Media: June 2026 • When Landecker Met Travolta
John Travolta and John Records Landecker, Woodfield Mall, 1976
50 years ago, John Records Landecker (then on WLS) and John Travolta (then starring in Welcome Back, Kotter) shared a moment they will both remember forever.
“Travolta had a single out on RCA Records,” John recalls, “and my show was really popular with kids who bought records, so RCA brought him into the WLS studios at night, and then the next day, they picked me up in a limo. I went with John to WGN radio for an interview with Roy Leonard, and then we drove out to the Woodfield Mall for a personal appearance.”
Let’s just say, things don’t go the way they expected. “At first, we were taken to a private area of the Woodfield Mall. The private entrance opened, and we went right into the mall itself. It was John and I and a couple of cops on each side of us. We expected about 2,000 to 3,000 fans. Estimates are that there were 20,000-30,000 people there. I don’t know what it was like when the Beatles showed up somewhere, but Woodfield Mall is enclosed with really high ceilings. Oh my God, it was so loud I couldn’t stand it. As we got closer to the stage, the people were pressing up against us so tightly, including against the cops. I hear one say, ‘Oh, my God, my gun’s coming out,’ like the pressure on the bottom of the gun holster was lifting the gun out the top without anybody touching it. It didn’t come all the way out, thank goodness.”
How does one handle an audience of that size? “I mean, there wasn’t really any opportunity to interact with the crowd. They could hear us, but they were just screaming. So I said, ‘Hey, this is all gonna be on WLS tonight. I want you to put your hands together now for Vinnie Barbarino!’ He took the mic and said, ‘What?’ ‘Where’ like Vinnie Barbarino and the crowd went nuts. When it was time to leave Woodfield, police officers grabbed me by the armpits to get me out of there. And they took him in a different direction. We were supposed to do something together afterward, but that couldn’t happen because of the mayhem. He called me at home later that night. He told me it was the first time he really realized just how famous he was. It was a moment he would never forget. Remember this was before **Saturday Night Fever.”
The two formed a bond. “He came back the next year just before the movie came out, and because we made this connection, he came on the show again. I had my kids with me when I walked into the radio station. They were young, and I didn’t want to hype them to this. And so we got off the elevator on the fifth floor, and we were heading to the entrance to WLS, and I said, ‘Hey, just want to tell you that when we walk through those doors, you’re going to meet John Travolta.”
One of those kids was his daughter Amy, who became a famous actress herself. “Amy was in a series called Transparent on Amazon Prime, and it was nominated for an Emmy. And Travolta was in a miniseries about the O.J. Simpson trial, and he was nominated for an Emmy, too. And we hadn’t seen each other in a very long time.”
And Amy invited her dad to the Emmys that year. “Amy and I had just made the rounds of the studios, pitching a movie that was based loosely on our relationship. We had gone to Amazon, we’d gone to Fox, and I met people. Some of those same executives were at the Emmys. When it got to the point where people started mingling, I knew Travolta was there because I had seen him from afar, and sure enough, I spotted him at the Fox table with a bunch of people, and I walked up behind him. One of the studio executives recognized me from our meeting. I said hello to him, and then pointed to John’s back, and said, ‘I think he knows me too.’ The executive says, ‘John, do you know John Landecker?’ He straightened up, turned around, grabbed me, and kissed me on the lips. I guess he remembered me.”
Amy Landecker is currently promoting the film she wrote, directed, and starred in (For Worse). If you see the movie (which is hilarious), you’ll notice an older gentleman in the background of a half-dozen scenes. Who is that older gentleman? John Records Landecker. “Oh man,” John admits. “That was so much fun.”
Amy still has some moments that could only happen to John’s daughter. “Amy and (her husband) Bradley (Whitford) were at some environmental conference on the West Coast. Al Gore was there because he’s a big environmentalist. Bradley, Amy, and Al Gore are taken into a room where they were only supposed to be for like 10 minutes. Well, they were delayed, delayed, delayed, and had lots of time to talk. During that delay, I got this video from Amy and Al Gore, and she says to Al, ‘Sing the Jingle,’ and Al sang the old WLS music jingle. When she told him her dad was John Records Landecker, Al Gore said, ‘I used to listen to him all the time.’”
Guess what? You can still listen to John. He’s on weeknights on WGN Radio, 720 AM, from 7-10 pm.
-Rick Kaempfer
Category: Featured
