Disco Fever

Disco Fever was a New York City dance club located in the South Bronx that operated from 1976 to 1986. After initially failing to draw very many customers, Sal Abbatiello convinced his father, the owner, to hand over the reins. Abbatiello quickly began featuring hip hop artists including a young Grandmaster Flash, and the club greatly increased in popularity and fame. Hip hop group Run-D.M.C. performed their first show at the club.

The club started out as a neighborhood bar. Albert "Allie" Abbatiello, an Italian American, already operated two nightclubs in the Bronx serving primarily African Americans: the Golden Hour and Pepper-n-Salt. He reworked the old bar to be his third nightclub, aimed initially at an older crowd. According to his son Sal, "We had been lookin' for a name for about three months, and we were sitting down watchin' tv and my mom saw an advertisement for Saturday Night Disco Fever [sic]; and she says why don't you name it Disco Fever – we said, 'nah, get outta here.' The next day we got up sayin' Disco Fever sounds pretty hot. So we got it from my mom, she named it."

It opened in 1976, but did not get popular quickly. The place could hold 350, but on a good night only about 200 would come through. Sal Abbatiello served as a bartender; one night after hours he saw how the night manager, George Godfrey, was playing records and calling to the small group of patrons on the microphone, getting a party started. Abbatiello thought that this unusual practice of talking over the music, getting the crowd involved, was very good for business as it engaged the people who were sitting at the bar and were not dancing. Abbatiello asked Godfrey, who performed as "Sweet G", to recommend artists of this type for the club, and Godfrey took him to see Grandmaster Flash perform in the local park along with two other artists; the group called themselves "Grandmaster Flash & the 3 MCs", the predecessor of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Abbatiello asked for and received permission from his father to book musical artists on Tuesday nights.

In 1977, the first Tuesday night show featured Grandmaster Flash; he was paid $50, the other two MCs $25. Abbatiello settled upon a door charge of $1 per patron and a minimum requirement of one drink at $1. This low price combined with a promotional campaign of flyers distributed locally resulted in a long line waiting at the front door. Seeing the large crowd, Abbatiello called for additional help from his father's nearby club, Pepper-n-Salt. The Disco Fever grossed $1,000, establishing the success of the experiment.

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