'Disco Sucks'

THE OVERLOOK

By Tom Clavin

          This week is the 45^th anniversary of one of the most bizarre events in baseball history. Disco Demolition Night was an event hosted at Comiskey Park in Chicago that ended up as a riot.

          As some readers will recall, in the late 1970s, dance-oriented disco was the most popular music genre in the United States, particularly after being featured in hit films such as Saturday Night Fever. However, disco sparked a major backlash from rock music fans—an opposition prominent enough that the White Sox, seeking to fill seats at Comiskey Park during a lackluster season, engaged Chicago shock jock and anti-disco campaigner Steve Dahl for the promotion at the July 12 doubleheader. Dahl's sponsoring radio station was WLUP, 97.9 FM, so admission was discounted to 98 cents for attendees who turned in a disco record. Between games, Dahl was to destroy the collected vinyl in an explosion.

          The 24-year-old Dahl had been working as a DJ for WDAI when he was fired on Christmas Eve 1978 as part of the station's switch from rock to disco. He was hired by rival album-rock station WLUP. Playing off the publicity surrounding his firing, Dahl created a mock organization, the "Insane Coho Lips,” an anti-disco army of listeners who agreed with the slogan “Disco Sucks.” 

In the weeks leading up to Disco Demolition Night, Dahl promoted anti-disco public events, several of which became unruly. When a discotheque in Lynwood, Illinois, switched from disco to rock in June, Dahl arrived with several thousand Cohos and the police were called. Later that month, Dahl and several thousand Cohos occupied a teen disco in the Chicago suburbs. At the end of June, Dahl urged his listeners to throw marshmallows at a WDAI promotional van at a shopping mall where a teen disco had been built. The Cohos chased the van and driver and cornered them in a park, though the situation ended without violence. On July 1, a near-riot occurred when hundreds of Cohos could not enter a sold-out promotional event. Fights broke out and some 50 police officers were needed to control the situation. When disco star Van McCoy died suddenly on July 6, Dahl marked the occasion by destroying one of his records, “The Hustle,” on the air.

Since the 1940s, Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck had been noted for using promotions to increase fan interest. His son, Mike, was the promotions director for the White Sox in 1979. Dahl was asked if he would be interested in blowing up records at Comiskey Park on July 12 between games of the doubleheader. The White Sox were not having a good year and were 40–46. The White Sox and WLUP hoped for a crowd of 20,000 and Mike Veeck hired enough security for 35,000.

The doubleheader sold out, leaving at least 20,000 people outside the ballpark. Some leapt turnstiles, climbed fences, and entered through open windows. The attendance was estimated anywhere from 50,000 to 55,000 in the park. The Chicago Police Department closed off-ramps from the Dan Ryan Expressway near the stadium. Attendees were supposed to deposit their records into a large box but once the box was overflowing many people brought their discs to their seats.

The first game was to begin at 6 p.m. Lorelei, a model who did public appearances for WLUP and who was popular in Chicago that summer for her sexually provocative poses in the station's advertisements, threw out the first pitch. As the game began, Mike Veeck received word that thousands of people were trying to get into the park without tickets and he sent security personnel to the stadium gates to stop them. This left the field unattended, and fans began throwing the uncollected disco LPs and singles from the stands. The records sliced through the air and landed sticking out of the ground. Players wore their batting helmets when playing their positions. Attendees also threw firecrackers, empty liquor bottles, and lighters onto the field. The game was stopped several times because of the rain of objects.

Making matters worse, Detroit won the first game, 4–1.

At 8:40, Dahl, dressed in army fatigues and a helmet, emerged onto the field with Lorelei. They circled the field in a Jeep, showered with firecrackers and beer, then proceeded to center field where the box containing the records awaited, rigged with explosives. Fans who felt events were getting out of control and who wished to leave the ballpark had difficulty doing so -- in an effort to deny the intruders entry, security had padlocked all but one gate.

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

Dahl set off the explosives, destroying the records and tearing a large hole in the outfield grass. With most of the security personnel still watching the gates per Mike Veeck's orders, thousands of people flooded the field. Players on both teams barricaded themselves in the clubhouses. Some people climbed the foul poles while others set records on fire and ripped up the grass. The batting cage was destroyed and the bases were pulled up and stolen. Bats and other equipment were taken from the dugouts. As Bill Veeck stood with a microphone near where home plate had been, begging people to return to the stands, a bonfire began in center field.

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

At 9:08 p.m., Chicago police in riot gear arrived, to the applause of the baseball fans remaining in the stands. Those on the field hastily dispersed upon seeing the police. Thirty-nine people were arrested for disorderly conduct. It was estimated that 30 people had been injured.

Bill Veeck wanted the teams to play the second game once order was restored. However, the field was so badly torn up that umpiring crew chief Dave Phillips felt that it was still not playable, even after White Sox groundskeepers spent an hour clearing away debris. Also, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson refused to allow his players to take the field due to safety concerns. Phillips called American League president Lee MacPhail, who postponed the second game to Sunday. Anderson, however, argued that under baseball's rules, a game can only be postponed due to an act of God, and that, as the home team, the White Sox were responsible for field conditions. The next day, MacPhail forfeited the second game to the Tigers 9–0.

Although Bill Veeck took much of the public criticism for the fiasco, his son Mike suffered repercussions as the front-office promoter. Mike Veeck remained with the White Sox until late 1980 when he resigned; his father sold the team soon afterward. He was unable to find another job in baseball for some time and claimed that he had been blackballed. For several years, he worked for a jai-alai fronton in Florida. He later became the owner of minor league baseball teams. In July 2014, the Charleston River Dogs, of whom Veeck is president, held a promotion involving the destruction of Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus merchandise. He was the subject of a documentary released last year, The Saint of Second Chances, narrated by Jeff Daniels.

Steve Dahl is still a radio personality in Chicago and does podcasts.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 18 books, including his latest collaboration with Bob Drury, Throne of Grace, published in May by St. Martin’s Press. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to purchase a copy.