Bandstand Beat

Philadelphia dance culture was at the very heart of American Bandstand's success

Here's another excerpt From Bandstandland:

"As good as Dick Clark was in his role as the amiable host and as relevant as the music he played was to his young audience, American Bandstand would have failed without the ebullient, energetic, teenage dancers that lit up the screen every weekday afternoon.

At its core, Bandstand was a unique visual experience. Not only could you listen to the music you enjoyed in the comfort of your own living room, you could see that you weren’t the only one who got happy feet when Danny and the Juniors belted out “At the Hop.”

Bandstand also benefited from being in Philadelphia, a city with a rich dance history. That was especially true in the black community, many of whom had migrated from the juke joint south, bringing with them dances like the Monkey Glide, the Chicken Scratch and the Shimmy.

South Street and its black clubs were where you would go if you wanted to hucklebuck, kangaroo dip or bunny hug. Flash tappers like the Nicholas Brothers were national sensations, playing for two years at Harlem’s Cotton Club and appearing in many Broadway shows and Hollywood movies. And women tap dancers like Edith “Baby Edwards” Hunt and Hortense Allen Jordan drew huge crowds wherever they appeared.

From its earliest days, Bandstand spread the gospel of dance. There was the Bunny Hop craze that broke out during the Bob Horn years. When Clark took over just as rock & roll was coming into vogue, so, too, did the dances change.

It was the bop that inspired “At the Hop” and made Pat Molittieri an early American Bandstand star. There was a steady parade of dance contests on the show, seven in all during the Philadelphia years, each featuring a slightly different style of dancing. The show introduced at least two new popular dances to American teens before 1959 — the stroll and the chalypso."

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

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.

 

As American Bandstand enters the 1960s, threat from payola probe looms

Many people in the record business were running scared in late 1959. There was a lot of buzz that the quiz show scandal that had dominated headlines would soon morph into a full-fledged Congressional inquiry into the music industry. Those fears were about to be realized when Oren Harris, chairman of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Legislative Oversight Committee, said he would start hearings into the whole payola business with hearings in Washington to begin on Feb. 8, 1960. We pick up the story with this excerpt from Bandstandland: How dancing teenagers took over America and Dick Clark took over rock & roll:

"Satirist Stan Freberg placed deejays in the curious position of having to decide whether to play a song about their plight with his record, “The Old Payola Blues.” The clichéd storyline of the song went like this: record producer plucks good-looking teenager who can’t sing from the streets, records him and then pays a disc jockey to help turn the song into a hit.

In a direct swipe at Fabian, the teenager in the song (named Clyde Ankle) protests that he can’t sing. The record producer says that’s OK, his pretty face and pompadour are good enough. When Clyde asks, “Well, do I get to pose beside a tiger?” (which Fabian had done for the cover of his Hold That Tiger LP), he was told “Nah that’s been done. Maybe we’ll get you a moose.”^⁠1

On Jan. 8, 1960, Dick Clark had scored another coup — an on-air phone interview on American Bandstand from Germany with Elvis Presley on Presley’s 25^th birthday. Interest in Elvis was running especially high since he was soon to be discharged from the Army and he was rumored to be setting up a joint television program with a teen favorite from another era, Frank Sinatra.

But the New York Post was still focused on payola. The same day that Clark talked to Elvis, the Post’s William H.A. Carr reported that Clark had secured most of the rights to “16 Candles” by the Crests at no cost to him and netted some $10,000 in royalties after turning the song into a hit that sold some 600,000 copies."

¹ Freberg Music Corp. (ASCAP), 1959.

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

Excerpted from Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll.

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.

 

1950s growth of American Bandstand, TV Guide was no coincidence

Bandstand Flashback: April 1953

Dick Clark and American Bandstand had a good friend in TV Guide. In fact, you might call the magazine a member of the family.

TV Guide debuted in April 1953, about six months after Bob Horn's Bandstand hit the air. TV Guide was owned by Triangle Publications, the same company that owned WFIL-TV (host of Bandstand) and the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper.

Walter Annenberg owned Triangle Publications, a media conglomerate started by his father, Moses "Moe" Annenberg. Annenberg moved into the TV listings field in 1952, buying the local television listings magazines in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York. In April 1953 he launched TV Guide. By 1977 it was the biggest-selling magazine in the world and Annenberg was earning as much as $1 million a week from TV Guide alone.

TV Guide was barely a month old when it described Bandstand as the place where “Teen-agers let loose” in its sixth issue on May 8, 1953. Many subsequent issues were supportive of Bandstand and, later, American Bandstand.

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.

 

Put on those dancing shoes and head for Bandstandland

The wait is over -- Bandstandland: How dancing teenagers took over America and Dick Clark took over rock & roll -- is here.

As listed on the publisher's website, here's a recap of what the book is all about:

American Bandstand, one of the longest-running shows in television history, spotlighted well-scrubbed, properly dressed dancing teenagers on every show. They mirrored the show’s perpetually youthful host, Dick Clark, who spun the music Clark often described as the “soundtrack to our lives.”

These are the memories Clark carefully nurtured as he crafted the alternate teen universe of Bandstandland during the formative years of American Bandstand, from 1952 to 1964. Bandstandland was a mythical creation by Clark, who saw the show as a springboard to immense wealth rather than a tribute to teen culture.

Clark was a relentless businessman who once had ownership stakes in 33 corporations, most created by him. He created rules to keep black teens off the show, promoted the teens that danced on the show when it served his purposes and banned them when it didn’t and effectively turned American Bandstand into his own personal infomercial.

Bandstandland sheds light on the little-known backstory of the TV program that was America’s top-rated daytime television show in its heyday and enjoyed a 37-year run from 1952 to 1989.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Larry Lehmer was a newspaper reporter and editor for 40 years, including 24 years at the Des Moines Register. He is also the author of The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, which was nominated for the 1997 Gleason Music Book Award. As a result of that book’s success, Lehmer worked with the E! cable television network in producing an episode of its Mysteries and Scandals series, was a contributor to a VH1 documentary on Buddy Holly and was a featured subject on the ID-Discovery Channel’s The Will: Family Secrets Revealed program on Ritchie Valens.

He lives in Urbandale, Iowa, with his wife, Linda. 

THE BOOK:

Bandstandland is published by Sunbury Press of Mechanicsburg, Pa. It's a 6 x 9 trade paperback of 382 pages (including several pages of photos) and costs $24.95. Orders of $30 or more from the publisher receive free shipping by entering the FS2014 coupon code. Why not order two or more as gifts for your Bandstand friends to take advantage of the free shipping?

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.

 

 

 

ABC-Paramount boss puts Dick Clark's blossoming Bandstand career in jeopardy

Dick Clark and his wife had just moved into their first brand new house when ABC-TV president Oliver Treyz asked him to come to New York for an important meeting in early November 1959. When he arrived, Clark was surprised to find ABC-Paramount president Leonard Goldenson and several other network executives in Treyz’ office. We pick up the story in this excerpt from Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll:

"Goldenson got right to the point.

“Have you ever taken payola?” he asked Clark.

After Clark assured his boss that he had never accepted money for playing a record, had never refused to play a record because he wasn’t offered money and had never accepted any form of payola from anyone, Goldenson asked Clark whether he had any interest in music publishing, records or anything else related to the music business.

Well, yes, Clark said. He did have part ownership in a few music-related businesses.

After Goldenson admonished Clark for not revealing his business ties earlier, Clark defended himself, saying he didn’t think he was doing anything different from others in the industry.

Goldenson saw it differently. He had faced a similar situation years earlier when he was in charge of Paramount’s theaters. Goldenson thought things were sliding in Detroit, where a lawyer turned businessman named George Trendle was supposed to be managing Paramount’s theaters. But Trendle seemed to be focusing on another venture of his, radio station WXYZ, where he had created two popular radio series — The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet.

That won’t do, Goldenson told Trendle. You’ve got to decide: the theaters or radio? Trendle chose radio. Now, Goldenson gave Clark a similar ultimatum: you’ll have to get rid of the outside business interests if you want to stay on the air at ABC-TV."

Did you know? As talk of payola in the music business spread across America, Dick Clark's bosses at ABC summoned him to New York to talk about it. Read more in this excerpt from Bandstandland. 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.

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.

 

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

Regular Pat Molittieri joins 'Teen magazine despite the objections of Dick Clark

In June 1959, American Bandstand regular Pat Molittieri found herself in an awkward situation when Dick Clark learned that her immense popularity had earned her a special spot with one of the era's most popular magazines. Cashing in on one's Bandstand popularity was a no-no in Clark's book. We pick up the story with this excerpt from Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll:

"It should not have surprised Dick Clark that one of American Bandstand’s most popular dancers would pop up in a magazine aimed at teenagers. Teen magazines were hot in 1959 and no teens were hotter than the Bandstand kids.

It was only natural that fan magazines would latch on to the emerging teen market, given its huge numbers, relative affluence and seemingly insatiable appetite for all things rock & roll.

The radio and movie fan magazines of the 1930s and 1940s had barely begun edging into television when the rock tsunami hit. By 1959, it had swept into magazine stands and drugstores with full force.

The teen magazine culture has its roots in Philadelphia as Walter Annenberg’s Triangle Publications — owner of WFIL-TV, birthplace of American Bandstand — launched Seventeen magazine in 1944. Seventeen was aimed at young girls ages 11-17 and was a major force in recognition of the then-new term “teenager” and the demographics the term represented.

But Seventeen was too conservative to fully embrace the rock movement of the 1950s. That ground was claimed by the new kids on the block — like ’Teen, Dig, 16, the myriad song hit magazines published by Charlton or the dozens of other magazines that sprung like the first crocuses of spring and disappeared just as quickly.

Pat Molittieri had aligned herself with one of the more successful of the upstarts.

Charles Laufer, the 30-something founder and editor of ’Teen saw in the teenage publishing market the same golden promise that motivated Dick Clark in the popular music field. A high school basketball star from New Jersey, Laufer was lured to California by a high school classmate. There he graduated from the University of Southern California before becoming a high school journalism and English teacher in Norwalk, Calif.

Dismayed that his students weren’t reading enough, Laufer launched a teen-oriented magazine called Coaster in 1955. He changed the name to ’Teen in 1957 and by the time he got around to hiring Pat Molittieri two years later to be a star columnist, he was locking horns with Clark."

Did you know? As talk of payola in the music business spread across America, Dick Clark's bosses at ABC summoned him to New York to talk about it. Read more in this excerpt from Bandstandland. 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.

Excerpted from Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll, now available from Sunbury Press. 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.

© 2019 Larry Lehmer

'The regulars,' the keys to Bandstand's success, didn't warm up to Dick Clark at first

From the beginning, WFIL-TV management knew that the biggest factor in Bandstand's popularity wasn't the host or the music played. It was the kids who took over the dance floor every weekday afternoon. We pick up the story with this excerpt from Bandstandland:

"[Bandstand host Bob] Horn built the show’s popularity throughout his nearly four-year run as host. He created a special committee, with “Preferred” written on the back of membership cards in lipstick by his secretary, Shirley Rubin.

Horn also encouraged the regulars to attend his Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night hops at the Carman skating rink, Willow Grove Park and in Avalon, N.J. Special broadcasts from the annual picnic at Woodside Park and in the Arena next door allowed him to pack in crowds not possible in Studio B.

Promotion men valued the opinion of the Bandstand regulars. They’d often round up a bunch of them for a record party where they could solicit their thoughts on recent releases, a practice frowned upon by Horn and [Bandstand producer Tony] Mammarella.

Mary Ann Colella, whose years at John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls High School coincided with Horn’s years helming Bandstand, was one of his biggest supporters.

“I spent half my Bandstand years in the school’s discipline office for wearing my uniform on Bandstand,” she said. “They never called me by name over the loudspeaker. They would say, ‘Would the girl who was on TV dancing yesterday with her uniform please come to the discipline office?’”

When Horn was replaced by Dick Clark in the summer of 1956, Colella was among the large group of regulars who protested the move.

“None of us were crazy about Dick Clark because we felt he inherited this job, where we felt [Bandstand] should have went to Tony Mammarella,” she said.

Like most of the Bandstand regulars, Colella didn’t listen to Clark’s radio show. Their only contact with him was when he did commercials on the show.

“He reminded me of a young punk,” Colella said. “He just wasn’t personable. We were spoiled.”

Although Horn’s very public drunk driving arrest was well known, the charges that we was fooling around with a young girl were just rumors at the time.

“We didn’t believe what he did … none of us thought of Bob Horn that way,” Colella said. “So here’s someone new coming in and Tony Mammarella doesn’t get the job. … It was a bad time for us. We figured, ‘Oh God, what’s going to happen to the show now?’ ”

Did you know? Teen magazines raved about American Bandstand, but when popular regular Pat Molittieri started to write for one of them, Dick Clark banned her from the show. Read more in this excerpt from Bandstandland. 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.

Excerpted from Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll, now available from Sunbury Press. 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.

© 2019 Larry Lehmer