Bandstand Beat

Bandstand Bits: Announcer's mistake saved Clark, Mammarella cut a record, too

Dick Clark's long and prosperous career may have never happened had it not been for a relatively innocuous transgression of a former fellow employee at WFIL radio in 1952.

The situation facing Clark that summer was described in an August 16, 1973, Rolling Stone story about Clark written by Ben Fong-Torres. In the story, Fong-Torres quotes another (unnamed) radio announcer who was also on the WFIL staff in 1952. The announcer said Clark had been hired as a summer replacement announcer.

"[Clark] was the second of two guys hired," the unnamed announcer said. "After the summer, they had to drop one of them. Normally, the first one would have stayed, but he used to do a network feed from the Epiphany Church, and every time he did it, he'd mispronounce it as the Epi-fanny Church. So they fired him for that, and Dick got to stay."

Clark, of course went on to have a fabulous career in Philadelphia for the next 11 1/2 years.

Even though Clark had re-established himself in Los Angeles by 1965, several of his old Philadelphia connections popped into the musical mainstream in an unlikely way after Barry McGuire stirred things up a bit with his late-summer apocalyptic anthem, The Eve of Destruction.

John Madara and David White, two of the co-writers of At the Hop, teamed with WIBG announcer Ray Gilmore to write an answer record to McGuire's song called Dawn of Correction. When they couldn't find someone to record the song, Madara, White and Gilmore became the Spokesmen and recorded the song themselves. The Spokesmen's song was quite successful, reaching as high as No. 36 on the Billboard charts.

Less well-known is that Tony Mammarella, who produced Bandstand from the very first days of the Bob Horn era through the early network years before being taken down by payola, also produced an answer record to McGuire's song. Mammarella co-wrote The Eve of Tomorrow with another early Clark associate, Bernie Binnick.

Here's the Spokesmen's song:

 

And here's Mammarella's song:

 

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 Bits: Thanks for writing, stranded on the turnpike, Best of Bandstand

In January 1958, the promotional staff at ABC-TV wanted to know more about the audience that was watching American Bandstand in its first six months on the air. So, they invited viewers to write in, telling them what they liked about the show. They aired the invitation four times.

Despite the fact that there was no prize of any kind connected to the plea, the network received 700,000 letters within 10 days. PR people went through the letters, pulling out those they thought were exceptional. They then included one original fan letter in each promotional piece they sent to 2,200 targets in a sales campaign touting the show's popularity and drawing power.

'Twas a dark & stormy night. In  March 1958, an all day/all night snow (later known as the St. Joseph Day Snow) had stranded over 800 people at the Howard Johnson's near milepost 305 of the Philadelphia Turnpike, near the Morgantown and Downingtown interchanges. One man died as he waded through the snowdrifts toward the restaurant, which was without heat or lights. However, the trapped people were entertained by Bandstand favorites Frankie Avalon, Danny & the Juniors and the Storey Sisters, who were also trapped by the storm.

Did you know? None of the video performances on the VHS Best of Bandstand tape are from American Bandstand. All but one are from the Saturday Night Beechnut Show. The exception? The Buddy Holly excerpt, which is from a show hosted by Dick Clark's childhood neighbors, The Arthur Murray 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.