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), On one of those jobs Lois gave oral sex to one of the Allison crowd for $40 and on another job had sex with a man for a hundred dollars, all this when she was 15 and in the midst of her relationship with Horn. American Bandstand started life as a Philadelphia TV show in 1952, with Bob Horn as master of ceremonies. One day a group of, In this part of the story well see what Bob Horn did that ended his career and also caused the ABC network and its Philadelphia affiliate to ignore the 50, Most acquaintances describe Horn as arrogant and self-centered, although none of the dancers on his show saw him that way. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. If ABC had not been the poorest of the networks, unable to provide daytime programs to its affiliates, Bandstand would never have been born. He asked me to be on the committee and be an example for others. Soon after the show went on the air, Horn met a 13-year-old girl at the station and they began a sexual relationship. October 7, 1952 He also played show tunes and interviewed Harold Rome, the composer of the Broadway musical Fanny when it played its pre-Broadway try out in Philadelphia in 1954. The promotion men who hung out with Horn fed him records by new artists and Horn was open to their suggestions partly because he knew it would help the show, and partly because he liked getting gifts from the song-pluggers. From the first day, I established the most platonic of friendships with the kids. At least three factors are important to note regarding the last three years ofAmerican Bandstandin West Philadelphia: the 1960 payola scandal, the reality behind the shows happy faces, and developments in the pop music industry that affected the show and compelled its relocation in 1964 to Los Angeles in a reduced version. I brought a series of black girls with me so we could do the slow dances together.. That becomes understandable when you learn that its original host led a sordid life that included a sexual affair with a teenage girl. I always thought Horn did a poor job relating to the kids. We thought it was unfair but we followed the rules. His demeanor was haughty. A big studio was on the ground floor, which WPEN used for the 950 Club in the afternoon and for Steve Allisons talk program at night, while the stations offices were on the second floor. Public high schools were more integrated 72% white when Bandstand started, according to Philadelphia School District statistics, while blacks were 28% while Asians and Latinos were less than 1%. Clark revamped Horns show for national broadcast by ABC. One example is Bob Menefee, the top-paid disc jockey at WIP. Public high schools were more integrated , So Horn, in a way, was the good guy who had no ethnic prejudice and who had blacks and whites in equal numbers in the early days of, I used to dance on the original Bandstand. Believe it or not, at that time the show looked like a black blue-light basement party because our crowd would take over the floor when we showed up. Walter Annenberg, who owned WFIL and the Philadelphia Inquirer and TV Guide, asked his station manager, Roger Clipp, in the summer of 1952 to try a dance program aimed at teenagers. The show would air immediately after school when kids were home without parental supervision. Bob became like a second father to me. Dick Clark hosts a daily to weekly dance show that features the latest hit music for the attending teens to dance to. Bob Horn complimented me on my dancing ability and for the way I dressed. Horn ended his career working in Texas using a pseudonym. 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. But Horn also was the bad guy who allowed blacks to be systematically excluded when it looked as if their dancing might dominate the show. Vic Blanc became a judge, then resigned when he developed mental lapses which would today be labeled as Alzheimers disease. From the start I was also terrified because what had happened to Horn. (There never was any picket line. ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images. She enjoyed seeing the TV series, When the program moved to California in 1964, it presented its first regular dancer who was black. And two, a scandal at another Philadelphia station. First, there was a private Ketubah signing in the mother of the brides hotel room, where both families met and acted as witnesses. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". But soon WFIL built the set that became famous, which is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution, simulating a corner of a music store. Hosted by Bob Horn as a television adjunct to his radio show of the same name on WFIL radio, Bandstand featured short musical films produced by Snader Tele Show me a guy who hasnt done that and Ill show you a queer.. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. One day a group of American Bandstand dancers went to Harmony Park, a popular club in Anaheim, and got drunk. See production, box office & company info, Bandstand Boogie (The Theme of 'American Bandstand'). Who were the first guests on American Bandstand? Off-camera his personality was abrasive, egotistical and aggressive. Hed take me home to spend weekends with his family in Levittown and in the summer Id be the cabin boy on his boat at Stone Harbor., Dave Feldman also started coming in 1953. 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. Not only was she a wedding guest, but shes a good friend and an amazing hairstylist, and it meant a lot to me to have a friend there, Sofia says. American Bandstand What were the results of this elaborate investigation? When Blancs campaign was launched, friends of Walter Annenberg hoped that the DA would find some dirt on WPENs popular night-time talk host, Steve Allison, because Allison often criticized Annenberg and the Inquirer. 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. Maybe he was on edge because the vice trial was about to start a few days later. Horn was a pioneer when he made the youngsters the stars of the show, and when he gave teenagers a forum to set their own standards of music, dance steps and style. Other deejays of that time, however, were more gracious than Horn. The reunion gossip even included a love story. WebGary U.S. Bonds. These men were, you might say, realists. He even went back on the air a few minutes later and said: Hey, that record wasnt bad after all.. He was born Lee Shulman and started his career as an ad salesman. The dancers have aged, some have gained weight or grown mustaches, but they continue to follow whats hip in fashion and dance steps. But they werent there. He admitted that he gave her birthday presents a record player one year and one hundred dollars cash another year. The 24-year-old model and designer, who is also the youngest child of legendary singer Lionel Richie, became engaged to Elliot Grainge, a music executive and founder of 10K Projects, in April of 2022. But I had to take a double-take when they showed black people in the stands, she says. Required fields are marked *. Then my crowd all sat down. Menefee was a curmudgeon on the air. So in a dance studio Thursday night, remembering the glory days, they practiced their jitterbugs and coffee-grinding and listened to Bobby Darin, Frankie Avalon and Neil Sedaka. 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 engineers and announcers looked on with a mixture of envy and horror, and none of them reported what they saw to management. There are no plans to televise the event. I talked to the kids on the same intellectual level. He said Name your salary. So we asked our station manager for a release and he said hed talk to the stations owner. They felt that if the show was perceived as a Negro show, white teenagers would stay away. Catholic schools in those days were 99% white. (I was in his office as he wrote it. It was hysterical, Sofia says. The Inquirers publisher supported the work of the House Un-American Activities committee and its crusade against Communist sympathizers in the entertainment field. On each program, Horn listed the top songs of the day, although there was no scientific survey. It was a full-time job, but we had a great time, Sofia says. And everyone at ABC Television tried to ignore the programs first years.