instead of Saturday Night Massacre…Julia and I went to see the final offering of this season’s Walnut Street Theater tonight…Saturday Night Fever…the story of Tony Manero who was a “gatta dance, gatta dance” guy…he works in a dead end job at paint store…he gets no respect in his family as his brother is priest…he and his friends are “losers”…the only place he excels is on the dance floor of the local discotheque in 1977 Brooklyn…the whole phenomenon started by an article in New York Magazine by Nik Cohn ( a Brit ) titled “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”…which inspired Norman Wexler’s 1977 screenplay…the film which catapulted John Travolta to international stardom…along with his walk and his white suit…that famous white suit which sold at auction at Christie’s for $145,000 in 1995…it was first auctioned in 1978 for charity…film critic Gene Siskel paid $2,000. for it…Saturday Night Fever was one of his favorite films of all time…John Travolta signed it in the lining, “So here’s to a classic, your friend, John Travolta”…anyone who sees this film falls in love with Travolta, especially in his white suit…Patrizia von Brandenstein was the costume designer for the film…the suit was sought after by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for their Hollywood Costume Show which opened in October of 2012…Rose Etherington wrote an article for Dezeen: “It had been missing after being auctioned at Christie’s in 1995 but the current owner came forward when they heard about the Hollywood Costume exhibition due to open on 20 October”…”The iconic white 3-piece suit worn by John Travolta as Tony Manero on the disco dance floor in the classic 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, has been discovered in London after an international search by the Victoria and Albert Museum. It has now been confirmed to go on display as part of Hollywood Costume, the V&A’s major autumn exhibition.
Finally, after a high profile media launch for Hollywood Costume at the V&A in January 2012, Assistant Curator Keith Lodwick received a phone call from the current owner revealing the white suit’s London location and offering it for the exhibition. The owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, was the long sought buyer from the 1995 Christie’s auction. After visiting the costume to authenticate it, Lodwick was delighted to discover that it was the original suit and in excellent condition. The white polyester two-button single-breasted suit with wide jacket lapels, matching waistcoat, and 28-inch waist white flared trousers is accompanied by the original black single-cuff shirt with pointed collar. The lining inscription to Gene Siskel is still visible.
Saturday Night Fever is one of the most enduring films of the 1970s and Travolta’s legendary performance as Brooklyn youth Tony Manero is now embedded in international popular culture. Designed by Patrizia Von Brandenstein, the white suit became an emblem for the film and for the disco decade. The film’s director John Badham asked Von Brandenstein to shop locally in Brooklyn for the “perfect” suit for Tony Manero. She remembers throngs of girls screaming outside the shop for Travolta, then the star of a hit US television series, Welcome Back Kotter. As Curator Deborah Nadoolman Landis notes, “Badham, Travolta and Van Brandenstein did not know at the time of filming that this suit would come to define an era.”
Now remembered as one of the most classic costumes in cinema history, Badham and Travolta originally assumed that the suit would be black for the final dance scene, only to be convinced by Von Brandenstein to use white. She had two reasons for insisting on the colour; she felt strongly that white represented Tony Manero’s personal journey from ignorance to enlightenment and it ensured that the suit would reflect the dazzling lighting effects in the dark discotheque.
Patrizia Von Brandenstein commented: “When choosing what goes in to such a major dance costume, I paid attention to the usual factors of cut, “danceability” and maintenance and I thought about the character of Tony Manero. I reasoned that Tony’s position in his traditional Italian-American family (overshadowed by his brother the seminarian, and under valued for his compassion and dancing abilities) is in extreme contrast to his dominant position in the neighbourhood. By virtue of his style, panache, and above all his lithe grace on the dance floor, he is a hero to his local gang, and by extension, to all of us. Heroes from Sir Lancelot to Tom Mix wore white in the great contests to express purity and single-minded devotion to the task at hand. So for me, white was the only choice for the suit. I am grateful that our hero, John Travolta, and our producers also came to see it in this way. I am so thrilled that the suit is included in Hollywood Costume, and hope the public enjoy seeing it on display at the V&A.”
The Walnut production wasn’t Broadway…it never is but the always do a good job… it was a lively, fun production…great dancing, of course…the great Bee Gee songs ( the soundtrack sold over 40 million copies…one of the highest selling albums ever )…Julia’s cousin was an understudy for one of the friends of Tony…we enjoyed the production, as did our friends that sit in front and behind us in the Theater…we are in the sixth row center…the same row that Carol and Rafe have seats on a Saturday Night schedule…”the original production was directed and choreographed by Arlene Phillips, the £4 million stage adaptation premiered in the West End May 5, 1998 at the London Palladium, and closed on February 26, 2000…After twenty-seven previews, the Broadway production, with Phillips directing, opened on 21 October 1999 at the Minskoff Theatre, where it ran for 501 performances”…hail Tony Manero…hail Saturday Night Fever…
Art Salazar 