“The Twist was a guided missile, launched from the ghetto into the very heart of suburbia.”
That provocative quote about the world-wide sensation that was launched by Dick Clark on American Bandstand came from the book Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver. As you might expect from a program that ran on national television for more than 30 years, American Bandstand (and Dick Clark) generated many interesting quotes. Here are a few:
From Connie DeNave, who put many of the young singers who appeared on American Bandstand through "charm school": “The young people who were recording in those days had to be well-groomed and well-dressed, because the press thought that rock ‘n’ roll was the lowest form of life, and that the people who sang it had just crawled out from under a rock." (From Like Young: Jazz, Pop, Youth and Middle Age by Francis Davis):
From Stephen Kahn, who began pitching stories about Dick Clark to teen magazines while still a student at the Bronx High School of Science in 1957: “I must have written between 75 and 100 articles on Dick Clark. You might say I'm his Boswell.” (From New York Times, Sept. 16, 1964, by Joan Cook)
From Chuck Barris, who was assigned the task of keeping an eye on Dick Clark during the payola probe in 1959-60: "Every day at American Bandstand for want of something better to do, I would write a memo to myself concerning the trivia of that afternoon: who was on the show, who canceled, what songs the performers sang, if their performances were good or bad, some meritorious though highly fictitious feats I had accomplished, a few jokes, one or two philosophical contemplations. When I wasn’t doing that, I was introducing myself to the various artists, chatting with them as though I knew what I was talking about.
“I shook Brenda Lee’s hand and told her she had a great future in the business, She thanked me and walked away. I had no idea she already had nine gold records." (From Barris’ book, The Game Show King).
And, a personal favorite, from one-time American Bandstand regular Mary Anne Cuff: “What it is we all want is to get married and live on the same street in new houses. We’ll call it Bandstand Ave.” (Washington Post, Sept. 27, 1999, Henry Allen):
Finally...many dances came and went in the Bandstand era. For every successful one like the stroll or the Twist, there were dozens that never made it on air, most for very good reasons. Here's one that popped up briefly in Miami and, for whatever reason, failed to spark a national dance fever:
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.
