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Dark History
144: Death to Disco, Dancing, and Jazz!? The Men Who Ruined Music | Dark History
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Bailey Sarian
Friends, I have a special treat for you. From time to time, I like to take a look back at all the stories we've covered. And honestly, it's a lot. I mean, I learned so much, but at the same time, it's really hard to keep track of all of the things we talk about. So when I was looking back through the last three seasons, something jumped out at me. I noticed a very interesting reoccurring theme in some of our episodes that involve music. In pretty much all of them, there just always seems to be one man or a group of men just obsessed with ruining the fun for all of us. Now, whether it was some priests back in the 1500s, a narc who worked for the US government, or a Chicago based DJ who just hated disco music, these disappointing men were the enemies of joy. So today, I put together a very fun episode for you. We are going to expose the men who ruined music. Hi friends. I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Hi. Here we believe history does not have to be boring. It's might be tragic, it might be happy, but either way, it's our dark history. Before we get into today's story, don't forget to like and subscribe. I come out with that hot, juicy history goss every week and let me know what you think down below in the comment section. I love hearing from you. Yes, I do. Our first story comes to us from the episode we did on the Dancing Plague. Do you remember that one? No. Let me tell you, this story was so weird. It all went down in the year 1518 in France. Now, first of all, let me tell you, you didn't want to be alive back then. It wasn't ideal. There were tons of poverty, famine, disease everywhere, people being burned alive. And to top it all off, the church was corrupt as hell. It was pure chaos. So, yeah, things were stressful. And then one day, a peasant woman named Frau Trofia started dancing and couldn't stop. No shame, right? It sounds funny, but it's very serious. But no one could have predicted what happened next. Frau's dancing spread like wildfire, and the whole town started doing it. And no one knew why. Well, the town looked to the church for help. But instead of helping people, the church hired a bunch of musicians to play music while people literally danced themselves to their death. So the city of Strasbourg had become one big, unexplainable dance party. People were dancing in houses. They were dancing in the streets. They were even dancing at church, sometimes with shoes, and sometimes they were just completely barefoot. Honestly, super fun. I mean, what else were they doing? Nothing. Exactly. Just let them dance. God. The church was bothered by all this dancing, and they tried everything they could to make it all stop, make it just go away, but they weren't having any damn luck. So with that being said, they decided, hey, maybe we should, like, lean into this a little bit, you know? And this next part is kind of strange, but honestly, it happened. Okay, great. So the church threw a big street festival with professional musicians in order to try and fight the dancing plague. Okay, go on. The idea was that if they brought the music, then people would come out, do some dancing, right? The music doesn't stop, and voila. Baby, these dancers are exhausted. Right? There you have it. We solve the dancing plague. They can't dance. They can't dance anymore. If they're exhausted, beat them to it. It's kind of like when you have a song stuck in your head and they say, like, oh, the only treatment is to listen to the song. Sure. Great comparison. You get it. Pipers and drummers would play music, and they just told the people who were dancing to keep on dancing until you drop from exhaustion. They're like, keep going. You can do it. Yeah. You know, they even hired professional dancers to join in and keep the energy up and make sure that people kept going. Mm. Just, like, get it out of your system, you know? Now, the funny thing is that they also were providing the dancers with food and drink so that they would have the energy to keep dancing, to just make sure that they really got it all out. And the reason I think that's kind of funny, lol, you know, is because, like, they were fully in this horrible famine, and the church was just hogging all this food. But now that there's a dancing plague and suddenly they're able to, like, feed the people, like, this is what it took to get some food dancing. Okay. So others are seeing that these people who are stuck dancing are now getting free food and water. And they're like, you know what? I got the dancing flick, too. And they're, like, getting in on it. Everyone's literally dancing. Okay, you get it. Lots of dancing going on so they could get free food and water, which, hello, who would blame them? I don't. Okay. But really, this dancing plague kept spreading and spreading, and by August, there were around 400 dancers. I'm not kidding. Like, these people kept dancing all day, every day, unless they were sleeping. It was bizarre. Would this be considered the first Renaissance Fair? Valid question. Like I mentioned earlier, this started in July. Julie had been dancing for a whole month. At this point, in the middle of summer with no showers. Could you imagine how stinky everyone was? Stank. Must have been real. But it wasn't all just fun and dancing. Ne, ne, of course not. This would actually start to become deadly, but after this ad break, so. Welcome back. So those in charge wanted to keep the dancers dancing, and they hired what was described as, quote, strong men, end quote. Like football player types or something. I guess they were using them to prop the dancers up again to keep them dancing. Yeah, this sounds completely made up, but I swear to you, Okay, I swear. Historians said it happened. They were being forced to keep dancing. And again, it's really hilarious. What does it mean? Well, depending on who you ask, this method did work. Some people did indeed stop dancing. The only reason they stopped was because some were literally dying from exhaustion. They were dying from nonstop dancing. Many of them didn't want to keep going, but also they just couldn't stop. Some were so miserable. Why? They danced, but seemed to have, like, no control over their own bodies, leading to their deaths. Yes, there was food and water provided, but at this point, there were so many dancers and they were unable to, like, keep them all hydrated and full. Some of the people were begging to stop, but they couldn't. Their bodies would not allow it. Were they possessed? Was it some curse? Was it a psychotic break? What in the world was going on with them? Well, there were reports that said there were up to 15 dancers. We should just call them people at this point because they're people. Fifteen people dying per day. Yes. This story is from long, long ago that we don't even have an exact record, but it's believed to be around this number. I mean, the people in charge wanted the dancers to stop, so I guess they got what they wanted. Fifteen people stopping at a time. There was still no clear answers as to what the cause to this non stop dancing was. And nobody knew how to solve it or get them to stop other than just let them keep going. One form of treatment was to open the church doors and make them dance in the chapel that they took Frau to. But their idea was to give the dancers red shoes. Oh, yes, the red shoes. This would symbolize fire, which in turn would make God pity them and their burning feet. Yeah, I don't know, you guys. It sounds super random, but I'm sure at the time it definitely made sense. They're like, yeah, totally Makes sense. Wear red shoes to historians. Another thought behind the red shoes was that they represented Saint Vitus, like, in his burning feet. Remember the saint, those burned at the stake? Yeah. Well, red shoes may have represented his burning feet. So if the people of Strasbourg wanted to save their souls, it would represent St. Vitus. Therefore, God would protect them, and they would stop dancing. Great. Sometimes you have to get creative when it comes to problem solving, and I applaud them for that. What's that, Joan? Yeah, I know. Obviously, this, like, this town has some kind of curse on it, and those in charge, they thought it would be best to try and purify the town. They're like, you know what? We need to try and bring the peace and order that we once had here. We need to bring that back. You know, peace and order where, like, the peasants are annoying us and dancing. So they decided what they were gonna do is ban sinners, drunks, sex workers, gamblers, and any criminals in order to bring purity back into the town. There's obviously, like, a dark cloud of sinners causing everyone to dance. And in order to fix this, everyone was banned except for those deemed good. Oh, I don't think I'd want to stay. I'd want to dance. Anyways, around September of 1518, the dancing, it just stopped. I sure did. And we don't know why. We really don't. Maybe it was the Red Shoes after all. Shit. Your guess is as good as mine. Okay, now, there's a lot of historical context as to why they might have been dancing in the first place, but not that much about why or how it even stopped. Some think that the Red Shoes really were the answer, which, in my mind, naturally, I go right to, like, the wizard of Oz. Like, were they making some kind of connection to red Shoes in that movie that relates to this story? Or is that, like, a real thing? Red Shoes? You know, I don't know, but, like, there's just a lot of unanswered questions here. Great. Glad we're on the same page. So, in the hundreds of years following this event, historians can't seem to agree on some of the specifics, but the one thing they can agree on is that this actually did indeed happen. There's dozens of newspapers, politicians, and even religious texts that make direct reference to the summer of 1518 when a bunch of people started dancing and they didn't stop for a long, long time. Hey, Joan, I have a question for you. Have you ever heard of mass hysteria? Well, some believe that this was an early example of those kinds of events. People were miserable. God was everywhere and he was telling them that they were all sinners, you know? Well, allegedly, of course. Nothing they were doing was making anything better. And all this dancing was probably some kind of escape for them. Or it was believed that the people of Strasbourg were suffering from some kind of disease that caused them to keep moving, which they just couldn't stop. Or maybe, just maybe, there was a curse on the town from the devil himself, who made the people keep dancing as a form of odd punishment. Oh, boy, that was a lot of fun, wasn't it? We laughed, we cried, we danced. Huh? Well, friends, we just started because it gets more wild from here because our next story takes us to the age of jazz music. In our episode on the dark history of jazz, we learned about the iconic and legendary Billie Holiday. If you haven't listened to her music, I don't know what you're doing. What are you doing? Honestly, she's one of the greatest American singers of all time. But unfortunately, one man disagreed. That man was Harry J. Anslinger. And Harry was the head of the Federal Bureau of narcotics for 32 years. And while he was in the office, he just hated young Billy now, especially after she released a song called Strange Fruit that called out the horrible lynching happening to black Americans. This just made Harry so mad. Harry made it his job to target Billy and did everything he could to take her down. Let me show you how, right from the very start, Billie had a rough go at her life. Her parents were teenagers when they had her, and from the ages of four to six, she worked alongside other kids washing the floors in a brothel where she lived with her mother. Now, the madame who ran the brothel was a jazz fan. So this is how Billie first discovered the genre. She immediately fell in love. But her life took an awful twist when at the young age of 10, she was sexually assaulted by a. By one of the brothel dudes. Patrons. Pieces of shit. Thankfully, he was arrested and went to prison, but that doesn't erase trauma and permanent damage. And because of where she lived and who her mother was, Billy, who was then 10 years old, was accused of being a sex worker. As punishment, she was forced to go to a Catholic school for discipline. When she got out at the age of 14, her mother was still working at the brothel. So Billie was forced to help make ends meet. And at just 14 years old, she entered a life of sex work. Now, we can't be sure, but it's assumed by historians that it was around this time she started using, like, heavier drugs. Like heroin and alcohol as coping mechanisms, things she would use for the rest of her life. It was around this time the police raided the brothel where she lived in, and Billie was arrested for sex work. After this, she focused all of her energy on music and would go to bars around New York every night, and she would sing wherever she could. Luckily, she landed a gig pretty quickly, which allowed her to leave sex work behind. One night, in a very A Star Is Born moment, Billie's entire life changed. She was just singing at some random bar when a producer, John Hammond, heard her. Now, John was a big deal at the time and was setting up a studio band, so he's impressed with her talent. So John decides to introduce her to jazz legend Benny Goodman. Okay. And then they end up working together and she makes her recording debut at just 17 years old, which is huge. So Benny was also a white man. And this detail is important because it gave her access to a wider audience from a younger age. You know, like, unfortunately, that's just how it was. It was around this time that Billie first performed Strange Fruit, a song that made white audiences very uncomfortable. You're probably wondering why, because the song is about lynchings in the south and how black people hanging from trees were a type of strange fruit. It was so popular that she would end her set with it every single night. And even when venue managers told her not to, she did it anyways. I mean, it's a powerful song. When it was time to record her album, the record label refused to record it, so she had to, like, go to a smaller label to get it done. And that was a bad call by the bigger label because the song was a massive hit and she became an international star by the time she was 24. I mentioned strange Fruit because it kind of sums up Billie's attitude towards authority. Like, the song kept growing in popularity and eventually started pissing off some powerful people. And all of this was the perfect combination for Harry Anslinger and the FBN to view Billie Holiday as the ideal target. She was a young black female jazz singer who was addicted to heroin at the time, and the government wanted to crack down on drugs and slow down the influence of jazz. I mean, she was their new target. Harry became so obsessed with Billy that he even tried to intercept her before a gig when she was planning to perform Strange Fruit, but she slipped past him. She got to the stage and performed the song anyway. Harry was getting pissed that no matter how much he got newspapers to condemn drugs and jazz, people still loved Billie Holiday. So Harry needs a new Strategy. Right. Nothing seems to be working for him. He puts a special agent on Billy's tail. His name was Jimmy Fletcher. He picked Jimmy because he was one of the few black agents Harry employed. The thinking was that Jimmy would be able to maneuver in the underground jazz world without blowing his cover. Jimmy followed Billy around for a year and slowly started to become really good friends with her. Now, there are rumors that in order to gain her trust, they would party together. And there were also rumors that he was falling in love with her. Okay. So Jimmy would eventually do what snitches do. And Billy was busted for drug use. So when Jimmy arrested her, he brought a female police officer to perform a strip search and did just that. As a result of her arrest, Billy spent a whole year in prison. And this was during the peak of her career. And when she was released, her cabaret card, you know, that card that you need to perform in clubs, it was revoked. Now she couldn't even perform in New York and Chicago, like the two biggest jazz scenes. But that wasn't enough for Harry. Jazz was still thriving, and he wanted to make sure Billie could never reach the level of fame she deserved. Mind you, there's lots of other, like, jazz going on. So why he hated Billie so much? Mmm. Mmm. He's like, obsessed. Oh. Ad break, BRB. So remember in the MKUltra episode? Did you listen to that one? Do you remember that creepy guy who would sit on a toilet behind a two way mirror? Remember he was sipping martinis. He was observing sex workers who were secretly drugging their men with lsd. Yeah. Well, his name was George White. And get this. Harry assigned that guy to hunt down Billie Holiday. What a small little world, huh? George's job was to arrest Billy in the cities that she was still allowed to perform in. And the goal was to make sure she got banned there, too. So George got all dressed up and went to one of her concerts in San Francisco. He sat through the whole show and at one point even shouted out a request to her to sing one of his favorite songs, which she. She did. And then after the show, which I'm guessing he just had a wonderful time at, he arrested her for heroin possession. Billy's arrest had some very strange circumstances surrounding it, though. George obviously does things off the book, and this was no different. He said that when he arrested Billy, he found heroin in her trash can. And then he never even submitted the heroin that he, quote, found the police officer, you know. Yeah, the police department just took his word for it. Despite the fact that Billy said that he was lying and she was set up, which I'm sure she was. As part of Billy's punishment, she was sent to a drug clinic. And while she was there, the staff noticed she didn't have any heroin withdrawal symptoms. Which, I mean, hello, that would happen. Like, guaranteed that would happen. So this kind of seemed to be a total setup, but she was also a female. She was a black jazz performer, and she was like the queen of it, honestly. So nobody believed her. The cycle of her being arrested and released would continue for years as she was constantly harassed by George and these other douche canoes. It's important to remember that despite being constantly. Shut up, Billie Holiday really did have a drug problem. And unfortunately, sadly, in 1959, Billy collapsed at a friend's house while trying to get Colleen. She was taken to a hospital, and they refused to admit her. When they finally did, they called the cops. And guess who shows up. Harry Anslinger. He went ahead and handcuffed her to the bed. Okay. She didn't even have drugs on her. He was just waiting for his moment. So here's the thing about a heroin withdrawal. You could die from it. Withdrawals typically include, like, a high fever, severe pains in your stomach. If you don't eat well or sleep much, those side effects can also kill you. It leads to most people just relapsing or using again because the withdrawals are worse than anything. And that was exactly what Billy was going through when she checked into the hospital. There are drugs you can take to help with the side effects, but Harry made sure she didn't receive any help from the doctors, which is a very fucked up punishment. This fuck wanted to punish her. So Billy passes away handcuffed to the hospital bed. And to make it even more horrific, Billy told her friend she didn't want to go to the hospital because, quote, they would try to kill her. I wish I could say things got better from here, but they really do not. Harry was praised for his work and was even honored by President John F. Kennedy. While he was harassing Billy and focusing all his energy on jazz musicians, white mainstream figures like Joseph McCarthy and Judy Garland had opiate addictions too. And Harry knew about that. He specifically said that he didn't want to arrest them and, like, ruin their reputations. What a dick. I think we can all agree it's an injustice what happened to Billy, I'll tell you that. Anyway, this next story is about how a biker friendship group ruined music during one fateful night, a night that turned out to be a free concert from hell, the date? December 6, 1969. The location, Altamont Speedway in California. The concert, the Rolling Stones. For some reason, the Rolling Stones thought it would be a good idea to hire Hell's Angels, the biker gang, to be security for this concert. Long story short, violence broke out, property was damaged, dozens of people were injured, and four people ended up dead. Here's how. So I need you to envision in your mind a crowd of 300,000 people on some insane trip none of them were expecting. Yeah, these people, they're paranoid. What? Excited. Their heart's beating out of their chest, but also they want to lay down. There's no food, there's no water body going through it. The drug trips were apparently so bad that someone had to call the local hospitals to fly in sedatives to calm people down. So another drug. Ah, drugs. Writer Joel Selvin describes people experiencing absolutely freakouts from their drug trips. I imagine Joel. Holy shit. In his 2016 book about Altamont, he writes, quote, it's like a toxic mass psychosis. The drugs were terrible. End quote. Bummer, man. Doctors were called in to set up a medical tent and give people a drug called Thorazine. And this was specifically used for people having really bad, insane drug trips. And, I mean, it was supposed to help. Okay. But anyone who's been to, like, a high school party knows that with cheap beer, bad drugs, no food, you are so fucked. Actually, no, because back then you could go to sleep and wake up and you were fine. You know, try doing that today anyways. But bad, right? Yeah. There's really no sedative for it, Right? Except Jack in the Box. They're monster tacos. Yes. Shout out to the monster taco bitch. Please sponsor Taco. I need that taco to sponsor me. So even with the sedatives in people's systems, the Hell's Angels were having a hard time keeping people in line. People were shoving each other, they were shouting, they were climbing up expensive video equipment, you know, because they wanted to get a better view. Well, the Hells Angels are getting really. They're getting angry, but people are just straight up ignoring them. They're like, whatever. They're on police. What are they going to do, run me over with their bike? The Hells Angels, if you keep poking that bear. Well, eventually they're going to get a little mad and violent, and it became a total take no prisoner approach. There were a few people who managed to get to the very front of the stage and they started, like, knocking their motorcycle fence over, knocking the bikes over, you know, because they wanted to get a better view. And if there's anything I know about people with bikes, you're not. You don't touch those bikeys. Knock it over. They will literally knock your head off. So when people had pushed over the Hell's Angels motorcycle motorcycles, they took it very personally. I mean, these bikes were their most prized possessions. And these people were just, like, disrespecting their Harleys like that right in front of them. No, the Angels were pissed. So you know what? They're like, fuck you guys. And they started to turn on the crowd. They were going to make them pay for this disrespect. Okay? Now, there isn't an official number on the amount of people that were injured, but we do know dozens of people got beat the fuck up by the Hells Angels. The reports say they either beat them with their fists, full cans of beer, which. Ouch. Or they would use motorcycle chains, beat them with that, or, like, sawed off pool cues. I know. I was like, where the hell did they get a pool queue? You're in the middle of nowhere. You know, I think they brought him themselves, probably. There were reports of fights between the Angels and people in the crowd everywhere. There was one woman who wandered onto the stage, and a Hell's angel decided to drag her off the stage, but by her hair, dick. And there were even rumors that since the police weren't there, the Angels were just stealing money and drugs off of the people they were beating up. And this part made me laugh a little. Just a little. Sorry for laughing, but it did. Apparently, the Hell's Angels would also rev up their engines when they decided they didn't like the music that was playing. Yeah, they would. They'd like, I don't like this song. And they would just rub the engine. I just think that's so immature. Like, it's silly. I don't know. I thought it was funny. Shut up. Just imagine being heckled by, like, a beefy biker who's, like, three feet away from you. It's kind of. It's kind of funny. Okay, whatever. At a certain point, the Angels seemed to start turning on the bands they were supposed to be protecting. And this started pretty much fucking Santana, man. Okay. Pretty much. It started right when Santana opened the show. Yeah, he's like. He's like, so let's forget about. And then Hell's Angels were like, nope. Poor Santana. I'm sorry. That sucks. So I guess, like, right when Santana opened the festival, some guy, he took off all of his clothes yeah, he got butt ass naked and he ran across the stage. And honestly, I love when people do that. Cause I'm like, no, I don't. That's pervy. I'm a perv. But two Hell's Angels pulled him from the stage and started, like, beating him up in front of everyone. Butt naked, getting beat up. Could you imagine? Talk about embarrassing. I hope someone got pictures. Bill Owens, who was a photographer at Altamont, saw the whole thing go down. Did he get pictures? He said, quote, two angels with their pool cues beat a naked guy. I'm so sorry. This is not funny. Beat a naked guy to the ground. Then they kicked him with their boots. He was bloodied and had his teeth knocked out. He crawled under the stage to get away from it, still naked. Somebody told me he stayed under there for the rest of the festival, which ran from day into night. I've always wondered how he got home with no clothes on. End quote. Okay, it was clear that things were. They were getting a little off. Things were getting a little out of control, okay? And Joel, the writer of the Altamont book, said, quote, there was no central command or figurehead running the whole festival and handling, like, the logistics. Nobody in the crew knew who was in charge, end quote. There was no captain. Who the fuck was in charge. Now, when the band Ace of Cups was playing, someone in the crowd just fucking. Just hurled is the word. Hurled a beer bottle at one of the band members. Heads. Yeah. And it ends up hitting one of the members on stage. And the musician it hit was six months pregnant at the time. And the bottle caused a serious skull fracture. She had to freaking be, like, rushed out of the venue to have emergency surgery. What the. Like, that's. That's fucked. You could throw it at a big beefy guy. Well, you shouldn't. But, like, that's better. Not a pregnant woman who's performing for you, you little ass bitch. Capital C. Anyways. Oh, she lived. Okay. So bad, right? I don't get you people who throw shit on stages. I don't get it. I don't understand what your end goal is. We all pay to be here. Like, what the fuck? Anyways, Let me just stop, okay? There was another story of this woman who was on a really bad drug trip. She fell to the ground and was getting kicked and walked on by other people who were just as high as she was. They probably thought they were, like, walking on clouds. I don't know. And, like, it was awful. I'm laughing because of how uncomfortable I am. Excuse me. It's not funny, because that is a scary. One time I was in a mosh pit. I used to. Yeah, I was the person who got into the pit. And one time I fell. It was the scariest moment of my life. I thought. For. I thought I was. I don't know what I thought, but I was scared out of my. Out of my. I don't know what I'm trying to say. I was scared. So it's awful. Would not recommend. But nobody felt like they could just, like, go up to the Hell's Angels guys and be like, hey, do your job and, like, protect us. She needs help. Because most of them. Most people were terrified by them. They didn't really come off as helpful. Like, you know. Yeah, they're not very approachable. So later in the. In the concert, Jefferson Airplane was playing. Okay. And once again, someone in the crowd knocked over one of the bikes by the stage. Oh, no. A Hell's angel pulled the guy to the ground and just started, like, pounding on him, beating his fucking ass. This really disturbed the lead singer of the band, Marty Ballen. Marty was just watching, like, his fans suffering, getting beat up. And that's not what he came to do. He came to play music like, it was not cool. So Marty, he tried to jump in and be like, hey, come on, chill. It's just a festival. Relax. But the Hells Angels, they turned. They turned to Marty and they knocked him out cold on stage in front of everyone who gave them beer. I mean, if the talent they were hired to protect, they weren't even safe, then who is? And, baby, things were about to get way worse. Apparently, one of the Angels was high out of his mind. So he turned his attention to the stage where the band Crosby, St. Stills and Nash were playing. And I guess he picked up one of the spokes off of his motorcycle and he turns to one of the singers, Stephen Stills. He walked right up to him and just started. He just started, like, stabbing him in the leg over and over again. I don't know. He's on drugs. Steven was carried away so he could obviously get some medical attention. But even after this happened, the festival just kept going. Our final story involves a gang called the Insane Coholips. And their leader was a Chicago radio DJ named Steve Dahl. Insane Coho Lips. Yeah, I know. What a choice. Steve over here had a radio show, and this man loved rock and roll. He was like ride or die for classic rock. So when disco music showed up and took over radio stations across the country. Country. He was not a fan. He Hated it. Oh, he's just a stubborn old man. Steve hated disco music so much that on July 12, 1979, he organized a promotion at a major baseball stadium. At this little promotion, Steve planned to blow up a bunch of disco records in front of thousands of people. Well, he did that and then kind of accidentally, maybe on purpose, incited a full scale riot. The stadium turned into a war zone as fires were lit, dozens were injured, and a group of scared nuns looked on in horror. As the insanity unfolded, people were chanting, they're pounding on their chairs, shouting, ready for action. And they're just so excited to hate disco. Everybody in the stadium knows something big was about to go down. They just weren't sure what. And then when the clock strikes 8.40pm, a door in centerfield opens up and a Jeep commando drives onto the field. Commando. And riding inside the Jeep commando was Steve Dahl. And I guess he had been drinking a little, so he's a little sloshed. He was wearing military clothes and a general's helmet, which obviously to the audience looks like he's gonna fight. So that's really setting the tone here. So Steve shows up, he enters the field, he's looking around, thousands are cheering for him. Oh, man. He's probably taking all this in, feeling like he's a master of the universe. It's feeding his ego. But it didn't take long for him to get a taste of what he created. As the Jeep was doing a slow driving tour around the park, the fans that stayed Steve recruited to come to this event were throwing full beers and cherry bombs at the Jeep. If you don't know what a cherry bomb is, I guess it's like very powerful. It's illegal, It's a illegal firework, and it could actually kill a person. But it has such a cute name. I know, but very beautiful if you practice safe cherry bombing. Good to know. While this was happening, Steve was a little confused. Like, wait, hello. Why are they throwing fireworks at me? I am their God now. He thought these people were on his side. So he's feeling a little nervous, like something nice. But he shakes it off and keeps going on with his performance. After the Jeep does a loop around the inside of the stadium, it comes to a stop in the middle of center field. It was time to explode a box of records. So much drama. Now, their goal wasn't to make the whole box explode because they didn't want like some huge dangerous boom. They just wanted to make sure that the records would perform and like fly out of it. At this Point. Steve and another guy are now standing out in the open in center field. Steve was getting the crowd super pumped up. He's yelling into a microphone and just yelling stuff at them, like, yeah, disco. Boom. He had no prepared speech or anything. He just. Yeah, you know, he wasn't giving a performance. Ugh. At least give us a little dance or something. My God. So apparently during all this, there were three nuns in the audience that night. I'm not sure if they were there for the baseball or for the disco part of things, but they. These nuns were starting to get worried with all the insanity going on around them, and they turned to a woman that was sitting nearby and asked, what are the people chanting? And the woman said, like, don't worry. They're just saying, let's go, White Socks. Praise God. Which wasn't true. But what else are you gonna tell a group of scared nuns? The truth. They might have a heart attack. Come on, be nice. You make me feel like dancing and wanna dance night away. You make me feel like dancing. So cute. While Steve is out there whipping the audience into a frenzy and soaking in every second of attention, he's getting thousands more people. Most of them part of Steve's little army of co hosts were outside the stadium looking for any way to break in. Feeling deep. Fomo. They wanted in on the action, but many of them didn't have 98 cents. What a rip. Times were tough, but they wanted to blow stuff up. Come on, let us in. So what do you do? What do you think they did? You got that right. I felt like Reba right now. That's right. What'd she say? You got that. That's right. They ended up bum rushing the stadium snaps. Oh, you guys didn't see that coming? Even Joan saw that shit. She's blind. Why are you laughing? She's blind. She can't see. Oh, my God. Don't let her laugh at your disability, Joan. Mike, the White Socks owner son from earlier. Well, he's like, hello. He got a call from the security. They were right outside the stadium saying, look, Mike, listen. There's a bunch of kids, thousands of them, and they're trying to break in. What do we do? Yeah. So there's thousands of kids. They're outside, they're rocking the ticket boost back and forth and scaring the shit out of these defenseless employees who are just there to collect 98 cents and then go home. And not just that. Some people started climbing fences, scaling walls, jumping over gates, and crawling through open windows to get inside the stadium. The situation was getting a little out of control. So Mike has to think quick. I mean, the safety of these employees is on the line. He didn't really care about the safety of the employees. He cared about the stadium. And he's like, oh, fuck, they're gonna tear up the stadium. This is kind of backfiring. Mike, what are you gonna do? Well, he makes a phone call that he regrets to this very day. Is he still alive? Hey, Mike. Inside the stadium, there were a bunch of security guards in yellow jackets standing all around the baseball field. They were there to make sure the audience kept their butts in their seats. They're trained in crowd control, But Mike offers 15 of them to leave their posts on the field and head to the outside of the stadium to save those employees in the booths and whatnot, and also stop the thousands of people from storming the gates. Now, do you think 15 people versus thousands of people is going to work out? I'm sure you can imagine it's not going to go that well. So back inside the stadium, Steve sees his opportunity. He announces to the audience, quote, disco sucks. And we're never going to let them forget it. They're not going to shove it down our throats. We rock and rollers will resist and we will triumph. He probably pulled his because I feel like a lot of guys do that when it's not needed, but they do it, you know? Or is that just me? So, yeah. Whipping out. Ugh. Steve then lights the end of the dynamite with his out. I'm sure. Seconds later, Kablam. The explosives go off like a bomb, destroying the disco records. Now shards of razor sharp records go flying in the air. Record rappers are burning on fire in the outfit. The explosion leaves a hole in the middle of the baseball field. Oh, fuck. How are they gonna play baseball? No one knows. It's chaos. Art imitating life. Life imitating art. It was disco and they didn't even know it. Oh, okay, yeah, back to the story. Security. Remember security? Well, they're nowhere to be found because they're out in the front trying to handle those people. So once that bomb goes off. Woo. The audience members, they look at each other and they're like, yeah, it's time to write Zeppelin forever, brother. It was the green light, baby. The audience starts rushing down the stairs, jumping over seats. Those poor nuns lost in the ground, running onto the field by the hundreds. It was out of control. At this point, everyone knew. I don't know, you guys. I don't think this is some dumb radio stunt anymore. It turned into a full scale riot. Those poor nuns, I hope they made it out alive. One vendor at the stadium said he remembered everything like it was yesterday. Some kid with long hair jumped out of the stands and onto the field. He then sprinted to one of the bases, ripped it out of the ground and waved it around like it was a trophy. The vendor said everyone else followed the long haired guy's cue and started ripping stuff up, too. Yeah, humans are pretty dumb. Us humans are really stupid. So I believe this story. I do. So, okay, stoned and drunk teenagers climbed out of the stands and slid down, like, these big poles that went onto the field. They went down them like they're fricking firemen responding to a call. It's kind of beauty and grace. But instead of putting the fires out, these people were looking to start them. Because just above them, a sportscaster reported that people, people in the upper deck were pouring lighter fluid down the big poles, trying to light them on fire with their metal. Everyone was raging a little too hard to notice that these poles were made of metal. So they actually couldn't catch on fire. But they tried. Okay, now this was just kind of supposed to be like a little halftime show, a little halftime celebration where we just hate disco. But then we go back to baseball. And all those players that were getting ready to play the second game were just hiding, dodging shoes, they were dodging trash, things on fire, whatever else people were throwing at them. They put on their helmets and they looked for cover. One player named Rusty even said, oh, my God Almighty, I've never seen anything so dangerous in my life. In the dugout, the rest of the team was taking shelter, just trying to stay out of harm's way. And it was pretty clear at this point security was not going to be any help because where the hell were they? The players had a death grip on those baseball bats, just ready to defend themselves against potential rioters. And one player asked them if they're going to use those bats against them. Look, if the rioters or whoever came down into the dugout, they were ready to defend themselves if needed. Then, like, I guess there was a time when, like, the player went onto the field to look at, like, the damage that was being done. And the second he did this, something whizzed by his head. I guess someone threw a disco record straight at him, and it was thrown so hard that it stuck right into the ground next to him. And the player was like, holy shit, man. Like, I could have been killed by the Village People. Could you imagine? Cause of Death Decapitated by the Village People record. I'd put that on my headstone. Well, friends, there you have it. From the 1500s up through the 1970s, it seems like men have been, in one way or another, trying to ruin music. And I didn't even have time to discuss how Lou Perlman ruined boy bands for all of us. Or how Sister Rosetta Tharpus, known as the Godmother of Rock and Roll, invented rock guitar as we know it today, but somehow Elvis is called the King of Rock and Roll. Anyway, thank you for hanging out with me today. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast Cast airs. And while you're there, you can also catch my murder mystery and makeup. Don't forget to subscribe because I'm here for you weekly with new content. I'd love to hear your guys reactions to today's story, so make sure to leave a comment below so I can see what you guys are saying and your comment might even be featured in a future episode. Now let's read a couple of comments you guys have left me. Jadeforest5468 left me a comment on our Dancing Plague episode saying, when you can't blame the devil, don't worry, you can always blame women. Best line ever. Did I say that I should put that on a T shirt? Huh? It's a good line. We're always a scapegoat, aren't we? Right? Just blame us. It's always our fault somehow. Kookiescrakers left me a comment on our jazz episode saying thanks so much Bailey for this story. The takeaway here is no matter what you do to express yourself, there will always be those who will condemn that in which they do not understand. Hell yeah cookies. Hell yeah brother. Smum. Smum Blow. Below, I don't know what your username is. Smum Blow 1647 Shout out to you. You left an episode suggestion in the comment section of Death to Disco. You should do a video on the evolution of condiments. Smum. That's actually really interesting. I do have a lot of questions. I've heard sketchy things about mustard because mustard gas, like, killed a lot of people. But like, how did they make that into a condiment, you know? You know, I'll look into this. It's a good idea. Plus, what's up with ketchup, right? It's kind of weird when you think about it. There's a bunch of sugar in it in the States, but in other countries like, they don't put any of that crap in their ketchup mayonnaise. Ooh. Yeah. We should look into this. Thanks for the suggestion. De Beca2232 left us a comment on our Altamont Music Festival episode saying, my name is Rebecca. Hi, Rebecca. And I'm watching this from the toilet at work. Oh, okay. Please do a dark history on woodstock 99. Thank you. I love you, and your energy always makes my day better. Rebecca, were you watching the whole episode on the toilet? Because, like, well, unless you have a squatty potty. Do you have a squatty potty? Because, like, your legs would definitely fall asleep, you know, unless you got the squatty potty. But, I mean, I get it, though. Sometimes when you don't want to work, it's just go to the bathroom, right? I know. Oh, I get it. Just go sit there for a little bit. But thank you for the episode suggestion and being here hanging out with me. You know, I love you, I appreciate you, and I will look into it. I love you for watching, and I love you for engaging. So keep on commenting because maybe you'll be featured or maybe you won't, but maybe you will. And hey, if you don't know, Dark History is an audioboom original, and I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. Hi. I hope you have a good day. You make good choices, and I'll be talking to you next week. Goodbye.