There was once this place where millions of American teenagers gathered every afternoon to enjoy music by their favorite artists and maybe dance away an hour or so with their closest friends. This was Bandstandland, accessible to anyone within eyesight of a functioning television set. Bandstandland was as much a state of mind as an actual physical space.
Compare that to Wildwood, N.J., an actual physical space where teens could also gather and spend time with friends, but a spot that limited attendance to those fortunate enough to live within driving distance. For the lucky teens who regularly jitterbugged and strolled across WFIL-TV's Studio B every weekday afternoon on American Bandstand, Wildwood was less than a couple hours away.
For the rest of us, our exposure to Wildwood was pretty much limited to the lyrics of Bobby Rydell's hit song, Wildwood Days. But those lucky stiffs who had actually been to Wildwood got to live those lyrics ... and more. Thanks to documentarian Carolyn Travis, we can all get a bit of that experience with her film, Wildwood Days.
American Bandstand arrived at the perfect time for Wildwood. Long popular with blue collar families, the resort community just north of Cape May and down the coast from Atlantic City, was undergoing big changes after World War II, with many stately hotels being replaced by motels, at the rate of three or four new motels every year. Many of the new digs could best be described as kitschy as they followed the gaudiest possible architecture of other tourist meccas like Miami and Las Vegas. Indeed, the plastic palm tree was later designated the official tree of Wildwood by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.
The area retained its blue collar appeal with its traditional Baby Parade, the annual national marbles tournament, its famous "chutey chute" (The Flyer rollercoaster) and expansive white beach with three-mile long boardwalk, but it was something else that brought the teens to Wildwood.
With its many clubs, Wildwood had a lively music scene well before the rock & roll era. In fact, the area played an early role in rock history when a Chester, Pa., group named Bill Haley and the Saddlemen played the Hof Brau in 1953. Says bass player Marshall Lytle: "We went in as a cowboy band and came out a rock & roll band." That band eventually changed its name to Bill Haley & the Comets.
Original Bandstand host Bob Horn, who anchored his own boat at nearby Stone Harbor, hosted dances at the Starlight Ballroom in 1956 before Dick Clark took over the TV show -- and the dances. The Starlight, situated on the ocean side of the boardwalk, let teens come in off the beach and dance barefoot, even as the tide rolled in, giving the place an authentic salt-air, beach feel. Dick Clark claimed that Buddy Holly & the Crickets' That'll Be the Day became a hit because the song first became popular during a test run at the Starlight in 1957. The Starlight burned down in a spectacular fire in 1980.
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.
