This is a Scott Baio hookup story that I never heard before, from Jason in Florida. Apparently he heard it from his ex-lover, David, sometime in the 1990s.West Hollywood, October 17th, 1979
The end of the 1970s! An era of glorious freedom and sybaritic excess. Three's Company, The Muppet Show, Meatballs, Leif Garrett, Shaun Cassidy, The Village People, mood rings, pet rocks, leisure suits, cocaine, and disco! David was 23 years old, young, hot, hung, and naive, fresh off the boat from a tiny town in Mormon Idaho, ready to #1: come out; and #2: party.
His first job in Hollywood was on Skatetown, U.S.A., "the greatest rock and roll movie of the century!" (according to pr), featuring the new craze that they thought was sure to be America's favorite pastime for generations to come. Roller disco: the popularity of disco dancing, but on roller skates!
The craze started just a couple of years ago, but it had already appeared in movies like Roller Boogie and Xanadu, and in tv series like Charlie's Angels and CHIPS. Everywhere in the U.S., and around the world, wily entrepreneurs were converting skating rinks into roller discos [the fad ended around 1980.]
According to David, Skatetown, U.S.A. featured wall-to-wall superstars. Patrick Swayze (left) and the incredibly hot Greg Bradford (center) played duelling skate-competitors, and the rest of the cast was filled with everyone you saw on tv in the 1970s: Scott Baio (Chachi on Happy Days), Ron Palillo (Horshack on Welcome Back Kotter), Maureen McCormick, Flip Wilson, Dave Mason. Plus about a hundred dancers, mostly gay, mostly available!
Shooting was like the Eagle on a Saturday night, with all the cruising and groping going on. David got about a dozen "tricks" (what hookups were called in those days). Unfortunately, not Patrick Swayze or Greg Bradford.
On October 17th, they held the premiere party at Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace.
A former bowling alley at the corner of Santa Monica and La Cienega in West Hollywood, Flipper's opened as a roller disco in March 1979, and immediately drew the attention of every star in Hollywood who could strap on a pair of skates, from Cindy Williams (Laverne and Shirley) to Cher, from Erik Estrada (CHIPS) to Eddie Van Halen.
It was like Studio 54 on skates, with hookups in the VIP Room, coke being snorted in the bathroom, and clouds of poppers and pot on the dance floor.
The premiere party was by invitation only, but everybody in the cast and crew brought guests, so it was hopping. Scott Baio brought Ron Howard, who David always had a crush on, and Erin Moran. Greg Bradford brought Kate Jackson (Charlie's Angels) and Andrew Stevens. Ron Palillo brought his boyfriend, whose name Jason in Florida doesn't remember.
