Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother, it’s impossible to resist the throbbing disco beats–and lasting cultural impact–of Saturday Night Fever. Released in December 1977, the low-budget “disco movie” was the surprise gift that kept on giving. It made millions at the box office, earned an Oscar nomination for TV-actor-turned-movie-star John Travolta, catapulted the Bee Gees’ music career into the stratosphere with a record-breaking, Grammy-winning soundtrack album, and ignited a “disco inferno” that burns to this day. From Travolta’s iconic white polyster suit and legendary dance moves to the flashing lights and illuminated floor of the 2001 Odyssey disco in Brooklyn, Saturday Night Fever captured the era like no other film–and launched a phenomenon that changed the world forever. Here, for the first time, is the complete history of Saturday Night Fever. From the New York magazine article that inspired the film–“Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” by Nik Cohn–to the on-and-off-set dramas of Travolta, director John Badham, and producer Robert Stigwood, this deep dive into the making of a movie classic also includes special interviews with actors Donna Pescow and Joseph Cali, among others. It explores the huge impact of the film on the industry–including the “Death to Disco” backlash–as well as on American culture itself.
