As I prepare my Bandstandland manuscript for the publisher -- reading, re-reading, checking sources, sorting photos etc. -- I've spent quite a bit of time this week going over transcripts from the 1960 payola hearings. These were congressional hearings conducted by nine duly elected members of the House of Representatives from different parts of the country and different backgrounds.
One thing they had in common was that they were all considerably older than Dick Clark and seemed genuinely bewildered by the music Clark played and its obvious popularity with the fans of American Bandstand. The youngest member of the committee was 41 years old, 11 years older than Dick Clark. This means that the youngest committee member questioning Clark spent his teenage years in the 1930s, a pretelevision era where big band music held sway.
Some of their questioning reflects their own musical tastes and illustrates why many older people thought the only reason teenagers liked rock & roll was because its advocates paid broadcasters to force it down the throats of young people. Here are some excerpts from Dick Clark's testimony:
Mr. Derounian. Now, do you recall a high school boy named Fabian Forte?
Mr. Clark. Yes, indeed.
Mr. Derounian. Who goes under the title of Fabian, because, I understand, it is Frenchy and very continental?
Mr. Clark. He is very successful.
Mr. Derounian. Now, he has been described as "Apollo-like in stature, curly haired with a seductive eye." Is that a pretty fair description of him?
Mr. Clark. I think if I described him that way he would have a few sharp words for me, but I know him too well. ...
Mr. Derounian. Now, has Mr. Forte ever sung on one of your programs?
Mr. Clark. Many times.
Mr. Derounian. Actually, not the recording?
Mr. Clark. Yes—not many times, he has appeared.
Mr. Derounian. I quote from [an article in the March 1960 issue of Redbook magazine]:
"To avoid embarrassment, Clark's proteges rarely sing in public. Instead they silently mouth their words in a technique called lip sync as one of their records plays offstage. A near disaster resulted last June when Clark produced a live television spectacular and included Fabian among such seasoned performers as the McGuire Sisters, Fats Domino, and Les Paul and Mary Ford. Each of the stars was required to sing a few bars of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Fabian had to rehearse the nursery rhyme dozens of times."
Mr. Clark. That, incidentally, is a lie. ...
Mr. Derounian. Why hasn't he sung more frequently in his own flesh instead of getting these hormone treatments on the record?
You see, Mr. Clark, this may seem funny to some, but to me it is quite serious. The children of the Nation idolize you, as they did [quiz show champion Charles] Van Doren, and they feel that when you bring a singer up on the program he has real talent. This fellow Bill Davidson [author of the Redbook article], who I am sure knows more about entertainment than I do, seems to think this fellow Fabian had no talent.
Maybe there is a difference of opinion between you and him, but it is something to bring out and get the facts on the record, because if you are promoting fellows who do not have talent, I will give you my 8-year-old daughter, who can't even carry a tune, and you might even make some money on her. But that is not the purpose of your program, as you stated it, which is to encourage good music and with it the advancement of youth who have talent. ...
Mr. Clark. The main purpose of my television show was to entertain and amuse people. Fabian came to me—first of all, despite the tremendous pressures they put on this 16-year-old young man—he is good looking, he is an attractive boy, and is probably one of the nicest human beings I have ever met in my own life. He has been subjected to some of the most foul, vicious attacks I have ever seen. That is pretty hard to take. He recognizes his own deficiencies. He is taking steps to correct them. There is no doubt that he is successful.
I don't want to have the impression given that I have foisted him off on anybody. He was first sent to me as a young boy by his manager, his mentor, as they call them in show business, and he appeared in public without a hit record, nobody had ever heard of this boy before, and there was the most fantastic response you had ever seen, the kids took one look at him and said, "Oh," it was fantastic, the response....
Mr. Derounian. Here is what [John Crosby of the Herald Tribune] said about your Fabian:
"Reeling like a top, snapping his fingers and jerking his eyeballs, with hair like something Medusa had sent back, and a voice that was enormously improved by total unintelligibility. And Mitch Miller ..."
Mr. Clark (interrupting). Wishes he had him.
Mr. Derounian. No.
Mr. Clark. Excuse me; I'm sorry.
Mr. Derounian. He said:
"You would not invite those unwashed kids Into your living room to meet your family, why thrust them into the living rooms of your audience?"
Mr. Clark, I think what you are saying is this: The singer appears on your program physically—and apparently that is your format, you get a big hunk of young man who has got a lot of cheesecake to him and the kids are thrilled by this on the television program—and then you play his records, but you don't have him sing too often. That is the way you sell records and that is a pretty cute way to do it.
And all I want you to do, if that is the case, is to admit that the singing part of his talent is not the all-important part, but his physical appearance plays a great part in whether or not you are going to let him appear on your snow.
Mr. Clark. No, that is an unkind thing to say, Mr. Derounian.
Mr. Derounian. It is not unkind—is it factual or isn't it?
Mr. Clark. No, it is not factual.
Mr. Derounian. You would then have an ugly person appear on your show?
Mr. Clark. Mr. Derounian, do you want me to say I have had a lot of ugly people appear on my program? ...
Mr. Springer. Mr. Clark, what Mr. Derounian says is in fact true, isn't it, that on your particular program, for some peculiar reason which nobody can analyze, you don't have necessarily the best singers?
Mr. Clark. By whose standards?
Mr. Springer. I am talking about good music standards—any kind.
Mr. Clark. By the people who follow what I do, we have the best people on it.
Mr. Springer. I have only heard your show once. The thing that struck me when I heard Frankie Avalon on that particular program was that I thought he was singing off-key. I will admit that he was a striking personality, and I could see why there would be a tremendous appeal to young girls, and I will say that he is a perfect gentleman. That is all that I am willing to concede. But I was amazed when he started to sing. When I heard this song it was something that I couldn't understand, because I had thought he was not a good singer. I think he made a striking appearance on your program, and I can see where he has appeal. But I can see also where he is not an accomplished musician. I realize he is only 18 or 19 years old.
Mr. Clark. Mr. Springer, there is one other interesting thing, the fact that both of those gentlemen record, their records are popular all over the world, in some places where they have never even been seen. ...
Mr. Rogers. Mr. Clark, Mr. Fabian is not here, is he?
Mr. Clark. No, he is in California making a picture.
Mr. Rogers. I thought we could shorten this by letting him sing for us here.
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.
