Dick Clark found many challenges in producing a daily network television show, including a few he probably never considered when he launched American Bandstand on ABC-TV in 1957.
One of those unexpected challenges surfaced in June 1962 and was detailed in a memo he sent to executive producer Lew Klein. The memo was among a group of approximately 25 American Bandstand interoffice memo carbons, dated from November 11, 1957, to June 18, 1962, that was sold in an online auction in 2006. Some of the memos were signed by Dick Clark and others initialed. Most were to or from Klein or WFIL executive George A. Koehler.
Here's the text from the June 18, 1962, memo: "May I request that we call an exterminating service. We have mice and roaches in the Bandstand office. This afternoon, in full view of the studio audience, we had to scrape up a dead mouse from the dance floor, apparently run over by a camera."
Question: What is Music Hop? Answer: The first television show hosted by Jeopardy host Alex Trebek. Trebek was an aspiring 23-year-old broadcaster when Music Hop premiered on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Oct. 3, 1963, in Toronto. It was a weekly Bandstand-inspired show that aired from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Eastern time. It went daily a year later and Trebek was replaced by Dave Mickie.
Can't sing? No problem. The Three Stooges spoofed Dick Clark and American Bandstand on a kids record called Click Dart’s Bandstand. After Moe, Larry and Curly Joe are invited to appear on a popular TV dance show hosted by Click Dart, Curly Joe asks: "What are we gonna do there? We can't sing." Moe replies: "Neither can his other guests!" Soon the boys assault Mr. Dart in typical Three Stooges fashion and take over the show with disastrous results.
© 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.
