Disco Freddy
Disco Freddy, also called Larry the Unbelievable at the beginning of his public career, was one of the notable characters during the late 1970s and early 1980s on the Riegelmann Boardwalk, which extends from Coney Island to Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn, N.Y. During his performing heyday, he was about 60 years old.[1]
Performances[edit]
Disco Freddy entertained crowds with a comedy and faux dance act on the boardwalk during the warm weather months, mainly in Brighton Beach. His shows consisted of dancing to music played on a large portable battery-powered transistor radio-tape recorder that he often held while he danced, interspersed with a monologue of jokes about his background and Yiddish culture. According to his routine, he grew up in the streets of Brownsville in Brooklyn, and had performed in Manhattan but the people there didn't understand his humor or appreciate him. His movements resembled partial seizures, waving, complex tics, and windmill motions more than dancing, which delighted many in the crowds that assembled to watch him, while confusing others. He occasionally had unpredictable behavior during his act, such as rushing to the edge of the crowd to scare old women or chase teenagers on bicycles. On the other hand, he often was able to coax elderly women in the crowd to dance with him. Hundreds of people routinely gathered spontaneously to watch him, and he performed several times a day. Sometimes he did his dance act on the beach, or in the neighborhood around the boardwalk.[1]
After several short dances, he often closed his performance by announcing that he was going to execute a very dangerous or death-defying stunt that had never been previously attempted. Using deliberate self-interruptions to build up the tension, he carefully positioned his jacket or a small used paper bag on the wooden boards of the boardwalk, smoothed it out, cleared a large space in front of him, backed away for a short distance, moved the crowd back, and finally donned a blindfold, took a running start, and jumped over the object, presenting the move as a remarkable achievement.[1]
The reactions of those in the crowds ranged from laughing to mockery to incomprehension. He did not ask for or collect money for his performances. His act stopped some time in the mid-1980s, and his real name and current whereabouts are unknown.
Appearances[edit]
In video[edit]
- Disco Freddy appears at 44 seconds, 1 minute 25 seconds, and 4 minutes 35 seconds in Brooklyn by the Sea, a short film about Brighton Beach, directed by Arnold Baskin in 1979.[2][non-primary source needed]
- Disco Freddy is a short film documentary (approx. 15–20 minutes long) made by filmmaker Larry Planett in the early 80's. It lovingly[peacock prose] chronicled Disco Freddy's many beach and boardwalk appearances and performances around Brighton Beach and Coney Island, documenting his wild antics and fantastical stories of "dance battles" against the likes of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. These stories often ended with him describing and performing the dangerous dance moves he did to 'win' the battle. The film followed him around for several days as he performed and contained interviews from local people who knew and watched Freddy every summer. Questions as to who he could be or where he came from are asked but never answered with his true identity never revealed. The short has been out of circulation for many years and attempts to see it resurrected or brought to YouTube have been unsuccessful.[citation needed]
In photos[edit]
- A photo of Disco Freddy, blindfolded and jumping over his jacket, taken in front of the main branch of the New York Public Library in the late 1970s by photographer Tony Segielski.[3][non-primary source needed]
In literature[edit]
- In his novel Try Darkness, author James Scott Bell told of a chance encounter with a curious character who called himself Disco Freddy.[citation needed]
In scholarly publications[edit]
- Annelise Orleck, Professor of History at Dartmouth College, mentioned Disco Freddy in her research paper "The Death-Defying Leap over the Paper Bag Blindfolded: Eccentricity and Community in Brighton Beach," in The Aesthetics of Everyday Life, quoted by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett on page 198 of her paper.[4]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Abramovitch, Ilana; Galvin, Seán (2001). The Jews of Brooklyn. Hanover, N.H.: Brandeis University Press, University Press of New England. p. 99. ISBN 9781584650034. Retrieved 15 May 2015. Search this book on
- ↑ Baskin, Arnold. "Brighton by the Sea". YouTube. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
- ↑ Segielski, Tony. "Disco Freddie, blindfolded, leaps over his jacket". segielskiphoto.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-02. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
- ↑ Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara (1983). "The Future of Folklore Studies in America: The Urban Frontier" (PDF). Folklore Forum. Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University. 16 (2): 175–234. ISSN 0015-5926. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
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