Bandstand Beat

Bandstand Bits: Dick Clark, Bandstand were positive reflection of teen experience

There were changes in the air in the fall of 1957.

For one thing, baseball was going bi-coastal as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants played out their final seasons on the East Coast before pulling up stakes and heading west. Scientists worldwide were wading into the first trimester of the heralded International Geophysical Year when the USSR shook things up on October 4 by launching an artificial moon known as Sputnik into space.

And, of course, American Bandstand was gaining a foothold in American teen culture with what Richard Aquila, author of That Old Time Rock and Roll, dubbed “the daily meeting of their (peer) group.”

What seemed so simple on TV was anything but for host Dick Clark, who was navigating uncharted waters in trying to corral a sizeable group of teens who were largely attracted to the music and dances that many of their parents found to be unmelodic at best and subversive at worst. That he was mostly successful is borne out by the longevity of the show, but there were challenges. Like the time an Oklahoma TV station tried to give Bandstand the boot.

Clark addressed the issue head-on on the American Bandstand of Dec. 17, 1957, when he read a letter on air:

“A note here from Jeanine Papano who lives in Oklahoma. She says a few weeks ago KTEN, our station, threatened to take off Bandstand and the response was so tremendous that KTEN was almost afraid to take station breaks. They tried to start a local wingy-do but that apparently did not succeed. I'm awful glad to hear that we're back with you."

That Clark successfully mobilized teens across the land to stand up to adult-run institutions like TV stations should not be surprising since he carefully crafted every phase of American Bandstand to be a positive reflection of teenage experience. He often pointed out that he avoided talking about controversial issues, like going steady. In Dick Clark's American Bandstand he wrote of the kids who danced on American Bandstand:  “Were they having sex? I’m sure some were, but that wasn’t talked about. ... If any of the girls who danced on the show got pregnant, I never knew about it. ... Some of the kids on the show were gay, but like most aspects of sexuality, it wasn’t something that was discussed publicly."

But kids watching American Bandstand rarely felt short-changed. Quite the opposite. Julian Bond, who had a stellar career as a Georgia legislator and civil rights leader, was a teen growing up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, when American Bandstand burst on the national scene. He reflected on his reaction to the show in a keynote address at Lincoln University in May 1992:

“For a teenager riding a rural bus route to a one-room school with an outhouse, these young people [on Bandstand] represented everything that was big city, sophisticated, hip, cool, and correct. We imitated their dance steps, copied their clothes, and mimicked their walk. We recognized in the music a message of racial and generational change that white young people felt, too.”

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.

 

Photo: Julian Bond as 23-year-old.

Bandstand Bits: When Dick Clark arrived, Philadelphia was TV's "Wild West"

Dick Clark was smooth when in front of a camera. Real smooth. And American Bandstand, while not the slickest production in show business, was a smartly produced national hit during its Philadelphia run. Teenagers of that era thought it was just about the coolest program to ever hit the air.

But, when Dick Clark arrived in Philadelphia in 1952, the show that was to become American Bandstand five years later hadn't taken to the air yet and his TV employer, WFIL, was mired in third place in a three-station market. Technology was crude by modern standards, but creativity was high as all three stations vied for the sparse (but growing) audience that often found just receiving a viewable signal to be a major undertaking.

WFIL-TV had begun operations in downtown Philadelphia, from the station's mail room on the 18th floor of the Widener Building. They soon moved down to the 11th floor where the 5,000-watt lights created heat and light so intense that announcers were either blinded or soaked from sweat in the 120-degree heat. Wide shots were only possible when cameras were dollied into the hall, creating complaints from the dentist whose office was on the same floor.

Early programming included cooking shows, The Philadelphia Catholic Hour, Phil and the Three Cheers and Ramar of the Jungle. Happy the clown and Chanin the magician were precursers of popular kids programs hosted by Sally Starr and Chief Halftown. The popular Paul Whiteman's TV Teen Club was mercifully broadcast from the less-cramped Armory at Broad and Calla Hill streets.

Although topping WFIL-TV in the ratings, WCAU-TV was pretty much the same sort of bare-bones operation. Popular kids show star Willie the Worm was crafted out of ventilating hose from an auto parts store and the live western, Action in the Afternoon, was broadcast from a parking lot where an occasional airplane or automobile would miraculously appear in the background. When fame architect Frank Lloyd Wright dropped in for a guest appearance, he remarked that the architect who designed the place "must have had very good kidneys because the restrooms were 7,000 miles from the studio."

This was the Wild West of early television that Dick Clark entered as a 22-year-old in 1952. Roger Clipp, general manager of WFIL radio and television at the time, saw potential in the young man he had just hired.

“The minute he walked in...I thought to myself we certainly can use this young man," Clipp said on This Is Your Life on June 24, 1959. "He was well- dressed, clean-cut, polite, a guy knowing where he was going. He gave me the feeling that you could count on him to do a job right."

Time proved Clipp to be correct.

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: Susan Stamberg, 16 magazine, brown lipstick and honeymoons

Dick Clark had a notoriously rocky relationship with Teen magazine in the 1950s, but other members of the emerging teen press of that era found him to be charming, photogenic, affable and best of all, accessible. That was particularly true of 16 magazine, which could accurately be described as the official publication of American Bandstand.

In 1959, Susan Stamberg (now of National Public Radio) had an unusual summer job - as secretary to 16 editor Gloria Stavers. One of her duties that summer was to pick the winner of an "I Miss Elvis Because" contest.

"It's not that I was such an Elvis fan," Stamberg explained to her NPR audience in March 2008. "I was named judge because apart from editor Gloria and 16's publisher, Jacques Chambrun, I, the secretary, was the only other person in the office."

Stamberg went through bags of mail, splitting the top prize between a grandmother and a three-month-old whose handwriting "was most impressive for a child so young."

"I am sure that the grandma is long gone," Stamberg said almost 50 years after the contest concluded. "But if you were the three-month-old baby in the summer of 1959 and remember winning that contest and what your prize was, I do hope you'll get in touch."

I haven't found any record that the winning tyke ever came forward.

Can This Be True Dept? An item from the July 1961, issue of Television Magazine: "I am reliably informed that on the Dick Clark show the teenagers arrive wearing brown lipstick so they will look their best on camera."

Time to Get Hitched Dept. Modern Screen, Columbia Pictures and Dick Clark's Drexel Productions sponsored a contest in April 1960 to promote Clark's first feature film, Because They're Young. All that was required was to fill out an entry form for a drawing. The grand prize was a "Perfect Honeymoon, All- Expense-Paid Trip for Two" (including a Parrot Paradise cruise and alligator wrestling) to "a luxurious Miami Beach hotel for 6 nights and 7 days."

Second- and third-prize winners received an all-expenses paid trip to the "honeymoon village" at Mount Airy Lodge in Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania, where winners were promised "unsurpassed bridal accommodations and privacy."

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: American Bandstand on film, Glen Campbell and Mrs. Clark

Fans of American Bandstand have long lamented the dearth of vintage footage from the premiere music program of the 1950s and 1960s. As this clip shows, Clark at one time posssessed a truck load of Bandstand films:

 

As many insiders knew, the best way to get to Dick Clark was to go through his wife. This clip reveals a bit about their special relationship:

 

Glen Campbell was one of thousands of musicians to cross paths with Dick Clark. Now that Campbell is in the end stage of his battle with Alzheimer's disease, I want to share this clip of Campbell and Clark sharing a few TV moments with Roger Miller in 1971. Clark seems unusually relaxed in this clip:

 

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.