The influences behind The Last Days of Disco

1998

The Last Days of Disco

Film by Whit Stillman

American independent cinema. United States. In English.

Whit Stillman's 1998 comedy of manners follows two young Manhattan publishing assistants, Alice and Charlotte, and the men around them at an exclusive disco in the early 1980s as the scene collapses. It completes the loose trilogy begun with Metropolitan and Barcelona and joins Austen-style social comedy to an elegy for a vanished nightlife.

Where it came from

Where to watch

Rent Amazon $3.99, Apple TV $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99
Buy Amazon $14.99, Apple TV $14.99, Fandango at Home $14.99

In the US, as of October 18. Prices and services change.

Find “The Last Days of Disco” on Amazon

1955

Lady and the Tramp

Film by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske

Classic Hollywood animation. United States. In English.

Disney animated romance between a pampered cocker spaniel and a streetwise stray.

What it handed down

To The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Direct source, well documented.

In one of the film's best-known scenes, characters argue over Lady and the Tramp, one denouncing the Tramp as a smooth cad who seduces a sheltered girl and teaches children to admire the wrong kind of man. The Disney film becomes a mirror for the romantic choices Alice and Charlotte face with the club's men.

Where it came from

Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog, Ward Greene 1937

Where to watch

Stream Disney+
Rent Google Play $2.99, Apple TV $3.99, Fandango at Home $3.99
Buy Amazon $19.99, Google Play $9.99, Fandango at Home $14.99, Apple TV $19.99

In the US, as of October 18. Prices and services change.

Find “Lady and the Tramp” on Amazon

Happy Dan, the Whistling DogWard Greene

1937

Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog

Ward Greene

Interwar American magazine fiction. United States. Written in English.

Magazine story about a carefree stray dog, the source of the Tramp character.

What it handed down

To Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Direct source, well documented.

Disney bought Ward Greene's story of a carefree stray and merged it with Joe Grant's earlier idea about a cocker spaniel named Lady. Greene's dog became the Tramp, and Greene wrote a novelization tied to the film.

Where it came from

The line stops here: minor magazine story with no documented literary sources.

Find “Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog” on Amazon

Where it came from

What it handed down

To The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Where it came from

What it handed down

To Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Where it came from

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