American Bandstand
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American Bandstand was a live dance music television show. It premiered locally as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL (Channel 6, now WPVI) on October 7, 1952 in "Studio 'B'", which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building (4548 Market Street), and was hosted by Bob Horn (see below).
Dick Clark
Charlie O'Donnell, then a very young Philadelphia radio DJ, landed his very first network announcing assignment on Bandstand, a job he would hold until the late-1960s.
Tony Mammarella was the original producer of Bandstand.
Format
The show featured real kids dancing to Top 40-type music, often with mimed performances by the artists themselves. In 1957, Patti Page was crowned American Bandstand's favorite female vocalist in its first nationwide audience poll.Changes
The show moved to Saturday afternoons on September 7, 1963, to Los Angeles on February 8, 1964, to color on September 9, 1967, to syndication on September 19, 1987, and to cable (USA Network) on April 8, 1989 with a new, younger host (comedian David Hirsch) to bring in more viewers. It ended for good on October 7, 1989.Trivia
- The show was briefly shot in color in 1958 when WFIL-TV started experimenting with the then-new technology. The size of the studio made it possible to only have one camera (RCA TK-41) where three black & white models were used before (RCA TK-10). WFIL-TV reverted back to black & white two weeks later when ABC-TV refused to carry the color signal and management realized that the show lost something without the extra cameras.
- The measurements of "Studio 'B'" were 80'x42'x24'. It looked smaller than that due to the number of props, television cameras, and bleachers that were used for the show.
- The old WFIL-TV building is currently being used as a business incubator program, The Enterprise Center, and the original "American Bandstand" studio is now a large meeting room.
- It was customary on the show to have Clark perform a mini-interview with the guest band members. Clark says the most difficult interview he performed was with Prince, an unknown at the time of his appearance. Prince was unresponsive and would generally answer his questions with only a hand gesture or a single word. Clark in fact asked Prince how many instruments he played; Prince responded with, "A thousand."
- Another famous mini-interview Clark is famous for is one with Madonna, who, when asked what she would like to do 20 years from now, answered coyly, "To rule the world!"
- B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis were the only recording artists to actually sing on the program. They were uncomfortable with miming their performances and requested that they just perform the songs live on the set.
- In 1961, Tony Orlando performed his then-hit song "Bless You" with his fly open.
- The first rap/hip hop performance in the history of television occurred in 1981 when the Sugar Hill Gang performed their hit song "Rapper's Delight" on the show.
- In 2001, a slot machine was developed based on the show's popularity.
The show was featured prominently in the 2002-2005 NBC-TV drama series American Dreams, whose executive producer was none other than Dick Clark.
Bob Horn
-->Born Donald Loyd Horn in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania on February 20 1916 to a World War I veteran, Horn died of a heat stroke-induced heart attack on July 31 1966 at the age of 50. He was mowing his lawn in Houston, Texas at the time of the incident. His remains were interred at the Forest Park Cemetery in Houston, Texas with the epitaph, "Bandstand."
He would change his name twice before his death. Some academic records from his youth showed that he appended an 'e' to his surname for a while, and replaced his first name with "Robert".
See also
External links
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