Recreating the nightclub at the center of Saturday Night Fever is no cheap task, as one Italian entrepreneur found out.
Ahead of the film’s 40th anniversary on Thursday, Gianluca Mech told The New York Post on Dec. 9 that he was spending $200,000 to turn a Chinese restaurant in Bay Ridge, New York City into the 2001 Odyssey Disco.
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The Post reported on Saturday that everything went according to plan, with Randy Jones of The Village People, Carol Douglas and the Trammps brought in to perform disco classics.
“It’s quite a lot of money, but it’s worth it. It’s been my dream since I was a child to dance where Saturday Night Fever was done,” the 48-year-old Mech told the Post. “At 10 [years old], I said, ‘I want to come to New York and dance.’ People thought I was crazy. And look at me now.”
Mech also took 50 of his closest friends to the club and hired a John Travolta look-alike. DJ Monti Rock, who appeared in Saturday Night Fever, was the DJ for the night.
In addition to turning the clock back to 1977 in the club, Mech also spent $5,000 on a custom white Dolce & Gabbana suit to wear. He didn’t go all the way though, ditching the disco-era bell-bottoms.
Mech was only eight-years-old when Saturday Night Fever came out, and admits that some of the themes were not easy for him to digest at the time. But Mech felt a kinship with Travolta’s Tony Manero as an outsider.
“Like Tony, I was looking for something else. When you have strange ideas in the countryside, people look at you like a fruitcake,” Mech told the Post. “I come from a very conservative family, so the idea I had to go around the world [promoting] a different way to eat, it was strange to my parents.”
According to the Post, Mech’s party was open to anyone who showed up wearing a full disco-era outfit.
Saturday Night Fever was an instant success when it opened on Dec. 14, 1977, spawning one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time. The movie also turned Travolta into a star, earning him an Oscar nomination.
As for Mech, he’s become a millionaire thanks to his Giunluca Mech Italiano Diet.
Photo credit: Facebook / Paramount
