Interviews: Star Actresses Tippi Hedren, Stella Stevens, Karen Lynn Gorney

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Karen Lynn Gorney, “Saturday Night Fever”

Every great dance movie needs the ultimate partner, and Karen Lynn Gorney was one of the most famous. In 1977, a phenomenon was launched with the release of “Saturday Night Fever.” John Travolta became “King of the Disco” movement, and his Queen was Karen Lynn Gorney, as his dance partner Stephanie.

Gorney has an interesting pedigree. Her father was song composer Jay Gorney, who co-wrote the famous Depression-era song, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime.” She started her career on the daytime drama “All My Children,” and since Fever has worked in stage, television and film.

Karen Lynn Gorney, Hollywood Celebrities & Memorabilia Show, Chicago, March 26th, 2011 Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

HollywoodChicago.com: Your father was a music composer, with ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime’ being part of the great American songbook. What did his show business experience teach you about your own experience in the business?

Karen Lynn Gorney: He collaborated with Yip Harburg [who also co-wrote ‘Over the Rainbow’ with Harold Arlen], and if it wasn’t for Yip I never would have been born, because Yip stole my father’s first wife away. Her name was Eddy, and she used to say ‘I would never marry anyone who didn’t write ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime.’ [laughs]

He used to say stuff more about acting, like ‘too much emphasis is no emphasis at all.’ And ‘take it t’easy,’ which was his version of easy does it. He lived into his early nineties, so he must have known what he was doing. He was older when I was born, near 50, so he had a lot of experience once I got to know him. He would always coach me in acting and in performing his music.

HollywoodChicago.com: What do you think is the most misunderstood notion that people have about your most famous film, ‘Saturday Night Fever’?

Gorney: That it was a film about disco. It was really about so much more. If the disco was the court, then John Travolta was the King and I was the Queen, and we went and strutted our stuff on that court. This became a way to money, fame and power, based on how you shook you’re booty on the disco. Which is exactly how it has been since the beginning of time. Anybody that could dance rose in social prominence.

It was about the illusion that the court – the disco – provides. Because that’s not what this existence is about. It’s one aspect, it’s not everything.

HollywoodChicago.com: The poignant ending of Fever is so different than many films with that kind of subject…where you and Travolta’s character agree to become friends. How hard did the production have to fight to get that more vague ending that a direct coming together?

Gorney: We shot it a number of different ways, and they decided on that. It was kind of a breakthrough, that a man and a woman could be friends, and partners on the dance floor. The Stephanie character was after power and money, and couldn’t allow herself to respond to him as a human being because he was too low on the food chain. So her response both was human and she pulled herself back.

HollywoodChicago.com: Since you recently did a lot of nostalgia work for the Disco era, what song best allows you to remember the joy of it and why?

Gorney: ‘Disco Inferno’ by The Trammps. That song is so powerful on many levels. Also anything by The Ohio Players.

HollywoodChicago.com: Post Saturday Night Fever, were you not getting the roles that you wanted or were you steering what you wanted to do with your life in a different direction?

Gorney: They didn’t know what to do with me. I was ahead of my time, and they didn’t know what to put me in. In the sequel “Staying Alive,” [Sylvester] Stallone wrote everybody out who was involved in the first one. Mainly I’ve done TV and stage.

HollywoodChicago.com: Tell us something about Denny Terrio that the rest of the world doesn’t know?

Gorney: He’s nice and skinny, and he’s a Gemini. And he’s really easy to dance with, even in a certain way easier than John. Although I’m sure John’s rhythmic construction is more compelling, if you know what I mean.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]