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DJ Rex Potts

Florida Disco DJ (b. 23 Nov 1946 - Present)

In 1971 Rex Potts had just gotten out of the U.S. Marines and a marriage, and was ready for some fun. Rex had entertained by singing and standup since he was a kid. He remembered at four, standing on the bar at "Six Oaks", singing "Show Me The Way To Go Home" His Dad would get free beers and Rex would get free hamburgers and cokes.

He had sang a few times with different friends at the "Loft Lounge" and was a nightly feature yet unpaid. One day in the Summer of 1971 the owner asked Rex if he could put together a sound system and play dance records on weekends to keep from paying live bands. Rex agreed to do the job for $40 a night, a good wage in those days.
Since as far as Rex knew there had never been this type of program in Florida or anywhere else, he made it up as he went along. Rex went to the fairly new "Radio Shack" and bought a strobe light kit and a color organ kit.

He was able to get two stadium speakers that weighed 200 lbs each. The Loft had an upstairs dance floor and seating for about 100. Rex built a stage with a place for his stereo and set up a switch board that controled various colored lights including black lights.

All of these lights and speakers were focused on the dance floor to allow conversation at the tables. Rex opened his show with the soundtrack from Mash "Suicide is Dangerous" and ended with the same song.

The well advertised opening ($200 ad in Sarasota Herald Tribune)was attended by all of the radio disk jockeys within 100 miles. The were curious and confrontational towords Rex and cat called through out the evening but Rex was fired up on Black beautys and gave them tit for tat. The people di not start dancing until Rex jumpe out on the dance floor and dance a Saturday Nite fever dance long before the movie. He got a standing ovation that nite and many others and was always available to throw out a drunk if need be.

Rex Potts dabbled in the music business for the next 20 years when he finally realized that fame had too many draw backs. Rex, a real estate agent, now lives quietly where disco is still alive, in Asia. Rex lives with his wife and two children. They dont believe him when he says he invented Disco.

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