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'Night' Time

Hustling heartthrob John Travolta brought disco to a Fever pitch 21 years ago.

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By Joe Neumaier

Until Tony Manero pointed it out, who knew Brooklyn's working-class kids could boogie like the beautiful people at Studio 54? Yet when Saturday Night Fever opened Dec. 16, 1977, a whole generation saw itself reflected in a mirrored disco ball -- and like Rebel Without a Cause and Easy Rider before it, Fever became a hit not by targeting an audience but by simply being about them.

While it hustled teen pinup John Travolta to big-screen superstardom as Tony (after three years on ABC's Welcome Back, Kotter) and its smash soundtrack album made every dorm room a disco, Fever was at heart a gritty drama. Produced by music impresario Robert Stigwood from a New York magazine story, director John Badham's film took a simple theme -- blue-collar teen escapes his dead-end life by becoming the king of his world (here, the dance floor at the club ''2001 Odyssey'') -- and made it reverberate for youth in every neighborhood of the country. The movie was a huge hit, garnering solid reviews and making $85 million, and was even reissued in 1979 with a toned-down PG rating to draw in younger viewers.

Just as its little touches were dead-on (Tony even had a Farrah poster), the film gave it back in a pop-culture pas de deux. In addition to its soundtrack and poster, white suits became hip, the Bee Gees were reborn, and would-be Tonys, finally, got a blueprint to work from.