In saturday night fever the lead character is gay

Starting off as a low-budget vehicle for a young TV sitcom actor, Saturday Night Fever became an instant box office smash, catapulting John Travolta into superstardom. Taking place almost entirely in Bensonhurst and Bay Ridge, Saturday Night Fever tells the story of Tony, a year-old Brooklynite who still lives with his extended Italian family as he works at the local hardware store by day and dances at the local disco by night.

When he meets Stephanie, a beautiful dancer who is determined to break out of the dead-end Brooklyn cycle, he starts to question his own life choices. Best of all, Saturday Night Fever was entirely filmed on location, offering a great look at two working-class neighborhoods in Brooklyn, which by many accounts, have remained unchanged since the s.

Since Saturday Night Fever is one of the most iconic American films from the s, there were a lot of websites that explored its filming locations. Figuring almost everything was shot in the vicinity of the pizza place, I was determined to nail down the exact spot of each key moment from this sequence.

He also helped figure out where Tony is momentarily distracted by the first lady passerby. Based on the El tracks that curved in the distance, I had already assumed it took place on the northside of 86th Street, but it was Blakeslee who got an exact address. They were the kind of place that when you walked in, your nostrils would flare from the sharp synthetic odor coming from all the cheap imported garments.

After Tony gets some pizza slices and passes Reflection 1 again, the next shot is a close-up of him carrying the paint can. I figured out this location after spotting a phone number on a door in the background which I discovered was for a Basile Realty Group at 20th Avenue.

Amazingly, up untilthe space was still home to the same real estate company with the exact same phone number. Even the storefront was practically the same, down to the faux-brick exterior. When it came to the clothing shop where Tony puts a down payment on a blue shirt, it looked like it was situated on a corner. So, the first thing I did was check out the s tax photos in the NYC municipal archives of all the corner lots in that area.

The last part of this opening sequence where Tony tries to pick-up another lady passerby was pretty easy to nail down. This was thanks to the Benson Twin Theater at 86th Street which was prominently featured in a couple shots.

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

On that opening night, it was reported that the crowd was so riotous supposedly storming the theater doors in hopes of securing a seat that police were called in to keep things in check. Twenty years later, the theater was still a popular destination for local residents, including future media host, Larry King.

By the early s, as the theatergoing market started changing, the Benson tried its hand as a porno house. During the next decade, the Benson Theatre was closed more than it was open, and in it finally closed its doors permanently, but the building itself is still around and currently houses a Rite-Aid drugstore.

By the time the s tax pic was taken, you can see the store had some very Travolta-looking artwork painted above the entrance. And with that, Blakeslee and I had identified the filming location of pretty much every moment from this remarkable opening sequence. And if you look closely, you can actually see some of the extras on the street also walking to the beat of the song.

However, as the day progressed, the crew quickly discovered how big of a star Travolta already was when huge crowds gathered to watch the sexy TV personality in action. Even though NYPD officers were on set to keep things somewhat in control, a large, boisterous mob can be a distraction to the actors and a nightmare for the sound department.

So to allay the situation, the crew had to make some adjustments to the shooting schedule, forcing them to film mostly in the dead of night or early in the morning. Also, Badham claims they leaked fake call-sheets with incorrect information to help throw tenacious fans off the scent. I even stacked two slices on top of each other, but did it with one Sicilian and one regular… which garnered a few odd stares.