Flashback Friday: Disco Demolition Death 1979
Forty years ago, today, the Disco Demolition took place at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. What started out as a baseball promotion turned into a mêlée that damaged the field.
[..] disco didn’t quite die a natural death by collapsing under its own weight. Instead, it was killed by a public backlash that reached its peak on this day in 1979 […]. That incident, which led to at least nine injuries, 39 arrests and, the cancellation and forfeit of a Major League Baseball game, is widely credited […] or, blamed for […] dealing disco its death blow.
The event was the brainchild of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier, popular disk jockeys on Chicago’s WLUP “The Loop” FM. […] many […] rock DJs were displaced by disco [but], only Dahl was inspired to launch a semi-comic vendetta aimed at “the eradication and elimination of the dreaded musical disease.”
On May 2, the rainout of a game between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers led to the scheduling of a doubleheader on July 12. Dahl and Meier approached the White Sox with a rather unorthodox idea for an attendance-boosting promotion […]. […] allow Dahl to blow up a dumpster full of disco records between games of the doubleheader. White Sox executive Mike Veeck embraced the idea […].
[…] organizers […] grossly [underestimated] the appeal of the 98-cent discount tickets offered to anyone who brought a disco record to the park to add to the explosive-rigged dumpster. WLUP and the White Sox expected perhaps 5,000 more fans than the average draw of 15,000 or so […]. What they got, instead, was a raucous sellout crowd of 40,000+ and an even more raucous overflow crowd of as many as 40,000 more outside on Shields Avenue.
What followed was utter chaos, as fans by the thousands stormed the field, […] began to wreak havoc, shimmying up the foul poles, tearing up the grass and lighting vinyl bonfires on the diamond while the stadium scoreboard implored them to return to their seats. Conditions were judged too dangerous for the scheduled game to begin and the Detroit Tigers were awarded a win by forfeit.
[Source]
In the weeks before the event, Dahl invited his listeners to bring records they wanted to see destroyed to Comiskey Park. Owner Bill Veeck was concerned the promotion might become a disaster […]. His fears were substantiated when he saw the people walking towards the ballpark that afternoon. […] many carried signs that described disco in profane terms.
Some leapt turnstiles, climbed fences and entered through open windows. 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. Many of the records were not collected by staff and were thrown like flying discs from the stands. Tigers designated hitter Rusty Staub remembered that the records would slice through the air and land sticking out of the ground. He urged teammates to wear batting helmets when playing their positions. “It wasn’t just one, it was many. Oh, God almighty, I’ve never seen anything so dangerous in my life.” Attendees also threw firecrackers, empty liquor bottles and lighters onto the field. The game was stopped several times because of the rain of foreign objects.
Dozens of hand-painted banners with such slogans as “Disco Sucks” were hung from the ballpark’s seating decks. Dahl set off the explosives, destroying the records and tearing a large hole in the outfield grass. […] the first of 5,000 to 7,000 attendees rushed onto the field […]. The batting cage was destroyed and, the bases were pulled up and stolen. Among those taking to the field was 21-year-old aspiring actor Michael Clarke Duncan […]. Duncan slid into third base, had a silver belt buckle stolen and went home with a bat from the dugout. Some attendees danced in circles around the burning vinyl shards.
Chicago police in full riot gear arrived (9:08pm) to the applause of the baseball fans remaining in the stands. Those on the field hastily dispersed upon seeing the police. Tigers manager Sparky Anderson refused to allow his players to take the field […] due to safety concerns. Anderson […] demanded that the game be forfeited to the Tigers. He 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.
Photo Credit: npr.org
Cosmic-Observation 
July 13, 2019 at 4:47 AM
I happen to like disco.
…wait …what?
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July 13, 2019 at 11:36 PM
I liked Disco, too but, apparently there were a lot of DJs that lost their jobs because they preferred Rock. And, Rock artists preferred Rock. I’m pretty sure the Hair Bands hated Grunge but, times always change. Not many people Jitterbug anymore.
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July 13, 2019 at 6:24 AM
Bill Veeck was the greatest promotion man in baseball history- but this one backfired. Back in the late 80’s-early 90’s I was a regular listener to Steve and Garry’s radio show out of Chicago- great stuff until they had a falling out and went their separate ways.
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July 13, 2019 at 11:38 PM
Steve struck me as being a bit of an ass. He acted like one in the old videos and still came across that way in interviews years later.
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July 14, 2019 at 6:01 AM
I loved Steve and Garry’s show- and Steve was the one who broke up the friendship/ show by making comments about Garry’s wife from what I have read. I haven’t kept up on him in the past few decades other than know he’s still out there…. and he was a bit full of himself but that is probably the characteristics that made him successful.
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July 14, 2019 at 12:49 AM
I also read that Veeck’s son Mike took the brunt of the blow-back. He couldn’t find a job in the industry for years.
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July 14, 2019 at 5:59 AM
Bill was getting up in age a little at the time- his health wasn’t all that good I don’t think. I think it is safe to say he regretted that promotion– correct on Mike. … If I could sit out in the bleachers with anyone in baseball history and watch a ballgame -my pick as a companion would be Bill Veeck.
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July 13, 2019 at 12:10 PM
That’s outrageous.
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July 13, 2019 at 11:40 PM
Exactly. Large groups of people with alcohol and explosives… You are asking for trouble. And, the jerks refused to leave until the Chicago Riot Cops showed up. SMDH.
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July 14, 2019 at 12:45 AM
I remember this on the news back then… 5 years earlier Cleveland had 10 Cent Beer Night that turned into a riot… couldn’t they see that coming?
I was 12 when it happened and the friends I had liked Rock, Soul and Pop…Disco was not very popular with my peers anyway.
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July 14, 2019 at 12:51 AM
I remember the ‘Disco Sucks’ movement. I just never knew who started it.
Large groups of people with alcohol, projectile weapons and explosions? Not a good mix.
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July 14, 2019 at 12:53 AM
Yep not a good mixture at all. Sounds like Rednecks on a Saturday night.
I remember the Disco sucks…bumper stickers, buttons and T-shirts.
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July 14, 2019 at 12:55 AM
Rednecks or…preppy frat boys. Those kids can tear some s*** up, too.
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July 14, 2019 at 12:56 AM
Famous last words… “Hey Billy Bob…what will this do?”
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July 14, 2019 at 12:59 AM
LOL! Also…”Hey. Hold my beer…and watch this.”
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July 14, 2019 at 1:00 AM
LOL…yep that is another one! I’ve known those guys before.
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July 14, 2019 at 4:15 AM
You couldn’t make this up. I hated disco.
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July 14, 2019 at 6:33 PM
LOL! Many would agree with you. I enjoyed it but, I enjoy most music…except extreme Rap, Tejano or Polkas.
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July 14, 2019 at 12:57 AM
Could you check your email? I was wondering if you could check something on your browser?
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July 14, 2019 at 1:00 AM
Okie Dokie. Headed that way…
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July 14, 2019 at 1:00 AM
Thank you mam…not a big deal but I just want to make sure it works.
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July 14, 2019 at 1:23 AM
No email, yet…
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July 14, 2019 at 1:24 AM
Oh I sent it to the aol email….sorry
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July 14, 2019 at 1:30 AM
AOL is right…
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July 14, 2019 at 1:31 AM
I’m an idiot… I’ve sent it again. My email just locked up for reason but I think it sent
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July 14, 2019 at 1:32 AM
I got ’em both…now. I had to relaunch Thunderbird. *sigh*
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July 14, 2019 at 1:28 AM
I’m trying to send it again…
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May 12, 2021 at 1:52 PM
Good article and useful reminder about people going over the top and then some! I loved disco (and rock and all other genres of music) there’s no such thing as a bad genre, only bad examples of it 🙂 So, I was pissed at the whingers moaning that they lost their jobs and especially those complaining they hated disco, when they were aiming to do exactly the same to other artists and DJ’s (and very successfully did, I’ll add) – pop music is always fickle, fads come and go, and new young kids often favour new music formats that piss off parents, but a determined woke-style genre-cleansing “I know better than you” attitude (even if it was half fun to start with it wasn’t half-fun in result) is just hypocrisy of the highest order.
So someone doesn’t like disco? Who cares! Don’t listen to it then, no-one is forcing anyone to listen to anything, switch stations. I’m not overly fond of Drill music, huge in the streaming world with kids right now in the UK, but I’m not complaining about having to listen to it cos I manage to avoid it pretty much 🙂
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May 12, 2021 at 3:02 PM
I was a disco fan. I was a tween/teen during its height. The “disco sucks” movement was a head scratcher for me but, I was young and couldn’t grasp the behind-the-scenes struggle. And, yes, music genres come & go. I’ve done enough posts about ancient music and style developments to know about its “shifting sands.”
There are always those in positions of power that will attempt to destroy any challenge to said power. We are witnessing that right now on 24/7 idiot boxes. I am choking, daily, on the utter hypocrisy coming from those with the “we know better” attitude. I’m a big “mind your own business” type.
Drill music? As in military cadence type stuff?
Yeah. 😄 No bad genres, just bad execution/performance.
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May 12, 2021 at 3:22 PM
Ha if only drill music was marching bands! Its a variation of grime which is a variation of a variation of a variation of rap, high on attitude and low on melody. I like music, not so keen on spoken poetry unless its doing something interesting in the background. Im sure thryd say the message is the point not the tune and i appreciate that to be the case. But this week id prefer my current top tune 45 fahrenheit girl by drew sycamore 🙂
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May 12, 2021 at 11:29 PM
I had to do some research. Ok. UKDrill is a subgenre of the US version, which comes from trap music, which is out of South Chicago (I suddenly have Jim Croce playing in my head). The only rap music I ever liked was the old school original stuff…like Rapper’s Delight or early Will Smith. I hated Vanilla Ice when he came out, stripping the riff from Queen/Bowie. Ditto MC Hammer stripping Rick James. Now, they are fun to listen to. I’d probably avoid the drill stuff, too and, most poetry goes way over my head. I guess I’m not that deep. I’m a left-brained type and I have great difficulty with “abstract.”
I come from a different place. I’m very much into music blendings and melodies. Words are optional to me. I love instrumental music as it can illicit more emotion out of me than the words.
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May 13, 2021 at 3:35 AM
I also liked old-school rap, stuff Like White Lines were powerful pieces of music as well as rap songs, and I liked the more tuneful side of Gangsta Rap (Gangsta’s Paradise, Stevie Wonder song essentially) Daisy Age Rap was fab (PM Dawn, De La Soul and others) and even into early Eminem and Kanye, who sampled from the greats and knew the importance of a great bed for some shouty rapping). Words are also secondary for me, more like icing on the cake than an actual cake in itself 🙂 The only rap-based tracks I’ve bought in recent years are more notable for doing their own musical thing rather than following trends and cliches – Old Town Road was great, and I’ve just entered Stronger by Blinkie into an online song competition – it’s more positive uplifting gospel than anything, but it’s an old-skool style of talk-rapping, really.
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