'John Travolta Day' Has Fans Dancing In The Street Outside Lenny's Pizza In Brooklyn
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – John Travolta fans are feeling the fever.
New York celebrated the two-time Oscar nominee Tuesday with a ceremony at Lenny's Pizza in Brooklyn.
The pizza place was made famous in the 1977 blockbuster "Saturday Night Fever" after Travolta's character, Tony Manero, ordered two slices, put them on top of each other and then ate them while he walked down 86th Street to the tune of the Bee Gee's disco hit "Stayin' Alive."
More than 40 years later, Travolta was back in Bensonhurst with his wife Kelly Preston. Before an enormous throng of adoring fans, he danced, signed autographs and, of course, ate pizza.
"It's like the Pope coming back to Rome," Josephine Giordano said.
Travolta also received a New York State proclamation for helping to change the culture of Brooklyn through his work.
"I feel like Brooklyn has been in my DNA since 'Welcome Back, Kotter,'" said the star.
For the hundreds of Brooklynites at the event, seeing Travolta back on the same street where he strut his stuff was special.
"If you're from Brooklyn and you watched that movie, you had a feeling like no other," Vinny "Dice" Ruggiero said.
"Everybody want to be John Travolta – talk like John Travolta and walk like John Travolta," said Big Time Tommy Romola.
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Just ask professional Travolta impersonator, Phil Francavilla.
"You know we keep the '70s staying alive, like this," he said.
Travolta was in New York this week to promote his new movie, "Gotti."
"We love you, we love Brooklyn. Thank you very, very much," he told the crowd Tuesday.