american bandstand regulars who have died
We moved around the floor the way our parents did in the 40s. Making matters worse, on September 13, 1986, ABC reduced Bandstand from a full hour to 30 minutes;[13] at Clark's request, the 2,751st and final ABC installment[14] (with Laura Branigan[15] performing "Shattered Glass"[16][17]) aired on September 5, 1987. Clark was determined to keep the homosexuality of popular Bandstand regulars a secret, Smith said. She never saw much of Clark outside of the studio. We have lived in NJ ever since. "After that, it was history.". Dick Clark Productions is credited as the show's co-producer, and longtime employee Allen Shapiro serves as co-executive producer. It preceded The Guy Mitchell Show. . . "My heart hurts," said Gibson, a regular from 1959 to 1961. This story has been shared 115,637 times. They were hurting him. "I kissed a girl, and I liked it!. Mixed REGULARS Galleries. Norman was born on January 18, 1944. The bashing of Bandstand regulars, gay and straight, happened all the time, Sullivan and Smith reveal. We ended up spending weekends together when she came to New York and D.C. to perform We went to lunch together and had fun, but Annette had to rest and perform, so we didnt have time for anything else., Sullivan never felt like a superstar, even when the Regulars averaged 100 to 150 fan letters a day. The kids designated as American Bandstand Regulars in some cases struggled with their sexual identity. Anna Russo, 2800 North 7th Street, Apt. But back in the Bandstand days, Smith was one of the shows secretly gay dancers. They are extending the honeymoon in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where Duke has called home. These experienced Regulars considered an infrequent participant or a first time visitor an amateur. I wonder what they would have thought about a kid in TV Land, practicing the new steps in front of her bedroom mirror and praying to God her little brother didnt catch her at it. On May 3, 2002, Dick Clark hosted a one-off special 50th anniversary edition on ABC. James Morgan, who danced 17 times on Bandstand and stayed interested in it over the years, said Mrs. Spada had run a beauty parlor in the suburbs. Hundreds of kids lined up each day hoping to be one of the few lucky ones who got to dance alongside the Regulars and share part of the magic that was American Bandstand. With his death, she said, it is "important that Dick is honored for what he did for rock-and-roll and for the impact he had on all the lives of his dancers from Philly to L.A.", Clark, Gibson said, led "the first teenage revolution, and we were part of it. But if you subscribe and leave a comment you want to see the parade, I will do it.Remember to SUBSCRIBE TO MY FEED AS I UPLOAD MORE FROM MY ARCHIVES! Some of the stories I heard are heartbreaking, Sullivan recalls. I knew I was different early on, but being with all these [Bandstand] friends, I came to terms with my feelings," Bandstand star Arlene Sullivan writes in her memoir, Bandstand Diaries. This incarnation was an early version of the music video shows that became popular in the 1980s, featuring films that were the ancestors of music videos. In August 1963, ABC reassigned American Bandstand to Saturday afternoon. Give me some Thumbs UP!This is Bunny Gibson and the American Bandstand Regulars live at Sesame Park outside of Philadelphia on July 21,. The typical production schedule consisted of videotaping three shows on a Saturday and three shows on a Sunday, every six weeks. "[5] In one humorous segment broadcast for years on retrospective shows, comedians Cheech and Chong appeared as the record raters. Browse celebrity nostalgia on our website. We were like sisters. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images), Spice on Her Favorite 'Drag Race' Season 15 Moment and Her Sweet Reunion With Sugar, "I did win the hearts of these girls somehow and the love was just so felt. Stewart was the owner of a TV/Radio business in Philadelphia and even though he was an older gentleman, his advertising account was a large one for WFIL-TV, so he was put on the program to appease the account. Bob retired after being in the shoe business and the chemical business, where he often worked 18 hour days. Television host Dick Clark presides over the set of his show American Bandstand in 1957. But I didnt have any crushes on any of the straight girls. She was now working at Neiman Marcus, and couldn't take off to join the Regulars and their fans at the Philadelphia American Bandstand studio. Carole Ann Scaldeferri Spada, 70, of Newtown Square, a regular dancer on American Bandstand from 1957 to 1961, has died. News Shows Back in July, I received a most endearing email from Duke which told of his experiences in life. Colanero danced from 1959 to 1961. The big teenybopper magazines of the era Sixteen and Teen plastered Bandstand dancers on their covers and wrote glowing, gossipy stories about their lives in Philadelphia, where Dick Clark produced the show. The short Snader and Official music films continued in the short term to fill gaps when dancers were changed during the showa necessity, because the studio could not fit more than 200 teenagers. In their new self-published memoirs Bandstand Diaries, series regulars Arlene Sullivan, Ray Smith, and Sharon Sultan Cutler reveal that though fans loved to gossip and fantasize about the shows heterosexual pairings, many of their favorites were young gay men and women putting on a show for the cameras. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. It was briefly shot in color in 1958 when WFIL-TV began experimenting with the new technology. Michael Jackson, a frequent Bandstand guest, performed Yes, yes, I know. We only had three channels in those days. It became a national institution and Dick Clark a celebrity. Don married Bunny. They werent playing baseball they were DANCING. GALLERY 4. They were introduced as a result of an email sent to the Fifties Web. As WFIL grew financially and the account became less important, Stewart wasn't needed and was eventually dropped from the program. Director Goran Stolevski talks assembling his gay indie's stellar soundtrack, from The Cardigans to Nelly Furtado and more. No way I will get in his way! [42] American Bandstand was a daily ritual for many teenagers throughout the nation. But . The couple first honeymooned on the Chattanooga Choo Choo, the famed railway that was immortalized by Glenn Miller and was the first to run South to North. Clark looked like one of the kids." (Horn was 40 when he left Bandstand and Clark was a babyfaced 27.) (7/21/2011) I just received this from Bunny Gibson and certainly thought it was appropriate to mention here: Anna Russo, formerly Anna Banani, went to American Bandstand 1963 until AB left Philly for Los Angeles, lost both of her legs to diabetes and is in need. American Bandstand only allowed dancers from 14 to 18. Dick Clark died on April 18, 2012, at the age of 82. Clark "was a good man, but he wasn't as friendly with us as people may think," Colanero said. Clark continued as host of the series, which was restored to its former hour length,[22] and aired on stations including KYW-TV in Philadelphia; WWOR-TV in New York City[23] (WWOR's superstation status also gave the program further national exposure); KTLA in Los Angeles; WMAQ-TV in Chicago; WDIV in Detroit; WEWS in Cleveland; WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee;[24] and WCIX in Miami.[25]. Kenny Rossi and Arlene Sullivan, Bunny Gibson and Eddie Kelly, Pat Molittieri, Carmen Jimenz, Joyce Shafer. Fundraiser for the renovation of the original American Bandstand Studio Floor [7] The Diary of Arlene Sullivan, in Sullivan, Smith, and Cutler,Bandstand Diaries, 43-63. He debuted in Studio 3B at WFIL-TV, near the El train stop in West Philadelphia, in 1956 when he was a 13-year-old junior high school student. Broadcast only on Saturdays after 1963, American Bandstand lost the homegrown vitality of the daily program in West Philadelphia. In 1960, in an episode that seems incredibly tame by todays standards of greed and corruption, the two major television networks, NBC and CBS were exposed as having rigged their wildly popular primetime quiz shows. ", "I was shaking like a leaf," Colanero recalled. He had other irons in the fire. They wrote thousands of letters. BUT he was out for Clark., Sullivan claims there were four other popular girl dancers on the show whom she knew to be lesbians, and they hung out together. "He was the commander," Colanero said. The Philadelphia way Were goin drop in (Drop!) Give me some Thumbs UP!This is Bunny Gibson and the American Bandstand Regulars live at Sesame Park outside of Philadelphia on July 21, 1997 as recorded by OnlineTV.com and Rick Siegel.The Regulars were there to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of American Bandstand and the parties were relentless as were the memories. Sullivan was raised in a rowhouse in a working-class neighborhood; we surmise from her writing that it was somewhere in Southwest Philly (she attended John Bartram High School), although Sullivan doesnt specify a home address. Sullivan and the other dancers often congregated in Rittenhouse Square, the historic epicenter of what is known as the City of Brotherly Loves Gayborhood. There even was chatter and fear that Clark, who died at 82 in 2012, sent members of his production staff to spy on them and report back the names of the suspected gay regulars. REGULARS Gallery 1. Interracial couples were not allowed on camera, so they sat on the sidelines. My favorite dance was the Jitterbug the last dance where people danced together. I went to Bandstand because I was gay and I was a misfit in my neighborhood. The show was moved to Los Angeles in 1964. . Once when Sullivan and Rossi visited another show regular in North Philadelphia, "we were leaving her apartment and were headed to the El, and I heard car doors slamming, and I looked back, and all these guys were coming up the steps, and they started beating up on Kenny, she recalls. Id see these kids dancing and instinctively I knew I could fit in with them. The kids who showed up every day (Bandstand aired every weekday afternoon for the first six years) knew all the most popular steps. American Bandstand played a crucial role in introducing Americans to such famous artists as Prince, Jackson 5, Sonny and Cher, Aerosmith, and John Lydon's PiLall of whom made their American TV debuts on the show. The marker stands opposite 4548 Market Street (not shown here), which once housed WFIL-TVand its Studio B, the original home of American Bandstand. When ABC picked up the game show Do You Trust Your Wife? NEW PAGE! I am on that stage just trying to do my own thing and turn the party. Filmed in the cramped quarters of the WFIL Studios at 46th and Market Streets in Philly, Bandstand is such a part of Americana that Dick Clarks podium now resides in the Smithsonian. West Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, Jersey you learned the different styles of the same dances., The Regulars did the Pony, Jitterbug, Calypso, Cha-cha and a slow dance that she says wasnt exactly a waltz: The kids didnt stand in one spot. REGULARS Gallery 3. Sullivans co-author, Ray Smith, recently retired after 40 years as an Emmy-winning Today show producer. OnAmerican Bandstandsdance floor, Sullivan was first partnered famously with Kenny Rossi (1957-58), a multitalented Italian-American student at West Catholic Boys High School, and such was her national popularity that her fan mail eventually totaled some 500 letters weekly. A show where well-dressed teens gently bop around to the big hits while maintaining an appropriate distance apart hardly seems like it would be a hot bed of sexual experimentation, but American Bandstand apparently featured a crew of Philadelphia kids who had more than dancing in common. A Philadelphia, PA 19133, BONUS PAGE And then they leave the show, go up on the El, go home to their neighborhoods, they then had to run to their door because somebody was always waiting there to beat them up.. From 1963 to 1987 Bandstand was on only once a week, on Saturday. Clark claimed that the affiliates got greedy and took the time back to put their own material on where they got 100 percent of the revenue. But he feared that if the shows secret ever came out, Middle America would change the channel. Race and American Bandstand, The Seven-Year Itch: West Philly Loses American Bandstand, Report accessibility issues and request help. The show stayed on the air until 1989. And he has the one criteria required to attract Bunny Gibson. THIS & THAT 50s/60s. The previous theme was retained as bumper music. She says she never had a crush on a straight dancer, and was close friends with celebrity guest Annette Funicello. While occasionally black teens were allowed into the studio, they were generally boys. After school in the late 1950s, millions of American teenagers raced home to watch the gyrations of fellow teens on their parents tiny black-and-white televisions in the living room. The young dancers on American Bandstand were the reality stars of the 1950s and '60skids nationwide rushed home to watch their every move and chatter about their relationships and exploits. It also was a prototype for musical television properties including cable channel MTV and Fox's reality-competition show American Idol. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 Ross Media Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Dancing was a major feature of Bandstand. LOS ANGELES - APRIL 1960: Host of the television show 'American Bandstand' Dick Clark appears in a scene with Michael Callan from the movie 'Because They're Young' which was released in April 1960. When Gibson moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in the 1980s, she paid Clark a call at his office. A funeral director in Newtown Square confirmed Monday night that Mrs. Spada had died, but declined to divulge the details before meeting with her family. Dick Clark took over as host in 1956, and the show made its network debut on ABC-TV on Aug. 5, 1957. Due to the size of the studio, the need to have as much dance space as possible, and the size of the cumbersome color camera compared to the black-and-white models, it was only possible to have one RCA TK-41 where three RCA TK-10s[4] had been used before. Larry Elgart, a bandleader who, with his brother, Les, recorded the theme song for the long-running television dance show "American Bandstand," and who later scored a surprise hit with "Hooked on Swing," a medley of swing classics set to a disco beat, died on Tuesday in Sarasota Fla.He was 95. Arlene Sullivan, a star on Bandstand, is now 74. At age 30 in 1960, already a millionaire, Dick Clark, Americas only national deejay, stood at the center of the payola storm. I did get to know Annette Funicello [a Mouseketeer on the original Mickey Mouse Club], who came to the show. She was one of the great stars of the Philadelphia years. In other parts of the country, if you were a gay kid growing up, you were probably the only one in town who was gay, Sullivan says. The program that preceded Dick Clarks American Bandstand at WFIL-TV was deejay Bob Horns locally popular Bandstand. . Clark joined Bandstand in 1956 and moved with the show to Hollywood in 1964. June Bouche on November 20, 2018 at 9:12 pm . One show from this first season (December 18, 1957, identified as the "Second National Telecast") is preserved in the archives of Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications. Parents across America would never, NEVER have allowed their kids to put Bandstand on, she writes. Attempts continue to launch a successful game show or sitcom", "Final American Bandstand: The Cover Girls", http://nicestkids.com/nehvectors/nicest-kids/bandstands-backyard, "Remembering American Bandstand's 50th [Photos]", Son of Svengoolie - 'Good Morning, Sven' (Opening,Show #218) (verse occurs at the 1:35 mark), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=American_Bandstand&oldid=1140855641, American Bandstand's 20th Anniversary (1973), American Bandstand's 25th Anniversary (1977), American Bandstand's 30th Anniversary (1982), American Bandstand's 33 1/3 Celebration (1985), American Bandstand's 40th Anniversary (1992), American Bandstand's 50th Anniversary (2002), The show was featured prominently in the 20022005, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 03:03. The rest is American Bandstand history. . ". In another format shift, it was shot outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood. Of Clarks behind-the-scenes behavior at Studio B, Ray Smith writes unsparingly: The irony about Clark is that he was not the goody-two-shoes he projected: he smoked, cursed, and for a while teetered on the edge of alcoholism. The Slop. From 1977 to September 6, 1986, the show opened and closed with Barry Manilow's rendition of "Bandstand Boogie",[7] which he originally recorded for his 1975 album Tryin' to Get the Feeling. I have a Champion Samoyed show dog. From 1974 to September 6, 1986, Bandstand featured another instrumental at its mid-show break: Billy Preston's synth hit "Space Race". Bandstand debuted in Philadelphia in 1950 and took on its familiar format two years later. Joyce Shafer talks about herself and her dance partner, Norman Kerr, Norman was one of a kind, always making people laugh. Tony Mammarella was the original producer with Ed Yates as director. The only singer to ever co-host the show with Dick Clark was Donna Summer, who joined him to present a special episode dedicated to the release of the Casablanca film Thank God It's Friday on May 27, 1978. The show, hosted by Dick Clark, sounds like it was both a community of welcome amongst the teens and a repressive construct from higher ups. AMERICAN BANDSTAND BLOG. Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 03:03, The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show, Top of newscast salutes to Clark deserved, "Did the Beatles kill America's radio stars? In front of the camera, Clark called the shots. If it wasnt assaults from outside haters, some of the Bandstand kids suffered in their own homes. SaturdayBandstandretained the proven format of the now defunct weekday show, but it sustained a crucial loss of spontaneity as a result of being taped instead of shown live. Clark presides over the set of his experiences in life Saturdays after 1963, ABC American. 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