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Last night we were “chilling” on the couch (maybe not “chilling” as Alex had a glass of RED wine on my almost white couch) discussing our next few months of upcoming events, and it turns out between Caroline and us we have 4 in the next 5ish months. As a result of this pleasant conversion I was politely reminded that I still needed to write a blog on the seventies party. So, here’s the deal (and yes that is an Alexism), I wrote a blog on the seventies party, and honestly it was crap to put it nicely. I’m sure I violated all sorts of writer’s rules and trashed it or maybe not, I’m kind of a hoarder of bad writing so it could still be taking up space in my google docs.* Either way, I’m not publishing it. This morning, I decided in between alarm clocks that I am going to write the seventies blog, but I’m going to do it stream of consciousness James Joyce Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, “and then she put the oil sheets on” style. I apologize for the highschool nightmares I may have just caused you. Excuse me while I go crawl up in a ball for an hour or so. (Also, a silent nod to Mr. Bonzo and his two watches. His son was on a mission to Germany, give him a break.)
Aside- in the brief time it took me to write that paragraph, I was also asked for the “people are sick, dying or pregnant casserole recipes” and had a brief conversation about bail reform. It’s 8 in the morning, people.
In order to really understand how we ended up with Pandemonium at the Disco as a party theme, we have to really go back to the very beginning. First, in case you missed it, Alex and I have the same birthday (except he’s older than me… this is important because he’s celebrating his 50th next year NOT ME). We both loved to entertain, so we got back together (that’s a whole different story for those who have somehow missed it- or the random stranger that happens upon this blog) we decided we wanted to throw at least one big party a year. We figured why not have a big birthday bash? Subsequently, we have stopped really thinking of it as a birthday party, and just a good time of year to throw a big party… except for the “milestone years”… like 50. When we started planning our first party, we were not thinking of a theme party. In fact, our first party was a simple wine and cheese party, in which I wore a fabulous LBD that Audrey herself would have loved. (This dress is still hanging in my closet waiting for me to either convince Alex that I need massive amounts of liposuction or develop a serious bulimia problem).
Eventually, okay the very next year, we decided to have an 80’s theme party and it all kind of spiraled from there. When we first started planning these parties, we felt like we were ahead of the game if we had a theme and general plan by Halloween. Now, if we don’t have a theme the day after the previous year’s party I feel like we’re behind the 8 ball. When it comes to a theme party, decade parties are a pretty easy go-to (unless you’re thinking of the 1870’s and then everyone has to pull out their bustles and life is just a mess). On the other hand, too many decade parties and people get tired of raiding their cedar chests or begging their parents to finally clean out their attic. All of this goes to say the 70’s as a theme had been on radar since we were cleaning up the day after Hollywood through the ages (for those of you not keeping track of every party and every year that was about 5 years).
The thing about the 70’s (other than most of the people reading the blog being born around that time) was it just didn’t seem very pleasant. Let’s face it the Beatles disbanded, really getting the decade off on the right foot. Vietnam was still going. Then there was Watergate, Three Mile Island, the Energy Crisis, the Iran Hostage Crisis, and of who could forget the death of Elvis?! Of course there was always John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, the Son of Sam and the Hillside Strangler. Looking back on it and our family’s general obsession with murder shows, maybe serial Killer Saturday Night would have been a good idea, but at the time it was just bit too macabre for this party. Finally, worst of all, the corduroy… So, the 70’s rattled around with maybe we all just watch Star Wars on Betamax and play a little Pong.
And then came 2020. We were just off the high of having thrown the best funeral ever (see the blog), but we had also run out of ideas and we needed a theme that was not a dress up party. We try very hard not to violate our every other year dress up policy ( I do apologize for the Hollywood/Prom 2 years in a row dress up violation.) Shortly, after that the pandemic hit and we were on the whole 2 weeks of lock down. And right here I want to pause, and say it was 2 weeks of lock down and we had NO idea what was ultimately going to happen or how long it was going to last. I’m driving around listening to of all things, Panic and the Disco…. And I was like Pandemic and the Disco…. Here we go. At this point, I recognize maybe Saturday Night with a Serial Killer would have been a better idea. Anyway, we aren’t horrible people. The pandemic didn’t end shortly and way too many people died. Scratch Pandemic and the Disco, but keep the disco party for 2022… come up with a new plan for 2021.
Enter Stage Right- Route 66. We realized pretty early on that Route 66 wasn’t going to happen in February. We pushed it to April and eventually the end of August. This is really just an aside, except because of that push we were forced to violate one of our cardinal rules: don’t start planning the next party until the current one is over. So, while we were driving across the country in an admittedly very haphazard manner, and spray painting pool noodles, we were also watching 1970’s disco movies. What better way to research really?
We started with Saturday Night Fever which had always been pitched to me as the defining disco movie of the decade. Honestly, that should have ended the Disco Party right there (I really don’t understand why people like that movie)… Que Saturday Night with a Serial Killer. Fortunately, we seemed to have a hive mind with Netflix. It was streaming the limited series Halston and Studio 54: The Documentary featuring Ian Schrager (the lesser known founder of Studio 54). These movies showed us a different (though still drug addled) side of Disco.** This was glamor. A world from which John Travolta and his polyester would be turned away. This was a party.
The premise for Studio 54: The Documentary was that Ian Schrager was writing/compiling a coffee table book on Studio 54. This gem is filled with the general story of setting up “Studio” but also details such as the blueprints, press announcements, invitations, and tons of pictures! As I read through the book, I ran across this quote: “This was a kind of decompression zone between the pandemonium and the crowds outside the door and the lights, music and energy of the dance floor, which got louder and brighter as you got closer.”
Pandemonium at the Disco…. We were off to the Races. Now to figure out how to turn our Suburban House into New York’s most infamous night club.
Next time, Have Black Plastic, Will Party.
*It was still taking up space on my google docs, it was still crap except I really liked this sentence which I didn’t feel like trying to cram into this version, but I did really like. “As children of the 80’s studio 54 loomed large in the zeitgeist of what we thought glamor in the 70s was.”
**Just a note we also watched the 1998 movie Studio 54 (If you want to see a young Ryan Phillippe it’s well worth a watch.) and The Last Days of Disco (which was clearly supposed to be based on Studio 54, but they avoided the name and couldn’t be bothered to change up the 1990’s hairstyles).