From its earliest moments as a national show, it was obvious that the teenagers dancing on American Bandstand would be copied by teens across the land who wanted not only to dance like the kids from Philadelphia, but to look like them, too.
Fortunately for parents across the country, Dick Clark enforced the same strict dress code initially imposed by Bandstand's original host, Bob Horn. Thus, the kids seen jitterbugging from the WFIL studio on TV every afternoon represented the cream of the teen crop, sartorially speaking.
For Clark, it was equally important that the lip-syncing artists on the show had the same well-scrubbed appeal. Since many of the most popular early male rockers were more comfortable in tight tee shirts, battered denim jeans and greasy DA haircuts, getting them ready for their moments in the TV spotlight was no easy task.
Enter Connie DeNave, a one-time ABC press agent who formed her own company, Image Makers, with the express purpose of cleaning up those scruffy rockers. Clark and DeNave worked closely together for years, with such Bandstand favorites as Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Connie Francis among her clients.
DeNave's starting hypothesis was that most people viewed rock 'n' roll singers as the lowest form of life. So, she concentrated her efforts on teaching them how to dress, how to talk, never to be photographed smoking or holding a drink in public and which fork to use at dinner. By all accounts, she was successful.
Whether in the studio or scattered around TV land, kids (and their parents) took many life cues from watching Bandstand. Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser published a column on June 21, 1998, where he wrote that he "learned to be a boy, from dancing along to the music" on American Bandstand.
"For me, watching those South Philadelphia kids slow-dance on TV was like a glimpse into Heaven. It looked so fabulously sinful, to hold a girl like that. When I was 12, if you'd asked me where babies came from, I'd have said: the Spotlight Dance."
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.
