American Bandstand's audience in its early years was mostly female, ranging from pre-teens to young housewives. Their reasons for watching varied. Some simply enjoyed the dancing or the music. Others were interested in the fashion exhibited by the dancing teens. Still others were interested in the hairstyles or the relationships of popular couples.
But males watched, too. Their interest had little to do with hair or clothing, though. Some were interested in the music or the dancing, but for much of the male audience, the attraction of Bandstand was more primal.
"They watched American Bandstand for sex," wrote Stuart D. Bykofsky in the Philadelphia Inquirer on July 25, 1971. "It was television at its best, aimed squarely at the lowest common denominator."
John Carlton, a WFIL-TV announcer who hosted the movie show that immediately preceded Bandstand, was fully aware of the phenomenon.
“Every bartender in Philadelphia knew me," Carlton told me in a 2000 interview. "Not because I’d been to every bar, but they’d turn on the last 10-15 minutes of the movie so they wouldn’t miss all the pretty little girls on Bandstand.”
Sailors apparently noticed, too. Dick Clark once announced on American Bandstand that regular Bunny Gibson had been named "Queen of the Shasta" by U.S. Navy men assigned to that ship.
Bykofsky expounded on the "Bandstand effect:"
"Bandstand was an explicit if not outright carnal, program. Hemlines were down to the calf, but skirt material was pulled tightly over the rump. Necklines were high and no one dreamed of going without a bra, but sweaters were as conforming as skin on a grape."
"Cameramen lay in ambush at hip level and focused only on the more pronounced cases of adolescent overdevelopment. ... The girls whipped back and forth, first near the camera, then away. The camera dutifully tracked posteriors like a beagle on scent. If all this wasn't done intentionally, why didn't they ever show the boys' backsides?"
Why indeed.
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.
