These white teenagers were not alone in watching The Mitch Thomas Show. Eustace Gay, "Pioneer In TV Field Doing Marvelous Job Furnishing Youth With Recreation,". this meant trying to attract sponsors to advertise to black television audiences. It became one of the biggest rock n roll records of all time.6. Like the man WC Handy spotted at Tutwiler station, their alienation guaranteed their authenticity. While it is tempting to see "Funtown" as somehow less important than these issues, to do so is a mistake. Hairspray (the movie) is not a documentary. "42Hazel Jordan, letter to J.D. Please rush your information. American Bandstand, abbreviated AB, is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired regularly in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the program's producer.It featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark; at least one popular musical actover the decades, running the . There have been many cases where our leaders needed to make outcries such as Milt Grant's TV dance program, it seems to me that that was segregation. In a letter to potential advertisers, WRAL billed Teenage Frolics as "a live and lively dancing party featuring colored teenagers from high schools in the Channel 5 area." a. the Beach Boys Lewis (WRAL), June 21, 1967, Lewis Family Papers, folder 140; Guadalupe Hudson, letter to J.D. Which folk music group had a hit song with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind"? We don't want to remember all-American American Bandstand as discriminating against black teenagers. Official Sites One musician even claimed Rainey and Smith were romantically involved at one point. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_56', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_56').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); At the same time, the critics expressed concern that the station's management and white president, Richard Eaton, would not attend to community interests and concerns beyond musical entertainment. Clark first addressed the integration of the studio audience in his 1978 record collection celebrating the shows twenty-fifth anniversary. Black music and black dances originating in Philadelphia neighborhoods contributed substantially to the success ofAmerican Bandstand; yetAmerican Bandstandsdancefloor and bleachers were racially segregated, and some of the shows most popular dances were adapted without attribution from black neighborhoods. Donald Hodge, letter to J.D. . "60Beverly Lindsay-Johnson, interview with author, January 8, 2013. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_60', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_60').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); This story and the black and white reenactments in Lindsay-Johnson's film speak both to the creativity that historians of television must employ and to the imprint Teenarama made on the black population in Washington, DC. Bessie Smith was the first African-American singer. Changes to the structure of public life took place slowly. Some teens were still holding their bottles when Grant started the next advertisement for Motorola portable radios. b. c. they had top 40 albums c. "I Get Around" Before Cole, shows hosted by black singers Lorenzo Fuller(1947) and Billy Daniels (1952) and the variety program Sugar Hill Times (1949) also fared poorly. . A weekly presentation of popular music, which went through many format changes during its long run. It elevated flops while ignoring the music that black consumers had actually enjoyed. "66"TV Jockey Profile: The Milt Grant Show," Billboard, February 6, 1961, 43. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_66', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_66').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); He promised potential sponsors that for an hour every afternoon WTTG-TV's studio in the Raleigh Hotel in downtown Washington would be a nexus for selling products to area teenagers. The earliest representative of African-American performers on this site is George Walker ("Her Name's Miss Dinah Fair"). tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_48', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_48').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); Soul Train and American Bandstand attracted nationally known performers, but on Teenage Frolics, teenagers participated in the show's creation and saw their neighbors, classmates, friends, and family do the same. cancelled. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_50', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_50').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); Both of these options were cost prohibitive for many of the African American viewers WOOK hoped to reach. It contains a story line and an epilogue. Teens dancing on the The Mitch Thomas Show, locally called the "Black Bandstand," Wilmington, Delaware, ca. ", But many scholars of African-American culture, black and white alike, were horrified by the rise of the Victrola record player and the music it played. a. one-hit wonders From 1954 to 1956, in addition to his television work pitching an array of products, he hostedDick Clarks Caravan of Music, a radio version of Bob Horns WFIL-TVBandstandtargeting an older audience than Horns teeny-boppers., Horns firing fromBandstandin the spring of 1956 opened the door for the boyish-looking, telegenic Clark to be his successor the following summer. Yet, as the third and fourth stories in this collection show, there was a downside toAmerican BandstandsPhiladelphia years. Much in the same way that national teen magazines followed American Bandstand, the Tribune's teen writers kept tabs on the performers featured on Thomas's show, and described the teenagers who formed fan clubs to support their favorite musical artists and deejays.14On the Philadelphia Tribune's "Teen-Talk" coverage of Mitch Thomas' show, see "They're 'Movin' and Groovin,'" Philadelphia Tribune, July 31, 1956; Dolores Lewis, "Talking With Mitch," Philadelphia Tribune, November 9, 1957; Lewis, "Stage Door Spotlight," Philadelphia Tribune, November 9, 1957; Laurine Blackson, "Penny Sez," Philadelphia Tribune, December 7, 1957 and April 26, 1958; Dolores Lewis, "Philly Date Line," Philadelphia Tribune, December 7, 1957; "Queen Lane Apartment Group [photo]," Philadelphia Tribune, December 7, 1957; Jimmy Rivers, "Crickets' Corner," Philadelphia Tribune, January 21 and April 22,1958; Edith Marshall, "Current Hops," Philadelphia Tribune, March 1,8 and 22,1958; Marshall, "Talk of the Teens," Philadelphia Tribune, March 22, 1958; and"Presented in Charity Show [Mitch Thomas photo]," Philadelphia Tribune, April 22, 1958. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_14', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_14').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); The fan gossip shared in these columns documented the growth of a youth culture among the black teenagers whom Bandstand excluded. When a white singer dropped out of a recording session at the last minute, Bradford convinced Hagar to take a chance on Smith, a Cincinnati-born star of the Harlem club scene, and scored a substantial hit. I would appreciate your information by telling me if we can come and when we can come. Read about our approach to external linking. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Is Our TV Pick Of The Week, Small Town Horror Story: The Racist Attack Of A FedEx Worker. Broadly speaking, the playing was slick, the rhythms hot, the songwriting polished, the lyrics tough and ironic, the stagewear glamorous and the stars overwhelmingly female. Broadcasting black musical performers on television was more challenging than radio, because television made the performers' bodies visible, and on dance shows like these, put their bodies in close proximity to those of dozens of teenagers. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, George D. McDowell Collection, Special Collections Research Center, courtesy Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia. All of the following are examples of death disks EXCEPT: 3. c. Brian Wilson's production and writing A lot of rock and roll today is bordering on what is called 'popular music.'"52Ibid. Her journey from Georgia to Chicago in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom represents the Great Migration of hundreds of thousands of black people from the rural South to the urban North during that period. Which aspects of "Leader of the Pack" indicate it is a playlet? After the widely circulated photograph made her a local celebrity she attended the show with a bodyguard.68David Margolick, Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 44, 290. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_68', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_68').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); Steve's Show was a highly visible regional space that asserted a racially segregated public culture and continued to do so until it went off the air in 1961. This site requires Javascript to be turned on. The resulting image nicely illustrates the tensions surrounding televising black music to white audiences. When North Carolina began desegregation from 1969 to 1971, many black high schools were closed or were converted to elementary schools or junior highs. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser. It was recorded by a girl group. In her study of the landmark black television show Soul!, that ran from 1968 to 1972,Gayle Wald argues that the show "created a television space where black peoplecould see, hear, and almost feel each other." After Grant took a big drink of the soda and delivered the sales pitch ("Never too heavy, never too sweet, always just right"), he asked two teenagers to help hand out bottles of the sponsor's drink to the dancers. "40David Cecelski, Along Freedom Road: Hyde County, North Carolina and the Fate of Black Schools in the South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 9. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_40', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_40').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); Teenage Frolics offered a black cultural space that bridged this period between segregatedand integrated schools. [8] Ibid., 105-111; for a full description, see chap. Another regular, William Clemmons recalled, "We couldn't go on The Milt Grant Show on a regular basis. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_11', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_11').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); His television show, broadcast every Saturday, resembled Philadelphia's Bandstand,at the timea local program hosted by Bob Horn,and other locally broadcast teenage dance programs. August Wilson's Rainey calls the blues "life's way of talking". Colchester, VT: VPR, July 11, 2009. Steve's Show, Little Rock, Arkansas, late 1950s. "Music on Television." Who was first black artist on American bandstand? tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_39', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_39').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); "When black schools closed," historian David Cecelski writes, "their names, mascots, mottos, holidays, and traditions were sacrificed with them, while students were transferred to historically white schools that retained those markers of cultural and racial identity. c. musical playlets Among the many projects in Clarks musical portfolio was ABCs Saturday night version ofAmerican Bandstand. "Frolic Fan," letter to J.D. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. Beach Boys on American Bandstand. Continue Learning about Movies & Television. d. the auto accident involving Jan Berry. "57"Nation's First Minority Group TV Station to Broadcast Today," Chicago Defender, February 11, 1963. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_57', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_57').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); WOOK-TV never assumed a leadership role with regards to the main political issues of its era, but Teenarama showcased black youth culture for Washington viewers. Dick Clark at his customary podium onAmerican Bandstandas the programs teenagers dance. Ironically, the records that the Blues Mafia dedicated themselves to rescuing from obscurity have become far more famous than the smash hits of the 1920s. In each clip, the teenagers dance as the singers lipsync to recordings of their songs, as was the common practice in this era. Broadcasting from Wilmington, Raleigh, and Washington, these shows reached regional audiences, but varied in terms of signal strength and network affiliations. Describing the "black Bandstand," Smith recalled: First of all, black kids had their own dance show, I think it was on channel 12, but one of the reasons I remember it is because I watched it. While Black artists were permitted to perform, only white dancers were allowed. Ethel Waters became, at one point, the highest-paid actress on Broadway. His short-lived television career resembled the experiences of other African American entertainers who hosted music and variety shows in this era. "6Quoted in Bodrogkozy, Equal Time, 2. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_6', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_6').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); In the context of pitched battles over segregation and civil rights, these televised teen dance shows reveal much about the visibility of different youth musical cultures in the 1950s and 1960s. b. They had four top 10 pop hits and "Don't Worry, Baby" was the B-side to their first #1 "I Get Around." In their eyes, the mechanical reproduction of the blues symbolised the spiritual corruption of black people by cities, factories and commerce in short, the modern age. Directed by Matt Wolf. Fifty years later, Bandstand fan Sharon Sultan Cutler wondered what had become of the "Regulars," the name given to the teens that showed up daily to . A year later, an American Bandstand producer told the New York Post that this incident contributed to American Bandstand's segregation.62John Jackson, Big Beat Heat: Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock & Roll (New York: Shirmer Trade Books, 2000), 168169; Jackson, American Bandstand: Dick Clark and the Making of a Rock 'n' Roll Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 56. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_62', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_62').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); The Milt Grant Show clips from May 1957 predate the Freed-Lymon controversy, but the show faced similar concerns. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/segregated-america.html. The teens held and drank their sodas while dancing, keeping the sponsor's product in the picture throughout the song. Viewers would have had little idea that African Americans made up nearly 30 percent of Philadelphia's population in this era or that black teens developed many of the dances that American Bandstand popularized nationally. Any racist similarities The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia. Like much of American popular music, Willis and his songs had deep roots in the South. The classic blues was African-American culture's first mainstream breakthrough and, for several years, it was effectively a female art form. a. a smooth rhythm and blues influence in their harmonies From another, however, these shows were spaces that celebrated the creative potential and everyday lives of black youth. My Place. For these and other artists who played at Washington's historically black Howard Theater, Teenarama offered an additional opportunity to perform and promote their music while they were in the city. Last modified April 11, 2014. http://scalar.usc.edu/nehvectors/nicest-kids/index. Delmont also explores Washington, DC's whites-only program. Hazel Bryan (left) harasses Elizabeth Eckfordasblack students attempt to integrate Little Rock's Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas, September 4, 1957. Recognizing the songs potential, but also that the dance in the Ballard version, with its very suggestive horizontal hip movement, wasnt appropriate for prudish national television. Screenshot from Steve's Show, a documentarydirected bySandra Hubbard (Morning Star Studio, 2004). Who was the first host of American Bandstand? Most people listening to a dance program would rather hear the latest records. Screenshot from Black Philadelphia Memories, directed byTrudi Brown (WHYY-TV12, 1999). In this essay, Matthew Delmont examines four programs that brought music and dance to southern and border state television audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Delta blues singers such as Charley Patton, Skip James, Son House and Robert Johnson slotted into the post-war counterculture's worship of untameable outcasts who lived tough, rootless lives a million miles away from bourgeois conformity. We often use the history of popular culture to talk about the history of race in America. To comment, enter your name and text below (you can also sign in to use your Scalar account).Comments are moderated. As Marybeth Hamilton writes in her excellent book In Search of the Blues: Black Voices, White Visions, "Once only encountered at house parties and barn dances, on street corners and the black showbiz circuit, the blues could now be heard pouring out of speakeasies, nightclubs, houses, apartments, drug stores and barbershops, hardware stores and funeral parlours, anywhere race records were played or sold. Matthew F. Delmont is an assistant professor of American studies at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., and the author of The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia. The show urged teenagers to drink Pepsi, eat at Tops' Drive-Inn, listen to Motorola portable radios, and buy the newest records at the Music Box record store. | A hallmark of earlyAmerican Bandstandwas Clarks promotion of Italian-American male teen idols, sex-symbol pop singers who hailed from South Philadelphia: Frankie Avalon (ne Francis Avallone), Bobby Rydell (ne Ridarelli), and Fabian (ne Fabiano Forte). schools danced on Bandstand starting in 1952 when Bob Horn was the d. gentle soul, Ben E. King had been a singer with: I didn't get the exposure. Otis Givens, interview withauthor, June 27, 2007. "5, A talented local pop group that dodged the label Philadelphia Schlock was Danny and the Juniors, four white teenagers who attended John Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia and who rose meteorically in Clarks orbit with At the Hop, a catchy song to which Clark held half of the publishing rights. The Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes wrote that Bessie conveyed "sadness not softened with tears, but hardened with laughter, the absurd, incongruous laughter of a sadness without even a god to appeal to." Ramsey describes "community theaters" as "sites of cultural memory" that "include but are not limited to cinema, family narratives and histories, the church, the social dance, the nightclub, the skating rink, and even literature. "As per our conversation of yesterday, it is going to be necessary that we make some adjustment in our Saturday afternoon schedule this fall with respect to Teen-Age Frolics," Helms wrote to inform Lewis and other staff that the show would have to be shortened from its regular one hour broadcast time. New York Televised teen dance shows offer an example of how"basic habits of interaction in public spaces" did not change dramatically in 1957. Jimmy Peatross and Joan Buck tell a related story about learning how to do The Strand from black teenagers inTwist, directed byRon Mann (Sphinx Productions, 1992), documentary. It takes nothing away from the young men and women who risked their lives to desegregate schools and lunch counters to recognize that thousands of teenagers found joy and value in dancing on television or watching their peers do the same. Thomas remembers that the teens on his show "created a dance called The Stroll. As program manager in the late-1960s, Helms was Lewis's boss.35Jesse Helms, Here's Where I Stand (New York, Random House, 2005), 4451; Ernest Furgurson, Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms (New York: W. W. Norton, 1986), 6991; William Link, Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008), 6498. First, were important for black teens because the shows offered televisual spaces that valued their creative energies and talents. My plan is to bring a group of 45 or 50 children . By examining these local programs this essay builds on the work of scholarsNorma Coates, Murray Forman, Julie Malnig, Tim Wall, George Lipsitz, and Brian Ward who have examined the intersections of music and television, the importance of televised teen dance shows as community spaces, and the development of rhythm and blues and rock and roll.9Norma Coates, "Elvis from the Waist Up and Other Myths: 1950s Music Television and the Gendering of Rock Discourse," in Medium Cool: Music Videos from Soundies to Cellphones, eds. There was a protest in the early 60's, I think it was 1963 (my parents were there as teens). And that says more about our desire to embrace a more comforting narrative of racial progress than it does about Clark's legacy. Museum of Broadcast Communications. Rarely has the music industrys received wisdom been upended by a single hit. He was stunning. Sterling, Christopher and John Michael Kittross. Black students from Philadelphia high schools and junior high 3. "41Susan Jordan, letter to J.D. Teenarama Dance Party received top billing in this advertisement and ultimately the show's fortunes would rise and fall with WOOK's. b. Self - Singer 1 episode, 1979 Firefall . American Bandstand (TV Series 1952-1989) - IMDb xamines four programs that brought music and dance to southern and border state television audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. "55"WOOK Says it Isn't Just One-Color TV," Washington Star, February 11, 1963. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_55', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_55').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); These critiques reflected differences in age and class between the readership of the Afro-American and potential viewers and listeners of WOOK-TV and WOOK-radio.56John Henry Murphy, Sr. started publishing the Afro-American newspaper in Baltimore in 1892. Record companies routinely ignored African-American musicianswith only a few exceptions, such as singer Bert Williams and bandleader James Reese Europe. "70Gayle Wald, It's Been Beautiful: Soul! Despite living during a time when music in America was divided into two categories popular music and race music the iconic singer, Ella Fitzgerald, still managed to become the first Black artist to win a Grammy. The man who published the sheet music for Crazy Blues was WC Handy, a songwriter, businessman and self-proclaimed "Father of the Blues". a. Aldon Music being sold to Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems The guy's name was Otis and I don't remember the girl's name. Every weekday afternoon, in each of these broadcast markets, these shows presented images of exclusively white teenagers. Black teenagers were banned. 195657. tippy('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1562_1_1', { content: jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1562_1_1').html(), placement: 'bottom', theme: 'sosp', arrow: false, allowHTML: true }); With "Betty and Dupree," Willis revived a folk song, first recorded as "Dupree Blues" in 1930 by Blind Willie Walker from Greenville, South Carolina. Archived reports of the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations show that Bandstand was initially segregated in the early 1950s, when it was a locally broadcast show hosted by Bob Horn. FormerBandstanderArlene Sullivan, famous in her own right as aBandstand regular in the late 1950s, recalled, There werent many people in the fifties who did not think that Fabian was the handsomest boy theyd ever seen. Why were they then relegated to the sidelines, asks Dorian Lynskey.