Sept. 10, 1979 review: The World's Largest Disco

 

A night that wound up in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Sept. 10, 1979 

Disco Fever Lives Up to Predictions

The recorded voice of Donna Summer crooned "Last Dance" through 40,000 watts of amplifiers about 4:45 a.m. Sunday as Buffalo Convention Center director Glenn Arnette III broke out the champagne and breathed a sigh of relief.

         Beyond his office window were a few hundred die-hard dancers and a vast floor full of used confetti and crumpled beverage cups – the remains of the World's Largest Disco. After a year of planning and three months of preparations, it had lived up to all its hyperbole.

         It also lived up to its attendance projections. Halfway through the night, it was reported that ticket sales had passed the 13,000 mark. Later it was guessed that as many as 17,000 might have showed up. By 1 a.m., the turnstiles were lightly protected and anyone who wanted to could walk right in.

         Friday night's press preview had offered an inkling of what it would be like – booming sound and dazzling lights, familiar friends and bizarre strangers, fancy footwork from Buffalo's Debonair Dancers and other discophiles, fancy filmwork in WKBW-TV's "Buffalo Experience" film downstairs.

         What the preview didn't prepare one for was the sheer crush of humanity. They came early – streaming down Franklin Street in the thousands while the pre-disco VIP party was still on – and they stayed late to cheer glittering Gloria Gaynor, whose headlining set didn't end until well after 4 a.m.

         They browsed the gaudy clothes (and bought them too) in Pantastik's disco boutique. They posed for souvenir photos at $5 a shot. They bought endless tickets for $1 drinks. They sought refuge and sustenance in the Disco Diner, where the menu offered such curiosities as the Spinner's Special (a jumbo spinach salad) and Discones (a sno-cone laced with liquor).

         It was virtually impossible to spend the whole night on the dance floor. The concrete was not conducive to long periods of standing. Nor were the sky-high heels that are now in fashion. The chairs along the walls filled up fast with the world's largest epidemic of sore feet.

         It also was virtually impossible to see the stage unless you were up on the deejay's platform. People crammed onto Litelab's slightly elevated dance floor during the first hour, not to do the Hustle, but to strain for a glimpse of the Trammps doing "Disco Inferno."

         The Trammps turned in an excellent set, as solid as their recorded work.

         All in all, it proved once again the disco is the great melting pot of the modern age. The World's Largest Disco brought together Blacks, whites and Hispanics, rich and poor, old and young, gays and straights, locals and out-of-towners.

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IN THE PHOTO: The dance floor that night in an uncredited photo.

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FOOTNOTE: Another review that reads like it was cut from the bottom because there wasn't enough space. And by the way, those $5 photographs would be $21 and change today. And locally-based Litelab created the dance floor based on the one they did for the “Saturday Night Fever” film.

Steve Cichon, in his Buffalo Stories blog in the mid-2010s, added some more details:

         "Longtime Buffalo nightclub DJ Charles Anzalone was one of the people keeping the dance floor moving. His memories of the night were stark more than a decade later and included 'huge dancing disco trains 1,000 people long, snaking through the crowd … confetti cannons going off, and people’s drinks getting covered with confetti … glittery platforms and tacky suits from Man Two or Pantastik.'

         "Aside from balloons dropping from the rafters and cannons firing blizzards of confetti, that 1979 show also included a performance from Queen of Disco Gloria Gaynor – who was celebrating her birthday that night.

         "In keeping with the 'world’s largest' theme, the 'I Will Survive' singer was presented with a huge birthday cake decorated with water fountains, fresh flowers and sparklers, created by Raymond Tutton of Richard Ray's Restaurant on Washington Street. …

         "In 1994, disco returned to the Convention Center when a new promoter decided to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the original event. Airline seats from Club 747, signs from the Playboy Club and Mulligan’s Cafe, and the infamous 'Freddy’s Special' wheel from Cassidy’s bar all added to the nostalgic look back at Buffalo’s late ’70s dance club scene.

         "Over the last two decades, 'The World’s Largest Disco' has become one of Buffalo’s biggest parties of the year, with tickets for the week-of-Thanksgiving event going on sale in August."