American Bandstand

I noticed in Friday’s obituary that the director of The American Bandstand for 17 years passed away. Edward Yates took a local show from Philadelphia, PA to a national institution. The show began in 1952 and it featured local teens dancing to the latest hits. The show took place in in western Philadelphia, until Clark and Yates (the director), moved the show to Los Angeles in 1964 (after which I think it was never the same). Dick Clark took over as host in 1956, the article said that at that time Clark was 26. (I did the math, because whenever us baby boomers see Dick Clark it seems like he never ages, and we know he MUST be older than he looks.) That would make him 76 years old today. He sure doesn’t look 76, I haven't seen him recently though, you'd think he would soon start looking his age!

As a pre-teen and a teen, I was an avid watcher of American Bandstand every day after school. First, I watched “The Buddy Dean” show, which was the same type of show, but it came out of Baltimore, MD, then I would switch the station over to Bandstand. It’s funny how both shows were so different, though they played the same great music. The Maryland based show, the teens dressed up, looked very sharp and dressed conservatively. The Philadelphia bandstand show, the teens dressed much more, what our generation at that time referred to as “wild”. The girls, we from southeastern, rural PA, felt that the city girls dressed like sluts (which is what wild meant). I guess it’s just that they were “city” girls, and we were “country girls”. It was a big difference. With the media now a days, there probably isn’t that difference between the city girls and the country girls anymore. In fact, some would say the majority of the girls now dress like “city” girls, no matter where they live!

Ahhh…fun memories….dancing and watching the dancing to the tunes of the day!