| Record from Disco Demolition Night | |
|---|---|
| |
|
Origin |
Disco Demolition Night |
|
Type |
Vinyl copy of the Village People album "Cruisin'" |
|
Effects |
Bursts into flaming discus |
|
Downsides |
Explodes when stopped |
|
Activation |
Throwing |
|
Collected by |
|
|
Section |
|
|
Aisle |
36742-1098 |
|
Shelf |
845395-4338-236 |
|
Date of Collection |
2009 |
| [Source] | |
Origin[]
At 9:08 in the evening of July 12, 1979, riot police arrived at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois after a crowd of over 7,000 people stormed the baseball field following an anti-disco demonstration. Arranged by Chicago jockey Steve Dahl and White Sox promotions director Mike Veeck, the plan was to attract ticket sales from the dwindling fan base of the White Sox by capitalizing on the rejection of disco by dedicated lovers of rock music. Fans were promised reduced ticket prices to the doubleheader between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers, if they brought a disco album, and the resulting collection would be blown up between games.
While Veeck was only interested in filling seats, Dahl was infamous for his hatred of disco, as he would mercilessly mock the genre on air, break records on air, and had a hand in arranging several other anti-disco events in Chicago in the weeks leading up to July 12, many of which resulted in chaos.
Dahl's promotion worked a little too well, as the stadium became overrun with 50,000 baseball fans and disco haters alike, resulting in Veeck ordering park security to lock all but one of the exits and guard them. When the first game ended and the collected records were brought out onto the outfield, Dahl began to incite the already restless crowd. The explosion managed to tear a good hole into the outfield, but the real damage occurred when the crowd, unsupervised by park security and unable to escape from any of the exits, rushed onto the field and began destroying or stealing everything in site.
Though the riot ended quickly after police arrived, the White Sox were forced to forfeit the game due to field conditions, Veeck's career was irreparably damaged, the event is attributed to the hastened fall of disco music, and Dahl managed to survive the disaster with an optimistic, if not naive view of the whole debacle.
Effects[]
Imbued with the rage and drunken hormones of thousands of angry baseball attendees, throwing this record into the air will ignite it into a flaming discus. Though it appears to be able to stay in the air for a long period of time, if the flight is interrupted, the record will release a large explosion of sound and fire.