Disco Days
In the 70s, I was very much involved in disco dancing. So much involved, that I became an Arthur Murray’s Dance Instructor and danced professionally with Jeff Kutache’s Dancing Machine in casinos located in Reno, Nevada and Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
By winning several dance contests and dancing disco dance marathons, one for 79 hours which generated a new record for disco marathon dancing and finally dancing 205 hours of disco dancing, allowing me to have the Guinness Book of World Records for a period of one month, I became the 3rd and 5th (the last) Disco King of Sacramento, California. Whoever has the record when Guinness Book of World Records is published, gets into their book. Unfortunately, my 205 hour disco dance marathon record was broken within one month by 329 hours.
Ripley’s Believe it or Not went ahead and published me in one of their comic strips, indicating that I danced for 205 hours. Ripley’s Believe it or Not gave me a lifetime membership card in which I could use to visit any one of their museums for free.
With big expectations, I went to Hollywood and was an extra in a few movies and did a couple of disco commercials. That was the glory days I had in the 70s. In the pictures from those glory days, on the top right picture, you can see the sign behind me which says I danced 200 hours, I went for 205 hours altogether. What was so funny about dancing 205 hours, is that I had a 5 minute break on every hour, if I needed to utilize the restroom, it had to be during that 5 minutes, Guinness required witnesses to that effect. Also, I was transported by van from one location to another location and had to dance in the van. If I ate, I had to keep those feet moving. Other dancers attempted to break the record with me and one girl Kathy Kleiber collapsed and her legs swelled up like a balloon. Another dancer collapsed and was hospitalized.