He retained his youthful looks through the 1980s, burnishing his reputation as Americas Oldest Living Teenager. Dick Clark died at age 82 in Santa Monica. She calls it her one night out.. Thank you "C" Group for continuing the "Philly Saga". His name was Dick Clark and in the next year the show was transformed from a local show to a syndicated. Clark was known for integrating his audiences as well as his performers unusual in the late 50s. But he feared that if the shows secret ever came out, Middle America would change the channel. .When he spoke to us off-screen, it was usually from the podium; it gave him command over his domain, and as I have learned over the years, Clark liked and wanted to be in command.4, Smith recalls the closetingof American BandstandsLGBT youths. . "It was arduous at first," she says. Sharon Sultan Cutler, who grew up in New York and now lives in Chicago, is co-author of Bandstand Diaries: The Philadelphia Years 1956-1963. (Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune). He molded the image of the American teenager so America would accept rock-and-roll.". Happy tears. From its earliest days, the show featured young people dancing to a rock-and-roll soundtrack or other popular genres of the day. BANDSTAND DIARIES is a coffee-table book that offers readers a nostalgic walk through those halcyon, memory-filled days when rock n roll became the soundtrack of a generation, when television was in grainy black and white and when a 45 RPM record cost less than 70 cents. There are savings on everyday items you already buy, and savings on the things youve been waiting for a sale on to spoil your pet with. 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. It's handled with sensitive delicacy. It got me out of my shell, but I learned I was a regular teenager who happened to dance on a show that unexpectedly became very popular. Writes Sullivan in the book, "A few years ago at a fancy party on Fifth Avenue in New York, a man in a tux in his late sixties came over and told me he grew up on a ranch in Wyoming. This is the interview with Arlene, Kenny, Frank and Carole about their days on American Bandstand and their experiences with the Golden Boys. . Mrs. Spada attended West Catholic Girls High School. The new legislation effectively ended payola in the music business.2, American Bandstandtoo weathered the payola storm. Wed stay up all night talking about boys, she said. But Sullivan, who lives in New Jersey, did trust her, agreed to collaborate on the book and paved the way to meet and interview dozens of other regulars who once were dancing kids. 18 talking about this. [6] Jackson,American Bandstand, 71; Jacksons description of Arlene Sullivan. https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Rock%20%27n%27%20Rock%20West%20Coast%20.jpg, https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Bandstand%20historical%20marker%20%281%20of%201%29.jpg, https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/National%20Register%20of%20Historic%20Places.JPG, https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Bandstand%20Regulars%20Marker.jpg, https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/Rock%20and%20Roll%20Hall%20of%20Fame.jpg, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, American Bandstand: West Philadelphia's Seven-Year Wonder 1957-1964, American Bandstand, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Starting Local: WFIL-TV, Bob Horn, and Philadelphia's Bandstand, Going National: Dick Clark and ABC's American Bandstand, Whose Music, Whose Dances? Click here to see some of your favorites back in action. "We all did. Browse celebrity nostalgia on our website. Or sign up for our monthly Nostalgia e-newsletter or other e-newsletters tailored for boomers! They joined Arlenes and Kennys fan clubs. The show, hosted by Dick Clark, sounds like it was both a community of welcome amongst the teens and a repressive construct from higher ups. I went to coffee shops, but I also hung out in Rittenhouse Square and so did many of the dancers. OnAmerican Bandstandsdance floor, Sullivan was first partnered famously with Kenny Rossi (1957-58), a multitalented Italian-American student at West Catholic Boys High School, and such was her national popularity that her fan mail eventually totaled some 500 letters weekly. Carole made the world a better place," Gibson wrote on a Facebook page called America's Original Bandstand Dancers. Clark weathered the hearings by not being fully transparent, and he avoided being indicted for criminal behavior. 28 talking about this. Duke is a premier photographer of the martial arts as well as being an expert. He would dance on the show until early 1960. On all the music they play On the Bandstand.! NEW PAGE! Particularly during the shows prime Philadelphia years (1952-63), Philadelphia youth culture became American culture through American Bandstand. The kids who showed up every day (Bandstand aired every weekday afternoon for the first six years) knew all the most popular steps. Wed stay up all night talking about boys, said Sullivan. Never, did I ever think that I would be with him, holding his hand when he passed away. Bunny and Duke met several months ago and now are married. They knew what was going on, but they never asked the question., Sullivan says there were at least four other popular girl dancers on Bandstand who she quickly learned were lesbians and we all started hanging out together. Dancer - AB65 Regular 1 episode, 1964 Jocelyn Lane . They werent playing baseball they were DANCING. I purchased this from Historic Photos. They are extending the honeymoon in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where Duke has called home. Fiorentino was known on the show as "Nicky Blue.". This investigation targeted the practice of payola, and it was most likely triggered by rumors circulating that charged Dick Clark with promoting records in which he held a financial stake onAmerican Bandstandand taking kickbacks from record companies to include their records on the shows playlist. I was a preteen, which is to say, I was a teenage wannabe. When cute young teenagers Arlene Sullivan and Kenny Rossi slow danced together on "American Bandstand" back in the late '50s and early '60s, kids across the country swooned. That really annoyed me, said Smith, Because quite a few of the Philadelphia dancers on Bandstand died of AIDS., According to Brancaccio, Clark didnt want racial integration on his show either. 10/7/1957 9/5/1987 ABC 60 minutes In the early years of American Bandstand, African Americans were rarely seen on television. In the wake of the quiz show scandal, however, a subcommittee of the House of Representatives set up hearings to determine if the practice should be made illegal. This historical marker recalls Dick Clarks American Bandstand, which was broadcast from West Philadelphia from 1957 to 1964. Interracial couples were not allowed on camera, so they sat on the sidelines. Don Travarelli, from South Philly, watched American Bandstand in 1961 and spotted Bunny Gibson dancing. 4/8/1989 10/7/1989 Syndicated Carole Ann Scaldeferri Spada, 70, of Newtown Square, a regular dancer on American Bandstand from 1957 to 1961, has died. Broadcast icon Dick Clark, the longtime host of the influential "American Bandstand," has died, publicist Paul Shefrin said. And, for me, the kids on Bandstand were all I aspired to be. "For all those who knew her throughout her life and for those who watched her dance on American Bandstand, Carole was full of love and full of God. Despite changes over the years, the show continued to embody and represent evolutions in American music, fashion, dance, and other sociocultural norms. [2] Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Paylola and Sponsorship Identification, Federal Communications Act, Amendments, 1960. But . . Bob Horn Host (Bob Horns Bandstand), Bandstand Boogie during those wonderful days. "So many of the regulars who jitterbugged on the show way, way back were there. A few, burned by previously unsuccessful attempts by some to write books about the program, were reluctant to share their memories with her. . The original "Bandstand," as it was called in 1952, was first hosted by deejay Bob Horn, who later was fired due to a drunk-driving conviction.. . West Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, Jersey you learned the different styles of the same dances., The Regulars did the Pony, Jitterbug, Calypso, Cha-cha and a slow dance that she says wasnt exactly a waltz: The kids didnt stand in one spot. My parents were always there for me. He will never forget one of his first days on Bandstand. They even invented a few the Stroll, the Circle and the Chalypso. Rock, Roll and Remember. These teenagers became the nation's first reality-TV stars--they received thousands of fan letters and were mobbed everywhere they went. Brancaccio says thats what attracted him to it. Later, in hindsight, I guessed that made me the first white Rosa Parks. e9.size = "300x250"; Sullivan was almost 14, the required age for the show, when she became a Regular. The program moved production in 1964 from Philadelphia to Hollywood, months after it began airing once per week. These Regulars went on to receive mail, have fan clubs, feature magazine articles and dancer contests just like the previous groups. "I put a lot of my mom's makeup on and stuffed my bra," said Gibson. Broadcast only on Saturdays after 1963, American Bandstand lost the homegrown vitality of the daily program in West Philadelphia. I still have my HI-FI sitting against a wall between my living room and dining room. The followed the trend of solo ("open") dancing started by Chubby Checker and "The Twist.". In a nice way, he'd discipline us.". Making Philadelphia Safe for WFIL-adelphia: Television, Housing, and Defensive Localism in Postwar Philadelphia. Journal of Urban History, 38, no. (noted 9/12/21) . First called Bandstand, the program premiered October 6, 1952, hosted by Philadelphia radio DJ Bob Horn (1916-66). Cutler will be appearing Monday to talk about her book atMax and Benny's restaurant in Northbrook. And while Smith knew he was gay, he was shocked to learn that most of the guys on Bandstand, so many of them, were gay, he told The Post. At the height of its popularity, it was watched daily by 20 million people (by contrast, "Dancing With the Stars" drew 13 million viewers weekly last season), with an estimated half of them adults; its teenage dancers got as many as 45,000 fan letters a week. Clark now eyed California as where the action is. And in February 1964 Clark moved to Los Angeles, where it would continue until 1989, though lacking its West Philadelphia spontaneity. When ABC picked the show up, it was renamed American Bandstand, airing its first national show on August 5, 1957. In her memoir forBandstand Diaries, she writes frankly and poignantly of her youthful struggle with her emerging identity as lesbian, a sexual orientation she would fully embrace as an adult. "My heart hurts," said Gibson, a regular from 1959 to 1961. . Many subsequently became celebrities (albeit temporarily), appearing in other media, receiving fan mail, and starting fashion trends.