In Louisville, Disco is stayin’ alive, and tourists couldn’t be happier.
Walk through the door of Louisville’s Myriad Hotel and just try not to smile. There, suspended from the lobby ceiling, casting rays of multicolored light across the registration desk, are two dozen disco balls in varying diameters, some the size of softballs, others more like beach balls. Recessed lighting illuminates the sparkling orbs, first red, then purple, blue, and green.
And while the colorful globes add an undeniably fun vibe to the hotel, it wasn’t merely a case of boogie fever that led designers to gravitate toward the 1970s when they drew up plans for the Myriad, which opened in September 2023. The 64-room boutique hotel occupies a space that was once the manufacturing facility for Omega Mirror Products, which produced 90% of the world’s supply of disco balls in its heyday.
“Incorporating disco balls into our lobby infuses the space with the fun and joy of the disco era,” explains Draek Shepard, General Manager of the Myriad Hotel. “But they also offer a literal nod to the history of this place.”
Outdoors, the hotel’s pool area is dominated by a towering metal contraption that once served as an industrial vacuum to clean up all the tiny glass bits and dust particles generated during the manufacturing process. Today, the vacuum is painted bright orange and serves as something of an art piece.
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“Some of our guests arrive with prior knowledge of the disco ball connection,” says Shepard. “But those who don’t quickly discover the link.”
You Should Be Dancing
“Mirror balls,” as they were originally called, made their first appearance in the late 1800s and were favored for their decorative appeal and their ability to magnify light in an era when candles and gaslight illuminated most homes. But the balls emitted more than just light. They also exuded an aura of joyfulness, one that Louis Bernard Woeste and William A. Stephens leveraged when they patented the “myriad reflector” in 1916. Ballrooms and dance pavilions would shimmer with the “dancing fireflies of a thousand hues,” they promised in advertising campaigns.
Myriad reflectors appeared in the classic films Casablanca (1942) and Some Like It Hot (1959), but they didn’t really explode into pop culture until the 1970s. It was in the 70s that New York clubs like The Loft and Studio 54, television’s Soul Train, and Saturday Night Fever embraced the disco ball and cemented the ornament in the American musical scene.
By then, Louisville-based furniture and mirror manufacturer Omega Mirror Products acquired the patent for the glittering orbs. Utilizing high-quality glass mirror material, the company cranked out thousands of disco balls and shipped them all across the globe, making Louisville the disco ball capital of the world.
I Love the Night Life
Omega retains its reputation as the go-to source for quality disco balls. Celebrities such as Ru Paul, Madonna, and Beyoncé are said to have purchased genuine Omega disco balls to adorn their private residences. Since Omega remains the only glass disco ball manufacturer in the US, chances are good that if you spot one in a cocktail bar or club, it was crafted in Louisville.
The music of the disco era only lasted about a decade, but the popularity of disco balls has proved surprisingly resilient. While there are signs that the musical genre is making a nostalgic comeback, Louisvillians in the know say that interest in disco balls is resurging, too.
Hotel Genevieve, a boutique hotel in Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood, opened in May 2023 with an aesthetic that leans French—the city was named after French King Louis XVI. But the hotel’s design also includes subtle references to the city’s place in disco history. The bar front at Lucky Penny, Hotel Genevieve’s speakeasy, sparkles with mirror glass tiles, and if you look closely at the hunting scene behind the registration desk, you’ll see it’s been jazzed up with a tiny disco ball.
“We considered designing the space as if you were literally inside a disco ball, but that may have been too much,” says Tenaya Hills, Senior Vice President of Design and Development at Bunkhouse, the hotel group behind Hotel Genevieve. “Still, we wanted a little splash of glam and a fun nod to the disco ball when we found out Louisville was one of the major producers during their ‘70s heyday.”
Downtown Louisville’s Frazier History Museum includes a historical exhibit devoted to disco balls. Gift and home decor shops like Red Tree Furniture, Woman-Owned Wallet, and Barret Babes sell disco ball-themed fairy lights, drink cups, Christmas ornaments, and earrings. And Louisville is home to Kentucky’s largest disco ball, an 11-foot-diameter orb that occasionally appears at parties and events across the city.
That’s the Way I Like It
If anyone sees an upswing in the popularity of disco balls, it’s Louisville artist Robert Brown. Since venturing into making custom disco ball art, the artist’s business has never been better.
The metal sculptor was born in 1975, just as K.C. and the Sunshine Band urged boomers to “Get Down Tonight” and Donna Summer crooned “Love to Love You, Baby.” So perhaps it was fate that when Pig Beach BBQ asked Brown to create a rotating disco pig for their new Louisville restaurant, he couldn’t refuse.
“Building the pig out of metal wire was something I knew I could do,” he says. “Adding the disco ball tiles…I kind of loved the challenge of it.”
Brown purchases the mirror tiles from Louisville’s Omega Mirror Products and affixes them to sculptural shapes of all kinds. And since creating the disco pig, Brown has been swamped with custom disco ball orders: a disco jellyfish, a disco horse saddle, a 3-foot-tall disco rocket ship, and a disco tooth, the latter for a local dentist.
“They’re magical,” Brown says of his creations.
Increased interest in the city’s disco history has Louisville Tourism Chief Marketing Officer Stacey Yates and her team considering how best to leverage this bedazzled side of the city.
“Louisville’s disco ball heritage has mainly just been a fun fact we use to add color to the city’s story,” says Yates. But the opening of the Myriad Hotel, the addition of numerous disco ball-oriented touch points and the resurgence of the disco ball in pop culture have members of the hospitality industry—and tourists—asking for more.
“We have heard of mural ideas and art installations on the horizon and are looking forward to how more disco ball-themed displays will organically come to life in the Bourbon City,” she says.
It’s only logical, says Tanaya Hills of the Hotel Genevieve. “There isn’t a single product more closely associated with having a good time than a disco ball.”