This was the day Dick Clark officially replaced Bob Horn as the host of Bandstand, the Philadelphia teenage dance show that would become American Bandstand 13 months later.
Clark was greeted by protests on that first day by Bandstand regulars who hated to see Horn go. One of those regulars was Mary Ann Colella, who was a recent high school graduate at the time. I interviewed Mary Ann for my book, Bandstandland: How dancing teenagers took over America and Dick Clark took over rock & roll. Here are some excerpts from that interview:
“After Horn was fired it was like he went into hiding. We had a strike for a couple days against his firing. ... None of us were crazy about Dick Clark because we used to see him in the studio and we just felt he inherited this job, where we felt it should have went to Tony Mammarella.”
"He reminded me of a young punk. He just wasn’t personable. We were spoiled and that was the thing. … here’s someone coming in and Tony Mammarella doesn’t get the job and an all new thing was starting, it was a bad time for us. We figured, 'Oh God, what’s going to happen to the show now?'
“Tony was a doll baby. Totally, totally. Everybody up there, I don’t think there was one person up there that we could say that worked for WFIL at the time that we didn’t like. I think mainly it was that they appreciated the kids. They needed the kids. Without the kids, there’s no show.”
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.
