[1], Deane's dance party television show debuted in 1957 and was, for a time, the most popular local show in the United States. 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. I wanted to go, but my parents wouldnt let me. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Some kids on the show went a little nuts, with stars in their eyes; they thought they were going to go to Hollywood and be moviestars.. And because a new dance was introduced practically every week, you had to watch every day to keep up. "The Buddy Deane Show," which aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. . To be selected you had to bring a character reference letter from your pastor, priest, or rabbi, qualify in a dance audition, and show in an interview (the Spotlight) that you had personality. At first the Committee had a revolving membership with no one serving longer than three months. Buddy said to me, Well, heres my little girl whos been with me the longest. I hardly ever cried, but I just broke down on camera. In 1985 the Committee members are for the most part happy and healthy, living in Baltimore, and still recognized on the street. I was really mad. (They gave her a diamond watch at the last reunion.) Deane helped the Bill Haley and the Comets song "Rock Around the Clock" become a hit in Baltimore a full year before it became a worldwide success by promoting their music while at WITH. were the highest rated local TV show in America." Amazingly, Deane's show was aired live, two-and-a-half hours each day on five days a week with three hours on Saturday. Performances begin at 7 p.m. I had to get up there on time. 'The Buddy Deane Show' was over . Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. I didnt mean to, because I never would have messed up the makeup.. As you can see from the December thread my question concerning African Americans was totally dismissed by the Committee member who was speaking. Joe remembers a sport coat I bought for $5 from somebody who got it when he got out of prison. 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. The star system was born. Hairspray movie was inspired by this show and was based off of the the events but unlike the movies, instead of the show being integrated, it was cancelled. "If you first appeared on The Buddy Deane Show then you could not appear on The Dick Clark Show," Deane said. John Waters wrote the screenplay under the title of White Lipstick, with the story loosely based on real events.The Corny Collins Show is based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show, a local dance party program which pre-empted Dick Clark's American Bandstand in the Baltimore area during the 1950s and . Nationally, American Bandstand blocked black teens from entering the studio during its years in Philadelphia, despite host Dick Clarks claims to the contrary. has the chance to resurface a forgotten history of how discrimination in pop culture intimately shaped the lives of young people 50 years ago. The buddy dean show debuted on Sep. 9. Its host was Winston "Buddy" Deane (1924-2003), who died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas after . Now a receptionist living near Towson with her husband and two grown children, Arlene remains fiercely loyal, organizing the reunions and keeping notebooks filled with the updated addresses, married names, and phone numbers of my kids. She met Winston J. He wanted me to go to a summer training session to be a trapeze artist. On this day in 1979, Sweeney Todd first opened on Broadway . Hairspray is the gift that never stops giving, Waters told an adoring crowd at New Yorks IFC Center this past weekend, the theater where Hairspray first opened thirty years ago. I used to lie in bed at my parents house, and there was an African-American community up the street and they went by singing along to the radio. Facing controversy over the possibility of more integrated broadcasts, the station canceled the program. One girl yelled Buddy Deaner and then threw her plate at me. When that little red light came on, so did my smile, she says, laughing. Once a Deaner, always a Deaner, as another so succinctly puts it. The big garage-type door they remember would open, and theyd all pile in, past George and Mom, the Pinkerton guards who used to keep attendance, and crowd into Arlenes office to comb their hair, confide their problems, and touch up their make-up. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. This Article is related to: Film and tagged Divine, Hairspray, IFC Center, John Waters. Or dancing with other Committee members when you were supposed to be dancing with the guests (a very unpopular rule allowed this only every fourth dance). It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. You had to wear nylons. Every day after school kids would run home, tune in, and dance with the bedpost or refrigerator door as they watched. You werent one of them anymore. Outsiders envied the fame, especially if they lost their steadies to Deaners, and many were put off by boys who loved to dance. Everybody wanted to kick a Buddy Deaners a, says Gene, recalling thugs waiting to jump Deaners outside the studio. Buddy Deane. Mary Lou was aware that in some neighborhoods it was not cool to be a Buddy Deaner. John Waters, a Baltimore filmmaker and Deane Show fan, loosely based "The Corny Collins' Show" in his movie "Hairspray" on Deane's show. I wasnt going to go on and not be seen. But even Evanne turned bashful on one show, when Buddy made a surprise announcement: I was voted prettiest girl on this whole Army base. So the rules were bent a little; the big ones, the ones with the fan mail, were allowed to stay. Being a teenage star in Baltimore had its drawbacks. Ladies and Gentleman . All rights reserved. Every week she had a different dothe Double Bubble, the Artichoke, the Airlifteach topped off by her special trademark, suggested by her mother, the bow. C. Fields in drag.), This movie is the only radical movie I ever made because it snuck in mid-America. I was a misfit. 2023 IndieWire Media, LLC. Oh, my God, its Evanne! Autograph books, cameras, this is what they lived for. Maybe that was a good choice because Divine was 40 then., She played against-type, certainly. In 1984, he sold the station to a local college but bought it back in 1996. It is hosted by the titular Corny Collins, with the exception of the monthly Rhythm and Blues special which is hosted by Motormouth Maybelle . My mother used to pick me up after school to make sure nobody hassled me., The adoring fans could also be a hassle. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. The first and maybe the biggest Buddy Deane queen of all. This sort of nearsighted, if not disingenuous, framing persists today, whether in affluent parents in New York City insisting their opposition to school rezoning proposals is not about race, or in arguments suggesting that the best way to address racism is to stop accusing people of being racists.. Several local art contests were also held on the show, with viewers submitting their own art work. In fact, "American Bandstand" was not shown on television in Baltimore because Deane's show was so popular. The first big stars were Bobbi Bums and Freddy Oswinkle, according to Arlene, but no matter how big anyone got, someone came along who was even bigger. Joe Cash and Joan Teves became the shows first royalty. The Buddy Deane Show was a teen dance television show, created by Zvi Shoubin, hosted by Winston "Buddy" Deane (1924-2003), and aired on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), the ABC affiliate station in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. Deane even dubbed himself "the morning mayor." Why? Id wonder. She wasnt even a fan of the show. Rather than integrating, the show was canceled. Or the Bob-a Loop? Eating the refreshments (Ameches Powerhouses, the premiere teenage hangouts forerunner of the Big Mac), which were for guests only. 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. This man approached me, telegrammed me, showed up at the show. With the rising pressures of integration, the producers decided that the show must either be integrated or canceled. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to what it meant for young black people to be excluded from entertainment spaces like the Buddy Deane Show. The Corny Collins Show is now integrated! Waters himself commented on the films revisionist history, I gave it a happy ending that it didnt have., Hairsprays happy ending gave the story an arc that appealed to Broadway and Hollywood producers. by Even today Gene and Linda are the quintessential Deaner couple, still socializing with many Committee members, very protective of the memory, and among the first to lead a dance at the emotion-packed reunions. The night was full of delightful anecdotes, including these ten you may not have heard before. When Barry Levinson, another Baltimore native, requested video from the show for his film Diner, the station told him it had no footage. Some fifty years later, the mindset is STILL the same. It was a fluke. Acts that appeared on the show first were reportedly barred from appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, but if they had been on Bandstand first they could still be on The Buddy Deane Show. How The Buddy Deane Show really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. Or Hartford Motor Coach Company? But an intrepid group of local and . Deane also played songs that other disc jockeys, including Dick Clark, refused to present to mostly white teen TV audiences because the acts sounded "too black" (e.g. Its fairly neat, commercialized, and revisionist portrayal of 1960s Baltimore sharply contrasts with the current messy, national discussion of identity politicsa disjunction that could prompt new audiences to reevaluate their assumptions about how racism operates. I was Tracy, said Waters. What: The Buddy Deane Show was a teen rock-and-roll dance television show that aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland from 1957 until 1964. "I still go to the Buddy Deane reunions," he says. August 8, 2022 at 3:55 a.m. 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. (NWA Media). They sent cakes on my birthday. Theatre producer, Margo Lion, saw a television broadcast of the film in 1998 and started to conceive it as a stage musical. I am here and on FB as well as NOBLE BRUN in the event the footage can be located. Over lunch at the Thunderball Lounge, in East Baltimore, Kathy remembers, I could never get used to signing autographs. 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 had a lot of black friends at the time, so for me this was an awkward thing, says Marie. I focused on the 1957-1964 television series The Buddy Deane Show in part because I'm interested in documenting old school African American originated line dances, and the Buddy Deane Show's 1958 or 1959 clip of The Madison appears to be the earliest surviving film of that dance.I believe that The Buddy Deane Show is important in part because it documents aspects of Americana such as the way the teenagers (or at least White teenagers] in the late 1950s and early 1960s dressed, danced, interacted, and also documented (through retrospective interviews such as the one quoted in Excerpt #2 of this post) attitudes and values of that time. Although the Committee was a valuable promotional tool for WJZ at the time, and belonging was a full-time job, no one (except teen assistants) was paid a penny. Committee members included Mike Miller, Charlie Bledsoe, Ron Osher, Mary Lou Raines, Pat(ricia) Tacey, and Cathy Schmink. Jones). The Buddy Deane Show was a teen dance television show, created by Zvi Shoubin, hosted by Winston "Buddy" Deane (1924-2003), and aired on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), the ABC affiliate station in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. The regulars . Special appearances. Ninfa O. Barnard Special to The Commercial However, unlike during the song "The New Girl in Town" where the Dynamites get there song stolen by 3 committee members, the Buddy . Joe started working for Buddy as teen assistant and, along with Arlene, oversaw the Committee and enforced the strict rules. Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on July 16, 2003, after suffering a stroke. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. Originally an all-white teen show with a monthly "Negro . People already were excited about it, but after the election they were saying, Boy, do we need this now, Meron said while promoting the new television musical. Image Credit: OzNet.com Winston Joseph Deane was born on August 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Buddy Dean Show was the inspiration for the "Corny Collins Show" in the 2007 musical. You received demerits for almost anything: Chewing gum. I still believe that footage is out there somewhere. BLACK MUSIC MOMENT #96: Short-Lived Integration Of The Buddy Deane Show. Unlike the tensions that followed the real integration of the Buddy Deane Show, Waterss Hairspray ends with the protesters triumphing. 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. No! she answers, with a conviction that gives me the chills. Waters grew up with "The Buddy Deane Show" in Baltimore, and modeled his fictitious "Corny Collins Show" after it. The main thing was your hair was flat, the antithesis of Buddy Deane, she says, chuckling. I wanted to join the circus., Two other ponytail princesses who went on to the Buddy Dean hall of fame were Evanne Robinson, the committee member on the show the longest, and Kathy Schmink. I must have had ten different phone numbers, says Helen, and somehow it would get out. 2003. But by far the most popular hairdo queen on Buddy Deane was a 14-year-old Pimlico Junior High School student named Mary Lou Raines. MPT did a segment which included interviews with former African American dancers who appeared on the show. The Deane program set aside every other Friday for a show featuring only black teenagers. Kathy switched to a great beehive that resembled a trash can sitting on top of her head. [citation needed]. Nicknamed "Buddy" as a child, Deane developed an early love for radio. Last spring, five hundred people quickly snapped up the $23 tickets to the third Buddy Deane Reunion, held at the Eastwind, in Essex, to raise money for the Baltimore Burn Center. I couldnt be bothered with education. 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. If a guy had one beer, it was a big deal. Here, Clark's memories of American Bandstand are nested in an overview of important events in U.S. history from the 1950s and 1960s. Ten seconds to airtime. 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. Im a typical housewife, says Peanuts. . He got a great review in The New York Times. . The Nicest Kids in Town! It was a family: Buddy was the father, Arlene was the mother.. IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Then we made up on camera.. Powers was a particularly special addition, having disappeared in the years since the films release. Not a real one. See more ideas about buddy, historic baltimore, baltimore. "How 'The Buddy Deane Show' really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. maintains the basic of Waterss story, but like the Broadway version and musical film, it features more than a dozen songs that help to convey the hopeful narrative. He was one of the first to showcase rock and roll music on a continual basis. In 1942, Deane enrolled at Cornell University in New York. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. The very first day on the set, I didnt recognize Divine, the filmmaker said. And it was not unique: Dick Reids Record Hop in Charleston, West Virginia; Ginny Paces Saturday Hop in Houston, Texas; John Dixons Dixon on Disc in Mobile, Alabama; Bill Sanderss show in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dewey Phillipss Pop Shop in Memphis, Tennessee; and Chuck Allens Teen Tempo in Jackson, Mississippi, were all segregated dance shows. "Hairspray" will continue at East Ridge High School through April 23. We are kind of like Ozzie and Harriet, says Gene Snyder as Linda nods in agreement. 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. Voters approve of . From 1957-1965, Deane was chosen as host of WJZ-TV, Baltimore's "The . Theyd stand outside my home. Ric Ocasek as the Beatnik cat; Pia Zadora as the Beatnik chick; Production. The television news reporter covering the Corny Collins Show in the film sums up the climactic scene: Youre seeing history being made today. Waters would rush home . Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. In December 1963, producers at Baltimores WJZ-TV cancelled the Buddy Deane Show rather than integrate the popular teen dance program. Winston Joseph Deane was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff. Many parents and local officials were angry. From 1968 into 1973, the public television variety show SOUL! And more important, so did the Committee, still entering by a special door, still doing the dances from the period with utmost precision. "How 'The Buddy Deane Show' really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. . He eventually became one of the most respected programmers in the country and was even written up in Time magazine. 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 . What: The Buddy Deane Show was a teen rock-and-roll dance television show that aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland from 1957 until 1964. With the show beginning at 2:30 in some years, cutting out of school early was common. I had always studied dance, and I wanted to go on [the show]. Motormouth Maybelle, a fictional black deejay and civil-rights activist played in the NBC version by Jennifer Hudson, sings: You cant stop today as it comes speeding down the track / Child, yesterday is history and its never coming back / Cause tomorrow is a brand new day and it dont know white from black. In the films narrative, this utopian vision of a colorblind future solves the problem of segregation and racial injustice. 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