There was one important change that [producer] Tony [Mammarella] and I made in
1957. Up until that time, the dancers on Bandstand had one
thing in common—they were all white. . . . So in 1957, we were
charting new territory. I don't think of myself as a hero or a civil
rights activist for integrating the show; it was simply the right
thing to do.
Dick Clark,
Dick Clark's American Bandstand
(1997)
Dick Clark's daily
television show, American Bandstand, was a major influence on
American popular music from 1957 to 1963. Clark presided over rock
and roll at a time when the pendulum swung back toward conformity.
The music establishment regained control over the business, white
performers reestablished dominance on the pop charts, and fans
suffered through what most critics regard as a dark period
lacking in creativity.
From 1952 to 1957,
Bandstand, hosted by Bob Horn, was a local Philadelphia after
school program featuring teenagers dancing in the studio to recorded
music, with guest musicians lip-syncing their hits. There was an
explicit whites-only policy regarding the kids in the studio. When
Dick Clark took over as host in 1957, the program obtained a spot on
the nationwide ABC network. In 1964, Clark moved the program to Los
Angeles. It is agreed that after 1964, the high school dancers were
completely integrated. At issue is the period between 1957 and 1963
in Philadelphia.
Delmont interviewed
both white and black people who participated in American Bandstand
as teenagers. All agreed that there was an unacknowledged
whites-only policy and black dancers were few and far between.
African-Americans reported that when they tried to gain admission,
they were always excluded for some reason: they lacked a membership
card, they didn't meet the dress code, the studio was full, etc. One
(white) interviewee reported that blacks who tried to get in were
“beat up in the parking lot.”
Several times,
African-American teenagers tried to integrate the show. In October
1957, a small group of them, accompanied by a reporter from the
Philadelphia Tribune (a black newspaper), tested the policy. They were admitted, but the
following day it was business as usual. Several articles about
Bandstand's segregation policy appeared in the nation's black
press, but they lacked leverage to influence the policy.
Of course, whether
African-American teenagers appeared on the program is an empirical
question. However, Dick Clark Productions, Inc., controls all the
existing footage of American Bandstand. Delmont was able to
examine 130 video clips from their web archives. He also found
several hundred still photos published by Clark and other sources.
Among thousands of teens, he only found two black girls sitting in
the bleachers in two still photos.
Why did American
Bandstand follow a whites-only policy? Delmont attributes it
primarily to the commercial aspirations of the local station, WFIL,
the network, and the sponsors, who hoped to appeal to a white
suburban audience. Clark may have learned an important lesson from
observing the fate of New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who was
committed to integration. In the Summer of
1957, Freed had a prime time show, The Big Beat, on ABC, the
network Clark would join that Fall. During the closing credits of
the program, one of his guests, black singer Frankie Lymon, in a
moment of spontaneity, danced briefly with a white girl. There was
an national uproar. Freed was told that if the show was to continue,
he could only have white guests. When he refused the show was
cancelled.
Delmont's website contains this link to an interview of the author by Juan Gonzalez on Democracy Now in 2012.
Delmont embeds the
Bandstand story in a larger narrative about racial
conflict in Philadelphia. Housing was rigidly segregated, and white
residents formed associations to keep their neighborhoods “safe”
from integration. When African-Americans moved into a previously
white area, real estate speculators profited from “block busting.”
They bought homes cheaply from fleeing whites and sold them at much
higher prices to black families, whose real estate options were limited. De facto segregation in the public schools
was maintained by carefully drawing district lines to conform to
neighborhood racial patterns and by careful choice of the locations
of new schools. All of this took place after the school board passed a resolution claiming that the Philadelphia public schools
were integrated.
Why does all of
this matter? From 1957 to 1963, American Bandstand was an
important symbol of a national youth culture built around rock
music—a culture that it implicitly defined as all-white. This is
ironic given that the music itself was of a genre originated by
African-Americans. Although Clark featured some black musicians as
guests, he used his show to restore white artists, such as
Philadelphia-based “teen idols” Frankie Avalon and Fabian, to a
position of prominence on the pop charts. By coincidence, Clark
happened to be part owner of some of the record labels and publishing
houses whose music he featured.
Delmont takes no
position on whether Dick Clark's claims about integration were
deliberate lies or a classic example of self-serving memory failure.
But his false statements raise a larger issue: How will the civil
rights struggle of the '50s and '60s be remembered? Individuals and
groups who were once a big part of the problem, such as white
Christian churches, now claim to have been part of the solution. As late as 1966, twice as many Americans had an unfavorable view of Martin Luther King as had a favorable one. Those of us who remember the real history of these years are going to
have to document the validity of our memories—memories that are
increasingly challenged by propaganda from corporations and
individuals who would like to rewrite recent history.
Thanks to Gayle
Morrow for calling this book to my attention.
