Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night

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"Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night" is the title of a 1976 New York article by British rock journalist Nik Cohn, which formed the basis for the plot and inspired the characters for the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever. Originally, the article was published as a piece of factual reporting. However, around the time of the 20th anniversary of the article in 1996, Cohn revealed that it was actually a work of fiction. After persuading New York editor Clay Felker to let him write an article about the 1970s disco scene, Cohn, a newcomer to the United States, set about researching the American working-class subculture he was trying to cover. One night he travelled to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to visit the disco 2001 Odyssey. However, when he arrived a drunken fight was taking place outside the club, and one of the participants rolled over in the gutter and threw up on Cohn's trouser leg, leading him to return to Manhattan. Despite this brief visit, Cohn did notice that the scene was surveyed by...

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