Clark, Dick, and Richard Robinson. REGULARS Gallery 1. I imitated all the dance steps, sometimes with the refrigerator door as a partner. California residents do not sell my data request. When American Bandstand became the most popular daytime television program in the late 1950s, a group of ordinary Philadelphia high school students who loved to dance suddenly became a national phenomenon. We have lived in NJ ever since. He still had that in him until the evening before he passed away. Television host Dick Clark presides over the set of his show American Bandstand in 1957. The show also incorporated appearances by acts like Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, and Connie Francis, who would lip-sync performances. (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. Fiorentino, whose mother died when he was 12, said Clark became a role model. We elevated them into celebrities. Id see these kids dancing and instinctively I knew I could fit in with them. You eventually get cancelled.. Mickey Mouse Club In 1964, he joined the National Guard and did basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. They were introduced as a result of an email sent to the Fifties Web. When I used to walk down the streets of Philadelphia and be recognized, Id be called a Bandstand f*****.. "My heart hurts," said Gibson, a regular from 1959 to 1961. Clark suffered a heart attack while at St. John's. Interracial couples were not allowed on camera, so they sat on the sidelines. He molded the image of the American teenager so America would accept rock-and-roll.". But it was not easy on the mean streets of Philadelphia to be a Bandstand regular suspected of being gay. Bandstand Diaries: The Philadelphia Years, 1956-1963 shares the fascinating story of how Dick Clark's American Bandstand and its millions of viewers catapulted its teenage dancers (called "the Regulars") to fame. The Bop. The original "Bandstand," as it was called in 1952, was first hosted by deejay Bob Horn, who later was fired due to a drunk-driving conviction.. . Like Rick Pierce, Bandstand dancer Sandra Mae Dawson, who died Feb. 25, 2008, at age 66, was into car racing. Remember hurrying from school in the 50's and turning on that old black and white tv at 4'oclock to watch all those kids dance on "American Bandstand" live from Philadelphia, The show first began as a local program in the cramped quarters of Studio B at WFIL Tv channel 6 at 46th and Market streets in Philadelphia on October 7, 1952. American Bandstand aired five days a week in live national broadcast until 1963, when the show moved west to Los Angeles and began a 24-year run as a taped weekly program with Dick Clark as host . They werent playing football. The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. In its later years the show was challenged by the diversifying tastes of fragmented audiences. One time, Kenny and I went to visit one of the other regulars up in North Philadelphia, and 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, Sullivan says. I had asked Norman to dance when it was a ladies choice. Such white Philadelphia-area teens (many from South Philadelphia or near the shows production site in West Philadelphia), among others, regularly appeared on American Bandstand. ), Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Bunny Gibson was a kid when Dick Clark came into her life - or, rather, when she entered his world in Studio B at 46th and Market Streets in West Philadelphia. Don married Bunny. I said, In that case, Im staying. I was shocked. I did get to know Annette Funicello [a Mouseketeer on the original Mickey Mouse Club], who came to the show. EARLY BANDSTAND FASHIONS. I knew all their names. Dick Clark 1929 2012, Dick Clark with Johnny Crawford. The TV exposure, plus the profiles some of the dancers were given in Teen magazine in the late 1950s, made them instant celebrities. [2] Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Paylola and Sponsorship Identification, Federal Communications Act, Amendments, 1960. A storybook ending to a tale that began with American Bandstand, albeit 40 years ago. . Finally, we got away and jumped over the turnstile. Goes from a daily to a weekly Saturday show in Philadelphia: 9/7/1963, Broadcast from Los Angeles: Begins 2/8/1964, Produced by Anthony Tony Mammarella and Dick Clark, Dick Clark Host It could happen, How Jimmy Stewart's war service affected 'It's a Wonderful Life', Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." Dottie Bunny and Duke met several months ago and now are married. . In fact, she was "the first female car racer at Cecil County Drag Strip," according. By then, he was a big-time television producer. But it was obvious to the teen dancers that he was set on a trajectory that would take him far from Studio B in West Philly. New York: Popular Library, 1976. Emphasizing this sentiment, Philadelphian John Oates (of musical duo Hall & Oates) said, The show had such an impact on the music business, it set the tone and the pace for teenage style and attitude and everything else across America., Jordan McClain is Assistant Teaching Professor of Communication at Drexel University. Let the good times roll! He spoke of his youth, of Bandstand and his favorite gal, Bunny. Despite changes over the years, the show continued to embody and represent evolutions in American music, fashion, dance, and other sociocultural norms. Throughout the rest of the 1950s, "American Bandstand" featured a number of famous acts including the debut of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel (November 22, 1957), Jerry Lee Lewis (March 18, 1958), and Dion and the Belmonts (August 7, 1958). 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. ), Lew Klein papers and Evening Bulletin Photographs Collection, Special Collections Research Center of Temple University Libraries, Charles Library, Eye to Eye: American Bandstand (CBS News, YouTube), Interview with Lew Klein, executive producer of American Bandstand (Temple University Television), Lesson Plan: A New "Twist" on Race Relations (ExplorePaHistory.com). //-->. 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. In 2019, a trio of formerAmerican Bandstandregulars assembled a book on their experiences on the popular show. The most comprehensive, authoritative reference source ever created for the Philadelphia region. I do hope you continuing writing about the bandstanders. She and her husband, Richard Spada, lived in Philadelphia and Lansdowne before moving to Newtown Square. http://dickclark.com This historical marker recalls Dick Clarks American Bandstand, which was broadcast from West Philadelphia from 1957 to 1964. 18 talking about this. The screen would fill with black-and-white images of teenagers dancing, the room would fill with music and she was filled with delight. ", In a Time.com obituary for Dick Clark, who died April 18, 2012, a reporter wrote: "Lou DeSera, Carmen Jimenez, Carole Scaldeferri, Rosemarie 'Little Roe' DiCristo: they may sound like characters on The Sopranos, but they were just ordinary kids, with extraordinary luck of being in Philadelphia at the moment the old town lit the fuse for the rock explosion.". My friends went to church dances every Friday and Saturday night. [3] Jackson,American Bandstand, quote from unpaginated photo section. He discussed his brief stay in Hollywood trying to become an actor after he and Justine Carrelli cut a 45 rpm record together. Remember, these Regulars werent paid actors or dancers. Clark was out for Clark, says Brancaccio. Broadcast only on Saturdays after 1963, American Bandstand lost the homegrown vitality of the daily program in West Philadelphia. On December 27 Bunny Gibson, American Bandstand Regular from 1959-1962, married Duke Tirschel in Chattanooga , Tennessee. And more than 250 fans too, a number of them quite young, who had just heard of the show and were curious. The kids designated as American Bandstand Regulars in some cases struggled with their sexual identity. Dick Clark gave her a committee card, which all Regulars had to have to get into the building. Carole Ann Scaldeferri Spada, 70, of Newtown Square, a regular dancer on American Bandstand from 1957 to 1961, has died. At 74, Sullivan still dances once a week at a party thrown by another Bandstand dancer. In 1962, ABC trimmed the shows airtime from 90 to 60 minutes. She would learn their names but, like all of us and them, she would mature, and those images on the screen and her affection for "those kids" would fade. Henderson remained the chief newsreader for Australia's Channel 9 until finally announcing his retirement in 2002. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 Ross Media Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. But Sullivan, who lives in New Jersey, did trust her, agreed to collaborate on the book and paved the way to meet and interview dozens of other regulars who once were dancing kids. And he has the one criteria required to attract Bunny Gibson. When he became a regular in 1959, Clark was only 30. Years later, when Clark was asked whether any of the dancers had died of AIDS, he stated that one had, Smith recalled. "We all did. Via this network, which advertised itself as WFIL-adelphia, the show reached almost six million viewers in the Delaware Valley, the nations third-largest market at the time. A few, burned by previously unsuccessful attempts by some to write books about the program, were reluctant to share their memories with her. He had other irons in the fire. Some of the stories I heard are heartbreaking, Sullivan recalls. Writes Sullivan in the book, "A few years ago at a fancy party on Fifth Avenue in New York, a man in a tux in his late sixties came over and told me he grew up on a ranch in Wyoming. Wagon Train Website,