Louisville Flavor: Disco Ball Factory

[Darkmark8910]

Quick Summary: Louisville, KY is the disco ball capital of the world. Adding a disco ball factory would be a fun addition. 

 

Explanation: Over 90% of all disco balls worldwide are manufactured in Louisville, Kentucky. 

 

In the 1980s around 25 people, mostly women, made disco balls, manufacturing 25 per day per worker. Its in a smaller factory. The disco balls, formally known as mirror balls, are filled with aluminum, then have the mirrors put on. 

 

Their factory floor had a boom box for music - playing the best disco music, of course! This company also had a decently-sized wood products division sharing factory space with the mirror division, and the mirror division also makes traditional mirrors, but it is most known nationally & internationally for the disco balls. 

 

The manufacturing process, as described by the woman who has been making them for nearly 50 years (and she still does!), Yolanda "Yo Yo" Baker:

 

On a recent morning, Baker showed how sheets of mirror glued to heavy cloth are scored in various sizes and then broken into squares. Strips of mirrored cloth are then cut into workable lengths. She grabs an aluminum shell, made in Illinois, and carefully applies glue. The middle of the ball is covered first with what Baker calls the "belly band" and then, one strip at a time, she starts the laborious process of turning a dull ball into an explosion of light.

 

Links & Sources: 

Manufacturer website - https://omegamirrorproducts.com/products/antique-mirrors/antique-mirror-cover-plates/

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2016/12/26/yolanda-baker-the-last-of-the-disco-ball-makers/94273574/

https://www.lanereport.com/171035/2024/02/louisville-based-rev-a-shelf-acquires-of-omega-national-products/

 

tl;dr please consider adding a wood products/mirror factory in Louisville, especially one full of disco balls, in honor of this company & these women's hard work.

 

P.S. One company anecdote described how, once upon a time, an unmarked police vehicle drove straight into the factory wall, with its whole front inside the building! Maybe a fun addition to the building? 

 

P.S.S. Working disco balls would also be LIT, I wanna see zombies swaying in a mosh pit now, or a survivor using their dance moves on a dance floor under a disco ball

 

 

Edited March 23 by Darkmark8910
Added info on wood products division