Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979.

Disco Demolition Night was a promotional event that took place on Thursday, July 12, 1979, at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, during which a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field. It was held during the twi-night doubleheader baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. During the climax of the event, rowdy fans surged onto the field, and a near-riot ensued. It ultimately proved to be one of the most notable promotional ideas and one of the most infamous The event has been characterized as the "emblematic moment" of the anti-disco "crusade" and "the night disco died."

NEWS COVERAGE

The tale of two goof-ball WLUP Radio Station DJs behind the Disco Demolition Night. Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. In the 9th grade, Dahl began hanging around a local underground radio station, KPCC-FM... Okay... I'll just start in the middle! 

Steve Dahl began at WDAI Chicago on February 23, 1978, with his solo "Steve Dahl's Rude Awakening" show but it never achieved solid ratings despite media attention. Ten months later, on Christmas Eve, 1978, WDAI changed formats from rock to disco and fired Dahl.

In March 1979, after a few months without a job, Dahl was hired to do a morning show at WLUP where he met overnight DJ Garry Meier (who was then broadcasting under the pseudonym of "Matthew Meier"). Shortly thereafter, the two began a cross-talk that eventually led to Meier being teamed up with Dahl as both sidekick and newsman. Dahl effectively forced Meier to use his actual name by calling him "Garry" on-air accidentally. After openly discussing the subject, again, on-air, Meier officially dropped his pseudonym.

In response to Dahl's firing from WDAI, Dahl and Meier mocked and claimed to hate disco music and the radio station WDAI; He called it "Disco-D.I.E." mocking the station's slogan, "Disco-D.A.I," on the air. Dahl even recorded and started playing a parody of Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" which he called "Do You Think I'm Disco?" The song managed to crack the national charts to peak at #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received airplay across the country.

SONG: Do You Think I'm Disco?

During this same time period, Dahl and Meier, along with both Mike Veeck (son of the Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck), and Jeff Schwartz of WLUP promotions, came up with a radio promotion and tie-in to the White Sox called Disco Demolition Night which took place on Thursday, July 12, 1979.

The concept was to create an event to "end disco once and for all" in the center field of Comiskey Park that night by allowing people to get tickets at the box office if they brought 98¢ (referring to WLUP-FM's 97.9 location on the FM dial) and at least one disco record. The records were collected, piled up on the field and blown up.

Hundreds of rowdy fans stormed the field, refusing to leave, resulting in the second game of the doubleheader being postponed. American League President, Lee MacPhail, later declared the second game of the doubleheader a forfeit victory for the visiting Detroit Tigers. Six people reported minor injuries, and thirty-nine were arrested for disorderly conduct.

After the Disco Demolition Night promotion, disco began to lose its popularity. As a result of Disco Demolition Night, Dahl attained national recognition and his popularity increased significantly. He established a syndicate and the Steve and Garry show began airing in Detroit and Milwaukee, where it performed well.

However, in February 1981, WLUP fired Dahl, citing "continued assaults on community standards." "It was going on in El Paso and Los Angeles, like, on Monday, and on Friday they fired me," Dahl later said. Meier was offered the opportunity to continue the show by himself, but he refused.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Pump Room Restaurant, inside the Ambassador East Hotel, was Famous for Catering to Mid-20th Century Celebrities.

Back in the 1930s, when people regularly traveled across the country via train, they usually had a 10-hour layover in Chicago. In later years, when celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and Phyllis Diller ended up in Chicago, they made a night of it; and dining at the famous Pump Room inside the Ambassador East Hotel, 1301 N State Pkwy, Chicago, was an essential part of that.

Booth One at the Pump Room, Chicago.

The Pump Room opened on October 1, 1938, by Ernie Byfield. At the restaurant, the biggest stars of the day had the ultimate social-status symbol waiting for them -- Booth Number One. Ernie Byfield, a famous hotelier, and restaurateur who would personally pick up celebrities at the train station. “This was the place where all the VIPs were,” says Rich Melman, who owned the restaurant in the 1970s and 1980s and ran it until June of 2019. 

Ambassador East Hotel - Pump Room, Chicago. 

“If they didn’t want to be seen, they wouldn’t go to the Pump Room.” Amenities included reserved seating in a cream-colored leather booth in the corner famously referred to as Booth One. The banquette was reserved only for the crème de la crème. Even if the wait for the restaurant was long, Booth One would remain vacant until a VIP worthy of it — such as Sammy Davis Jr. or Marlene Dietrich —arrived.

Liz Taylor at the Pump Room, Chicago. (1960)

Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood at the Pump Room in Chicago.

The table’s occupants also received access to a rotary phone connected directly to the booth so they could make and receive calls as they dined. “There was a private number that you could call to reach Booth One,” Melman says. “That wasn’t given out very often. But celebrities knew it.” Movie star Joan Crawford, who preferred to be left alone while dining, would place a call and then wrap the long cord across the table as a sort of caution tape to others in the restaurant. 

Marilyn Monroe at the Pump Room, 1959.

Phyllis Diller at the Pump Room, 1959.

Those who preferred face-to-face attention over a ringing phone would unplug it from the wall jack. “The phone was part of a big game,” Melman says. “Often people would pay what was considered big money in those days to be paged at the Pump Room.”

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable - between trains 1930s - in the Pump Room, Chicago. 

The Phil Collins 1985 album title "No Jacket Required" (Deluxe 2 hour  ed.) is a reference to an incident involving Collins and Robert Plant at the Pump Room restaurant in Chicago. Collins, who wasn't wearing a jacket, wasn't allowed in the restaurant because he didn't meet the dress code.

While the hotel and restaurant have cycled through multiple owners and face-lifts — and celebrities no longer have to layover in Chicago — Booth One has stayed alive. The last iteration of the Pump Room, a nostalgic restaurant that once drew celebrities, closed in 2017. After a substantial refurbishment, the Pump Room has been revived and renamed Booth One, complete with a rotary phone installed in its VIP booth. If a guest chooses, he or she could still use it while dining on beef Wellington and cheesecake — although Melman says, diners usually prefer to use their cell phones.

“We are trying to resurrect something that disappeared in Chicago for a while,” Melman says. “It’s the type of room that needs a lot of hand-holding, and for a time it didn’t get the attention it needed. It lost some of its luster.

After almost two and a half years in Gold Coast, Rich Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises group, "Booth One" restaurant, inside the 285-room Ambassador Chicago Hotel, closed at the end of June 2019. 

THE PUMP ROOM TIMELINE

1926 The 285-room Ambassador East hotel opens in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.

1938 Restaurateur Ernie Byfield opens the Pump Room Restaurant in the hotel.

2010 Real estate developer Ian Schrager—known for cofounding New York’s Studio 54—buys the Ambassador East for $25 million.

2011 Assets from the Ambassador East, including its famous rotary phone, are auctioned off as part of the hotel’s liquidation sale. The hotel is remodeled and reopens as Public Chicago.

2016 Schrager sells Public Chicago to investors Shapack Partners and Gaw Capital for $61.5 million.

2017 The hotel is renamed, Ambassador Chicago. Rich Melman’s Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises group, which formerly owned the Pump Room, returns to manage the space and renames it Booth One. After a remodel, the team installs a rotary phone at the famed table from which the restaurant now takes its name.

2019 Ambassador Chicago Hotel, closed at the end of the year. 

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

Chicago O'Hare International Airport UFO sighting occurred on November 7, 2006.

At approximately 4:15 PM on November 7, 2006, federal authorities at Chicago O'Hare International Airport received a report that a group of twelve airport employees was witnessing a metallic, saucer-shaped craft hovering over Gate C-17. 

A passenger photo shot from inside the terminal.

The object was first spotted by a ramp employee pushing back United Airlines Flight 446, departing Chicago for Charlotte, North Carolina. The employee apprised Flight 446's crew of the object above their aircraft. The object was also witnessed by pilots, airline management and mechanics. No air traffic controllers reported seeing the object, and it did not show up on radar.

Witnesses described the object as completely silent, 6 to 24 feet in diameter and dark gray in color. Several independent witnesses outside of the Airport also saw the object. One described a disc-shaped craft hovering over the Airport, which was "obviously not clouds." According to this witness, the object shot through the clouds at high velocity, leaving a clear blue hole in the cloud layer. The hole reportedly seemed to close itself shortly afterward.

According to the Chicago Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch, "The disc was visible for approximately five minutes and was seen by close to a dozen United Airlines employees, ranging from pilots to supervisors, who heard chatter on the radio and raced out to view it." There is no CLEAR photographic or video evidence of the UFO.

News sources report O'Hare UFO sighting.

Both United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initially denied that they had any information on the O'Hare UFO sighting until the Chicago Tribune, which was investigating the report, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The FAA then ordered an internal review of air-traffic communications tapes to comply with the Tribune FOIA request, which subsequently uncovered a call by the United supervisor to an FAA manager in the airport tower concerning the UFO sighting.

The FAA's stance concludes that the sighting was caused by a weather phenomenon and that the agency would not investigate the incident. According to astronomer Mark Hammergren, weather conditions on the day of the sighting were right for a "hole-punch cloud," an unusual weather phenomenon often mistakenly attributed to unidentified flying objects.

UFO investigators have argued that the FAA's refusal to look into the incident contradicts the agency's mandate to investigate possible security breaches at American airports, such as, in this case, an object witnessed by numerous airport employees and officially reported by at least one of them, hovering in plain sight, over one of the busiest airports in the world. Some witnesses interviewed by the Tribune were apparently "upset" that federal officials declined to further investigate the matter. NARCAP published a 155-page report on the sighting and has called for a government inquiry and improved energy-sensing technologies: "Anytime an airborne object can hover for several minutes over a busy airport but not be registered on radar or seen visually from the control tower, it constitutes a potential threat to flight safety."

The Chicago O'Hare airport UFO story was picked up by major mainstream media groups such as CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, The Chicago Tribune, and NPR.

On February 11, 2009, The History Channel aired an episode of the television show UFO Hunters titled Aliens at the Airport, in which they reviewed the incident.

Compiled By Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The History of Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory in Chicago.

After World War II Chicago’s Hollywood Park neighborhood underwent rapid development, attracting many Jewish families from the west side. You’d think they would have been thrilled that a family-owned business from the old neighborhood wanted to follow them to the north side, but Hollywood Park didn’t exactly welcome Sol Lazar with open arms.

Lazar wanted to relocate his business, Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory—a business he started in 1913 at 3612 West 12th Street (12th Street renamed Roosevelt Road on May 25, 1919)—to a large plot of land he owned in the North Park community.

Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory at 3612 West 12th Street, Chicago.

Sol Lazar built a new factory with a retail deli at the front of the building in 1958. It was located at 5511-29 North Kedzie Avenue, Chicago.

Lazar’s Kosher Sausage Factory at
5511-29 North Kedzie Avenue, Chicago.

On March 12, 1957, Nathan M. Cohen heard a case brought by Sol Lazar who sued to rezone the property on Kedzie to build a new pickle and sausage factory on his land. Willis W, Helfrich, CTA assistant Secretary, testified he could smell a "Nauseating" odor as far as 125 feet away when he visited the Roosevelt Road Location. Son Seymour Lazar told reporters the jars Helfrich brought and opened were from the garbage can behind the factory. 

Zeamore A. Ader, attorney for the Hollywood Park association, alleges that Lazar's Kosher Sausage Factory has been issued a building permit in December of 1957. Lazar said a permit had been issued and he plans to construct a factory on the premises for smoking and packing sausages.

In 1958 Lazar’s opened his modern facility at 5511 North Kedzie Avenue. (today, Northside College Prep High School is  located on the site.) In hindsight, Lazar may have been right about the impact of his plant being good for the neighborhood. Although the city originally zoned the east side of Kedzie south of Bryn Mawr for residential development, the small businesses and light manufacturing shops that eventually lined the street contributed to the economic stability of the neighborhood and lowered the population density of an already crowded area.

And the smell? I don't remember there being any smell, but that of cooked meat. My folks shopped at Lazars. The deli counter was on the left as you walked in. There were a few chairs on the right at the windows facing Kedzie. Lazar's was a busy butcher shop. We waited for our number to be called. My personal favorite was their 4 to a pound hot dogs -- or as they called them -- 'dinner franks.' They had a wonderful taste, unlike the bland Vienna hot dogs served by most Chicagoland hot dog joints. We'd also buy a whole beef brisket, which was our family's second-best meal, next to my Mom's roasted chicken on Friday nights.

Sol Lazar died at 76 on Sunday, June 9, 1969.

Sol Lazar’s daughter and her husband, who had worked at Lazar’s on Kedzie, uphold the legacy of Lazar’s Kosher Meats in Jerusalem, Israel. On the wall of the Jerusalem store are photographs of both Chicago Lazar stores; the first was on 12th street on the west side; the second was on Kedzie Avenue on the north side. 

Lazar’s Kosher Meats storefront in Jerusalem, Israel. (2015)

INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Lincoln Village Theater was the last movie palace built in Chicago.

In August of 1968, Attorney Oscar A. Brotman (1916-1994) opened the 1,440-seat Lincoln Village Theater at 6101 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. It was located in the Lincoln Village Shopping Center at Lincoln Avenue and  McCormick Boulevard in Chicago, about two blocks upriver from Brotman's shuttered and soon-to-be-demolished Tower Cabana Club (1955-1966) at Peterson and Jersey Avenues.

Brotman (President) had a partner, Leonard Sherman. In 1968, Brotman & Sherman Theaters, Inc. (Brotman also owned South Shore Amusements, Inc.) owned 14 Chicago area movie theaters, making it one of the largest local chains.

Lincoln Village Theater Grand Opening - Friday, August 2, 1968.

Reminiscent of Miami Beach Art Deco style, as was his Tower Cabana Club, the theater's brilliant white façade sparkled in the sunlight. Tall red neon cursive lettering atop the roof gave the building more height and retro flair. A man recalls seeing Lincoln Village Theater from the Church Street bridge over the North Shore Sanitary Channel, a distance of several miles. It was the last single-screen movie house of this size built in Chicago, the previous attempt at bringing 1920s-era glamour to the movie-going experience.

Lincoln Village Theater was just like some old-school, fabulous downtown Chicago theaters when downtown was beginning to lose theaters. The lobby was expansive and luxurious, lit by dramatic wall sconces and a working fireplace. There was a sunken seating area and fancy restrooms. A place to see and be seen.

Inside the theatre, extra-wide aisles led to extra-cushy seats. A wood-paneled balcony structure rose off the main floor. There wasn't a bad seat in the house, thanks to stadium-style seating.

It took nearly five minutes to move the gold fabric horizontally and vertically, floor-to-ceiling curtains, accentuating the glamour of the old-time live stage shows. You knew something big was about to happen.

No expense was spared on technical specs, either. The theater had a Cine-Focus 35mm and 70mm projection, a scope screen, and a six-channel stereophonic sound system.

The FLAT format is slightly smaller than 2 times wide and 1 times tall.
SCOPE format is somewhat broader than 2 times wide and 1 times tall.

The opening movie was 'No Way to Treat a Lady.' The same year brought 'Green Berets,' 'Rosemary's Baby,' 'The Producers,' and 'How Sweet It Is,' to the theater.

Lincoln Village Theatre was booked for a variety of acts as well as movies. In December 1968, Chicago's Royal European Marionette Theatre settled in for a weeklong run of its 'Wizard of Oz' play. The Brothers Zim Revue played for two nights. The Barry Sisters, four nights only. Mickey Katz, "America's favorite Yiddish comedian," played the Lincoln Village, as did Larry Best and Eileen Brennan. The live, closed-circuit telecast of the 1970 Cassius Clay-Jerry Quarry fight, one-half of the 'Double Dynamite' package, sold out in 45 minutes at $7.50 a seat ($58.00 today). 

SIDEBAR:

The 20-Minute Rule as it relates to film viewership, not just film criticism. Is 20 minutes enough time to consider a movie fully? When this topic came up, Roger Ebert often cited “Brotman’s Law,” named after Chicago movie exhibitor Oscar Brotman, which declared that “If nothing has happened by the end of the first reel, nothing is going to happen.” A reel of film is 1,000 feet, and about ten minutes when projected, but most movies are projected two reels at a time, which means “the first reel” is about 20 minutes — hence, another variation on The 20-Minute Rule.

Temple Beth-El, the former West Rogers Park Jewish congregation that outgrew its Touhy and Kedzie Avenue building, rented the theater for the Jewish High Holidays at the movie theater. In 1981, Temple Beth Israel (purchased land in Skokie at Howard and Crawford in May 1961) held its High Holiday services at the Lincoln Village movie theatre. Portable lighting was brought in to brighten the theater for services.

In 1981, Plitt Theaters purchased the Brotman & Sherman Theaters.

Under new ownership, the Lincoln Village Theater was partitioned into three oddly shaped boxes, then the building was razed around 2000. The site is new construction and is a Ross Dress For Less Store.

Chicagoland Movie Theaters Operated by Brotman & Sherman Theaters:

• Avalon Regal Theater, Chicago
• Capitol Theatre Capitol Theatre, Chicago
• Carnegie Theatre Carnegie Theatre, Chicago
• Cinema Theater Cinema Theater, Chicago
• Highland Park Theatre, Highland Park
• Highland Theater Highland Theater, Chicago
• Hillside Mall Cinemas, Hillside
• Lincoln Village Theaters, Chicago
• Loop Theater, Chicago
• Metropolitan Theatre, Chicago
• Oakland Square Theater, Chicago
• Oasis Drive-In, Des Plaines
• Parthenon Theatre, Hammond, Indiana
• Rhodes Theatre, Chicago

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.