The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences, including Iggy Pop, Ike & Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Talking Heads , Simon & Garfunkel and Madonna. Oral sex was labeled an unnatural act and people went to jail for doing it. It was odd that Blanc replaced Kefauver in Teenage Models, Inc because Kefauver was the DAs role model. The men sat on chairs against the walls of the studio and the girls sometimes knelt in front of them and satisfied them. We blacks watched from across the street. The makeup for the entire weekend was super simple and clean, Sofia says. Blancs sting operation was hush-hush except for the private phone call that Blanc made to his friend at WFIL, towards the end of the investigation, to alert him to the Bob Horn problem. In 1951 Ed Sullivan was so consumed with anti-Communist zeal that he wrote a lengthy accusation of choreographer Jerome Robbins for supporting the Commie cause. Sullivans home paper, the New York Daily News, thought the article was too angry and too personal and refused to run it, but the Philadelphia Inquirer published it on page one. We blacks watched from across the street. 2023 Cond Nast. One man, convicted and fined fifty dollars, went on to a career as a philanthropist and supporter of political candidates up to the 21. century. The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". We had over seven minutes to chat, though, and he said: Youre the love of my life, and Im so happy for you. It was very emotional, and I feel so lucky that I have my parents. His 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. radio show took place in a club-like setting where food and drinks were served, so it was a magnet for playboys, for girls who wanted to taste show biz glamour, and men who wanted to arrange introductions and get some action. Hosted by local radio personality Bob Horn, the original Bandstand nevertheless established much of the basic format of its later incarnation. This is what Clark said about Horn: He was a man in his late thirties, was heavyset with a double chin, long, narrow nose and greased-back black hair. Theres a new kid working in the record library, he told his listeners, and listen to the junk he picked for me. Then Menefee came into the record room and said he hoped I wasnt angry with him for making me the butt of his joke. He tangles nightly with the bigwigs on every hair-raising issue., When Allison met the 19-year-old news editor of the station, Sam Smith, Allison explained why he had to leave Philly: Look, all I did was put my cock in the mouth of some under-age girls. These men were, you might say, realists. So, when he went on TV, Bandstand was the obvious choice for a name. The Boys. Elliot surprised me with a trip with all our best friends in April of 2022, Sofia remembers. From the first day, I established the most platonic of friendships with the kids. PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ They twisted, coffee-grinded and jitterbugged their way into the nations living rooms on the original American Bandstand in the 1950s. In July 1956, Dick Clark, a commercial pitchman and deejay with an unsullied reputation, inherited WFIL-TVsBandstandfrom scandal-tainted Bob Horn and revamped it for a national audience of teenage consumers as ABCsAmerican Bandstand, which first aired in August 1957. Blanc decided to go on a crusade of his own and he chose entertainment celebrities as his target. I danced there until 1972 and the policy remained the same. So, simultaneously, the DA was investigating Horn, Allison and Valino and people associated with them, and everything came to a head, so to speak, at the same time. In this climate, Philadelphias new district attorney decided to make sexual misconduct in broadcasting a public issue. It was common for promo guys to give bottles of whiskey as Christmas gifts. Blitz, author of Bandstand: The Untold Story, defends Horn against accusations of rudeness and says that Horn avoided friendships with co-workers because he had more experience and knowledge and didnt need to learn from them. One example is Bob Menefee, the top-paid disc jockey at WIP. Secondly, the producer started to require admission cards. I dont think anyone kept them out; they just didnt come., Bunny Gibson was a dancer on the show for two-and-a-half years in the mid-50s. American Bandstand Broadcast History. One dancing duo, Kenny and Arlene, became the biggest teen sensations ever to come out of the show. Ive never been sexually attracted to very young girls. WebBy the mid-1970s, moreover, American Bandstand ratings were in decline and faced a challenge from Soul Train. Then my crowd all sat down. Annenberg asked Horn to confirm or deny that he knew the teenage girl who was cooperating with Blancs investigation. He was convicted and sentenced to jail for that, but not for his sexual activities. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. The reunion gossip even included a love story. anniversary, there was no commemoration. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. But Dorothy provided some shocking testimony, saying that she and Allison repeated their sexual acts on several other nights, and that he once asked her to drink some water and try to urinate on him. Each girl chose her own dress, ranging from YSL to Rodarte., The night before the wedding, Sofia slept in a villa on the property with her bridesmaids. Although Horn wanted to run it solo, Clipp insisted on copying the 950 Club format with two hosts, and picked a partner for him the short, bespectacled Lee Stewart. For the reception, I wore drop-diamond earrings by Kwiat, Fred Leightons parent company, and for the party, my chandelier aquamarine stone earrings were by Fred Leighton and served as my something blue., Elliot wore a Ralph Lauren suit at the rehearsal dinner and a Tom Ford tuxedo for the wedding day itself, while the seven bridesmaids were in all black. The engineers and announcers looked on with a mixture of envy and horror, and none of them reported what they saw to management. There were trysts of another Jacobs model and another WPEN announcer, and other girls had encounters with a publicist and a photographer, respected professionals who were in love with their wives and felt they were just having some harmless, job-related fun on the side. For those of you that question or challenge this please try and recall a scene from the shows in Philadelphia where the girls were not wearing Catholic school uniform dresses and the boys were not wearing the white shirt and tie Catholic school boys uniform. First, they required that boys show up wearing suits and ties. Allison coined a new name for himself: a controversialist. He was advertised as the man who owns midnight. Cardinal Spellman was once a guest on his program, and Philadelphia Mayor Dilworth appeared frequently. Any place theres dancing, Ill still go, said Joe Fusco, who was 15 when he joined the Bob got one of his friends to write a song for me, Since I Met Him at the Senior Dance, and Bob paid for me to take singing lessons. In this new setting, a greater number of kids could dance while the music played. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It said that his guests that night were movie star Denise Darcel and crooner Johnny Desmond and that he went home immediately after the broadcast. WebFans have long wondered whatever became of Arlene and Kenny, Bob and Justine, Frani, Pat, Carole, Carmen, Frankie, Billy, Richie and so many more of those Regulars we loved. They were some of the most famous kids in America, dancing every day on American Bandstand.. Show me a guy who hasnt done that and Ill show you a queer.. I imitated Horn bragged to song-pluggers that he had to shove this music down the throats of station management, but he was unjustly trying to claim credit for himself. They surprised me with balloons and all of my favorite breakfast foodswe were like giddy little girls getting excited for the day to come.. Mayor Dilworth and his administration had a reputation for honesty, but the citys officials did socialize with media people and Blanc feared that information about his crusade with leak out. Taking center stage each week was superstar Bandstand couple Justine Carrelli and Bob Clayton, two of the show's most popular dancers. At WFIL they thought: What a wonderful idea for TV! 4 Who was the first black country singer? He announced that the luncheon was being postponed because there was a labor dispute at the restaurant and city officials didnt want to cross any possible picket line. With Clark, the program became more popular than ever. He died in 1968 at the age of 71. He also played show tunes and interviewed Harold Rome, the composer of the Broadway musical, Secondly, the producer started to require admission cards. Legally we had to get married in the States beforehand, so right before [we left for France], we got married at home with just our parents. I knew when couples broke up. Clipp called Grady and me to his office, Hurst related, and asked us to start in two weeks. With Robert Wises screen adaptation of Bernstein, Robbins, and Sondheims West Side Story (1961), however, the dance is revealed as potentially combative, and the gym as a place where divisions of ethnicity and class arent healed but are instead exacerbated. Some of the regular boys all white started talking angrily among themselves about how theyd like to beat up the boy after the show. WebGary U.S. Bonds. Clarks daily afternoon program pioneered in musical television by showcasing a range of black and white pop music performers, including R&B, rock n roll, and country. It was so incredibly special to wear her design during the most important time of my life, Sofia says. Then he was arrested and we never made the record. She, like Colella, finds it hard to believe that Horn had an affair with a teenage girl. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. It is entirely hand-beaded, Sofia says. When he ran dances out-of-town he always made sure that each of us had rides to get there and back. All the photos from Horns last two years show nothing but white kids in the studio. Just out of school, I was apprenticing in public relations under his tutelage.) These record-promo men knew of her, and got her into the station to meet Horn. Some of the kids would jitterbug in an impromptu fashion while Grady and Hurst played popular records on the air. They've still got the moves, more than a half century later! The next day Bill Sylk owner of WPEN and the Sun Ray Drug chain called Walter Annenberg and said If you steal my talent Ill pull a million dollars of Sun Ray advertising out of the Inquirer. After that threat, WFIL withdrew its offer to us and that was the end of that.. She enjoyed seeing the TV series American Dreams, produced by Dick Clark in 2002, because it recalled one of the best periods in her life. Teenagers sat in rows on bleachers that were assembled on one side of the studio. You were like a big star. I always said it would be a dream to do our first dance to Stuck on YouHello was a surprise, and the whole room was singing along., The after-party, which had a nightclub-inspired vibe, featured a performance from Good Charlotte, who both Sofia and Elliot grew up listening to. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Victor Blanc, the DA, was investigating what he called teenage sex rings. He phoned Lew Klein, an executive at WFIL who was a lodge-brother of his, and warned him not to reinstate Horn because theres more to the story; this is only the beginning of Horns problems.. My father has always been the most comforting figure in my life, and hes kept me grounded. It was common for promo guys to give bottles of whiskey as Christmas gifts. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. On Thursday, for the first time in a quarter century, 27 of the original Bandstand dancers, including Joe, Kenny, Arlene, Carole, Flossie and Jim, reunited to rehearse their steps for a rock n roll celebration over Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia. The Mann Act was law, barring anyone from transporting a person across state lines for an immoral act, even when it was consensual. We were all in our pajamas and had a lot of fun and then that led into breakfast. See production, box office & company info, Bandstand Boogie (The Theme of 'American Bandstand'). ABC gave Bandstand color cameras and launched it on its network of 67 stations in August of 1957. When Dick Clark wrote in his 1976 autobiography, Bandstand was a segregated show for years. Dick Clarks American Bandstand was the offspring of deejay Bob Horns Bandstand, which WFIL-TV broadcast daily from 1952-56 from a WFIL studio at 4548 Market St. Cuz Bongiorno became a regular at Bandstand early in 1953. Mary Ann Colella Baker was a freshman at Hallahan Catholic High School who started attending in 1952 when Bandstand was new: Horn was a perfect gentleman, the nicest person, she says. In 1966, in Houston, Horn died of a heart attack at the age of 50. Dick Clark later wrote that he kept that dress code when he took over because it made the show acceptable to adults who were frightened by the teenage world and teenage music. Some observers might say that he was making the show acceptable to people who were frightened by the appearance of blacks. Rodgers recorded his first record under Ralph Peer in Bristol, Tennessee the day after the original Carter Family recorded theirs. Editors Note: This is a repost with permission granted by the author, Steve Cohen. When our planners, Banana Split, asked me what song I wanted to walk down the aisle to, it was a no-brainer. Soon after the show went on the air, Horn met a 13-year-old girl at the station and they began a sexual relationship. But when I got closer to the aisle, I looked up and thought:Is that Stephen Sanchez? From 1965 to 1967 Dick Clark also produced a show called Shebang which spotlighted a Mexican-American regular, Manuel Acosta, who slow-danced with a blonde white girl named Lynn. Horn was arrested for drunk-driving on June 21, 1956 and was suspended from his broadcasts, then was forced to resign. I never saw black people dancing on the show early on, but that didnt faze me. On the other hand, Blancs total and Blancs margin of victory was not anywhere near what his predecessor, Richardson Dilworth, had achieved in 1951.