Dick Clark's scheme to oust Don Cornelius and replace Soul Train with his own all-black dance show
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Bandstand Didn't Originally Allow Black Dancers !!!!
The famed Philly TV show is often touted as a standard of racially integrated programming, but a new book says just the opposite.
BY TIM WHITAKER | MARCH 1, 2012 AT 7:25 AM
COMMENT ON THIS POST
Dick Clark’s a fraud.
On the face of it, a harsh charge, particularly given that Clark, now 82, once omnipresent on our TV screens, is now seen only fleetingly (and maybe not fleetingly enough) only on New Year’s Eve, due to a massive stroke seven years ago.
Harsh though it may be, a new book, by California professor Matt Delmont—The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950’s Philadelphia—calls out Clark for being just that.
The book asserts that Clark, a multimillionaire, has continuously promoted Bandstand as racially pioneering, and himself as an early civil rights trailblazer, when in fact he was the host of a show that banned Philadelphia black kids from appearing on TV.
Clark was the host of American Bandstand in the late ‘50s through the mid-‘60s. A daily dance show, Bandstand was the first national TV program directed at teenagers and starring teenagers. Because it emanated from here (the studios were at 46th and Market), the show put Philadelphia at the epicenter of national youth culture.
But like most things in the ‘50s, Bandstand’s gussied up happy days persona didn’t extend to people of color.
Delmont, a professor of Americans Studies at Scripps College, sorted through old interviews and clips, census data and looked at countless Bandstand photographs. He learned of Bandstand’s surroundings by conducting extensive research into the volatile and not very welcoming housing and civic policies of the West Philadelphia neighborhood where the TV show aired. He read what the Bandstand host had said over the years about the show in biographies and interviews. In the end he concluded that Clark had created an unchallenged myth that the show had promoted integration, when in fact it had done just the opposite.
For years, black teens had been reporting to the Philadelphia Tribune that Bandstand staffers were turning them away from the studio. “The show’s producers denied that they had a white-only policy, but the black teenagers who tried to get into the studio were always excluded for some reason,” Delmont writes. “Some were told that they lacked a membership card, others that they did not meet the dress code, and others that the studio was full.”
The evidence piles up. Thousands of pictures turned up only two photos of black kids. Delmont reports that between 1958 and 1963, the Philadelphia Tribune had published seven editorials or letters to the editor regarding Bandstand’s exclusion of black teens—including a December 1958 column that sent Christmas greetings to Dick Clark, wishing him a “new attitude toward Negro children which will permit them to be welcomed to his show.”
Delmont says Clark’s initial reference to the show’s “integration” came in 1976, when Bandstand was competing with Soul Train for performers, viewers and advertisers. Recalling Bandstand’s integration underscored the show’s support for black music and culture. Clark, he says, would also always present Bandstand within the context of the national civil rights movement, which evades the specific local history surrounding Bandstand’s years in Philadelphia—“as well as the anti-black racism in Philadelphia and nationally” that motivated the show’s discrimination.
“American Bandstand is part of the civil rights story,” concludes Delmont, “but not in the way Clark suggests.
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/03/01/american-bandstand-didnt-allow-blacks/
The famed Philly TV show is often touted as a standard of racially integrated programming, but a new book says just the opposite.
BY TIM WHITAKER | MARCH 1, 2012 AT 7:25 AM
COMMENT ON THIS POST
Dick Clark’s a fraud.
On the face of it, a harsh charge, particularly given that Clark, now 82, once omnipresent on our TV screens, is now seen only fleetingly (and maybe not fleetingly enough) only on New Year’s Eve, due to a massive stroke seven years ago.
Harsh though it may be, a new book, by California professor Matt Delmont—The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950’s Philadelphia—calls out Clark for being just that.
The book asserts that Clark, a multimillionaire, has continuously promoted Bandstand as racially pioneering, and himself as an early civil rights trailblazer, when in fact he was the host of a show that banned Philadelphia black kids from appearing on TV.
Clark was the host of American Bandstand in the late ‘50s through the mid-‘60s. A daily dance show, Bandstand was the first national TV program directed at teenagers and starring teenagers. Because it emanated from here (the studios were at 46th and Market), the show put Philadelphia at the epicenter of national youth culture.
But like most things in the ‘50s, Bandstand’s gussied up happy days persona didn’t extend to people of color.
Delmont, a professor of Americans Studies at Scripps College, sorted through old interviews and clips, census data and looked at countless Bandstand photographs. He learned of Bandstand’s surroundings by conducting extensive research into the volatile and not very welcoming housing and civic policies of the West Philadelphia neighborhood where the TV show aired. He read what the Bandstand host had said over the years about the show in biographies and interviews. In the end he concluded that Clark had created an unchallenged myth that the show had promoted integration, when in fact it had done just the opposite.
For years, black teens had been reporting to the Philadelphia Tribune that Bandstand staffers were turning them away from the studio. “The show’s producers denied that they had a white-only policy, but the black teenagers who tried to get into the studio were always excluded for some reason,” Delmont writes. “Some were told that they lacked a membership card, others that they did not meet the dress code, and others that the studio was full.”
The evidence piles up. Thousands of pictures turned up only two photos of black kids. Delmont reports that between 1958 and 1963, the Philadelphia Tribune had published seven editorials or letters to the editor regarding Bandstand’s exclusion of black teens—including a December 1958 column that sent Christmas greetings to Dick Clark, wishing him a “new attitude toward Negro children which will permit them to be welcomed to his show.”
Delmont says Clark’s initial reference to the show’s “integration” came in 1976, when Bandstand was competing with Soul Train for performers, viewers and advertisers. Recalling Bandstand’s integration underscored the show’s support for black music and culture. Clark, he says, would also always present Bandstand within the context of the national civil rights movement, which evades the specific local history surrounding Bandstand’s years in Philadelphia—“as well as the anti-black racism in Philadelphia and nationally” that motivated the show’s discrimination.
“American Bandstand is part of the civil rights story,” concludes Delmont, “but not in the way Clark suggests.
http://www.phillymag.com/news/2012/03/01/american-bandstand-didnt-allow-blacks/
The voice of "Blaster" from The Transformers doing interviews
R.I.P Buster Jones
Edward L. "Buster" Jones (December 12, 1943 – September 16, 2014) was an American voice actor.
He is probably best known from his roles as Black Vulcan in Super Friends, Blaster in The Transformers, Doc in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and Winston Zeddemore in The Real Ghostbusters (replacing Arsenio Hall) and laterExtreme Ghostbusters.
He was born in Paris, Tennessee. He attended Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, where he played in a band and got a job as a disc jockey. During his career as a DJ he worked in Washington, D.C. and in Los Angeles. He also did voice work in commercials, which led to his career as a voice actor in TV series.[1]
Jones appeared as the host of Soul Unlimited, Dick Clark's short-lived all-black version of American Bandstand that Clark had created as an answer to Soul Train
He also provided voices for Defenders of the Earth (as Lothar), The Super Globetrotters (as Spaghetti Man), Captain Planet and the Planeteers and The New Batman Adventures.
Jones died on September 16, 2014, in his home in North Hollywood, California, at age 71
Good history man, about to download some soul train episodes just for the performances.
Man they steal everything from us and make it white!!!
If you lived during the era of American Bandstand you know what a boring show American Bandstand truly was. I mean watching those rhythm-less white kids was a joke. But they weren't alone Dick Clark was just as boring as a host. The show aired top white artist with a few black artist thrown in if their music had crossover appeal. But Clark's show was really Rock & Roll based which was on a decline by the mid sixties.
Then suddenly here's Soul Train. R&B was on fire and if you were a black artist you wanted to do that show. Don Cornelius had himself a winner. It was a major improvement over American Bandstand. So yeah I could see Clark wanting to squash the show because American Bandstand was finally getting exposed for the boring show it had always been especially to black people. Soul Train was to black people what MTV became for whites. Soul Train gave black artist and groups national recognition.
Black people didn't miss Soul Train everything stopped when Soul Train came on, there were no VCRs or DVRs back then.
Then suddenly here's Soul Train. R&B was on fire and if you were a black artist you wanted to do that show. Don Cornelius had himself a winner. It was a major improvement over American Bandstand. So yeah I could see Clark wanting to squash the show because American Bandstand was finally getting exposed for the boring show it had always been especially to black people. Soul Train was to black people what MTV became for whites. Soul Train gave black artist and groups national recognition.
Black people didn't miss Soul Train everything stopped when Soul Train came on, there were no VCRs or DVRs back then.
QUOTE OF THE YEAR NOMINATION!
*two cents *
No they had a "few" acts like Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson but not too many.
"the invasion of the cac snatchers" true story of a species whom soul purpose is to duplicate and takeover things that is not theirs
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Dick Clark's TV legacy, including on race, is complicated
I'm either too young or too old - I prefer to think the former - to have fond memories of "American Bandstand."
Consequently, not to speak ill of the dead, I have no nostalgic attachment to Dick Clark, who died Wednesday at the age of 82. I was more a "Hullabaloo" and "Shindig" fan.
I remember my favorite bands appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and watching "The Monkees." And I remember watching "Where the Action Is," which Clark hosted from 1965 to '67, after school to watch the Milwaukee band, The Robbs.
Clark was celebrated as the world's oldest teenager, but my lingering impression of him is as the father of a television empire.
He was less a musical innovator than a savvy televisionary who figured out how to commodify popular culture for the masses.
One obituary quoted an interview from 1961 in which he said that he got "enormous pleasure and excitement sitting in on conferences with accountants, tax experts and lawyers."
IMDB.com lists him as producing 170 shows and appearing on 213, many them as host, including "The $10,000 Pyramid," "Super Bloopers and Practical Jokes" and his "Rockin' New Year's Eve" specials. He created the American Music Awards and produced the Golden Globes, the Soap Opera Digest Awards, beauty pageants and TV movies like "Liberace."
But as with the quality of these efforts, his legacy is a mixed bag.
In the 2002 film "Bowling for Columbine," he is shown ducking muckraking filmmaker Michael Moore, who attempted to link Clark to a tragic series of events involving the child of a woman who worked at a restaurant chain owned by Clark.
And although many African-American musical performers appeared on the show, a new book challenges Clark's often-repeated assertion that "Bandstand" broke racial barriers by featuring black and white dancers.
The book "The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia," by Matthew F. Delmont, claims the show "discriminated against black youth" who were turned away at the door during the show's early years.
Delmont, a professor of American studies at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., said he became interested in the topic because his mother was a fan of the show. He originally believed Clark's claims and wanted to use the show as a counterpoint to discrimination in schools and neighborhoods in Philadelphia, where the show originated from 1952 to 1964.
But after conducting interviews and reviewing archival materials, Delmont said he learned that "a host of underhanded techniques" were used "to keep black teens off the show." A committee of white teens always appeared on the show, but anyone else had to write ahead. "If you had a name or address in an African-American neighborhood, you couldn't get on," said Delmont. "It was common knowledge among doormen and producers - and you have to assume Dick Clark knew - that these policies were in place."
Because "given the racial attitudes of Philadelphia, the U.S. and television," advertisers and affiliates would never have agreed to integrating the show, he said. "I think some of the teens had no problem with it, but their parents did."
Similar problems were the inspiration for the film and play "Hairspray," about attempts to integrate an all-white dance show in Baltimore in the 1960s.
Delmont, who never talked to Clark, "never found a smoking gun" linking him with discrimination. But, curiously, it wasn't until "Soul Train," created and hosted by Don Cornelius, came on the air in 1970 "that Clark started making his claims about integrating the audience." Clark even introduced his own black music show, "Soul Unlimited."
Delmont said Cornelius, who died earlier this year, and Jesse Jackson pressured ABC to take the show off the air.
Clark does deserve credit for promoting black musical artists, such as Chuck Berry and Sam Cooke, early on.
"That part is true," Delmont said. His "influence on the culture is unassailable. But it needs to be put in the proper context.
"You don't have to exaggerate the influence of 'Bandstand' to shore up Dick Clark's legacy," Delmont said. "But we have to be honest with the history of the U.S., especially with regards to race."
Full Article:http://archive.jsonline.com/enterta...on-race-is-complicated-un5328h-148194125.html
I'm either too young or too old - I prefer to think the former - to have fond memories of "American Bandstand."
Consequently, not to speak ill of the dead, I have no nostalgic attachment to Dick Clark, who died Wednesday at the age of 82. I was more a "Hullabaloo" and "Shindig" fan.
I remember my favorite bands appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and watching "The Monkees." And I remember watching "Where the Action Is," which Clark hosted from 1965 to '67, after school to watch the Milwaukee band, The Robbs.
Clark was celebrated as the world's oldest teenager, but my lingering impression of him is as the father of a television empire.
He was less a musical innovator than a savvy televisionary who figured out how to commodify popular culture for the masses.
One obituary quoted an interview from 1961 in which he said that he got "enormous pleasure and excitement sitting in on conferences with accountants, tax experts and lawyers."
IMDB.com lists him as producing 170 shows and appearing on 213, many them as host, including "The $10,000 Pyramid," "Super Bloopers and Practical Jokes" and his "Rockin' New Year's Eve" specials. He created the American Music Awards and produced the Golden Globes, the Soap Opera Digest Awards, beauty pageants and TV movies like "Liberace."
But as with the quality of these efforts, his legacy is a mixed bag.
In the 2002 film "Bowling for Columbine," he is shown ducking muckraking filmmaker Michael Moore, who attempted to link Clark to a tragic series of events involving the child of a woman who worked at a restaurant chain owned by Clark.
And although many African-American musical performers appeared on the show, a new book challenges Clark's often-repeated assertion that "Bandstand" broke racial barriers by featuring black and white dancers.
The book "The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'n' Roll and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia," by Matthew F. Delmont, claims the show "discriminated against black youth" who were turned away at the door during the show's early years.
Delmont, a professor of American studies at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., said he became interested in the topic because his mother was a fan of the show. He originally believed Clark's claims and wanted to use the show as a counterpoint to discrimination in schools and neighborhoods in Philadelphia, where the show originated from 1952 to 1964.
But after conducting interviews and reviewing archival materials, Delmont said he learned that "a host of underhanded techniques" were used "to keep black teens off the show." A committee of white teens always appeared on the show, but anyone else had to write ahead. "If you had a name or address in an African-American neighborhood, you couldn't get on," said Delmont. "It was common knowledge among doormen and producers - and you have to assume Dick Clark knew - that these policies were in place."
Because "given the racial attitudes of Philadelphia, the U.S. and television," advertisers and affiliates would never have agreed to integrating the show, he said. "I think some of the teens had no problem with it, but their parents did."
Similar problems were the inspiration for the film and play "Hairspray," about attempts to integrate an all-white dance show in Baltimore in the 1960s.
Delmont, who never talked to Clark, "never found a smoking gun" linking him with discrimination. But, curiously, it wasn't until "Soul Train," created and hosted by Don Cornelius, came on the air in 1970 "that Clark started making his claims about integrating the audience." Clark even introduced his own black music show, "Soul Unlimited."
Delmont said Cornelius, who died earlier this year, and Jesse Jackson pressured ABC to take the show off the air.
Clark does deserve credit for promoting black musical artists, such as Chuck Berry and Sam Cooke, early on.
"That part is true," Delmont said. His "influence on the culture is unassailable. But it needs to be put in the proper context.
"You don't have to exaggerate the influence of 'Bandstand' to shore up Dick Clark's legacy," Delmont said. "But we have to be honest with the history of the U.S., especially with regards to race."
Full Article:http://archive.jsonline.com/enterta...on-race-is-complicated-un5328h-148194125.html
Damn.
Its a trip how much of Black Dynamite cartoon was some real shit
Its a trip how much of Black Dynamite cartoon was some real shit
Dope read
Thanks
Thanks
This...
I never fucked with MTV.
fuck dick clark.
Will check this out later....
We Lost Dick Clark and Don Cornelius In The Same Year
Sometimes they were rivals, sometimes they were collaborators. American Bandstand and Soul Train ran neck-and-neck, competing for viewers and record promotions as their shows ran concurrently for an overlap of 18 years. And after all that history, they passed away in the same year, Cornelius in February, Clark in April, of 2012. And before MTV and the advent of the era of "veejays", they were the first and last words on televised music culture.
But by far, American Bandstand had the longer, richer history. The show started simply as "Bandstand" in September of 1952 on a local Philadelphia TV station. And it was Bob Horn, not Dick Clark, who was the first host - the show ran through a few hosts before they settled on Dick Clark in 1956. 1952 was an ironically "square" year to begin a music hits show in retrospect - Elvis Presley had yet to walk into his first recording studio, Billboard magazine had yet to start tracking hits with the Hot-100 chart (though they'd been doing the hit parade since 1936), and the controversial airing of Lucille Ball's pregnancy on I Love Lucy was currently a bother for the censors who would not allow the show's script to use the word "pregnant".
A list of the acts appearing on American Bandstand through its 37 year run includes the who's-who of rock history. You can generate waves of nostalgia just by naming a few of them: ABBA, Adam and the Ants, The Beach Boys, Berlin, Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Carpenters, Jimmy Dean, Electric Light Orchestra, Aretha Franklin, The Go-Go's, the entire cast of the stage musical Hair, Billy Idol, the Jackson 5, Jefferson Airplane, Kool & the Gang, KISS, Darlene Love, Christine McVie, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Leonard Nimoy (yes, he had a singing career), Pink Floyd, Prince, R.E.M., Dusty Springfield, Talking Heads, Bobby Vee, Wham!, and Weird Al Yankovic.
A big-box set of the entire run on DVD, if only it existed, would be a treasury of music history. Sadly, we know this to be impossible, since videotape was too expensive back in the 1950s and '60s and many of the original episodes from the first two decades are considered lost forever. But we'll still be talking about the legacy of the show for decades to come.
Meanwhile, Soul Train started up in 1970 on a local Chicago station, and from the beginning the show was aimed at being an alternative platform for African-American entertainment, which many in the music industry felt was being marginalized. Soul Train was Don Cornelius' baby from the first breath, having been his off-hours DJ show even before he landed the TV syndication deal. Cornelius himself often bristled at the comparison to American Bandstand.
Likewise, the list of Soul Train guests was a cavalcade of big names throughout its run, so we can name Paula Abdul, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Chic, Rick Dees, En Vogue, Pam Grier, Whitney Houston, Ice Cube, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kool & the Gang, Curtis Mayfield, Smokey Robinson, Salt-n-Pepa, TLC, Village People, and Wild Cherry ("Play that funky music white boy!").
Each show had their core theme song as well. American Bandstand had "Bandstand Boogie" in various incarnations, while Soul Train had "TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)". Both songs were written for their respective shows. While Dick Clark created the American Music Awards, Cornelius created the Soul Train Music Awards, both for similar purposes to honor outstanding artists in their respective fields.
It is absolutely impossible to give the lower hand to either show when considering the importance of their contribution to music. They were both necessary. And in their later years, they recognized this, bouncing off each other culturally. Dick Clark and Don Cornelius even collaborated on some projects in their later careers.
So 2012 will definitely stand as the end of an era. We just don't have anything to replace American Bandstand or Soul Train - MTV killed them years ago, but has itself gotten so far away from music that it makes a mockery of its own name. We have VH1 and BET, but both of them have become pale shadows of their predecessors, replaying the same oldies' top-40s playlist that becomes less relevant with every year. We might as well face it - television is no longer the life blood of the music industry. It's the Internet now, a wild frontier whose diversity is the barrier that keeps the centralized music media show from ever forming again.
Sometimes they were rivals, sometimes they were collaborators. American Bandstand and Soul Train ran neck-and-neck, competing for viewers and record promotions as their shows ran concurrently for an overlap of 18 years. And after all that history, they passed away in the same year, Cornelius in February, Clark in April, of 2012. And before MTV and the advent of the era of "veejays", they were the first and last words on televised music culture.
But by far, American Bandstand had the longer, richer history. The show started simply as "Bandstand" in September of 1952 on a local Philadelphia TV station. And it was Bob Horn, not Dick Clark, who was the first host - the show ran through a few hosts before they settled on Dick Clark in 1956. 1952 was an ironically "square" year to begin a music hits show in retrospect - Elvis Presley had yet to walk into his first recording studio, Billboard magazine had yet to start tracking hits with the Hot-100 chart (though they'd been doing the hit parade since 1936), and the controversial airing of Lucille Ball's pregnancy on I Love Lucy was currently a bother for the censors who would not allow the show's script to use the word "pregnant".
A list of the acts appearing on American Bandstand through its 37 year run includes the who's-who of rock history. You can generate waves of nostalgia just by naming a few of them: ABBA, Adam and the Ants, The Beach Boys, Berlin, Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Carpenters, Jimmy Dean, Electric Light Orchestra, Aretha Franklin, The Go-Go's, the entire cast of the stage musical Hair, Billy Idol, the Jackson 5, Jefferson Airplane, Kool & the Gang, KISS, Darlene Love, Christine McVie, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Leonard Nimoy (yes, he had a singing career), Pink Floyd, Prince, R.E.M., Dusty Springfield, Talking Heads, Bobby Vee, Wham!, and Weird Al Yankovic.
A big-box set of the entire run on DVD, if only it existed, would be a treasury of music history. Sadly, we know this to be impossible, since videotape was too expensive back in the 1950s and '60s and many of the original episodes from the first two decades are considered lost forever. But we'll still be talking about the legacy of the show for decades to come.
Meanwhile, Soul Train started up in 1970 on a local Chicago station, and from the beginning the show was aimed at being an alternative platform for African-American entertainment, which many in the music industry felt was being marginalized. Soul Train was Don Cornelius' baby from the first breath, having been his off-hours DJ show even before he landed the TV syndication deal. Cornelius himself often bristled at the comparison to American Bandstand.
Likewise, the list of Soul Train guests was a cavalcade of big names throughout its run, so we can name Paula Abdul, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Chic, Rick Dees, En Vogue, Pam Grier, Whitney Houston, Ice Cube, KC and the Sunshine Band, Kool & the Gang, Curtis Mayfield, Smokey Robinson, Salt-n-Pepa, TLC, Village People, and Wild Cherry ("Play that funky music white boy!").
Each show had their core theme song as well. American Bandstand had "Bandstand Boogie" in various incarnations, while Soul Train had "TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)". Both songs were written for their respective shows. While Dick Clark created the American Music Awards, Cornelius created the Soul Train Music Awards, both for similar purposes to honor outstanding artists in their respective fields.
It is absolutely impossible to give the lower hand to either show when considering the importance of their contribution to music. They were both necessary. And in their later years, they recognized this, bouncing off each other culturally. Dick Clark and Don Cornelius even collaborated on some projects in their later careers.
So 2012 will definitely stand as the end of an era. We just don't have anything to replace American Bandstand or Soul Train - MTV killed them years ago, but has itself gotten so far away from music that it makes a mockery of its own name. We have VH1 and BET, but both of them have become pale shadows of their predecessors, replaying the same oldies' top-40s playlist that becomes less relevant with every year. We might as well face it - television is no longer the life blood of the music industry. It's the Internet now, a wild frontier whose diversity is the barrier that keeps the centralized music media show from ever forming again.
Funny thing I watched the doc about industry legend Clarence Avant "Black Godfather", he said "Soul Unlimited" was cancelled because he wouldn't sign off on it going against Don.
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