It was hard to miss Eddie Kelly. Even on a small dance floor, in a sea of teens looking sharp in their sports coats and swing skirts, Kelly stood out. His good looks, smooth dance moves, attractive partners and height (he was taller than most of the other guys on American Bandstand), netted him considerable face time on the show.
That was the problem.
"[Dick Clark] barred me from going to the show twice in the almost two years that I was on there because of the camera," Kelly said. "I must have stepped in front of the camera when the cameras came back and he said ‘go home for three weeks.’ That’s how he spoke to me. I was not one of his favorites."
Kelly found his relationship with Clark to be rocky during his Bandstand years, but things mellowed after that, with Kelly frequently appearing on reunion shows and other post-Bandstand occasions. Like many other regulars on the show, Kelly drew much attention from the show's television viewers, most of it positive.
Like the time Clark read on air a letter from a woman in Wisconsin who said she watched the show because Kelly resembled her son, who was serving in the U.S. Army in Pakistan. Kelly and a good Bandstand friend, Norman Kerr, soon made a week-long visit to the woman. During their visit, they attended several record hops, where they were generally treated like royalty. Except once.
"We were supposed to appear at a record hop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and I swear to God, we walked in and we weren’t there more than a half hour and the gangs were already forming in the venue," Kelly said. "They had announced on the radio that we were going to be there from American Bandstand. We had to leave."
Kelly, who found high school to be "difficult years" as he acknowledged and adjusted to being gay, found that his Bandstand experiences helped . "It was like a haven for gay people," Kelly said.
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.
