Disco Mania Descends

Disco Mania Descends

BY JIM NORMAN Business Reporter

It's Tuesday night, going on II p.m.

Outside the Campus Arcade at 611 S. Church a string of fashionably attired students and young professional types are lined up waiting to pay 32.50 each to get into a downstairs bar called the Blue Frogge.

Once inside, they will become part of a writhing mass of bodies gyrating to the sound of disco — non-stop uptempo recorded music played at top volume by a live disc jockey.

It's what you might call disco mania — an insatiable demand to dance, drink and “deal" the opposite sex that has jammed Ann Arbor's three new disco night spots.

The Blue Frogge opened last week and is the biggest of the three with restaurant seating for 280 and an 800-square-foot parquet dance floor under flashing lights

About three weeks ago Zelda's Greenhouse opened upstairs over the Crystal House Motel's Camelot Italian restaurant on Washtenaw at Huron Parkway.

Two months ago the Ramada Inn opened the Jackson Road Logging Co. at the I-94-Jackson Road exit.

All three have seen big crowds nightly starting about 10:30 p.m. when the intensity of the music has built to the limits of human endurance.

That's been despite cover charges, dress codes and some unpleasant occurrences.

Last week three of Zelda's patrons broke a railing off her balcony and tumbled about 15 feet to the parking lot below. One remains hospitalized in fair condition at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.

Also last week Ann Arbor police got into a scuffle outside the Blue Frogge after a group of gay patrons were ousted.

And it was last week that the Jackson Road Logging Co. started imposing a $1 nightly cover charge.

Zelda's also charges $1 for non-restaurant patrons.

But the Blue Frogge gets $1.50 during the week and $2 on Friday and Saturdays. Tuesday nights the $2.50 cover goes to WAAM radio disc jockey MoJo (Charles Johnson).

MoJo is broadcasting live from the Blue Frogge for the next five Tuesday nights.

Blue Frogge owners Tom Ewing and Richard Caldwell had planned to charge $2 a head during the week and $3 per person on weekends like similar Detroit-area disco clubs.

What was justified, they felt, by their $14,000 sound system investment, big screen television; computerized drink mixer and classy decor.

But doubts about student response led them to scale back their admission charge.

Manager Jim Prybyla says the Blue Frogge aims to draw a broad spectrum of patrons — not just students.

A sandwich menu is offered for the business set on their lunch hour. Evenings feature a classy offering of French crepes prepared by Chef Glenn Williams.

Beer runs 70 or 80 cents a glass and from $2.25 on up for a pitcher.

But beer is a rather uncouth drink at most discos.

To impress the person next to you at the stand-up bar, order a Tequila sunrise, Harvey Wallbanger, gin and tonic or Kahlua and creme de cocoa.

Mainly the Blue Frogge is looking for that post-college crowd of young working people looking for a good time and a chance to meet members of the opposite sex.

That's why the sound system was designed to concentrate music on the dance floor and leave the sealing area quiet enough to carry on a conversation.

Discos provide a ready mixing bowl for social contacts.

"You can't help but meet people at a place like this,” says Jerry Margoni. manager of Zelda’s Greenhouse.

Unlike the Blue Frogge, Zelda's serves no food, is sparse on tables and chairs and has dispensed with strobe lights and dark colors in favor of an airy outdoor cafe atmosphere with hanging plants.

Zelda herself is a larger-than-life fern hanging over the dance floor.

Margoni says he keeps his place well-lighted with antique street lamps to let his finely-dressed patrons strut their stuff and be seen.

"There are two kinds of people who come here." he says. "There are the actors and the audience."

The actors are the modishly dressed dance experts who make the bump, the hustle and a variety of other freeform disco dances look like elaborate but effortless exercise.

The audience watches, getting onto the dance floor for the few slow numbers played each evening or when the crowd gets thick enough to obscure their movements. 

Margoni thought the Ann Arbor market was too sophisticated to need dance lessons before he opened the Greenhouse. But now he thinks it might be fun to offer them one night a week like the Blue Frogge.

He plans no promotions, though, like ladies night or pitcher night with reduced prices as the Blue Frogge will be doing.

And Margoni plans no major marketing pitch toward college students. It is young, working singles who he expects to provide the bulk of his trade.

Women usually hold a solid majority over the men at Zelda's Margoni says.

About half his nightly crowd of 400 to 500 patrons arrives "stag.”

Zelda's draws about a third of its clientele from the 85-room Crystal House Motel or the restaurant downstairs.

The motel complex was bought recently by local Bimbo’s owner Matt Chutich.

The Jackson Road Logging Company seems to rely less on traffic from the adjacent 129-room Ramada Inn, according to Ramada General manager Mike Tuttle.

He thinks most of Jackson Road’s patrons are young plant workers and secretaries, many of whom roll in after the second shift.

The Logging Company allows decent-looking blue jean attire, unlike the Blue Frogge and Zelda's which put more emphasis on dress.

As the main dining spot for Ramada patrons, the Logging Company does a brisk food business until the disco gets heavy about 10 p.m. The specialty is deep-dish pizza.

Tuttle says his disco has been selling a considerable amount of beer on weekends but during the week its customers are ordering exotic drinks like the Dynamite Octane 90, made with vodka, Southern Comfort, juices and beer (The drink menu warns "no smoking.")

Patrons Take To The Floor At The Blue Frogge, Ann Arbor’s Newest Disco

Blue Frogge Owner Tom Ewing in Control Booth

Guest DJ At Blue Frogge, Mojo (Charles Johnson)