you dig Maxine Nightingale's 'fro? Her big hit was 1976's 'Right Back Where We Started From'. Trust me, you'd remember it if you heard it...and good luck getting it out of your head for the rest of the day!

Disco Barbie!

Barbie during the Disco Years...

Sure, there's the hat...but what about those fancy green earrings?!






Gold lame'. Wow.



Headed to 'da club'...




Is it just me, or does she kinda look like Wheezie Jefferson?




She's fancy.

In the future, we all dress like...!

Just got through watching the first season of 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century', which ran in 1979 -80 and was way fun. Mega-cheesy even by the Disco Years standard. The premise is that astronaut Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) was accidentally frozen in his spaceship in 1987, only to be thawed out 500 years later. He now works with the defense division of a post-holocaust Earth. Buck's a rebel and has a way with the ladies, which gets him in all sorts of trouble (imagine that!). He mainly works with Dr. Huer (Tim O'Connor) and Wilma (Erin Gray), who's a Colonel in the starfighters.

Some show highlights:

- Any episode with Princess Ardala. She's the chief villainess of the show, who's primary mission seems to be to 1) get Buck to marry her and b) destroy the Earth. In that order. Pamela Hensley is smokin' and turns the vamp wattage up to max.

- The 'space age' disco dancing. In the future, we'll be dancing with weird cylinder-like things or lighted cords or big rubberbands. Don't ask me why. However, the best dance scene is the space roller boogie performance at one of the banquet dinners for the princess. Four glittered, spandexed, big-haired guys and gals give it their all. Beyond awesome.

- Twikki...sometimes. I thought it was pretty cool that Mel Blanc (of Looney Toons fame) voiced Twikki, though the little robot could get irritating sometimes. Biddy-biddy-biddy-biddy.

- The season 1 finale featuring Julie Newmar, who faces off with Buck and the princess we love to hate. Julie's dressed like the wicked queen from 'Snow White'. That kinda tells you all you need to know.and, of course . . .

- The slutty space outfits. The ability to breath was evidently not included as a requirement in Gil and Erin's contracts, because Buck and Wilma (the hottest head of military ever) sport the tightest of tight spandex more often than not. Of course, they're dressed more conservatively than the 'damsel of the week', who inevitably falls in love with Buck as he rescues her. I'm amazed they got Pamela Shoop's outfit in one episode past censors.

In season 2 (1981), the series tones down the camp and gets into more serious sci-fi territory. Buck, Wilma and Twikki head off in an Enterprise-like research ship with assorted crew members. The clothes are a lot looser (Wilma's in a kind of sailor suit) , Mel Blanc is no longer Twikki's voice and one of the new crew members is an old British guy who dresses and talks like he's in the 1940s. I'm not really surprised that the show only lasted 13 more episodes.

p.s. Saw Gil and Erin at Dragon-con in Atlanta a few years back and they both still look really good. How 'bout a sequel?!

I am your father!

Check out Entertainment Weekly this week for a few cool shots from the set of 1980’s ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. There’s a new book coming out for which George Lucas opened his archives. Should be pretty cool! I think the general consensus is that this one is the best Star Wars film, but my personal favorite is ‘Return of the Jedi’ (Jabba the Hutt puts it over the top for me...he rocks.)

Go Joe Go!

When I was a little kid I had hours of fun with my G.I. Joes. They’d play right along with my Six Million Dollar Man and Zira and Cornelius from ‘The Planet of the Apes’. In 1977 and 1978 Hasbro introduced a sort of sci-fi Joe series called the Super Joe Adventure Team. They’d battle super foes like Gor and Terron.

The Super Joes had a ‘1-2 Punch’ that would cause their arms to extend when a button on their backs was pressed. Electronics were even integrated into the toys. When a Super Joe would punch Gor, his ‘Destructo Ray’ (a red light on his chest) would flicker. The Joe’s power vest also interacted with the moveable Terron, stopping him in his tracks!

Fun stuff!

Where Were They Then

I thought it would be fun to see what some of the biggest stars of today were doing in 1978, the heart of the Disco Years. Interesting how several of them were right on the cusp of success...

Meryl Streep was already well on her way to a successful career in 1978, with the release of 'The Deer Hunter', for which she received her first Academy Award nomination. She was also in 'Holocaust'...remember that mini-series? She married sculptor Don Gummer in September of that year.

Mel Gibson hadn't yet made it big in 1978. He'd done some TV and extra work . . . but was only a year away from 'Mad Max'. Still living in Australia, he did a good bit of theatre work for the South Australian Theatre Company, including ‘Oedipus’ and ‘Henry IV’. Pretty high-brow for the future ‘Lethal Weapon’ star, huh?

Robert De Niro was already a big star in 1978, most well known for the phenomenon 'The Godfather', which was released a few years earlier. He'd even participated in a version of 'The Godfather' developed for television the prior year (which I'd never heard of) before scoring another hit in 1978 with 'The Deer Hunter'...co-starring Ms. Streep, of course. Unfortunately, in his private life, he divorced singer-actress Diahnne Abbott that year.

Anthony Hopkins was already a busy actor, working a good deal in TV movies before moving on to theatrical movie roles. He'd had some successes in 1977, including 'Audrey Rose' which I highly recommend. In 1978 he starred in 'International Velvet' and 'Magic'. 'Magic' is totally creepy...he received a BAFTA and Golden Globe nomination for his work in that.

Sigourney Weaver was on the verge of her breakout role as Ripley in 'Alien'...one of the scariest movies ever! She was still toiling away, though she did land a small part in ‘Annie Hall’... her only credit in 1978 was 'Madman'.

Bad Stuff

Kinda morbid, but here are some of the biggest tragedies of the Disco Years . . .

Hurricane David. A 1979 category 5 hurricane that claimed over 2000 lives in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the southern U.S.

The Chicago Blizzard of 1979/New York Blizzard of 1978. Over 18 inches in one day in Chicago! It brought northern Illinois and northwest Indiana to its knees and caused dozens of deaths. There was also a huge blizzard in New York and the Northeast U.S. in January of 1978 that took over 100 lives.

Jonestown. In November of 1978, cult leader Jim Jones leads a mass murder-suicide of 918 people in Guyana. Truly a sick story. Check out the mini-series starring Powers Boothe.

Evansville Basketball Team Plane Crash. In December of 1977, the entire 14-member University of Evansville basketball team, along with 11 team supporters and 2 crew, were killed when their plane crashed into a hillside.

Beverly Hills Supper Club Fire. In 1977, the huge fire in Southgate, Kentucky killed 165.

Serial Killers. Son of Sam in New York, Hillside Strangler in Los Angeles, John Wayne Gacy in Chicago and Ted Bundy were all ‘active’ in the Disco Years. Yuck.

Don't judge a book by its...

There's a really good article in the February edition of Vanity Fair (with Tiger Woods on the cover - no comment) about the rise of disco. It's got interviews with lots of the major players, from Donna Summer to Robert 'Kool & the Gang' Bell to Gloria Gaynor . . . to 'the Indian' from the Village People! Lots of very interesting insights, covering the conception of what we consider disco in the gay clubs of New York through what the experts call 'the beginning of the end', when 'Saturday Night Fever' became a phenomenon and disco went mainstream.

Some of the best anecdotes include:

- Nile Rodgers (pictured below) wrote 'Le Freak' after not being allowed in to Studio 54 on New Years Eve 1977, except the song started out as 'f--k off . . . ahhh, f--k off!'

- Donna Summer only reluctantly sang 'Love To Love You Baby' after a dare that she couldn't be sexy. She says she channeled Marilyn Monroe for the recording.

- The genesis for 'Saturday Night Fever' was a New York magazine article about the passionate patrons of discos in the boroughs of NY. The article was called 'Tribal Rights of the New Saturday Night'.

The Vanity Fair article also has some great pics, including trippy photos of Grace Jones and Donna Summer and a really awesome shot of Diana Ross belting out a song from the DJ booth of Studio 54. Definitely check it out.

We're gonna make it!

Not long ago I finished watching season 1 of ‘Laverne & Shirley’ on DVD. This show was a popular spin-off from ‘Happy Days’ during the Disco Years. I watched both shows as a kid. It was fun that Laverne and Shirley were regular girls just trying to get by in life with some dignity and success. Who couldn't relate to that?!

In watching the series now, I found the characters warm and still funny after all these years. Pretty refreshing that they were best friends and genuinely liked each other even though, of course, they'd argue and get into misunderstandings. Their relationship seemed real, while at the same time I had the comfort of knowing they’d always make up in the end.

Laverne was a tough and no-nonsense gal who constantly had boy troubles. Shirley was the sweet one. You just totally wanted to hang out with them.

I found I liked Lenny and Squiggy more in re-watching the episodes than I did originally. I’d always thought they were silly and obnoxious, which they still were, but I seemed to be able to go with it a little better now that I’m older.

Some favorite episodes from the first season:
- The Bachelor Party: Aaayyyy! The Fonz is in it! Shirley coming out of the cake is a riot.
- Bowling for Razzberries: I like it when the girls have a wacky nemesis. This time it’s the head of their bowling rivals.
- It’s in the Water: The one where Shirley gets the beer tasting job over Laverne, but then Laverne saves Shirley from her lecherous new boss. It really gives you a good insight into their friendship.

Supastar!

Some of the most influential sports stars of the Disco Years . . .

Dorothy Hamill – 1976 Olympic gold medalist, creator of the ‘Hamill Camel’ skating move…and owner of the second most famous hairstyle in the Disco Years.

Jack Nicklaus – My grandaddy’s favorite golfer. Ranked number 1 from 1968 – 77.

Chris Evert – The number 1 women’s singles player through most of the Disco Years. Part of one of the greatest on court rivalries of all time with Martina Navratilova.


Reggie Jackson – Played for the Yankees during the Disco Years. Though engaged in a tumultuos relationship with manager Billy Martin, Jackson led the Yankee’s to a 1977 World Series win.

Sugar Ray Leonard - Won the light welterweight gold medal at the 1976 Olympics. The cocky fighter , who got his ‘Sugar’ nickname from his wife, later went on to become a world champion.

Hot, hot, hot!

How about a little sexy time? These are some of the biggest sex symbols of the Disco Years:

Farrah Fawcett. Hands down, the biggest sex symbol. She became a huge sensation when she starred in ‘Charlie’s Angels’ in 1976, the same year her iconic red swimsuit poster, which is still the best selling poster of all time, went on the market.
Trivia: Check out the first season of ‘The Partridge Family’ on DVD to see Farrah in a bit part…she’s the bait in one of Danny and Mr. Kincaid’s schemes!


Burt Reynolds. The definition of a macho man. His biggest movies during the Disco Years were ‘Hooper’, ‘Semi-Tough’ and ‘Smokey and the Bandit’. ‘Smokey’ was the first rated R movie I saw (rated R mostly ‘cause of all the cussin’)…believe it or not, my grandparents took me. Mom was not pleased!


Suzanne Somers. Suzanne Somers earned her sex symbol cred as Christmas (Chissy) Snow on ‘Three’s Company’. Her big break had come a few years earlier in ‘American Graffiti’.


David Bowie. Okay, okay…I don’t get it either, but here we are! His albums during the Disco Years included Low, Heroes, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Stage (a live album), Lodger and Scary Monsters.


Jacqueline Bisset. Most teenage boys during the time still recall the advertisements of Jacqueline Bisset for ‘The Deep’. Remember the wet t-shirt? Yeah, I thought so . . .


Donna Summer. The queen of disco was definitely ‘hot stuff’ (song reference…get it?). Her albums during the Disco Years included A Love Trilogy, Four Seasons of Love, I Remember Yesterday, Once Upon a Time, Bad Girls (oh yeah, the biggie) and The Wanderer.


John Travolta. ‘Ole Vinnie Barbarino took it to the next level...and sealed his fate as a 70s icon…with a little movie called ‘Saturday Night Fever’.


Linda Carter. Wonder Woman. Need I say more?

Books!

These are some of the best-selling fiction books from the Disco Years . . .

'Sleeping Murder' by Agatha Christie. Yes, believe it or not, Ms. Christie was still publishing new material in 1976. Interestingly, she'd actually written this book, the last in the Miss Marple series, in the 1940s, but delayed publication until she knew she wouldn't be writing another. Unfortunately, she passed away before this book was published.

'Dolores' by Jacqueline Susann. Everybody knows Ms. Susann from her scandalous 'Valley of the Dolls'...love that crazy, druggie Neely! This was her last novel and was inspired by the life of Jackie Kennedy. Susann was too ill to complete the book, so Rex Reed (yeah, the critic guy) finished it. I don't believe reviews were too great, but obviously a lot of folks read it nonetheless.

'The Deep' by Peter Benchley. Benchley's follow up to 'Jaws' was this sunken treasure/drugs action novel set in Bermuda. The movie, for which he wrote the screenplay, was a pretty big success as well.

'The Thorn Birds' by Colleen McCullough. An epic romance that most women couldn't resist. All about forbidden love and betrayal . . . juicy stuff. Also one of the biggest mini-series of the Disco Years.

'War and Remembrance' by Herman Wouk. Another epic, this was Wouk's follow up to 'The Winds of War'. It's a World War II-era drama focused on a pair of high-drama families.

'The Dead Zone' by Stephen King. Of course I couldn't not include Stephen King in this list! He's one of my favorites. Though this isn't my top pick of all his work, this novel about a psychic was a big success. Did you catch the TV series based on this book with Anthony Michael Hall? It was pretty cool...ended a few years ago.