It’s July 12, 1979, and the White Sox, ten games behind the California Angels in the American League West, are playing the Detroit Tigers in a twilight doubleheader. It’s not just Teen Night at Comiskey Park—it’s also Disco Demolition Night.
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The Tribune sports section this morning made no mention of the event, but the paper’s sports columnists and editorial board will soon be excoriating everyone involved.
Diane Alexander has brought along a roll of film and her Kodak Retina Reflex IIIc, a little fixed-lens camera her dad bought at a pawnshop and gave her for her high school graduation. Alexander, 24, does some advertising photography, and for her own enjoyment she likes to shoot faces in crowds in Chicago neighborhoods. This is one of those crowds. She’ll say later, “I didn’t think it would be quite like what happened. It sounded like it was going to be a great time.”
An appeal to the “fans” over the PA is ignored. please return to your seats, begs the scoreboard, like a timid substitute teacher trying to exert authority in a tenth-grade detention room.
White marries in 1983 and goes on to a career as a Field Museum staff photographer and wedding photographer. She still has the Kodak.
Sun 7/12, 5-8 PM, Music Garage, 347 N. Loomis, 312-997-1972, free
