1978: The Night My Disco Died!

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1978: The Night My Disco Died!

It was the Spring of 1978, I was the upstairs Deejay at BINGHAMPTON'S FERRY BOAT in Edgewater, New Jersey. That is like right across the river from Harlem and HELL'S KITCHEN, right on the edge of the HUDSON RIVER, on the JERSEY side. BINGHAMPTON'S was a real Ferry Boat that used to go between New York City and HOBOKEN, New Jersey. It wasn't making enough money since the Lincoln Tunnel was built. It was sold to a real-estate king-pin, who eventually got involved in Politics. He was assassinated by CRACK HEADS who robbed him about ten years ago (late 1990s). By that time, the hey-days of THE BOAT, as locals called it, had been over for about twenty years.

In the early seventies, it was THE HOTTEST DISCO in JERSEY!!! Ed"The Worm" Rothstein was the main deejay on the first floor. Upstairs was a great restaurant along with a much smaller DISCO too. THE WORM would control things, always on top of the latest music and trends. He would set up a MOBILE outfit on one side, usually the north side, at the far end of the dance floor. From there, right in the middle of the activity, he would JAM. I learned a lot about the ART OF DEEJAYING from him.

The bottom floor was where the actual cars would park in the operational days of THE BOAT. It had a lot of room for dancing, probably held close to a thousand people. NON-STOP DISCO was always the norm downstairs. All my friends from Hudson County went, it was a short ride down River Road from our neck-of-the-woods. So my friends were always there.

Upstairs, besides the food, were two dance floors separated by the dining room and the kitchen. The deejay booth was just that, a booth on the west side of THE BOAT, right in between the two dance floors, right next to the kitchen. Upstairs I would spin my records in between the LIVE bands that were booked there regularly. We are talking about CALHOON, SATIN SOUL, THE TRAMMPS, THE CROWN HEIGHTS AFFAIR, SILVER CONVENTION, JAY BLACK, JOHN DAVIS, THE RITCHIE FAMILY, TINA CHARLES, THE STYLISTICS, THE MANHATTANS, KOOL and the GANG,GLORIA GAYNOR and others. The TONY VALOR EXPERIENCE (Fantasy, Barry White, Satin Soul) was there on this very memorable Saturday night.

THE BOAT was definitely rockin this spring night. It had been ROCKIN for years, always packed. Outside, from the deejay booth, I could see the huge parking lot that was constantly full. A solitary passage from RIVER Road led to the main entrance. There was always a local police car parked along side, there only to assist the ten bouncers who worked there. The crowds that went there were young, 21-35 years old. I knew most of them from growing up in that area. The racially mixed crowds included Cubans from Hudson County, Puerto Ricans from everywhere. The Italians from FORT LEE, PALISADES PARK, ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS and EDGEWATER. The BLACK clientèle came from JERSEY CITY as well. There were a few fights every now and then, but nothing out of the ordinary. So no-one was ready for what occurred this night!

It started like any normal night, the place was full, people hanging over the sides of THE BOAT. My good friends from UNION CITY and WEST NEW YORK were all in attendance. That included my best friends TOMMY and ISH. They were regulars. As I started playing a set after TONY VALOR had finished, nothing was strange. I played my records, my friends were dancing, the food smelled wonderful. TONY VALOR'S band stepped out onto the deck, there they talked about their set, and what they would play next. I could see all of them clearly. The time for them to do their next set was close at hand.

Right beside my booth, were the stairs that led downstairs. Here is where my friends would hang out. Tommy was busy hitting on an old girlfriend, while ISH was no-where to be seen. I noticed that TONY VALOR'S band was slowly making their way back to the small stage they were playing on. That is when I saw the Bass player leaning over the side, vomiting (I wasn't kidding when I said that this BOAT rocked). All of a sudden, as I was looking right at him, he wasn't there anymore???

I thought it strange, saying to myself,"did he just fall into the HUDSON RIVER??" He had!!! No one noticed! Just when the TONY VALOR EXPERIENCE was getting ready to start up again, I tried to get TONY'S attention, then two things happened. There was a little panic on the stage when the bass player failed to appear. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw my Italian friend TOMMY, SLAP his Italian Girlfriend from FORT LEE. All of her friends and classmates saw it. Quickly, about ten of them went after TOMMY, my friends jumped to his defense. A fist-fight had begun.

As TONY VALOR looked around for his BASS player, the fight spilled and escalated onto his side of the BOAT. By now maybe forty or fifty people were swinging and fighting. TONY was stuck on the stage, unable to move to find his missing musician. More of my friends now ran upstairs to get in on the action. From my vantage point, I could see around twenty of her friends heading to the dance floor where this fight was getting out of control. The cooks had come out, the bouncers were there as well. They obviously were not in control.

I decided not to leave the deejay booth. Usually I enjoyed a good fight, but this was totally different. I grabbed a waitress who had a tray of Chicken Wings and Whiskey Sours, and pulled her into the safety of the glass enclosed booth. We started eating the Wings and drinking the whiskey sours. Looking outside, I saw Police cars arriving, first two, then four, eventually over thirty COP CARS showed up.

They were too late!! This RIOT now consumed the second floor, and was working its way down the stairs and onto the main floor!! Bodies were flying from upstairs onto the top of the main fighting that by now had reached downstairs. A ROYAL RUMBLE broke out, and as the COPS tried to get on board, the violence escalated some more. There were tables being thrown, glasses and bottles as well. I couldn't see TOMMY anymore, possibly crushed by this wave of humanity that swept over THE BOAT like a large tidal wave!

All of a sudden, I see musical instruments being tossed from upstairs onto the mob fighting downstairs. There must have been a few hundred people rioting on board this Ferry!! I hear and see the ambulances, and State Troopers arriving on the scene. It is not getting any better or any safer. I can see that BINGHAMPTON'S FERRY BOAT was being ripped apart, literally!!

I duck down with the waitress, and start making out with her as my DISCO is getting destroyed. I can hear what is going on, and every few minutes, I poke my head up to see what is going on. I see my friends a bloody mess, still fighting viciously as the COPS finally make it on board. A beer bottle then shatters the glass of my booth, getting chips of glass all over the waitress and me. I was getting pissed, but even a wild man like me wasn't stupid enough to leave the relative safety of where I was, and exit into this MONSOON of a fight. From the second floor, down the stairway, and onto the entire bottom floor, all I see is FIGHTING!! Out side, the COPS are taking people out to buses waiting. After about a forty-five brawl, the COPS took control.

The aftermath?? Over fifty people arrested, TOMMY who started the fight is outside waiting for me by my car!! Nothing other then a bloody mouth. Ish, on his way to the hospital, along with fifty others. BINGHAMPTON'S FERRY BOAT was never the same. Not one table or chair remained. The stairwell was so damaged, that we had to exit another way. The band stand was no more. Their equipment on the floor shattered. My speakers were also gone and/or destroyed. THE WORM'S complete mobile set-up, HISTORY. The kitchen, did you get it, THE KITCHEN was GONE!! Where had the stoves and grills and ovens gone!!??

It was all in the HUDSON RIVER! As was the body of the only casualty of this incident, TONY VALOR'S BASS player. He was never seen again, taken by the HUDSON RIVER, never to be seen again. THE BOAT re-opened, without a DISCO!! Strictly a restaurant that to this day is still there!! This is the night in the Spring of 1978 that DISCO DIED, at least on BINGHAMPTON'S in New Jersey.

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