From 1963 to 1987 Bandstand was on only once a week, on Saturday. On the other hand, they had each other. How to Be a SuperAger in The SuperAging Revolution, Jumble for Kids and Adults: Cartoons and Twins. So fearful of the kids real behavior, [Clark] imposed a strict dress code: jackets and ties for boys, and nothing tight for girls. 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. For a time, she dated a neighborhood boy, Danny Rapp, lead singer of Danny & the Juniors, who had the hit song At the Hop., I was so afraid that I started trying to talk myself into being straight, Sullivan says. The show stayed on the air until 1989. We only had three channels in those days. . Carole Ann Scaldeferri Spada, 70, of Newtown Square, a regular dancer on American Bandstand from 1957 to 1961, has died. The 1960 amendments to the 1934 Federal Communications Act put heavy constraints on payola, requiring full public disclosure when a record company or its agent pays a broadcaster to play records on the air. The 1960 amendments criminalized any action that breached the disclosure rule. I think [the shows success] even surprised Dick Clark.. At the height of its popularity, it was watched daily by 20 million people (by contrast, "Dancing With the Stars" drew 13 million viewers weekly last season), with an estimated half of them adults; its teenage dancers got as many as 45,000 fan letters a week. Jerry Lee Lewis was the first guest on the national show and it would over the decades feature the TV debuts of such stars as Prince, the Jackson 5, Aerosmith, Sonny and Cher and dozens of other performers. Filled with 700-some photographs, both old and new, it is handsomely designed and co-written with Ray Smith, who danced on the show for a short time, and Arlene Sullivan, who became one of the stars of the show, with her own international fan club for a time. Delmont, Matthew. When she was 10 years old, the woman now known as Sharon Sultan Cutler would rush home from school in the town of East Meadow on Long Island in New York. Bunny and Duke met several months ago and now are married. She also mentions a gay dancer who was pushed in the train tracks, and another who was dangled over an elevator shaft. I imitated all the dance steps, sometimes with the refrigerator door as a partner. I think after several decades he actually believed the myth. Television host Dick Clark presides over the set of his show American Bandstand in 1957. On a sociological front, the show helped popularize rock and roll and make it acceptable to many adults (i.e., parents). . Bob Clayton died November 6, 2016. Everybody knew the names of The Regulars on Bandstand. I knew when couples broke up. 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. "When he saw me, he said, 'I knew I'd see you again,' with a smile on his face," Gibson recalled. I can honestly say that I was the most blessed person in the world the day I met Norman and he and I became steady dance partners., Meeting Norman He remembered Clark as a man of few words who kept a professional distance between himself and the teen dancers. I purchased this from Historic Photos. We call him Namron and yes, if you spell his name backwards it spells, Norman. Carol Highsmith, photographer, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. LGBT identities were hidden on the shows dancefloor. [4] Ray Smith, Dancing on Air, in Arlene Sullivan, Ray Smith, and Sharon Sultan Cutler, eds.,Bandstand Diaries: The Philadelphia Years, 1956-1963(Chicago: Cony Island Press, 2019), 35. In the early 1960s, a new collection of teen regulars succeeded Arlene Sullivan's generation on American Bandstand's dance floor. Who died from American Bandstand? . She never saw much of Clark outside of the studio. Words by Barry Manilow and Bruse Sussman, Were goin hoppin (Hop!) Happy tears. Clark now eyed California as where the action is. And in February 1964 Clark moved to Los Angeles, where it would continue until 1989, though lacking its West Philadelphia spontaneity. Handbags - Formal Wear. View Our Classic TV Shows Directory Browse celebrity nostalgia on our website. They joined Arlenes and Kennys fan clubs. Bunnys mom, Betty, made her promise that she would graduate. during those wonderful days. Early in 1964, the show moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, where it remained through its final season in 1989. Don Travarelli, from South Philly, watched American Bandstand in 1961 and spotted Bunny Gibson dancing. In its later years the show was challenged by the diversifying tastes of fragmented audiences. My friends went to church dances every Friday and Saturday night. Fiorentino was known on the show as "Nicky Blue.". This is the interview with Arlene, Kenny, Frank and Carole about their days on American Bandstand and their experiences with the Golden Boys. We were like sisters. He retained his youthful looks through the 1980s, burnishing his reputation as Americas Oldest Living Teenager. Dick Clark died at age 82 in Santa Monica. Special Features: Parents across America would never, NEVER have allowed their kids to put Bandstand on, she writes. Clark was out for Clark, says Brancaccio. Read the review. By Jordan McClain and Amanda McClain | Reader-Nominated Topic. But . H.E. Ray Smith says he was upset when Dick Clark claimed only one of the dancers had died from AIDS when asked about it in an interview. In 2014, the National Enquirer interviewed Frank Brancaccio and Eddie Kelly, other series regulars. Many of the shows female dancers wore Peter Pan collarsa feature of their Catholic school uniformsand at one point this even sparked a nationwide trend imitating the look. My mother thought I was nuts. 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 new legislation effectively ended payola in the music business.2, American Bandstandtoo weathered the payola storm. There are savings on everyday items you already buy, and savings on the things youve been waiting for a sale on to spoil your pet with. Never, did I ever think that I would be with him, holding his hand when he passed away. When cute young teenagers Arlene Sullivan and Kenny Rossi slow danced together on American Bandstand back in the late 50s and early 60s, kids across the country swooned. Particularly during the show's prime Philadelphia years (1952-63), Philadelphia youth culture became American culture through American Bandstand. He would dance on the show until early 1960. Mrs. Spada attended West Catholic Girls High School. He needed a group to show up every day, she says, and nobody got paid. . Some solo dances had animal names, for example, "The Pony" and "The Monkey"; others were named for . The show was American Bandstand, and Dick Clarks clean-cut style meant the program had parents stamp of approval. The show also incorporated appearances by acts like Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, and Connie Francis, who would lip-sync performances. 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." I was so afraid that I started trying to talk myself into being straight. A case in point is Arlene Sullivan, a popular Regular who has described her own emerging lesbian sexual orientation, which she says was masked by her dance partnerships with boys. 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. The marker stands opposite 4548 Market Street (not shown here), which once housed WFIL-TVand its Studio B, the original home of American Bandstand. Home Yesteryear Nostalgia Where Are the American Bandstand Regulars Now? 28 talking about this. KENNY AND ARLENE. 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. Clark and producer Tony Mammorella (1924-1977) dubbed this group The Committee, led from 1954 to 1956 by future DJ Jerry Blavat (1940-2023). "My heart hurts," said Gibson, a regular from 1959 to 1961. Sullivan was almost 14, the required age for the show, when she became a Regular. Arlene Sullivan, one of the most popularAmerican Bandstandregulars, presents another perspective on the shows closeted world. But this one was different. We may earn a commission from links on this page. [3] Jackson,American Bandstand, quote from unpaginated photo section. Don and Bunny had two daughters: Angel and Maria and four grandchildren: Lea & Christopher Di Vello, Alexis Karanzalis & Nicole Weiss. He danced on the show until Christmas 1959. That might have had something to do with the scandal that surrounded the departure of his predecessor, Bob Horn, who faced a drunken-driving arrest and morals charges. I never had a crush on her. My favorite dance was the Jitterbug the last dance where people danced together. Click here to see some of your favorites back in action. Were goin hopin today His name is, Champion Polar Images Namron O My-Joy, as recorded with the AKC. . You want to know about the guy! In 1989, Clark, aged 59, retired fromAmerica Bandstand, and the show ended that year. 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 was an immediate success, with an estimated audience of twenty million viewers. //-->. Pat Molitteeri was credited with inventing the dance, "The Hop" by combining elements of the Slop and the Bop, Pat died in the mid -1970s of a heart attack at age 36, Carmen Jimenez still lives in Philadelphia today and recollects the fun she had being on the show. REGULARS Gallery 3. . Throughout its Philadelphia years, the show was so popular that it transformed average local-area teens into national celebrities. The program moved production in 1964 from Philadelphia to Hollywood, months after it began airing once per week. NEW PAGE! It was a local show Philadelphia, Jersey, the Lehigh Valley [Pennsylvania]. 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. Marietta. He practiced dancing with his niece, Robin, but when he went down to the show, they wouldnt let him in because he was over the age of 18. . At 74, Sullivan still dances once a week at a party thrown by another Bandstand dancer. I started going out to straight clubs.. The Philadelphia high school Regulars who danced on Dick Clark's American Bandstand in the late 1950s and early 1960s became national celebrities and America's first reality stars. And he has the one criteria required to attract Bunny Gibson. Fiorentino, whose mother died when he was 12, said Clark became a role model. American Bandstand Fundraiser Pictures, To my knowledge, no VHS tape of American Bandstand is commercially available. Sharon Sultan Cutler, of Chicago, talks about "Bandstand Diaries," the book she co-authored with Ray Smith and former American Bandstand participant Arlene Sullivan remembering the shows early days. Conceivably, this helped promote racial equality and intercultural understanding. REGULARS Gallery 2. These teenagers became the nation's first reality-TV stars--they received thousands of fan letters and were mobbed everywhere they went. Sullivans last appearance onAmerican Bandstandwas in 1960.7, In the early 1960s, a new collection of teen regulars succeeded Arlene Sullivans generation onAmerican Bandstandsdance floor. The TV exposure, plus the profiles some of the dancers were given in Teen magazine in the late 1950s, made them instant celebrities. I knew I was different early on, but being with all these [Bandstand] friends, I came to terms with my feelings. Throughout its run the show featured various types of popular music, such as rock-and-roll, R&B, Motown, British rock, psychedelic rock, disco, new wave, and more. Like The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Facebook, Follow The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Instagram, Like The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia on Facebook, Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You Back, (Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. It was like a high school reunion and some people even had tears in their eyes. To the left youll find original pictures of some of the Regulars. They married during her Thanksgiving vacation from Northeast High School. 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 When he became a regular in 1959, Clark was only 30. They were on the cover of "Dick Clark's American Bandstand " and have done many Documentaries R.I.P.
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