Today, a few more tidbits about Dick Clark and the Philadelphia years of American Bandstand. Hopefully, you'll discover something new and interesting here. Also, if you have any stories to share about your own Bandstand experience or have something you'd like to know about the show, let me know. I look forward to hearing from you. Today's Bandstand Bits:
1. In 1957, saxophonist Noble "Thin Man" Watts cut a jumping instrumental called The Slop with His Rhythm Sparks band. Dick Clark wanted to play the song on American Bandstand, but objected to the title so Watts renamed the tune Hard Times. The record went on to spend nine weeks on the Billboard charts.
2. In the early 1950s, one of Dick Clark's earliest TV jobs in Philadelphia was as spokesman for Associated Barr Stores, a locally owned chain of 13 jewelry stores in the Philadelphia area and sponsor of Barr's Diamond Theater, a program of old movies on WFIL-TV.
3. One of Dick Clark's radio heroes was Arthur Godfrey, one of radio's biggest stars in the 1930s who enjoyed a television career that ran into the 1960s. The flamboyant and often controversial Godfrey was also a private pilot, who lost his license for six months after buzzing the control tower at Teterboro Airport in 1954 and claimed to have seen a UFO while flying near Philadelphia in June 1965.
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.
