Bandstand Beat

Bandstand was far from a sure thing when Dick Clark took over

In 1956, NBC introduced Bandstand to America.

But this wasn't the Bandstand that was so popular in Philadelphia. NBC's Bandstand originated in Studio 6A in Rockefeller Center in New York City, featured big band-era music and aired weekday mornings on radio stations from coast to coast.

Veteran announcer Bert Parks, whose previous radio assignments included national hit shows Camel Caravan and Stop the Music!, was saddled with hosting duties for this dud of a show that lasted less than a year.

Even Parks knew he was riding a loser. In a candid on-air moment, he offered a rhetorical summation of his plight when he asked, "Did you ever get the feeling the whole business is sliding into a lake?"

While it's easy in hindsight to celebrate the phenomenally successful run of American Bandstand under Dick Clark, it may not be as obvious that the show could have just as easily slid "into a lake" when Clark took the helm around the same time as Parks' dismal experience.

For one thing, WFIL-TV's Bandstand was not that special. Although wildly popular as a local show, there were similarly popular TV dance shows in other cities in 1956, like Ted Steele's Dance Time on WOR-TV in New York City or Dewey Phillips' Pop Shop on Memphis' WHBQ-TV.

And the music played on Bandstand in 1956 was better suited to the Big Band era than the Rock & Roll era, which was just beginning. Although Bandstand picked Elvis Presley as top male vocalist for 1956, Elvis didn't make a personal appearance in Philadelphia until 1957 and never appeared on Bandstand. Patti Page - Bandstand's top female vocalist for 1956 - was more typical of the kind of singer you were likely to hear on Bandstand in the mid-1950s.

You were more likely to see Don Cherry, Sunny Gale or the Four Aces pop into the Bandstand studio than Elvis, Fats Domino or Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956. As WFIL disc jockey Jerry Ross later said, Dick Clark "didn't know Chuck Berry from a huckleberry."

Of course, Clark did better than keeping Bandstand from sliding onto the trash heap of teen dance shows - he managed to take it national on ABC. For that, he owes a great debt to Al Jarvis (pictured).

Jarvis was a popular Los Angeles disc jockey in the 1940s who is largely credited with being the first person to spin records for a dancing audience on television. His Let's Dance program on KLAC-TV in 1947 was also the first to offer lip-syncing guest singers and a rate-a-record segment.

ABC noticed and planned to take the show to a national audience but the network's Southern affiliates insisted on only white performers. Jarvis refused and ABC backed out. Had Jarvis' show proved successful, Clark may have never had the opportunity to get Bandstand on the national stage.

Did you know? Actor Bruce Dern was a 20-year-old half-miler at Penn who drove a Breyer's ice cream truck part-time when Dick Clark succeeded Bob Horn as host of Bandstand in 1956. By 1957, however, Dern had quit the track team when his coach insisted he shave his Elvis-style sideburns. Dern, who claimed he needed the 'burns for his drama class, picked the class over track. Good choice.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

Other posts by Larry Lehmer: George Armstrong Custer wanted to make a name for himself. Crazy Horse wanted to protect his people. Both died while pursuing their goals. Check out their story at Before Their Time.

Promo man Gunter Hauer was key to Dick Clark, Bandstand's early success

When Dick Clark took over hosting duties for the program that would become American Bandstand, he was fully aware that his broadcasting success relied on playing the type of music that would attract throngs of enthusiastic dancing teenagers to the studios of WFIL-TV.

He also knew that he would have to rely on others to tap into that teenage world. He had, after all, spent most of his recent on-air time in a tiny radio booth, spinning out uninspiring pop tunes that went mostly unheard in the Philadelphia market.

Fortunately for Clark (and Bandstand), he was a quick learner. Plus, Bandstand's popularity under previous host Bob Horn had created a steady flow of eager record promotion men and salesmen, whose ambitions closely matched Clark's.

One of those promo men was Gunter Hauer, whose path to Bandstand and Clark symbolized the mythical American dream, though he was not born an American, nor was he a dreamer. Hauer died on August 2 of this year at the age of 101.

When Clark was just starting to listen to the early radio voices of the 1930s that would inspire his own lengthy broadcast career, the teenaged Hauer was listening to the harsh rhetoric being spun on radio stations in his native Germany by Chancellor Adolph Hitler.

When the Olympics came to Berlin in 1936, Hauer's family was one of many who opened their homes to American athletes and their families. It was then that Hauer met his first Black person, a woman who gave him a ticket to the August 4 track and field session of the Games.

Since Hitler took power three years earlier, life became increasingly difficult for Hauer and his Jewish family. They could no longer sit on a public park bench or attend movies. The future looked bleak.

It looked even bleaker after Hauer witnessed American Jesse Owens claim the gold medal in the long jump that day, only to see Hitler fawning over German silver medalist Lutz Long before leaving to stadium so he wouldn't have to present the gold to Owens.

After years of pleading with his family to leave Germany, they finally sailed away in 1939, only to end up in a Jewish refugee camp in Shanghai, China. Before the end of World War II, Hauer's parents died and he had married. After the war, he moved to the United States, first to Oakland, California, then to Cincinnati, Ohio.

In Cincinnati, Hauer began his entry into the music business, through the shipping dock. He landed a night job with King Records, the eclectic label started by Syd Nathan in the 1940s. Nathan staffed his operation largely with Jewish and Black workers, precisely the audience his upstart label was looking for.

Overnight, Hauer would stuff boxes of 78s by the likes of Earl Bostic and Bull Moose Jackson and prepare them for shipment. It seemed an odd job for a young man who knew nothing about the record business.

"I wanted to eat," Hauer explained. "I needed a job and it was the first thing that came along."

But Hauer saw more than just a job. He saw an opportunity.

"I worked weekends at retail stores to learn what customers wanted. It gave me experience in what people look for in music, and not just on a wholesale level. Distributing, retail, shipping, and from there into working with radio stations - even being a spectator at recording sessions. It didn't hurt.”

Nathan noticed. Within months, Hauer was sent to New York City where he was King's distribution branch manager, In 1950, he moved over to Gotham Records, where he took over record distribution in Philadelphia. In 1954, he jumped to Universal Record Distributing Co. which brought him solidly into the Horn/Clark orbit.

Besides working promotions throughout the Northeast, Hauer often got feedback from his young daughter, Gail, bring her unreleased records.

“He would could home and say, ‘Here, play this. This will be a hit in a couple weeks',” she said.

The Hauer household was so flush with records that they would give them out on Halloween instead of candy.

Hauer later moved to Atlantic Records and retired in the 1980s. In retirement, he followed his beloved Eagles in the National Football League and often spoke to school groups about his experiences as a young Jewish man growing up in Berlin as Hitler came to power. He was never bitter in his presentations, according to his driver and facilitator, Steve Korsin.

“He would begin, ‘You are not going to hear a horror story from me',” Korsin said.

Sources:  "Holocaust Survivor Gunter Hauer Dies at 101," Jewish Exponent, August 12, 2020, By Andy Gotlieb.

"Gunter Hauer: Profile Of A Promotion Legend," World Radio History, June 10, 1983, By Jeff Green.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

© 2020 Larry Lehmer

 

 

Dick Clark's path to Bandstand TV glory included overcoming lousy radio ratings

Before Dick Clark succeeded Bob Horn as host of TV's Bandstand in 1956, there was some question among WFIL management whether he was the right man for the job. Even after giving Clark's radio show the same Bandstand name, Clark's ratings were not very good. This excerpt from Bandstandland picks up the story:

"Station executives were not satisfied with Clark’s radio ratings, which failed to take off despite the new Bandstand name. When Clark protested that he was stymied by station edicts that his music be taken from the WFIL pop music library while Horn was given free rein on what he could play on TV, WFIL management responded by sending Clark to Pittsburgh for a week to see how a successful disc jockey can get it done in the afternoons.

Again, Clark protested that it was the type of music he was forced to play that limited his audience, not his announcing skills. He tried other methods to boost his audience: a month-long contest for listeners voting on Philadelphia’s favorite recording artist and a stint spinning records in the lobby of the Tower Theater in Upper Darby in the hopes teens would drop by to watch and, maybe, even dance. Few did.

While Horn was riding the wave of unprecedented popularity with the success of TV’s Bandstand, Clark was marking time in the 12-by-20-foot WFIL-AM cubicle down the hall. He had managed to replace his old Studebaker after staffers complained about constantly having to push it to get it started, but he was still waiting for that big break."

Did you know? Before Dick Clark joined WFIL in Philadelphia, he had another on-air name. Read more in this excerpt from Bandstandland. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

Dick Clark's Bandstand duties didn't keep him from hosting record hops as well

In early 1957, Dick Clark had been the host of Bandstand (still a local show in Philadelphia) for less than a year but his star was clearly on the rise, as this excerpt from Bandstandland shows:

"As Bandstand continued to grow in popularity, the demand for Clark’s appearances at record hops grew as well. Working with good friend Eddie McAdam, Clark zipped from hop to hop carrying rolls of quarters and an empty 45-rpm record box. McAdam would take dollar bills from kids at the door to cover the 75 cent admission fee, give them back a quarter and stuff the dollar bills into the record case.

“[Eddie] used to sweat profusely. Literally, he would perspire all the time,” said Clark. “By the end of the night, the sweat would drip off the end of his tie and into the box with all the money, which was coming in hand over fist.

“We’d take the boxes of money and stick them in a spare bedroom. Two or three weeks would go by and then my wife and I would try to straighten out all these crumpled, sweaty one-dollar bills.”[1]


[1] Joe Smith, Off the Record, pp. 103-105.

Did you know? When Bandstand debuted as a local show in Philadelphia, it had two hosts. And neither one was Dick Clark. Read more in this excerpt from Bandstandland. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

Radio stars Grady and Hurst had first shot at hosting WFIL-TV's Bandstand

Walter Annenberg was more than a little annoyed.

Since taking over the family publishing business when his father, Moe Annenberg, went to prison for tax evasion, Walter had expanded into the broadcast industry. It was with some irony that Walter bought WFIL radio from Albert M. Greenfield in 1945. It was Greenfield who bankrolled the Philadelphia Record's bitter newspaper war with Moe Annenberg's Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1930s and used WFIL's airwaves to attack Annenberg.

Walter wasn't content with radio, though. He plunged into television full force in the mid-1940s, snagging the 13th television license in the U.S. and immediately beginning construction of the first building in America to be used specifically for television. Furthermore, the new building was right next door to the Philadelphia Arena, giving the station convenient access to the area's major indoor sporing events.

By the time the station hit the air on Sept. 13, 1947, plans were already being made to move both the Republican and Democratic party national political conventions of 1948 to Philadelphia tp take advantage of the extraordinary broadcast potential.

WFIL radio and television general manager Roger Clip had done a superb job of filling programming slots with innovative local shows that catered to Philadelphia's diverse and growing television fan base. An exception, however, was late weekday afternoons where a steady diet of old British films was replaced by programming built around video music films. Despite the changes, advertisers were fleeing to other stations.

A perturbed Annenberg told Clipp something had to be done. How about a televised version of that 950 Club show over at WPEN radio? That seemed to be pulling in crowds.

Indeed, the 950 Club hosted by Joe Grady and Ed Hurst had been the top-rated show in Philadelphia almost from its debut in 1946. Teens who showed up for the show created such a nuisance in the office building where the show began that WPEN owners - Sun Ray Drugs - sprung for a new auditorium-type studio to accommodate the teens. A crowd estimated at 3,500 once jammed the studio to try to catch a glimpse of singer Johnnie Ray. WPEN even allowed Grady & Hurst to take their show to television station WPTZ in 1950 as a means of promoting the radio show.

Clipp set up a meeting with Grady and Hurst where he told them he wanted to start the show in two weeks and to let him soon know their salary requirements. The 26-year-old Hurst was elated at the chance to break into television but the older Grady had a more somber asssesment.

"You don't think 'PEN's gonna let us out of our contract, do you?" he asked of his young sidekick.

The answer was an emphatic no.

When WPEN station manager Bill Silk got wind of the proposal, he gave Annenberg an angry call, threatening to pull $1 million dollars of Sun Ray Drug billings from the Inquirer and give them to the Record.

Grady and Hurst received a telephone call from Clipp the next morning.

"We find that this is not the propitious time to bring you boys over here," Clipp said. "We'll have to start our own."

Clipp and station manager considered their options. There were many young staffers who were in the running, but in the end they settled on a more senior staff announcer, Bob Horn, to host the new show, Bandstand.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon. 

Bandstand Bits: From T-straps to penny loafers ... so many shoes, so many dances

Saddle shoes, shoes with squashed heels..

Shoes were a big deal on American Bandstand. If a WFIL-TV cameraman wasn't zeroing in on a tight shot of a slow-dancing couple, odds were good he had his camera pointed down at the studio's concrete floor to concentrate on the action of a few jitterbugging feet.

Gumdrop shoes, black suede shoes with three lace tie. 

Dick Clark recognized the importance of shoes in 1958 when he signed a merchandising deal with Mary Jane Shoe Stores to sell American Bandstand dancing shoes for $8.95 a pair. He collected shoes of other people, too. Among his estimated 20,000 musical memorabilia items are shoes once worn by Bo Diddley, Elton John and Fred Astaire.

Penny loafers, high heels.

Dick Clark wasn't the only Philadelphian to make a shoe deal in the Bandstand years. Bobby Rydell had a merchandising deal with Ansonia Shoe Corporation to market a shoe for girls called PhoToes. It came with a color photo of Rydell in a plastic pocket on the toe. And Chubby Checker had a deal with Thom McAn for black-and-red Chubby Checker Twisting Shoes.

Pointed toe shoes., T-strap shoes.

Ernest Evans was a shoeshine boy before he became Chubby Checker. Theater ushers at the finest Philadelphia movie palaces were instructed not to shine their lights above the top of men's shoes Wilt Chamberlain, the one-time basketball sensation from Overbrook High School, used to wash his shoelaces before big games.

Ballerina pumps, moccasins.

Dick Clark was meticulous in his public appearances so it should come as no surprise to learn that Clark included shoes as part of his splendid sartorial plan. Before slipping into a pair of tuxedo pants, Clark would first put on his shoes, take great care in tying the perfect knot before sliding his legs into the trousers. Doing so, Clark explained, kept his pants from getting wrinkled by sitting down to tie his shoes.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

 

 

 

Dick Clark: From shy, nail-chewing youngster to ruler of rock music empire

Dick Clark didn't start Bandstand. Nor did he create some of American Bandstand's more popular segments, like Rate-a-Record or Top Ten lists. Clark waited patiently in the wings for nearly four years, while Bandstand's original host, Bob Horn, built the show into Philadelphia's teen favorite.

But people who knew Clark weren't surprised to see the shy, insecure kid from New York mature into the polished, confident frontman who enjoyed the spotlight almost as much as he loved creating the massive business empire that made him one of the wealthiest non-performers in the history of television.

He was born Richard Wagstaff Clark on November 30, 1929, in Bronxville, N.Y., and grew up while his family lived in the Park Lane Apartments on what was the former estate of circus magnate James A. Bailey in Mount Vernon, N.Y. Among his neighbors was the famous TV dancing couple - Kathryn and Arthur Murray.

Clark's entrepreneurial spirit was soon apparent. He published a neighborhood gossip sheet at age 5 and sold peanut butter sandwiches from the sidewalk at age 6. He was slight of build, underweight and had a poor complexion. He was such a compulsive nail-biter that his parents forced him to wear gloves in an effort to curb the habit.

After older brother Brad was killed while serving in the air corps in World War II, Clark joined his school's punching bag club and entered school politics to overcome his athletic deficiencies and conquer his shyness. By the time he graduated he was voted by classmates as the "most likely to sell the Brooklyn Bridge."

Clark also acquired the radio bug after attending a broadcast of the Jimmy Durante Show. After his family moved to Utica, N.Y., following Clark's high school graduation he took a job at his uncle's radio station, WRUN, starting in the mail room and operating a mimeograph machine.

He worked on his skills on campus radio while studying business at Syracuse University. Although he worked at an assortment of odd jobs such as a bed maker, dishwasher and brush salesman in his early college years, he worked at radio station WOLF during his senior year.

After graduation in 1951, Clark returned to WRUN, this time as Dick Clay. He also did a turn at WKTV in Utica as Cactus Dick.

In early 1952, Roger Clipp, general manager of the radio-TV division of WFIL and a friend of Clark's father, told WFIL-TV general manager George Koehler that he wanted to hire some new, young talent for the TV operation.

Koehler sorted through applications and resumes and started calling the better candidates. By the time he was done, about a half-dozen young men - including Clark - had been hired and soon began filling spots in the WFIL radio and TV lineups.

“Dick of them all, was far and away the best," Koehler said of Clark. "There was no question. Absolutely none. They’re all good people. We went over the applications and beyond with a fine toothcomb, but Dick was a natural, a shoo-in.”

Clark, who made his WFIL radio debut on May 13, 1952, rented a room for $1.65 a day at the YMCA and began taking his meals at the Horn and Hardart automat.

John Carlton and Bill Webber were two young announcers hired two years after Clark who went on to long and successful Philadelphia TV careers. Carlton thinks WFIL management saw all young announcers in the early 1950s as interchangeable.

“I think they lined up people, people who could step into these key roles," Carlton said. "And they didn’t just necessarily hire one, they’d usually hire a couple. ...  We were all about the same age. We were all youthful in appearance. I don’t know if they had that in mind when they hired us, but we were there.”

After Webber became something of a celebrity in Philadelphia, his mother came from Florida for a visit. Webber admitted that he was "showing off" when he picked her up at the airport in a limousine that he had rented.

"I took her to the station and asked her, ‘What do you want to do. Anything you want to do?’" Webber recalled. "She said, ‘I want to see Dick Clark.’”

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

 

 

Bandstand Flashback: July 9, 1956

This was the day Dick Clark officially replaced Bob Horn as the host of Bandstand, the Philadelphia teenage dance show that would become American Bandstand 13 months later.

Clark was greeted by protests on that first day by Bandstand regulars who hated to see Horn go. One of those regulars was Mary Ann Colella, who was a recent high school graduate at the time. I interviewed Mary Ann for my book, Bandstandland: How dancing teenagers took over America and Dick Clark took over rock & roll. Here are some excerpts from that interview:

“After Horn was fired it was like he went into hiding. We had a strike for a couple days against his firing. ... None of us were crazy about Dick Clark because we used to see him in the studio and we just felt he inherited this job, where we felt it should have went to Tony Mammarella.”

"He reminded me of a young punk. He just wasn’t personable. We were spoiled and that was the thing. … here’s someone coming in and Tony Mammarella doesn’t get the job and an all new thing was starting, it was a bad time for us. We figured, 'Oh God, what’s going to happen to the show now?'

“Tony was a doll baby. Totally, totally. Everybody up there, I don’t think there was one person up there that we could say that worked for WFIL at the time that we didn’t like. I think mainly it was that they appreciated the kids. They needed the kids. Without the kids, there’s no show.”

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

 

 

Dick Clark's career was solidly on track but his marriage was rolling off the rails

Dick Clark was recovering nicely after the payola hearings wrapped up in 1960. The popularity of "The Twist" was sweeping across the country as Clark was learning that his idyllic marriage may be crumbling. We pick up the story in this excerpt from "Bandstandland":

"In an article in TV Radio Mirror that was published before the public was aware of trouble in the Clark’s marriage, Clark told of the anguish a friend felt as he went through a divorce.

Clark noted that the friend, a performer, had been on the road 45 weeks in the previous year. His wife didn’t like show business, he said.

“Maybe this performer's wife didn't know what was ahead of them,” Clark said. “Maybe they didn't sit down and talk about it ahead of time.”

He added that he and his wife were different than his friend. They’ve discussed the problems and uncertainties of show, he said.

“Bobbie is always ready for the unexpected,” he said.^⁠1

Clark said that he and Bobbie had discussed how filming The Young Doctors during the Christmas holiday of 1960 would interfere with the family’s holiday plans, but they agreed that the sacrifice could be worth it if helped Clark develop a meaningful film career.

“You can't kid about the importance of a career to a man's ego,” Clark said. “But above that — always — is being with people you love. Business must be secondary to people. Show business being what it is, husband and wife have to work a little harder to secure their happiness.”^⁠2

Looking back, Clark conceded that he probably hadn’t paid enough attention to his wife. Too many missed dinners, movie dates and anniversaries took their toll. But, before he confronted his wife about what he had been told, he hired a private detective who confirmed the affair.

“After much soul-searching, Bobbie and I decided to get a divorce,”^⁠3 he said

¹ TV Radio Mirror, January 1961.

² Ibid.

³ Rock, Roll & Remember, p. 227.

Excerpted from Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll.

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

 

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

Philadelphia dance culture was at the very heart of American Bandstand's success

Here's another excerpt From Bandstandland:

"As good as Dick Clark was in his role as the amiable host and as relevant as the music he played was to his young audience, American Bandstand would have failed without the ebullient, energetic, teenage dancers that lit up the screen every weekday afternoon.

At its core, Bandstand was a unique visual experience. Not only could you listen to the music you enjoyed in the comfort of your own living room, you could see that you weren’t the only one who got happy feet when Danny and the Juniors belted out “At the Hop.”

Bandstand also benefited from being in Philadelphia, a city with a rich dance history. That was especially true in the black community, many of whom had migrated from the juke joint south, bringing with them dances like the Monkey Glide, the Chicken Scratch and the Shimmy.

South Street and its black clubs were where you would go if you wanted to hucklebuck, kangaroo dip or bunny hug. Flash tappers like the Nicholas Brothers were national sensations, playing for two years at Harlem’s Cotton Club and appearing in many Broadway shows and Hollywood movies. And women tap dancers like Edith “Baby Edwards” Hunt and Hortense Allen Jordan drew huge crowds wherever they appeared.

From its earliest days, Bandstand spread the gospel of dance. There was the Bunny Hop craze that broke out during the Bob Horn years. When Clark took over just as rock & roll was coming into vogue, so, too, did the dances change.

It was the bop that inspired “At the Hop” and made Pat Molittieri an early American Bandstand star. There was a steady parade of dance contests on the show, seven in all during the Philadelphia years, each featuring a slightly different style of dancing. The show introduced at least two new popular dances to American teens before 1959 — the stroll and the chalypso."

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.

Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.