The white kids parents came and got them. If you couldnt do the Buddy Dean jitterbug, (always identifiable by the girls ever-so-subtle dip of her head each time she was twirled around), you were a social outcast. 2003. Deane even played a small role in the movie, which premiered to moderate success but went on to become a cult classic. In her home, near Allentown, Pennsylvania, she serves me a beautiful brunch, models her fur coats, and poses with her Mercedes. . I remember it well, recalls Evanne. Not show biz, Arlene answers, hesitating, but the record biz, the people. Thank you for including me as one of the Buddy Dean family. Actor: Hairspray. I got a little power-crazed, admits Joe. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. Every rock n roll star of the day (except Elvis) came to town to lip-synch and plug their records on the show: Buddy Holly, Domino, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian, to name just a few. We would always do The Dirty Boogie, the one you arent allowed to do, he said. Here, Clark's memories of American Bandstand are nested in an overview of important events in U.S. history from the 1950s and 1960s. BLACK MUSIC MOMENT #96: Short-Lived Integration Of The Buddy Deane Show. The producers of Diner wanted to include Buddy Deane footage in their film, but most of the shows were live and any tapes of this local period piece have been erased. In a long list of reasons why we find it difficult to wait for freedom, King writes: When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she cant go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. Maybe ''The Buddy Deane Show,'' the teen-dance-party that ran on local television in Baltimore from 1957 to 1964 and inspired ''Hairspray,'' was the only wholesome obsession that ever led to one . Yes, I miss it very much. There are other socio-cultural comments in various YouTube comments threads about the Madison dance. (NWA Media). If a guy had one beer, it was a big deal. My mother wanted me to go, she took me down to the tryouts. The regulars . Waters would rush home . The show was a teen dance and music show and ran from 1957 to until 1964 on WJZ-TV until the show was canceled.The show was a teen dance and music show and ran from 1957 to until 1964 on WJZ-TV until the show was canceled.The show was a teen dance and music show and ran from 1957 to until 1964 on WJZ-TV until the show was canceled. I couldnt be bothered with education. For the rest of the time, the show's participants were all white. Linda reverently describes her Committee membership as the best experience I ever had in my life. They later became members of the Permanent Committee, the hall of fame that could come back to dance even after retiring. Every weekday afternoon, in each of these broadcast markets, these shows presented images of exclusively white dancers and rendered black youth as second-class teenagers. Friday, February 24, 2023. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! An then there was teased hair, replacing the 50s drape with a Buddy Deane look that so pervaded Baltimore culture (especially in East and South Baltimore) that its effect is still seen in certain neighborhoods of this great Hairdo Capital of the World. But Hairspray also resonates for at least one of the same reasons it did in the 80s: It shows how seemingly innocent moments in popular culture were also sites of struggle over who was worthy of being a counted as a somebody in America. Most are happily married with kids and maintain the same images they had on the show. Being a teenage star in Baltimore had its drawbacks. The very first day on the set, I didnt recognize Divine, the filmmaker said. On Jan. 4, 1964, "The Buddy Deane Show" aired its last episode. This program is a tribute to long-time Maryland radio announcer Buddy Deane, who passed away in August, 2003. The show designated every other friday to their black dancers, similar to "Negro Day" on the Corny Collins Show. So I gave it the happy ending that we had, Waters said. Oh, black teens could dancejust not with the white kids. Clip from Shake, Rattle, and Roll: The Buddy Deane Scrapbook Deane also presented British artist Helen Shapiro, who sang her Baltimore hit, "Tell Me What He Said," at about the time that she was touring England with The Beatles as one of her support acts. Deane even dubbed himself "the morning mayor." It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. Six days a week and often two hours a day, Buddy Deane and his Committee Members--the privileged regular teen dancers . It was so painful. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. My mother used to pick me up after school to make sure nobody hassled me., The adoring fans could also be a hassle. You will be redirected back to your article in, Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. Gene calls it a big loss. It was living in a fantasy world, says Helen. Although the show has been off the air for more than twenty years, a nearly fanatical cult of fans has managed to keep the memory alive. His running joke with listeners was that he ran the town from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. until the city's real mayor took over. Buddy Deane. At just 10 years old, he and a friend set up their own radio station in a chicken coop that belonged to Deane's mother. In mixed marriages (with non-Deaners), many of the outsiders resented their spouses pasts. That's one of the things that the Black Lives Matter movement is talking about. All Rights Reserved. The first and maybe the biggest Buddy Deane queen of all. ', Although many parents and WJZ insisted that Committee members had to keep up their grades to stay on the show, the reality could be quite different. . Sometimes youd wrap your hair at night. With the nation in a divisive place, he argued, viewers are looking for entertainment that can be really healing. The New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani saw a similar dynamic at play when Hairspray, the musical, debuting shortly after 9/11, won over fans: Hollywood and Broadway producers have decided [what] Americans want is nostalgiathe logic being that people in times of trouble will gravitate toward comfort entertainment that reminds them of simpler, happier times [such as] the candy-colored Broadway musical Hairspray., Hairsprays history of race in America suggests that racism is an issue of attitudes rather than of policies. Mr. Deane hosted a crowd of exuberant teens, who danced to the music of live rock bands, including many name acts. You cant do this. I remember once we all got arrested at the drive-in for underage drinking, and the black kids didnt get out and the white kids did. But as more and more kids (even Deane fans) did tum Joe College, many of the Committee made the mistake of not keeping up with the times. Penny nervously stumbles over her answers, and another girl, Nadine Carver, is cut for being Black (the show has a "Negro Day" on the last Thursday of every month, she is told). In addition to creating teenage dancing sensations, "The Buddy Deane Show" also featured musical superstars of the day, including Buddy Holly, Domino, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Fabian and many others. I only saw Divine alive one more time after that night, so it was a great, great night to remember. By what name was The Buddy Deane Show (1957) officially released in Canada in English? Not a real one. In 1957, Deane was chosen by former WITH associate Joel Chaseman to host "The Buddy Deane Show," a dance show for teenagers on WJZ-TV Channel 13. It was the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and, for several years, the highest rated local TV program in the country. . He wanted me to go to a summer training session to be a trapeze artist. has the chance to resurface a forgotten history of how discrimination in pop culture intimately shaped the lives of young people 50 years ago. . There were threats and bomb scares; integrationists smuggled whites into the all-black shows to dance cheek-to-cheek on camera with blacks, and that was it. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. Joe started working for Buddy as teen assistant and, along with Arlene, oversaw the Committee and enforced the strict rules. Why not do The Deane Show on TV again? In fact, "American Bandstand" was not shown on television in Baltimore because Deane's show was so popular. WJZ's show aired from 1957 to 1964 and was popular among Baltimore teens, promoting dances like the twist, mashed potato, and the Madison. Vanessa Udon plays Motormouth Maybelle, who hosts the monthly Negro Day on the Corny Collins Show. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Chaseman had this idea for a dance party show, with Buddy as the disc jockey, and Buddy asked Arlene to go to work for him. Joe remembers a sport coat I bought for $5 from somebody who got it when he got out of prison. Or Snuggle Dolls? Later that year he enlisted in the Army, where he served in Europe involved in some of the most intense battles of World War II. When that little red light came on, so did my smile, she says, laughing. In 1950, he moved to Baltimore to WITH. He was one of the first to showcase rock and roll music on a continual basis. Hairspray, which started as a camp film with a modest $2.7 million budget, grew into a popular and commercially successful Broadway musical and movie. Based loosely on the 1988 film by John Waters, Hairspray centres on Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad (Carmel Rodrigues), who in 1962 wants nothing more than a chance to dance on the local pop music TV. The "Corny Collins Show" in Hairspray is loosely based on the Baltimore teen dance program called the "Buddy Deane Show." One Baltimore woman fought to get black teens on the popular show back in . The show featured only white kids dancing, so Scruggs wrote him a letter in the fall of 1958 to . . In 1957, Deane was chosen by former WITH associate Joel Chaseman to host "The Buddy Deane Show," a dance show for teenagers on WJZ-TV Channel 13. I guess Helen Crist was the first drapette: the DA, the ballet shoes, oogies [tulle scarves], eye shadoweyeliner was big thenand pink lipstick., Helen Crist. Ironically, The Buddy Deane Show introduced black music and artists into the lives of white Baltimore teenagers, many of whom learned to dance from black friends and listened to black radio. I was a square. The racial integration of a take-off of the show, dubbed The Corny Collins Show, provides the backdrop to the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. Oh, my God, its Evanne! Autograph books, cameras, this is what they lived for. The Stupidity, where you act mentally ill. The Bugs easy, you just catch a disease and throw it to someone else, Waters said. The Deaners didnt mind. While he wasnt on the committee, Waters occasionally danced on the show as a guest. Performances begin at 7 p.m. From 1957-1965, Deane was chosen as host of WJZ-TV, Baltimore's "The . Just once. Many parents and local officials were angry. When Barry Levinson, another Baltimore native, requested video from the show for his film Diner, the station told him it had no footage. And Divine said, What drag queen would allow themselves to look like this?'. Joanie, whose mother wanted me to be a child star, hit the show in early 57 at age 13 (you had to be 14 to be eligible, but many lied about their ages to qualify), followed a few months later by Joe, 17. It was a fluke. Buddy called me up before the cameras, and I wasnt dressed my best. "I still go to the Buddy Deane reunions," he says. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. In 1958 the Buddy Deane Show lost support from the Baltimore City Board of Education due to it's segregation policies, and in 1964 it went off the air instead of choosing to integrate. Some of the old Committee kept up with the times and made the transition with ease. Waters took inspiration from the real-life Buddy Deane Show, a local dance party program that ran from 1957 to 1964 in the Maryland area. Waters grew up with "The Buddy Deane Show" in Baltimore, and modeled his fictitious "Corny Collins Show" after it. Hairspray was the actors first film, before Dead Poets Society, which came out the next year. The Buddy Deane Show was a teenage dance party, on the air from 1957 to 1964. Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on July 16, 2003, after suffering a stroke. So you cant imagine how excited I was when I finally got a chance to interview these local legends twenty years later. They sent cakes on my birthday. From 1996 to 2003, he hosted dance events in Baltimore, Pennsylvania and aboard cruise ships. I graduated from an HBCU, lived through racism, marched on Washington with Martin Luther King, and was active in fighting injustices in Baltimore County at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Originally known as The Buddy Deane Bandstand, the show first went on the air at 3 p.m. Sept. 9, 1957, and aired for two hours; the show often preceded the Mickey Mouse Club. The information used was obtained from WJZ. Im still a fana Deaner groupie. You received demerits for almost anything: Chewing gum. I was honored, touched by it all.. I was with this guy named Jeff. When the show ended, Deane moved back to Arkansas,. GOD HELP US! The films executive producer Craig Zadan argued that what makes Hairspray work is, you never feel like were on a soap box, or were preaching to you, or were saying this is a lesson you need to learn and yet, hopefully, you come away from it with something serious to talk about afterwards. There is no guarantee that viewers will take up these discussions, but Hairspray offers plenty of material for those who choose to do so. I wanted to dance., We had a saying: The show either makes you or breaks you,' says Kathy. "Do You Love Me" by The Contours, or "Hide and Go Seek" by Bunker Hill). Buddy could take his seat beneath the famous Top 20 Board, and the tension would build. Once a Deaner, always a Deaner, as another so succinctly puts it. I had to get up there on time. So the NAACP targeted the show for protests. The Deane program was a segregated show: white and Black teenagers danced on separate broadcasts. And more important, so did the Committee, still entering by a special door, still doing the dances from the period with utmost precision. Some do remember a handful of kids getting high on cough medicine. . Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. On Negro day a group of black and white kids staged a similar sneak attack on the Buddy Deane Show. "Hairspray" will continue at East Ridge High School through April 23. Soon after, he and his family moved to Memphis, Tenn. 'The Buddy Deane Show' was over . This move would have been a footnote in the annals of television if not for the director and Baltimore native John Waters, whose 1988 film Hairspray offered up an alternate history, with its fictional Corny Collins Show and rose-tinted, lets-all-dance-together ending. I wonder if that applied to Black males as well as White males. Influencers: Profiles of a Partnership 2022, How to Pitch Stories and Articles to IndieWire, John Waters Shares His 10 Favorite Films of 2022, 'Peter Von Kant' Tops List, John Waters to Write and Direct 'Liarmouth' from His Own Novel, Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 50 Films the Director Wants You to See, Oscars 2023: Best Animated Feature Predictions. The ultimate reunion.From all over the country, the Deaners could rise again, congregate at the bottom of Television Hill, and start Madison-ing their way (Youre looking good. And according to Arlene, Buddy encouraged one popular Committee member (Buzzy Bennet) to teach himself to read so he could realize his dream of being a disc jockey. At her appearances at the record hops, kids would actually scream when youd get out of the car: Theres Mary Lou! On this day in 1979, Sweeney Todd first opened on Broadway . In 1963, the Civic Interest Group, an student integrationist group founded at Morgan State University, challenged this policy by obtaining tickets for black and white teens to attend the show on a day reserved for black teenagers. . (I looked like I was taking off.) And Helen, Linda, and Joanie all got out the rat-tail teasing combs. I took off my steady ring and threw it down. Waters's nostalgic and detailed appreciation for The Buddy Deane Show, . No! she answers, with a conviction that gives me the chills. Baltimore teenagers rushed home to catch the show daily to listen to the popular music, watch their favorite dancers, copy their style and learn the new dances that were introduced almost every week. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, sponsored by Matt Palumbo's MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN for Friday shows that 46% of Likely U.S. Fran Nedeloff (debuting at 14 in 61, Mervo, cha-cha) remembers the look: Straight skirt to the knee, cardigan sweater buttoned up the back, cha-cha heels, lots of heavy black eyeliner, definitely Clearasil on the lips, white nail polish. Every day Id come to the studio in knee-highs, and Id have to take them off. The movie was eventually turned into a musical by the same name. John Waters with Divine (Harris Glen Milstead) at the Baltimore premiere of Hairspray, Originally, I had it, the idea was Divine was gonna play the mother and the daughter like in The Parent Trap. New Line [Cinema] wouldnt let me, he said. The more hair spray, the better. 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