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FUNKY JEWS

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Yids and whores out!" The
bouncer replied, "But some were
your relatives."
Rubell didn't really mean to
keep Jews out —but rather
those who weren't up to his stan-
dards in looks, fashion and/or
fame. In terms of race and sexu-
al orientation, Studio 54 was a
lot more integrated than the
rock scene. But it had brought
back the "cafe society" days,
when only the "right people"
could get in.
Unfortunately, Rubell became
an exemplar of the decadence of Mixmaster: Visitors will have the opportunity
the '70s — he was a coke freak
to make their own Studio 54 music.
who provided drugs to favored
clients. At the same time, he
disco product, says music journalist
skimmed the cash, got caught in 1979
Nathan, and tried to shove it down con-
and went to jail for about a year.
sumers' throats.
Members of the cultural left — who
A lot of this music was second rate,
felt they had plowed the ground that
formulaic stuff. But one good song,
made it possible for there to be a gay-
1980's “Funkytown," was performed by
owned club where music by blacks was
a
Jewish one-hit wonder named Steven
played — were appalled when Roy
Greenberg, playing under the name
Cohn, a closeted Jewish gay attorney
who bashed gays and communists in the "Lipps, Inc."
Rock's response to disco was the new
1950s, was hired as Rubell's lawyer. The
punk-rock scene, which began in 1977.
gay Jewish playwright Tony Kushner
The new movement produced short
later expressed this collective revulsion
rock songs listeners could dance to in
in his opus Angels in America.
Rubell and Schrager sold Studio 54 in dives like New York's CBGB's. Joey
Ramone, the Jewish member of the
1981. Rubell died of AIDS in 1989.
famous punk band the Ramones, was
one of the people Rubell probably
Saturday Night Fever
wouldn't have let into his club, but Joey
was giving rock a new dance genre.
Some people say disco was already on a
Less positively, there was a definite
downhill slide by 1977, and it would
white
macho racist undertone to the
have faded away without journalist Nik
"disco sucks" backlash in the media.
Cohn, an Irish-born Jew.
Disco seemed to 'just disappear
Cohn became aware of working-class
around 1981. No doubt, the harsh
kids who would work all week and
recession of that year helped close many
explode in discos on Saturday night. In
an expensive-to-run club.
1976, he wrote a story about these kids
However, as the Ford exhibit makes
for New York magazine.
clear,
other forms of dance music that
Twenty years later, Cohn admitted he
owed much to disco's influence would
made up most of his magazine story.
arise from its ashes within a few years.
However, he spun a convincing tale of
Yes, people like Rubell and Roy Cohn
an Italian working-class guy who was
still cast a pall on the memories of the
the local disco king. The next year,
club scene. But like every. American
Cohn's story came to the screen as
music movement of the 20th century,
Saturday Night Fever.
disco thrust to the forefront some
The great Bee Gees soundtrack got
oppressed groups in America.
people into the theaters to see Fever.
Jews have been part of every one of
Travolta's electrifying performance
those movements — from jazz and rock
made the film, but he had a strong sup-
to punk. So its no surprise that some
porting cast that included Jewish actress
funky Jews showed up under the disco
Donna Pescow as the girl who desper-
ball, too.
ately wanted Travolta; Jewish actress
Karen Lynn Gorney as Travolta's trained
"Disco: A Decade of Saturday
dance partner; and Jewish actor Barry
Nights" runs June 15-Sept. 15 at
Miller as Travolta's troubled little friend
the Henry Ford Museum in
who kills himself. (Not long after, Miller
Dearborn. Tickets are $7, in
co-starred in Chaim Potok's The Chosen
addition to the museum's general
as Reuven Maker.)
admission fee of $10-$14. For
more information, call
The End of Disco
(313) 982-6001 or go to
www.thehenryford.com .
Fever gave disco a new lease on life, but
audience resistance was building.
Record companies put out too much

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