[Cerrone's "Supernature" playing] Woman: The disco sound was just wonderful.

It was exciting, powerful, you know, spank you, and you just had a good time.

Barry Walters: Disco brought together Black Pride, women's liberation, and LGBT culture.

It was the coming together of that that made it so powerful.

Allen Roskoff: Listening to the music and letting yourself go, you become a different person.

Singers: ♪ Supernature ♪ ♪ Supernature ♪ ♪ Supernature ♪ ♪ Supernature ♪ There was this powder keg chain reaction that happened that made it suddenly totally take over the airwaves.

Singers: ♪ Supernature ♪ Jake Shears: It was, of course "Saturday Night Fever" that really, like, tipped everything over, that, like, tipped the scales.

It just set the world on fire.

Disco was on everybody's lips.

Clubs were packed every night.

♪ Woman: Studio 54, I created it as a playground.

Sex, drugs, disco, whatever you need.

Singer: ♪ Angry with the man ♪ ♪ 'Cause he changed their way of life ♪ Bill Bernstein: In the late seventies, the outsider became the insider.

Singer: ♪ Take their sweet revenge ♪ Woman: The Black disco diva was a breakthrough persona.

Someone like Donna Summer, she was a disco queen.

Don't forget Gloria in all her gloria.

Singers: ♪ Supernature ♪ I think that era music allowed the disco diva to have this stage to be adored and celebrated.

♪ Candi Staton: Disco freed me.

It saved me.

[Cheering] ♪ Singers: ♪ Supernature ♪ [Protestors shouting] ♪ Richard Nixon: In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I have always tried to do what was best for the nation.

Throughout the long and difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me.

Woman: In the mid-1970s, the United States was not a happy place.

There was the Watergate scandal, and any faith that Americans had in government was shaken to its core.

What percentage of the American people do you think still have confidence in President Nixon?

Well, among young people, very few, I'd say less than 25%.

Nixon: Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

P.A.

announcer: Nixon has announced he will resign as president of the United States at noon tomorrow.

Roskoff: In my life and everybody I knew, Nixon was detested, but it was an intense period of time.

You knew you were living history.

You knew that this is monumental.

♪ [Machineguns firing] George McCrae: Was a hard time because of the Vietnam War.

Also a nuclear bomb threat And Russia, you know.

that they might drop a bomb any day.

"Oh, my God.

What we gonna do?"

♪ Farrington: The flip side of this dark moment is that when life gets hard, you party harder.

[Gloria Gaynor's "Never Can Say Goodbye" playing] ♪ I was living in New York in the 1970s.

All we wanted to do was dance to disco music.

Gaynor: ♪ I never can say goodbye ♪ David Depino: There was a freedom.

It was like express yourself was so welcome and wanted, and music was the common denominator.

Gaynor: ♪ Heading for the door ♪ ♪ There's a very strange... ♪ Nicky Siano: I mean, it was just igniting people's dance souls.

Gaynor: ♪ It says, "Turn around, you fool" ♪ ♪ "You know love him" ♪ Man: Why is everybody rushing and flooding the doors of discotheque?

Oh, I think it's because with all of the hardships that are going on in the world today, people need a place to go and relieve tension and release their anxieties, and discotheques are a great place to do just that.

Gaynor: ♪ Say goodbye, boy ♪ ♪ Ooh, ooh, baby ♪ ♪ I never can say goodbye ♪ ♪ No, no, no, hey ♪ ♪ I never can say goodbye ♪ ♪ Say goodbye ♪ ♪ Oh, no, I ♪ Reporter: Gloria Gaynor is a rock 'n' roll singer whose records have really never made it before until she decided to specialize in a brand-new rock 'n' roll musical style called disco music.

Gaynor: ♪ All gonna work out ♪ ♪ But there's that same unhappy feeling ♪ ♪ And that anguish and that doubt ♪ Depino: She made you raise your hands up and want to touch the ceiling while you were dancing and screaming.

When Gloria was doing her thing, I think she was the First Lady of Disco.

♪ Say goodbye ♪ ♪ It is so ♪ ♪ I don't want to let you go ♪ Vince Aletti: She was one of the earliest people to have a major presence in the clubs, was, you know, Queen of Disco before there was such a title.

Gaynor: ♪ No, no, no, no, no, ooh ♪ Gloria, did you ever think this would happen?

No, I really didn't.

Not like this, anyway.

I always thought I would sing eventually, but I never thought all this would happen.

♪ I never can say goodbye ♪ ♪ No, no, no, no, no, no, no ♪ Woman: I think disco means to most people, probably it means a lot of fun.

To me, it meant a change.

♪ Farrington: In the early seventies, Black women were caught between a rock and a hard place.

Statistically, they were at the bottom of the heap.

They earned less than most any other group, male or female.

They were victimized by a notorious government-sponsored report called the Moynihan Report.

It was a report that discussed what were the particular problems of Blacks and Jews and Puerto Ricans.

Black women were literally blamed for the problems of Black men.

Black women were heads of their families, too matriarchal, too strong, and unfortunately, when scholars produce a document that is government-approved, people tend to believe it, and so rather than fight against this, which was virtually impossible for a group that oppressed to do, they tried not to be like that.

Nona Hendryx: You had to work hard to fit in, and to fit in, you're gonna be quiet.

You're not gonna bring all your loud culture with you or whatever it is and make demands.

You're gonna try and fit in.

[Church choir singing] Ward: When I was growing up, the only time that people heard my voice, I was singing.

My father had been a minister, so we just had to kind of stick to what we were told to do.

I just wanted to sing.

Woman: ♪ I can hear Jesus calling me ♪ Choir: ♪ Calling me ♪ Staton: The pastor called me up on the stage, and I started singing, and the church people started shouting and screaming and standing up and waving.

"Sing, baby!

Sing that song."

That was the beginning.

♪ Ohh ♪ Woman: The gospel diva or the soul diva, that's a really powerful, full-bodied sound that moved into the mainstream in the sixties.

Man: Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx, Patricia Holt, known as Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles.

♪ Somewhere over ♪ ♪ The rainbow ♪ Hendryx: In the sixties, se were a traditional girl group, and we dressed alike.

We did the kind of, you know, lead singer with backing singers waving their arms and looking very nice.

Farrington: Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles were fulfilling a vision of Black womanhood that was on the tail end of the early sixties Motown era.

They embodied that non-threatening persona that America wanted to place Black women in.

♪ Hey, hey, oh, oh, oh ♪ Hendryx: We were expected to carry ourselves a certain way in the public, you know, well-dressed, well-behaved.

That's how it was.

♪ Really do come true ♪ Staton: In the music industry, we were fighting, trying to get out of that box that we were put in in the sixties, so disco was wonderful.

Royster: Disco did offer Black women new opportunities.

Disco did give space for Black women to kind of add soul and funk and depth to a lot of different kinds of music to kind of take center stage like Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles.

[Labelle's "Lady Marmalade" playing] ♪ Woman: My next guest stars are the hottest girl group in America.

Man, they are truly hot, and they've got the hottest single, too, "Lady Marmalade," and here they are-- Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, and Patti LaBelle known throughout the music industry as Labelle.

♪ Go, sister, soul sister ♪ ♪ Flow, sister ♪ ♪ Go now ♪ ♪ Go, sister, soul sister ♪ ♪ Flow, sister ♪ ♪ He met Marmalade ♪ ♪ Down in old New Orleans ♪ ♪ Struttin' her stuff on the street ♪ Farrington: When Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles changed their name, they changed their look, and they changed it dramatically.

♪ Da da ♪ ♪ Gitchi gitchi ya ya here ♪ ♪ Mocha ♪ ♪ Mocha chocolata, ya ya ♪ Hendryx: Patti LaBelle And the Bluebelles were a girl group, right?

Labelle were a girl band.

♪ Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

♪ ♪ Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?

♪ Ana Matronic: Labelle looking like they just, like, beamed in from some crazy, funky galaxy.

It was just so over the top and so amazing and so out there.

That to me meant a certain kind of freedom.

♪ Oh, gitchi gitchi ya ya here ♪ The architect of the look of Labelle was Legaspi.

He also designed the look for KISS.

Patti LaBelle: ♪ Ahh ahh ♪ Farrington: He also designed the look for Funkadelic.

Labelle: ♪ Coucher avec moi ce soir?

♪ Larry was already sort of making things that looked like a futuristic look, and then with us being open to even going further, he began to design more.

♪ More, more, more ♪ Farrington: I was mesmerized and delighted to see my people in a way that was unlike any way anyone had ever imagined them.

Labelle: ♪ More, more, more ♪ ♪ Gitchi gitchi ya ya da da ♪ ♪ Gitchi gitchi ya ya here ♪ Hendryx: Just singing songs that felt right to us or mattered to us, and the audience were responding to it.

♪ Touching her skin, feeling silky smooth ♪ ♪ Ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh ♪ Royster: Lady Marmalade is talking about, I mean, basically sex tourism and sex work.

♪ Roar until it cried ♪ All: ♪ "More, more, more!"

♪ Royster: Women don't often get center stage, or if there is a story that's being told, it's also a story that's about titillation or about fetishization.

Hendryx: It's like a playwright, you know, someone describing something as opposed to judging it and in a way that-- not celebratory, but in a way that was not downtrodden and horrible and that this is just yet another aspect of life.

[Indistinct chatter] Royster: I really think that music is really important in terms of creating social change, and in this moment, you know, music was reflecting Black women's lives in a way that it hadn't ever been.

Staton: I was so glad disco came in.

You know, good music, good lyrics, songs that had a meaning to them.

In the sixties, we were known as R&B singers.

♪ I'd rather be lonely ♪ ♪ Than to lose you ♪ My songs were, like... ♪ I'm just a prison ♪ and begging men not to leave me and "Oh, God, if you leave me, I'm just gonna die," you know, I mean, this was the kind of songs they would play on us.

Women.

Women.

Men could sing anything they wanted to sing.

So to make a long story short, disco freed me.

It saved me.

♪ You know, I been married a few times, and I don't mind telling it because, you know, I was in one of those type of marriages, but it was dangerous.

It was a really a dangerous marriage.

So I was doing Las Vegas with Ray Charles.

I was opening for Ray Charles.

The last night, I decided I was gonna just sit in the audience and watch Ray do his show, and my ex-husband, he was looking for me, and he couldn't find me, and I was in the audience, and he kept walking up and down the aisle.

I saw him.

And that's the night when he went completely nuts.

My suite was on the--way up on the 20th-something floor, and he pushed me.

You know, he was pushing me all the way through the lobby to the elevator, and then we get to the floor.

He said, "I'm--I'm gonna kill you tonight.

"I tell you what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna throw you off the balcony."

20-something floors.

He picked me up, and had me--holding me over the banister like this, and I'm like, "This man is gonna kill me tonight.

"How in the world?

Well, how am I gonna get out of this one?"

I said, um, "You know you're in this hotel, "and it's owned by Mafia.

This is Las Vegas.

We're in Las Vegas now."

I said, "You got to get out of here.

"You got to walk out of here.

"How are you gonna feel with my body splattered at the bottom and my name is on the marquee?"

And I said, "You won't make it out of Vegas."

He thought, and he brought me back in, and he said, "I'll tell you what I'm gonna do.

I'm just gonna shoot you."

So I laid--I just, you know, I was so tired.

I just laid down on the bed.

I said, "OK.

Shoot me."

I went to sleep.

He had the gun like this.

I said, "Just shoot me.

I won't know it.

I just--forget it."

That's how "Young Hearts Run Free" came about.

["Young Hearts Run Free" playing] ♪ ♪ What's the sense in sharing ♪ ♪ This one and only life ♪ ♪ Ending up just another lost and lonely wife?

♪ ♪ You'll count up the years ♪ ♪ And they will be filled with tears ♪ That song is for women.

It's about survival.

♪ To start over again ♪ ♪ You'll get the babies ♪ ♪ But you won't have your man ♪ ♪ While he's busy loving every woman that he can ♪ Candi Staton is singing about pain, and yet the power in her voice says that she's no victim.

She is telling her story, and there's a triumph just in the telling of the story.

Staton: ♪ Run free ♪ ♪ Never be hung up ♪ Staton, voice-over: I used to go to the gay clubs, and they felt the same pain.

You know, they were very abused, you know, because of their preferences.

Some of them lost their lives.

They loved your music.

They loved how you made them feel.

Isn't that amazing?

You're singing a sad song, and folks dancing.

Staton: ♪ Love you ♪ We couldn't sing those type of songs back in the early sixties.

We started doing that in the seventies.

[The Commodores' "Machine Gun" playing] ♪ Aletti: For the longest time, it was very hard for Black acts to become strong pop acts outside of something like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye.

The charts in the seventies were much more segregated.

♪ Staton: During those days in music, it was the "Billboard" charts.

They had a pop side, they had a R&B column, but they weren't together.

You made the R&B charts, which was all Black.

Everything was Black.

It was amazing if you could get on the pop side.

Disco made possible for Black acts to become pop acts more than they ever had before.

It meant that there were suddenly a lot of Black performers on the charts that had not been there before, had not been--not had the ability to cross over in that way.

Thelma Houston: I was on the Motown label for 5 years.

At that time, We were interested in singles, so I was in that studio recording.

It was like a job.

I was in the studio all the time recording, trying to get that single.

They would want you to do it over and over and over and over and over again, trying to get that hit, right, trying to get that single.

[Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' "Don't Leave Me This Way" playing] ♪ Suzanne de Passe-- she was running the A&R department at Motown.

She found this song.

She heard the song.

♪ [Humming] ♪ Houston: That song was originally recorded by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes.

She thought that the song was great with a guy singing it, but she says, "But if a woman sings that, then that's really good.

Houston: ♪ Don't leave me this way ♪ ♪ I can't survive ♪ ♪ I can't stay alive ♪ Houston: It was specifically cut as a disco song.

You know, that pss pss pss pss.

Houston: ♪ Don't leave me this way ♪ Houston, voice-over: That was Suzanne de Passe and Hal Davis.

They cut it to be a disco, so they had a good beat, you know, that one that would get you out to the dance floor, and it would just kept building and building and building, and that's the kind of song that that you like to dance to in the club.

♪ Baby, my heart is full ♪ ♪ Of love and desire for you ♪ Shears: Female voices and female, you know, female registering voices just work better with dance music for some reason.

♪ Now can't you see ♪ Shears: And I feel like with disco there opened up a stage for a lot of amazing women.

♪ Needed me ♪ ♪ 'Cause only your good lovin' can set me free ♪ ♪ Set me free, set me free ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ Houston, voice-over: Somehow, I got the test pressing, so I said, "Ooh.

I want to hear this so bad.

Where can I go to hear this real good?"

So a friend of mine was also friends with a lady that owned the club that we used to go to dance at called the Catch One.

But was mostly, like, a gay club.

The straight girls would call it Catch None.

♪ I can't survive ♪ Houston, voice-over: And she allowed me to come in there on an afternoon and played it, like, with their equipment.

I said, "Ow!

That was that."

And the fun--the thing about a test pressing is you can only play it so many times, so I played it so many times, it was like-- by the end, it was like drrrwww.

Houston: ♪ So come on now ♪ ♪ And do what you got to do ♪ Houston, voice-over: The DJs in the clubs, they played my song all the time because people liked to dance to it.

Houston: ♪ Out of control ♪ I knew that it was gonna be a good dance song.

I knew that, but as far as a hit, no, I had no idea.

[Cheering and applause] ♪ I have here a scarf.

Tell us about it, will you, honey?

Well, this scarf...

This scarf here, folks.

Tells that my record is number one in the nation.

How about that?

[Applause] [T-Connection's "Do What You Wanna Do" playing] Farrington: Black women became stars with huge LGBTQ followings.

So the Black disco Diva was a breakthrough persona, and this means everything to Black women because the minute you see yourself in a raised position, you know, as a world-class artist that people would pay a fortune to buy a ticket, you could fill up Madison Square Garden, this kind of thing, It opens possibilities.

♪ Royster: To see LaBelle on the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine, the first Black female group to ever be on the cover, this was a really heroic moment.

T-Connection: ♪ Do what you wanna do ♪ Staton: at that time in the seventies, we broke the glass ceiling for women.

Women became very, very, very popular.

[Protestors shouting] [KC and the Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight" playing] ♪ Royster: In the 1970s, there is an idea of a sexual revolution that's afoot, you know, in the culture.

KC and the Sunshine Band: ♪ Same time ♪ Whole groups of people were demanding personal freedom.

KC and the Sunshine Band: ♪ Do the things ♪ Man: We also had the Vietnam War, and the Vietnam War had been brutal, and it didn't really end until 1975.

KC and the Sunshine Band: ♪ Do a little dance ♪ ♪ Make a little love ♪ Walter Cronkite: A bulletin has just come in from Saigon.

The war is over.

South Vietnam's new president has announced an unconditional surrender.

[Gunfire] KC and the Sunshine Band: ♪ Get down tonight ♪ Parikhal: And so you have this huge thing by the mid-seventies.

Everyone's back from the war now.

You're not gonna be drafted anymore, and everybody looking for fun, and everybody looking for something that appealed to them at their age.

What appealed to the Baby Boomers?

Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.

KC and the Sunshine Band: ♪ Oh, my ♪ ♪ Oh, do a little dance ♪ Siano: People were celebrating life.

In the club, the music talked about you we to love each other, we got to spread this love.

KC and the Sunshine Band: ♪ Get down tonight, baby ♪ Ward: Genre of disco during that time period was so huge and so successful, and also.

disco music was fun.

[Indistinct chatter] ♪ You sort of felt the beat and the pulse of what the public wanted, and we made a commitment that we were gonna be in the disco business.

KC and the Sunshine Band: ♪ Get down tonight ♪ ♪ Hey, do a little dance ♪ ♪ Make a little love ♪ ♪ Get down tonight ♪ ♪ Whoo, get down tonight, baby ♪ Woman: Neil heard Donna's voice, and he said, "Oh, I like this," and proceeded to put out "Love to Love You."

♪ I love to love you, baby ♪ ♪ I love to love you, baby ♪ ♪ I love to love you, baby ♪ ♪ I love to love you, baby ♪ ♪ I... ♪ [Moan] Aletti: No one had heard anything like that before.

It was really daring.

It was really outrageous in a lot of ways, but it was so good, it was so well done.

♪ Yeah, ohh ♪ ♪ I love to love you, baby ♪ [Moaning] The song revolves around Donna Summer having sex or at least pretending to very effectively.

♪ Do it to me again and again ♪ ♪ You put me in such ♪ An awful spin ♪ ♪ In a spin, in, ohh ♪ Farrington: "Love to Love You Baby" was an expression of sexual equality.

That song was a way of giving women permission to have the same sexual feelings as a man.

♪ ♪ I love to love you, baby ♪ Royster: Donna Summer described herself as someone who kind of fell into the role of sex diva.

She didn't really expect that "Love to Love You Baby" would be picked up and seen as, like, this game-changing song.

♪ Set me free, yeah, ohh ♪ The interesting thing is the record was not a success until Neil made it 16-plus minutes.

Summer: ♪ Ohh ♪ Trabulus: It was the first LP like that.

No, it didn't-- didn't exist before Neil did that.

Summer: ♪ Love to love you, baby ♪ ♪ Ohh, love to love... ♪ Sharon White: It was a trip.

It was, you know, almost 17 minutes long, and even though there weren't a lot of lyrics to the song, it was emotional.

The production was so important in it, and no one had ever done anything like that before.

I mean, it was-- you know, it was Donna.

She was special.

When I played, like, in a really big club, it was like it watch-- it was like ecstasy, and it was really a sensual, sexual record, and so people got into a different groove.

♪ Trabulus: When that hit the discos, within two weeks, the record was platinum, but to get it on the radio stations at 16 minutes, now that's a trick.

["Love to Love You Baby" playing on radio] Neil: Bought a whole bunch of stations at midnight.

He bought time on the radio stations.

Mm-hmm.

Casablanca actually bought that time and therefore could play whatever they wanted to for 16-plus minutes.

"Casablanca brings you a moment of love with the First Lady of Love."

People were calling in, and they wanted to hear it again--psshew-- and that was--and it just took off from there.

Summer: ♪ With me, ohh ♪ Trabulus: You know, what was it, 22 orgasms or whatever they called it in "Time" magazine and "Newsweek," and she was in everything.

Summer: ♪ I love to love you, baby ♪ Royster: The song had been banned by the BBC and banned by some U.S. radio stations, as well.

It had kind of a tough life.

I mean, I have been put down for it.

You know, I have been scorned.

Man: Mmm?

Why?

Well, you know, there are certain people, I mean, reverends, and things who have not taken it very lightly.

Oh.

The uptight folks, The Puritans among us, huh?

Well, you know, the funny part of it is is I'm kind of a Puritan myself, and that the song was just a song as such, and all of a sudden it became kind of a revolution.

Uh, did sexuality drive disco?

Um, you know, I mean, that's kind of always been there in music.

Aletti: There were a lot of really, you know, kind of--kind of outrageous covers, lots of nudity, lots of female nudity, and little by little, some male nudity, as well.

[Cerrone's "Love in C Minor" playing] Walters: The jacket for Theo Vaness "Bad Bad Boy" has a guy in the foreground and a guy in the background, and he's clearly looking at him with sexual interest.

A straight person would not-- you know, they would flip through it, and it wouldn't faze them.

A gay person would see it and go, "Whoa!

This is about us."

♪ In the seventies, we were desperate to see signs of our own existence in popular culture, and so we would look at records like these as affirmations of who we are, of our existence.

Reporter: Gay is obviously a lot more visible now than it used to be, what with gay candidates, magazines, social, and political organizations.

The rest of the world is having to notice what it used to try to ignore, is finding out that homosexuals no longer meekly melt away under the blast of scorn, ridicule, or hatred.

♪ Siano: Disco will always be entwined with the gay pride movement.

This is what being gay is all about is being free, free from the chains that have bound us forever.

Reporter: If there is one American city in which the gay rights issue, if not embraced, is at least tolerated, it is San Francisco.

Gays reportedly make up 12% of the population and possibly 30% of the voters who go to the polls.

Last January, the city elected its first open homosexual to public office, a fellow named Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors.

Walters: Harvey Milk was the first out politician that came from the gay movement itself.

He represented gay people in a way that hadn't been done before.

Just like Harvey Milk mirrored an element of San Francisco, so did Sylvester.

Sylvester first presented himself as sort of really traditional blues and jazz, glam rock, and soul all at once, and there was no place for it, but when disco came around, there was an audience for all these things that could come together in no other genre.

Disco allowed Sylvester to be churchy and queer at the same time.

Host: The man you're about to hear is one of the most theatrical and flamboyant performers on the disco scene.

Here is that bizarre star the sensational Sylvester!

♪ When we're out there dancin' on the floor, darling ♪ ♪ And I feel like I need some more ♪ Depino: Sylvester was out and proud and put it in your face.

There was a lot of things that were gay and you didn't know.

Sylvester was almost drag.

He was like, "This is who I am.

"You like me, you don't like me.

I don't care.

"You accept me, or you don't accept me.

I don't care."

He was unapologetic for being who he was, which is wonderful.

♪ You make me feel ♪ ♪ Mighty real ♪ Honey Dijon: Sylvester is the definition of fearlessness.

I don't know if you've ever met someone that when you meet them, they make you feel your most authentic, and so I think that's what that--that feels like for me.

♪ Oh, you make me feel ♪ ♪ Mighty real ♪ Woman: I remember when "Mighty Real" was released, and it was major, major, major, major.

♪ Feel mighty real ♪ Shears: It's a song that never gets old.

It's never going to get old.

It's one of the best songs ever recorded.

You can always put it on at any party.

You could be in a heavy room, and, like, that song can come on and just change everything.

♪ You make me feel ♪ ♪ Mighty real ♪ Shears: It's that voice.

That kind of, like, androgyny with vocals is really fun, and I think that Sylvester was one of the pioneers of that kind.

♪ Feel mighty real ♪ Tracy: He was extremely high.

He was in nosebleed land.

Ha ha ha!

I said, "Child, I can't even think that high."

Shore: You had a memorable event in San Francisco.

Yes.

The best.

What happened?

We were the first disco act or popular music act to ever perform in the San Francisco Opera House with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

With the symphony?

Yes.

The first time.

Right!

Shears: This is the "Living Proof" album by Sylvester, it's a live recording at the San Francisco Opera House, and from what I understand about this night, I feel like this could have been the peak moment of disco.

They blew the roof off of the joint.

Sylvester: Come on.

Let me hear everybody.

♪ Oh, yeah ♪ Chorus: ♪ Oh, oh, oh, yeah ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ Sylvester: Put your hands together, y'all.

The symphony players are really straight.

Straight?

Oh, I see.

Well, I mean, you know-- you know how classical musicians are, So what I did to make them loosen up a little bit, just before the curtain-- I saved this just before the curtain went up, and I ran around backstage, and I threw pounds of glitter all on their hair, all on their instruments, all over everything.

Oh, they must have loved that.

They did love it!

They played great.

Really?

Yeah.

Sylvester was not... you know, seeking to be political.

The more success he had, the more he was able to express himself as to who he was, and that might be seen as being political.

♪ Walters: There's a really great photo of Harvey Milk and Sylvester together.

Tracy: It was for Harvey Milk's birthday party.

I was with Sylvester.

It was a grand party, too.

Harvey Milk knew how to party, and Sylvester sang.

Walters: It's fascinating that there were these two people that happened at the same time to really make a difference and politicize the ordinary stuff.

Both Harvey Milk and Sylvester were doing that.

♪ In the late seventies, the outsider became the insider.

The trans woman would show up at the Manhattan discos.

They weren't just welcomed.

They were encouraged.

You know, it was like it was their home.

People wanted to mix with that culture, that marginalized-- very marginalized culture, especially at that time.

I was there with my camera.

I stumbled into this world.

Summer: ♪ Ooh, it's so good, it's so good ♪ ♪ It's so good, it's so good, it's so good ♪ ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ Dan Rather: This is the scene outside a New York disco called Studio 54.

This is the place that's in with the disco crowd.

One of the owners Steve Rubell works the door.

He is choosy about who gets in, and that adds to the mystique.

Summer: ♪ Ooh, I feel love ♪ ♪ I feel love, I feel love ♪ ♪ I feel love, I feel love ♪ Siano: Steve Rubell became a really close friend of mine.

He wanted to open a club that was beyond any other club that was open till that time, and that was his inspiration.

Summer: ♪ Love, love ♪ Rubell: Try and make this like a play, and we want to get the right cast of characters so that everybody has a good time so that not one group is dominant.

There's nothing more boring than a room full of celebrities or a room full of anything.

♪ They would look and they would say, "You."

Two out there, please.

And they say, "Me?"

"Yeah.

Come on in.

Come on in."

They would pick who they wanted to come in, and it would be so crowded outside.

Man: Two out there, please, on the left.

Siano: People went to Studio 54 to be seen, and there were people who went to Studio 54 to party.

I went there to party.

I created it as a playground so people would go sex, drugs, disco, whatever you need.

A one-night stand is better than nothing, but, you know, something to enjoy life and to make you more creative.

Errrr!

Glamor up your ass.

It just was so ostentatious.

Ostentatious beyond belief.

Summer: ♪ I feel love ♪ Trabulus: There was never anything like it, and they will never be anything again like it.

♪ Summer: ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ I feel love, I feel love I feel love ♪ Trabulus: The waiters, who were in little-- bare-chested in little shorts.

♪ Huge DJ area.

Not only in control of the music but all the effects.

Summer: ♪ I feel love, I feel love, I feel love ♪ ♪ I feel love, I feel love ♪ D'Alessio: And you feel like the music is pumping inside your body.

Boom.

Disco music for me is the type of music that no matter how tired you are, you have to dance.

Summer: ♪ I feel love ♪ D'Alessio: Andy Warhol was a--pfft--fixture.

He didn't want to miss out on anything.

He would go to the opening of an envelope because he was scared of missing out.

Summer: ♪ Fallin' free, fallin' free, fallin' free ♪ ♪ Fallin' free ♪ [Cheering] You know, they only invested $300,000 to do the studio, and the first year, they were making $3 million?

OK.

In those years.

Steve liked to talk a lot to the press every day.

He's saying, "We are making more money than the Mafia."

♪ Aletti: People all over the country were opening up discos.

It was a phenomenon clearly.

There was a real focus on opening bigger clubs, looking for a larger audience that was clearly out there.

I got a job at New York, New York in the fall of 1977.

It was sort of an upscale midtown disco that was catering to a very mainstream white crowd.

They were open 7 nights a week.

They had private parties in the afternoon, and then the evening until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning or whenever every night.

It never stopped.

There was this powder keg chain reaction that happened that made it suddenly totally take over the airwaves and mass media and everything else all at once.

♪ And then late in 1977 was when "Saturday Night Fever" literally exploded.

[The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" playing] ♪ Just, like, crazy what happened with that record and with--I mean, it just set the world on fire.

♪ The way I use my walk I'm a woman's man ♪ ♪ No time to talk ♪ ♪ Music loud and women warm ♪ ♪ I've been kicked around since I was born ♪ ♪ And now it's all right, it's OK ♪ ♪ And you may look the other way ♪ ♪ But we can try to understand ♪ ♪ The "New York Times'" ♪ Effect on man ♪ Royster: "Saturday Night Fever" was this amazing, game-changing film.

I don't think the film producers even realized the kind of impact that I was gonna have, and its soundtrack is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time, and I think it wouldn't have made the kind of impact that it would have without the soundtrack itself.

♪ Alive ♪ ♪ Oh, when you walk ♪ Parikhal: The Bee Gees weren't a disco band.

Along with their producers and some of their writers, they found a formula that was brilliant to do as a soundtrack for a movie that was basically exploitation of disco.

The Bee Gees: ♪ I'll live to see another day ♪ Parikhal: The Bee Gees' album made hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Bee Gees: ♪ The "New York Times'" effect on man ♪ Whether you're a brother, or whether you're a mother ♪ ♪ You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive ♪ ♪ Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin' ♪ ♪ You're stayin' alive ♪ Siano: "Saturday Night Fever" made me feel like all our work was being noticed.

I loved it.

I loved the music.

I loved everything about it.

♪ Stayin' alive ♪ Bee Gees were--they were--they were one of my favorite groups.

♪ iiiiive ♪ Staton: Yeah, it changed a lot.

It changed a lot.

It broadened the spectrum of music.

A lot of people that weren't into the disco type thing kind of embraced that.

The Bee Gees: ♪ Somebody, help me, yeah ♪ Walters: "Saturday Night Fever" gave disco a story where the white straight guy is at the center of it.

It put a face on it.

Tony is a very everyman kind of guy that the average white guy could relate to.

You know, it was like "Rocky," right?

It's the everyman who's kind of thuggish but debonair.

He's polished.

He's graceful, and he's not completely masculine.

He embraces his femininity, too.

If he didn't, then, you know, he'd belaughed off the dance floor.

Man: To the top!

All right!

[The Trammps' "Disco Inferno" playing] I remember him being just like a real ass and just super macho and, you know, not very nice to women.

The Trammps: ♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪ Aletti: It was upsetting that "Saturday Night Fever" didn't represent the disco that I knew and loved, but it represented something very particular.

The Bee Gees: ♪ You should be dancing ♪ Aletti: It made dance culture and the involvement in dance really understandable to a lot of people who probably didn't quite understand why their kids were going out dancing all the time.

The Bee Gees: ♪ Hey, you should be dancing ♪ Royster: It's interesting after this the ways that the lit-up floor and his dance moves, these white suits that Tony was wearing, like, little mirrored ball, the slicked back hair, and then the lady on your arm who is kind of wearing some kind of fancy, fluttery skirt, it's what became disco.

A lot of people had to take dance lessons.

3, 4, 5.

They couldn't just get on the floor and master it like, you know, John Travolta.

You don't just show up on the floor and do that.

You've got to practice.

Instructor: A 2, 3 a 4, repeat.

2, 3, a 4.

1, 2, 3, a 4, repeat.

2, 3, a 4, repeat.

2, 3, a 4.

♪ Parikhal: When you look at the gross it took in the film theaters, it was in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and that got the bandwagon really going.

Everyone said, "Wow!

That's a gold mine there."

[Indistinct chatter] Kevorkian: "Saturday Night Fever" just, like, metastasized into this cultural thing.

The Bee Gees: ♪ Yeah, you should be dancing ♪ Disco had become what felt to us like a global craze.

Disco was on everybody's lips.

Everybody wanted to know about disco, and they wanted to be part of it.

♪ Trabulus: Every other artist wanted to be a disco artist.

Anybody who wanted to revive their career or to have hits, disco.

♪ Don't you just know ♪ ♪ Exactly what they're thinking?

♪ ♪ If you want my body ♪ Reporter: Rock stars don't have to be wild about disco to take advantage of its popularity.

Rod Stewart's biggest selling record ever is the disco-flavored.

"Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?"

Stewart: ♪ Just Reach out and touch me ♪ ♪ Come on, sugar, tell me so ♪ ♪ Tell me so ♪ Reporter: A lot of other artists from Frank Sinatra to Dolly Parton to the Rolling Stones have also swung into the disco beat.

Depino: They all dabbled, but one song here and there didn't change who they really were.

It was like, "You have to make this now."

Record companies dictated what you really did.

I think with any social movements you're gonna have two things coexisting.

There was not one or the other.

There were both.

Music with integrity was still being played at the same time as you had the commercial things that were being played on the radio.

Gaynor: ♪ Sending love vibrations ♪ ♪ Straight to you ♪ ♪ Sending love vibrations ♪ Polydor announced that they were releasing a new single called "Substitute."

All the DJs, we all got a 12-inch "Substitute" backed with on the B-side I Will Survive."

Gaynor: ♪ Much too long now ♪ I don't even think that most DJs realize that that song was on the B-side of "Substitute."

Walters: Gloria knew that "Substitute" was not gonna be played in discos.

It was the B-side that was important.

Gaynor: ♪ That same dedication ♪ Walters: So Gloria took the record herself to the hottest DJ in New York, Studio 54's Richie Kaczor, and made sure he played the B-side.

I heard Richie play this song, and, you know, "First I was afraid, and I was petrified."

Gaynor: ♪ First, I was afraid ♪ ♪ I was petrified ♪ ♪ Kept thinking I could never live ♪ ♪ Without you by my side ♪ And Every time that song would come on, the whole crowd would just go nuts.

Gaynor: ♪ And I grew strong ♪ ♪ And I learned how to get along ♪ ♪ And so you're back from outer space ♪ ♪ I just waked in to find you here ♪ ♪ With that sad look upon your face ♪ ♪ I should have changed that stupid lock ♪ ♪ I should have made you leave your key ♪ ♪ If I'd have known for just one second ♪ ♪ You'd be back to bother me ♪ ♪ Go on now, go, walk out the door ♪ Ward: Everyone fell in love because regardless, or if you were gay, heterosexual, whatever, male, female, that song provided some-- some hope.

♪ You think I'd lay down and die?

♪ ♪ Oh, no, not I ♪ Walters: Gay men, we're told that we don't belong in the church, and Black women, Black divas, they became our ministers.

They became our preachers.

♪ I'll survive ♪ ♪ I will survive ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ Farrington: It speaks to every living being, to their soul.

It gives them a feeling of strength in dark times.

Shore: How many different countries has the recording been as big as it is here?

Well, at least 27.

You know something?

"I Will Survive" with all the crises we've had in the past few years could be the theme song for this country.

[Cheering and applause] Hendryx: If I had to say what really defines that era as a song, I would say "I Will Survive."

We sat there one day and I said, Gloria, "I wish I had done.

'I Will Survive.'"

She said, "I wish I had done 'Young Hearts Run Free.'"

I said, "No, you don't.

You glad to have 'I will Survive.'"

She said, "I knew you were gonna say that."

I said, "Yeah, that's a bad song, girl."

I love it.

That's one of my favorite.

Gaynor: ♪ I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive ♪ ♪ I've got all my life to live ♪ ♪ And I've got all my love to give ♪ ♪ But I'll survive, I will survive, I will survive ♪ That happened at the exact point when disco was starting to become overexposed as a cultural phenomenon.

♪ I never can say goodbye, boy ♪ ♪ Oh, no, no, baby ♪ Reporter: Since 1975, when Gloria Gaynor recorded "Never Can Say Goodbye," the first record specifically mixed for discotheques, Millions of people have been dancing to the sound.

The movie "Saturday Night Fever" helped boost disco's popularity, and now radio stations across the country have started programing all-disco formats.

It was wonderful because it kept me busy.

Did a 30-minute show and got paid big money, and I could do 3 in 1 night.

I would leave there, get in the limo, go to another club, do another 30 minutes, get in a limo, go to another club, do another 30 minutes, and go home and go to bed and make myself $30,000.

Ha ha ha!

So it was like a blessing.

I said, "Man, I love this."

Ha ha ha!

Trabulus: Donna Summer-- she made a fortune.

I think one year she made $26 million.

She made a lot of money from touring, from Vegas, from publishing of what she wrote.

Everything started changing so quickly because obviously people don't want to miss the chance to make a buck on, you know, riding on the coattails of a winning trend.

♪ Rather: If we add what the discos take in and what they generate with the records, we are talking about an estimated $4 billion-- that's with a "b"-- $4 billion a year.

When disco really exploded, It becomes less about what the movement originally was, which was people who loved music getting together to dance to it and have a sort of ecstatic experience, And then it became a little less about the music and more about the money.

It was too much, and you knew that eventually the bubble was going to burst on this.

Gaynor: ♪ There's a very ♪ ♪ Strange vibration ♪ ♪ Piercing me ♪ ♪ right to the core ♪ ♪ It says "Turn around" ♪ ♪ "You fool" ♪ ♪ "You know you love him" ♪ ♪ "More and more" ♪ ♪ Tell me why ♪ Background singers: ♪ Tell me why ♪ Gaynor: ♪ Is it so?

♪ ♪ Don't want to let you go ♪ ♪ Hey, I never can say goodbye, boy ♪