Travolta and 2001 Odyssey, the discotheque featured in the film, became the key reference points for dancers and club owners during disco's commercial peak.īeyond the celluloid sheen and marketing paraphernalia of the post-Saturday Night Fever disco boom, however, the 1970s dance floor functioned as a threshold space in which dancers broke with the tradition of couples dancing and forged a new practice of solo club dancing. Released in November 1977, Saturday Night Fever ushered disco into the American mainstream, where it remained for a relatively short eighteen months. Tony Manero, played by Travolta, is a Hustle expert and a straight man on the prowl in the photo, he is pictured alone, but his look and posture reveal that he is searching for a female partner, both on and off the dance floor. The image evokes a strutting, straight masculinity. The Saturday Night Fever publicity shot of a white-suited John Travolta, right hand pointing up and left hand, twisting along the same axis, aiming down, quickly became (and continues to be) the consciousness-invading icon of 1970s disco culture. Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader.
