Classic TV Shows - Dick Clark's American Bandstand| FiftiesWeb On one of those jobs Lois gave oral sex to one of the Allison crowd for $40 and on another job had sex with a man for a hundred dollars, all this when she was 15 and in the midst of her relationship with Horn. They are true rock stars. In addition, the show has performances by popular musicians and audience members rate songs.Dick Clark hosts a daily to weekly dance show that features the latest hit music for the attending teens to dance to. The man who introduced us told me that she liked to pose for photos the kind you could not take to your drugstore to get developed and she would do some other things, but would not allow sexual intercourse because she had a boyfriend and didnt want to cheat on him. ! Sofia recalls being stunned. It became a second home for me, an Italian-Jewish kid from a broken family in South Philly. He also danced in a group called the Outrageous Waack Dancers with Daniel and Jody Watley. Dick Clark later wrote that he kept that dress code when he took over because it made the show acceptable to adults who were frightened by the teenage world and teenage music. Some observers might say that he was making the show acceptable to people who were frightened by the appearance of blacks. This was her unique moral code. All rights reserved. The reunion gossip even included a love story. She enjoyed seeing the TV series American Dreams, produced by Dick Clark in 2002, because it recalled one of the best periods in her life. American Bandstand started life as a Philadelphia TV show in 1952, with Bob Horn as master of ceremonies. Several wore miniskirts, others donned sneakers and pedal pushers. This historical marker recalls Dick Clarks American Bandstand, which was broadcast from West Philadelphia from 1957 to 1964. A 1957 jury deadlocked, then a judge acquitted Horn at a second trial, this one without a jury. Then we lined up and did the darn thing! Sofia laughs. Who were the original dancers on American Bandstand? We had over seven minutes to chat, though, and he said: Youre the love of my life, and Im so happy for you. It was very emotional, and I feel so lucky that I have my parents. American Bandstand 1961 4th Anniversary When Horn got busted, the teenagers were shocked. I danced there until 1972 and the policy remained the same. While Clark opened. One television precursor was the Paul Whiteman TV Teen Club, on WFIL and the ABC television network starting in 1949, which also showed kids dancing. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The station, where I worked at the time, fired him. The young dancers on American Bandstand were the reality stars of the 1950s and '60skids nationwide rushed Peggy Waggoner Names talks about her experience: When I started dancing on, From 1965 to 1967 Dick Clark also produced a show called, A postscript was added a decade later in California. His career was brought down by a teenage girl, but she did not come from the studio audience at Bandstand. Well, Blanc won his election, and that was the reason for all this, wasnt it? At WFIL they thought: What a wonderful idea for TV! Prosecutors decided there werent strong enough grounds to indict the man for that, but Maxines story about what went on at the party triggered Philadelphia District Attorney Blancs investigation of sex involving radio and TV personalities. He said Name your salary. So we asked our station manager for a release and he said hed talk to the stations owner. Maybe this break-through occurred because that show was not broadcast nationwide, but only in California. He asked me to be on the committee and be an example for others. They were some of the most famous kids in America, dancing every day on American Bandstand.. He was going to cut a record with me singing on one side and my dance partner, Tom DeNoble, singing on the other side. WebBrowse 1,013 american bandstand dancers photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. Horns radio program was called The Bob Horn Bandstand, which had a nice, alliterative sound. Consequently, if a majority of the attendees came from the Catholic schools, that made the audience overwhelmingly white. Not being able to get in, that was a way of life then. Clark was the host of American Bandstand in the late 50s through the mid-60s. At the very beginning, Horns Bandstand had some racial integration. Bob got one of his friends to write a song for me, Since I Met Him at the Senior Dance, and Bob paid for me to take singing lessons. Bob became like a second father to me. I knew all their names. The dancers have aged, some have gained weight or grown mustaches, but they continue to follow whats hip in fashion and dance steps. He even went back on the air a few minutes later and said: Hey, that record wasnt bad after all.. Bandstand had a lurid involvement with sexual assault that hasnt been fully explored publicly, until now in detail in Part Two of this story. The programs signature features were Philadelphia teens dancing to popular music and the portly Horn interviewing musical guests who lip-synced their latest hits on the show. Ill bet she knows more artists in the business than I do.. To put this in perspective, when the later-to-become-famous Ed Rendell was elected District Attorney in 1977 his vote total was much less than Blancs only 212,000. When it came to the rehearsal-dinner look, the team worked to re-create a gown worn by Stella Tennant in the 1997 Chanel couture fall show. With Robert Wises screen adaptation of Bernstein, Robbins, and Sondheims West Side Story (1961), however, the dance is revealed as potentially combative, and the gym as a place where divisions of ethnicity and class arent healed but are instead exacerbated. Theres an El stop there and we used to watch the kids line up. Throughout the rest of the 1950s, "American Bandstand" featured a number of famous acts including the debut of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel (November 22, 1957), He picked his own employee, Bob Horn, and copied from WPEN the idea of teenagers in the studio. The sex-with-minors angle was too shocking for public consumption, and the station didnt dare to reveal it. It seems curious that a public official needed to rent a private headquarters, but Blanc felt that some city officials, if they knew what he was doing, would tip off their friends who were being investigated. Required fields are marked *. Kevin Stewart: Old School Shirt Makers New York, Alexandra Rouvet Duvernoy: Trumpisms Commentary by A.H. Scott, Dean Rosenzweig: Cats and QueensUfos and Other Things, Kitchie Ohh: Resolution Revolution - Tony Ward. We stopped going and so did the black girls, for the most part.. Who were the original dancers on American Bandstand? Other results: Some of the men were convicted of participating in unnatural sex. Others were charged with corrupting the morals of minors, but the judges in the majority of these cases decided that the men were dealing with girls who were already corrupted, so they either acquitted the men or gave them light punishment. The History of "American Bandstand" - LiveAbout Horn loved jazz, especially Dizzy Gillespie, Erroll Garner and Sarah Vaughan, and he produced Vaughans first Philadelphia concert. Other deejays of that time, however, were more gracious than Horn. Bandstand' dancers look back Bob was color blind, Sheldon told me; On the first shows there were black couples dancing on the floor along with white couples. Former 'American Bandstand' Dancers React to He proposed at golden hourit was magical. Forever isnt long enough is how she captioned the Instagram post from the day. Off-camera his personality was abrasive, egotistical and aggressive. Wordens parties included nudity and sexual promiscuity. Sofias diamond drop earrings were by Kwiat. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. on Friday. May 3rd, 2002. We re-created the Claudia Schiffer corset dress from the early 90s, she explains. Any place theres dancing, Ill still go, said Joe Fusco, who was 15 when he joined the Horn produced alibis for those dates and Horn got a break when the judge refused to allow testimony about any other times. It was very important to me that all my bridesmaids were comfortable, so the only requirement I had was that they wear all black, Sofia explains. The next day Bill Sylk owner of WPEN and the Sun Ray Drug chain called Walter Annenberg and said If you steal my talent Ill pull a million dollars of Sun Ray advertising out of the, If Clipp couldnt get those people, he nevertheless could steal their format. People who hung out at WPEN learned that Allison had a yen for women who wore white, like waitresses and nurses. Blanc boasted that he had smashed the ring in local aspects and the FBI would clean up the interstate angles. But at one gathering, one guy didnt follow the rule and went all the way. If only this man stopped where Maxine drew the line, then she wouldnt have gone to the cops, then Horn would not have been investigated, then he would have remained on Bandstand and Dick Clark may not have become a star, etc, etc and so on. 3:20 PM. A low-budget sexploitation film called Models, Inc. was distributed by Philadelphia film executive Jack Harris. Then my crowd all sat down. Now, older and a little less svelte, theyre back in the city where it all began to recapture their glory days. In fact, that same summer the shows DJ who also did live commercials, a guy named Dick Clark, would take over as Bandstand 's full-time host. The following year on August 5, 1957, the show first aired on ABC, was changed to American Bandstand and became a national sensation. Horn said he went to her home once for a party. 2 Who was the first star of country music? Harvey Sheldon, a white high school student who later became a songwriter, reported that he jitterbugged with a black girl on the show in 1952 or 53 and no one said anything about it. American Bandstand premiered locally in late March 1952 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now WPVI-TV), as a replacement for a weekday movie that had shown predominantly British films. We had it all timed, and it felt like someone was looking out for us up above because it was a very cloudy day and then the clouds parted., Walking down the aisle with her father was something Sofia had always dreamed about. All the photos from Horns last two years show nothing but white kids in the studio. One of the regular attendees at the broadcasts was Bernie Jacobs, a man who ran a modeling agency. He said If you care enough to want to go to my dances, Ill drive you., Jerry Blavat started coming to the show in 1953 when he was only 13. Oral sex was labeled an unnatural act and people went to jail for doing it. The makeup for the entire weekend was super simple and clean, Sofia says. A suburban dog breeder named James Worden frequently attended the Allison show and sometimes invited men and women whom he met there to parties at his estate, which he called Hound Dog Hill. American Bandstand Didn't Originally By coincidence, on Saturday afternoon February 8, 1964, the day before the Beatles first appearance on Ed Sullivan, American Bandstand had its inaugural broadcast from Los Angeles, three thousand miles from its original home in Philadelphia. Clark moved the show to California in 1964, but many fans remember it as a Philadelphia phenomenon. Ad Choices, 47 Best Mothers Day Gifts to Give Mom This Year, Where to Watch the 2023 Met Gala Livestream, Everything You Need to Know About the 2023 Met Gala, The 66 Best Met Gala Dress-Code Rejectors of All Time, The 31 Best Met Gala Beauty Looks of All Time, Kaia Gerber Steps Out In the Breakout Sneakers of Summer. The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences, including Iggy Pop, Ike & Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Talking Heads , Simon & Garfunkel and Madonna. Among those to make early national appearances included Buddy Holly, James Brown, Ike and Tina Turner, and Simon and Garfunkel. Allison then moved to California. Watch for Part Two of our copyrighted story, which involves an election for District Attorney and the campaigns emphasis on teenage sex with radio and TV personalities. I didnt know it at the time, but Blanc must have been on his way to or from his secret lair on some occasions when he stopped by to see my dad. So, simultaneously, the DA was investigating Horn, Allison and Valino and people associated with them, and everything came to a head, so to speak, at the same time. Sort of healthy trouble. And most importantly, it really felt like family, which is exactly how we wanted the wedding to feel., Family and friends danced until 3 a.m., before the newlywedsalong with their bridesmaids and groomsmenended up back in the same villa where it had all started earlier that day. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. It is entirely hand-beaded, Sofia says. You had to line up at the end of each show and the producer picked whom he wanted to come back, so you had to please him. When Horn was arrested for drunk-driving on June 21, 1956, hardly anyone aside from station staffers and music industry insiders knew about his sexual life, and it didnt come to light even then. I imitated When Horn got busted, the teenagers were shocked. His demeanor was haughty. The Bandstand dancers, on the other hand, were fond of him. Bob was a PR pro who really knew how to spin a story. Bandstand began as a local program on WFIL-TV (now WPVI ), Channel 6 in Philadelphia on October 7, 1952. Not only was she a wedding guest, but shes a good friend and an amazing hairstylist, and it meant a lot to me to have a friend there, Sofia says. When he ran dances out-of-town he always made sure that each of us had rides to get there and back. Harris replaced the Kefauver footage with a new opening that he shot with Vic Blanc talking into the camera and warning the public of the dangers of sex. It was hysterical, Sofia says. Victor Blanc, the DA, was investigating what he called teenage sex rings. He phoned Lew Klein, an executive at WFIL who was a lodge-brother of his, and warned him not to reinstate Horn because theres more to the story; this is only the beginning of Horns problems.. Maybe he was on edge because the vice trial was about to start a few days later. I went to Alan Freeds concerts at the Paramount and black kids didnt show up there either. I was really nervous before walking down the aisleit was like I had stage fright, my adrenaline was so high. On Thursday, for the first time in a quarter century, 27 of the original Bandstand dancers, including Joe, Kenny, Arlene, Carole, Flossie and Jim, reunited to rehearse their steps for a rock n roll celebration over Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia. When Horns personal indiscretions led to his ouster from Bandstand in 1956, he was replaced by the more youthful, slimmer, squeaky clean Dick Clark. It is entirely hand-beaded, Sofia says. Even when black artists like Chuck Berry and Fats Domino appeared in live shows, 95% of the audience was white. Dick ClarksAmerican Bandstand, a popular though controversial TV program targeted toward teenage consumers, marked Philadelphia as the national epicenter of pop music during its seven-year run at ABCs affiliated WFIL-TV at 4548 Market St. ABC-affiliate WFIL-TV at 4548 Market St. broadcast Dick ClarksAmerican Bandstandto a national audience of teenage consumers from 1957 to 1964.American Bandstandbuilt a national youth culture around the pop music records Clark played on the show and the commercial products his sponsors targeted to this $9 billion consumer market. Rodgers recorded his first record under Ralph Peer in Bristol, Tennessee the day after the original Carter Family recorded theirs. His 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. radio show took place in a club-like setting where food and drinks were served, so it was a magnet for playboys, for girls who wanted to taste show biz glamour, and men who wanted to arrange introductions and get some action. People were routinely arrested when they drove across a state border and had sex. He had become District Attorney when Richardson Dilworth resigned that office to successfully run for mayor in 1955. Published April 26, 2023 Updated April 27, 2023, 12:58 a.m. Henry Gordon said in 1995 as he looked at an old photo of the kids at Bandstand: Anything that looks like a black face in this picture is probably a white face in the shadows. Clark revamped Horns show for national broadcast by ABC. The program, starting in 1952, originally was simply named Bandstand. The ceremony started at 6 p.m., and the bride was escorted by her father down the aisle, which was lined with a clear glass marquee and adorned with an abundance of white and cream florals by Roni Floral Design. 3 Who were the original dancers on American Bandstand? Secondly, the producer started to require admission cards. anniversary, there was no commemoration. Clark inherited WFILs local television showBandstand(1952-56) from the deejay Bob Horn, who proved that teenagers liked watching their peers dance. Fortunately for the station, the clean-cut Dick Clark was on staff and able to take over. This, however, was basically a talent show and dancing was secondary. American Bandstand/First episode date. Each girl chose her own dress, ranging from YSL to Rodarte., The night before the wedding, Sofia slept in a villa on the property with her bridesmaids. On each program, Horn listed the top songs of the day, although there was no scientific survey. It has a fictional plot about the racial integration of a 1960s teen television dance program, and it reminds me of my own experiences surrounding Bandstand in the 1950s. April Stevens, whose rushed recording of Deep Purple with her brother, Nino Tempo, became a chart But he was an ambitious politician. Horn developed a daily ritual of kids judging new records. To avoid this, co-producers Horn and Tony Mammarella implemented two strategies. In this part of the story well see what Bob Horn did that ended his career and also caused the ABC network and its Philadelphia affiliate to ignore the 50th anniversary of the programs start. Channel 6, WFIL, was owned by Walter Annenberg, whose newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer, campaigned against drunk driving, so he didnt want to let Horn off lightly. His demeanor was haughty. WebPulitzer Prizeeligible magazine The National Enquirer broke an old but interesting story this week about Dick Clarks American Bandstand.
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