Discoing-going-gone: Saturday Night Fever dancefloor for sale

The illuminated dancefloor from the 1977 movie classic Saturday Night Fever is to be auctioned, in a sale that has disco divas salivating.

John Travolta on the dancefloor at the 2001 Odyssey nightclub in Brooklyn in a scene from Saturday Night Fever.

You could be dancing – in John Travolta’s footsteps. The illuminated dancefloor from the 1977 movie classic Saturday Night Fever is to be auctioned next month, in a sale that has disco divas salivating.

Julien’s Auctions in California is offering the 7m x 5m dancefloor as part of a sale dubbed Hollywood Legends: Danger, Disaster and Disco.

Other items at the sale, which will run from June 12 to 14, include an extensive collection of Star Wars props and several versions of Batman’s mask, including ones worn by Christian Bale and Michael Keaton when they played the Caped Crusader. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman corset is on offer for $US60,000-$US80,000, alongside the bike from ET, the Ark of the Covenant from Raiders of the Lost Ark and boxing boots from Rocky III.

But the most valuable piece is the dancefloor, which was made for $US15,000 to fit the Brooklyn nightclub 2001 Odyssey, where scenes of the film were shot.

The dancefloor remained at the club until its closure in 2005. It was used in a 2012 episode of Glee and sold at auction in June 2017, fetching $US1.2m. The buyer was never revealed.

Seven years later, Julian’s Auctions is putting a more modest price on the dancefloor, with an estimate of $US300,000. The Ark is offered for $US12,000 and Rocky Balboa’s boots for $US2500. The BMX bike from ET is valued at $US10,000, while a metal hook used by Dustin Hoffman in the Peter Pan reworking Hook is offered for $US2500.

David Goodman, the chief executive of Julien’s Auctions, said: “From the Saturday Night Fever dancefloor to the Raiders of the Lost Ark [Ark of the Covenant] to the Big Lebowski bowling outfits, this year’s aptly named Hollywood Legends auction truly is the stuff of legend. Our teams have assembled an astounding collection of over 1300 of the most famous and instantly recognisable pop-culture artefacts.”

Last year the company sold Travolta’s white suit from the film for $US260,000. Saturday Night Fever, shot entirely in Brooklyn, came to define the disco era and propelled the 23-year-old Travolta to superstardom. He was nominated for the best actor Oscar and the following year starred in Grease.

In 2010, the Library of Congress deemed Saturday Night Fever “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and the film was preserved and archived in the United States National Film Registry.

The Times