From 1969 to 1974, "Bandstand Theme", a synthesized rock instrumental written by Mike Curb, opened each show. In an interview with the New York Post, Sullivan says that she and many of the gay male dancers would congregate in the Gayborhood, Rittenhouse Square, and there were rumors that Clark sent producers to spy on them. Charlette Russo danced on American Bandstand from 1955-1959. They also reported on the careers and whereabouts of many of the other regulars and several of the shows musical guests. Reply. A case in point is Arlene Sullivan, a popular Regular who has described her own emerging lesbian sexual orientation, which she says was masked by her dance partnerships with boys. I did get to know Annette Funicello [a Mouseketeer on the original Mickey Mouse Club], who came to the show. He fell in love with her. American Bandstand played a crucial role in introducing Americans to such famous artists as Prince, Jackson 5, Sonny and Cher, Aerosmith, and John Lydon's PiLall of whom made their American TV debuts on the show. Clark's sunny smile and cuteness masked a strong will and iron determination. Of Clarks behind-the-scenes behavior at Studio B, Ray Smith writes unsparingly: The irony about Clark is that he was not the goody-two-shoes he projected: he smoked, cursed, and for a while teetered on the edge of alcoholism. Bob retired after being in the shoe business and the chemical business, where he often worked 18 hour days. "When he saw me, he said, 'I knew I'd see you again,' with a smile on his face," Gibson recalled. during those wonderful days. The show's popularity helped Dick Clark become an American media mogul and inspired similar long-running music programs, such as Soul Train and British series Top of the Pops. I was trying to hit them over their heads with my pocketbook, but they just wouldnt give up. ", "I was shaking like a leaf," Colanero recalled. In a nice way, he'd discipline us.". One show from this first season (December 18, 1957, identified as the "Second National Telecast") is preserved in the archives of Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications. Sullivan was almost 14, the required age for the show, when she became a Regular. We'll see you then. Hosted by Bob Horn as a television adjunct to his radio show of the same name on WFIL radio, Bandstand featured short musical films produced by Snader Telescriptions and Official Films, with occasional studio guests. In 2004, Dick Clark, with the help of Ryan Seacrest, announced plans to revive the show in time for the 2005 season; although this did not occur (due in part to Clark suffering a severe stroke in late 2004), one segment of the revived Bandstanda national dance contesteventually became the series So You Think You Can Dance. Teen idol Bobby Rydell, whose music career is still going strong 60 years after American Bandstand, wrote the books introduction; but former Regular Arlene Sullivan, who shares her memories and personal images, is a standout as well as a co-author of the book. Norman was born on January 18, 1944. Although, unlike some others, Carole never really had a steady dancing partner, she danced with all the good-looking Italian boys and that one special non-Italian whom everyone loved - Harvey Robbins. . Sullivan, 74, wrote Diaries with Ray Smith, another dancer who was closeted during his Bandstand years. Yes, yes, I know. As two or three stations grab it off, you get less clearance, therefore you get less rating, and its an endless cycle. Hes a heckuva good dancer who does a mean jitterbug! . He would dance on the show until early 1960. Click here to see some of your favorites back in action. . Never, did I ever think that I would be with him, holding his hand when he passed away. I was trying to hit them over their heads with my pocketbook, but they just wouldnt give up. When I used to walk down the streets of Philadelphia and be recognized, Id be called a Bandstand f*****.. Both were ratings disasters. Known then as Carole Scaldeferri, Mrs. Spada was among the teens who jitterbugged and slow-danced their way to fame in a TV studio in Philadelphia, while host Dick Clark spun what are now oldies. Or sign up for our monthly Nostalgia e-newsletter or other e-newsletters tailored for boomers! A half-hour evening version of American Bandstand aired on Monday nights from 7:30p.m. to 8:00p.m. (ET), beginning on October 7, 1957. . That might have had something to do with the scandal that surrounded the departure of his predecessor, Bob Horn, who faced a drunken-driving arrest and morals charges. The other reason was that American Bandstand was pre-empted on many occasions by televised college football games (which expanded greatly in number in the wake of a court-ordered deregulation in 1984) which were becoming huge ratings successes, as well as occasional special presentations (i.e. American Bandstand only allowed dancers from 14 to 18. Unlike Smith, she expresses no animosity toward Clark. This story has been shared 115,637 times. This development created a sometimes heated rivalry between Dick Clark and Buddy Deane, when performers who appeared first on Deane's program were refused booking on American Bandstand. Mickey Mouse Club She acknowledges that some of the other girls she knew on the show were also gay. I was a preteen, which is to say, I was a teenage wannabe. Once a week, she goes to a hop thrown by another Bandstand original, 76-year-old Philadelphia radio and TV personality Jerry Blavat, who bills himself as The Geator with the Heater and The Boss with the Hot Sauce.. Set pieces from Soul Unlimited were utilized by Bandstand for its 19741978 set design. I went to Bandstand because I was gay and I was a misfit in my neighborhood. "He made sure the guys wore suits and we were dressed properly. This more-familiar version of Bandstand debuted on October 7, 1952, in "Studio 'B'", which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building in West Philadelphia.mw-parser-output .citation{word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}^ , and was hosted by Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host until 1955. Well, it's our last show here on Bandstand and I really want to thank the viewers who have kept American Bandstand on the air all these years. In fact, it was dangerous. I imitated all the dance steps, sometimes with the refrigerator door as a partner. Give me some Thumbs UP!This is Bunny Gibson and the American Bandstand Regulars live at Sesame Park outside of Philadelphia on July 21, 1997 as recorded by OnlineTV.com and Rick Siegel.The Regulars were there to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of American Bandstand and the parties were relentless as were the memories. LGBT identities were hidden on the shows dancefloor. Later, in hindsight, I guessed that made me the first white Rosa Parks. The only singer to ever co-host the show with Dick Clark was Donna Summer, who joined him to present a special episode dedicated to the release of the Casablanca film Thank God It's Friday on May 27, 1978. (7/21/2011) I just received this from Bunny Gibson and certainly thought it was appropriate to mention here: Anna Russo, formerly Anna Banani, went to American Bandstand 1963 until AB left Philly for Los Angeles, lost both of her legs to diabetes and is in need. But this one was different. My favorite dance was the Jitterbug the last dance where people danced together. Clark weathered the hearings by not being fully transparent, and he avoided being indicted for criminal behavior. Dancing was a major feature of Bandstand. [18][19][20] Dubbed as The New American Bandstand and distributed by LBS Communications, the series' tapings were moved from the ABC Television Center to the Hollywood studios of Los Angeles's PBS member station KCET,[21] with a new set was similar to that of Soul Train. The previous theme was retained as bumper music. In an online page marking her 68th birthday on Nov. 23, 2011, Bandstand "documentarian" Charles W. Amann III posted: "The name Scaldeferri and American Bandstand go hand-in-hand. 8-9; quote from unpaginated photo section. Thanks for contacting us. e9 = new Object(); John Lithgow filmed a mockumentary episode before it was c 11-year-old reads aloud from 'pornographic' book he checked out from library at school board meeting, Influencer refuses to switch business class seats so family can sit together, Ousted Chicago mayor blames loss on racism, gender but not her tepid response to crime, Chaka Khan blasts Rolling Stone, Adele, Mariah Carey in podcast talk, Disgraceful Meghan, Harry provoked King Charles to evict them: royal expert, Kanye West and wife Bianca Censori look surprisingly happy on dinner date, Sunny Hostin Points Finger at China for COVID Crisis: Did Not Cooperate With the International Community, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle confirm they were asked to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage. What they didnt know was that Arlene and several of the other female dancers, and most of the handsome teen boys, were gay. The young dancers on American Bandstand were the reality stars of the 1950s and '60skids nationwide rushed home to watch their every move and chatter about their relationships and exploits. I still really didnt know who I was. and they put a drinking cup in front of him and said, This is your cup, and youre the only one who will use this cup. One friend of mine was kicked out of the house.. The program was broadcast live, weekday afternoons and, by 1959, the show had a national audience of 20 million. Squeaky clean commercial pitchman and deejay Dick Clark inherited Bob Horns locally broadcastBandstandin July 1956 and revamped it for a national audience of teenage consumers as ABCsAmerican Bandstand, which first aired in August 1957. e9.size = "300x250"; Ray Smith says he was upset when Dick Clark claimed only one of the dancers had died from AIDS when asked about it in an interview. Dick Clark later stated that he knew the prime-time edition would fail because its core audience teenagers and housewives was occupied with other interests in the evenings. He needed a group to show up every day, she says, and nobody got paid. But it was not easy on the mean streets of Philadelphia to be a Bandstand regular suspected of being gay. American Bandstandsrelegation to a weekly schedule stripped it of much of its power as a potential hit song exposer, writes the music historian John Jackson. She was one of the great stars of the Philadelphia years. We've received your submission. JUSTINE AND BOB. Out filmmaker Christopher Landon spills the spooky tea on his new movie and working with the 'White Lotus' star. But for the gay kids, the abuse at home was worse: When one dancer's parents learned he was gay, she told the Post, "they put a drinking cup in front of him and said, This is your cup, and youre the only one who will use this cup." Another was thrown out of the house. American Bandstand, abbreviated AB, is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions that aired regularly from 1952 to 1989,[1] and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the program's producer. Anna Russo, 2800 North 7th Street, Apt. With his death, she said, it is "important that Dick is honored for what he did for rock-and-roll and for the impact he had on all the lives of his dancers from Philly to L.A.", Clark, Gibson said, led "the first teenage revolution, and we were part of it. "He wasn't no Bob Horn," Fiorentino said. The news hit hard. Interracial couples were not allowed on camera, so they sat on the sidelines. While the American series has aired sixteen seasons, its format was also replicated worldwide, from Norway (Dansefeber) to Australia (So You Think You Can Dance Australia). They were hurting him. Her husband, Richard Spada, said Mrs. Spada was recovering from a minor stroke she had suffered earlier when she became ill on the way to church. Regardless, the music historian John Jackson calls it the gravest crisis in his professional career.1, At all events, the payola hearings spurred action by Congress. So Bandstand really did change her life in many ways. History goes back and forth with the timing and motives of the integration, but nevertheless, American Bandstand socially impacted teenagers' opinions regarding race. Clark was a disc jockey at the student-run radio station at Syracuse University (1951), and he worked at radio and television stations in Syracuse and Utica . Instead of shortening or moving Bandstand, ABC opted to just begin Bandstand at 3pm, cut away to Who Do You Trust? As previously mentioned, during the 1978 season of Bandstand, Donna Summer became the only music artist in Bandstand's history to co-host the program. The Monday-night version aired its last program in December 1957, but ABC gave Clark a Saturday-night time slot for The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show, which originated from the Little Theatre in Manhattan, beginning on February 15, 1958. The dancers, as Teen wrote, were the "most famous unknowns on TV today. Making matters worse, on September 13, 1986, ABC reduced Bandstand from a full hour to 30 minutes;[13] at Clark's request, the 2,751st and final ABC installment[14] (with Laura Branigan[15] performing "Shattered Glass"[16][17]) aired on September 5, 1987. During the segment, two audience members each ranked two records on a scale of 35 to 98, after which their two opinions were averaged by Clark, who then asked the chosen members to justify their scores. In August 1963, ABC reassignedAmerican Bandstandto Saturday afternoon. Filmed in the cramped quarters of the WFIL Studios at 46th and Market Streets in Philly, Bandstand is such a part of Americana that Dick Clarks podium now resides in the Smithsonian. 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