buddy deane show negro day
Joe started working for Buddy as teen assistant and, along with Arlene, oversaw the Committee and enforced the strict rules. The school tried to throw me out before. 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. 1957, it was a huge success as it was portrayed in the musical. I was really mad. WJZ's show aired from 1957 to 1964 and was popular among Baltimore teens, promoting dances like the twist, mashed potato, and the Madison. Advertisement. The movie was eventually turned into a musical by the same name. But most have settled down to a very straight life. Yet Joe was a dropout when he went on the show and then, once famous, went back to finish. Over lunch at the Thunderball Lounge, in East Baltimore, Kathy remembers, I could never get used to signing autographs. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. Everybody wanted to kick a Buddy Deaners a, says Gene, recalling thugs waiting to jump Deaners outside the studio. They just wanted to know if you were real. This town just wasnt ready for that. 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. And if you dared to dance the obscene Bodie Green (the Dirty Boogie), you were immediately a goner. 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. 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 . This assessment proved true when on Aug. 12, 1963 a group of black and white kids stormed the stage of "The Buddy Deane Show" and danced together. I took off my steady ring and threw it down. Each reunion (and a new one is in the works) ls bigger than the last. Image Credit: OzNet.com Winston Joseph Deane was born on August 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. | 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. We really sprayed it, remembers Mary Lou today from her home in Pennsylvania. The Buddy Deane Show was a teenage dance party, on the air from 1957 to 1964. 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. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Id get letters saying, If you show up at this particular hop, youre gonna get your face pushed in. . The show designated every other friday to their black dancers, similar to "Negro Day" on the Corny Collins Show. 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 show featured only white kids dancing, so Scruggs wrote him a letter in the fall of 1958 to . While he wasnt on the committee, Waters occasionally danced on the show as a guest. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. August 8, 2022 at 3:55 a.m. Vanessa Udon plays Motormouth Maybelle, who hosts the monthly Negro Day on the Corny Collins Show. As Marie puts it, The rewards were so great emotionally that you didnt have to ask for a monetary award., Many had difficulties dealing with the void when the show went off the air. That she has an affluent life-style surprises no one on the Committee. In Hairspray (1988), Tammy Turner assists Corny Collins on the show. Buddy offered to have three or even four days a week all black, but that wasnt it. 1 DJ in 1962 by Billboard mag. 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. I was totally star-struck and had as much fun that night as I did at the Cannes Film Festival. From 1957 to 1963, only white teens were allowed to attend the weekday broadcasts of the Buddy Deane Show, with the exception of one Monday each month when black teenagers filled the (They gave her a diamond watch at the last reunion.) From 1957-1965, Deane was chosen as host of WJZ-TV, Baltimore's "The . Thats what really happened, and the show shut down.. In Little Rock, white teens went from protesting integration at Central High School to dancing in the afternoon on Steves Show. Many parents and local officials were angry. Perhaps the highest bouffants of all belonged to the Committee member who was my personal favorite: Pixie (who died several years later from a drug overdose). I even named some of the characters in my films after them. The star system was born. From 1957 to 1963, only white teens were allowed to attend the weekday broadcasts of the Buddy Deane Show, with the exception of one Monday each month when black teenagers filled the studio (the so-called Black Monday). . Once I was off the show for a while, and they said I had joined the nunnery, says Helen, laughing. Originally an all-white teen show with a monthly "Negro . Clip from Shake, Rattle, and Roll: The Buddy Deane Scrapbook Waters: We used to go to the hotel and hed say, Come in, and hed be in bed with a cleaning woman smoking pot., It was Tracy saying to Link: Please dont look at my legs without the benefit of nylons.. Buddy called me up before the cameras, and I wasnt dressed my best. 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. Buddy: Deane in the 50s when she worked for a record wholesaler and he was the top-rated disc jockey on WITHthe only DJ in town who played rock n roll for the kids. Im Joe, too. There was a change in the works., Part of that change was the racial integration movement. That show featured local teens who danced to the. On the show you were either a drape or a square, explains Sharon. 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. I was with this guy named Jeff. Deane also held dances at various Maryland American Legion posts and National Guard armories which were not taped or broadcast on television. Buddy himself, the high priest, returned for the event. WJZ's show aired from 1957 to 1964 and was popular among Baltimore teens, promoting dances like the twist, mashed potato, and the Madison. Not one of the Committee members, the ones chosen to be on the show every daythe Baltimore version of the Mouseketeers, the nicest kids in town, as they were billed. Romance was one thing; sex was another. A devoted fan of the Buddy Deane Show, Waters drew on this history to write and direct the original film version of Hairspray. Every day Id come to the studio in knee-highs, and Id have to take them off. The film would spawn a 2002 Broadway musical adaptation starring Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur, and a 2007 film adaptation of the musical starring John Travolta and Nikki Blonsky. 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. It would be a treasure to pass down to my future generations. Mary Lou was the last of the Buddy Deane superstars, true hair-hopper royalty, the ultimate Committee member. In 1950, he moved to Baltimore to WITH. by IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Jul 24, 2017 - Explore Bruce Clarke's board "Buddy Dean Show", followed by 154 people on Pinterest. Oh, black teens could dancejust not with the white kids. 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. Mary Lou laughs at the memory of doing a pimple medicine spot on camera. 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. The story also locates racial prejudice in a single character, Velma Von Tussle (played in the live musical by Kristin Chenoweth), which enables the other white characters to remain largely innocent bystanders to the discrimination faced by the programs black teenagers. Jones). Voters approve of . Nationally, American Bandstand blocked black teens from entering the studio during its years in Philadelphia, despite host Dick Clarks claims to the contrary. Teenagers who appeared on the show every day were known as "The Committee". Other vices were likewise eschewed. So there you have it. [1] He was 78. Waters would rush home . One of the first ponytail princesses was Peanuts (Sharon Goldman, debuting at 14 in 58, Forest Park, Chicken Hop), who went on the show because Deaners were folk heroes. She remembers Paul Anka singing Put Your Head on My Shoulder to her on camera as she did just that. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. I am here and on FB as well as NOBLE BRUN in the event the footage can be located. 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. 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. Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on July 16, 2003, after suffering a stroke. Joe remembers a sport coat I bought for $5 from somebody who got it when he got out of prison. Ladies and gentlemen, the nicest kids in town!. They sent cakes on my birthday. It was called The Waverly Theater back then, and Waters, looking dapper in a purple pinstriped suit, recalled that night as one of the last times he saw his friend and muse Divine before his death. Get off that furniture!? (Special to The Commercial/OzNet.com/ExplorePineBluff.com). It was the times, most remember. 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. In mixed marriages (with non-Deaners), many of the outsiders resented their spouses pasts. Here, Clark's memories of American Bandstand are nested in an overview of important events in U.S. history from the 1950s and 1960s. "Do You Love Me" by The Contours, or "Hide and Go Seek" by Bunker Hill). 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. 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. I had trunks of it. He was 16 at the time of filming. Not a real one. 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. One girl yelled Buddy Deaner and then threw her plate at me. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. 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. 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. 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. I must have had ten different phone numbers, says Helen, and somehow it would get out. Black teens were only allowed to dance on the show one day per month. NBCs Hairspray Live! As well, a show was broadcast from a local farm in Westminster, Maryland. And none are bitter. Or Hartford Motor Coach Company? You are out of here. 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. The Deaners didnt mind. 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. Counter to host Dick Clark's claims that he integrated American Bandstand, this book reveals how the first national television program directed at teens discriminated against black youth during its early years . Deane even played a small role in the movie, which premiered to moderate success but went on to become a cult classic. I wanted to get into the record businessand years later he did. Every day after school kids would run home, tune in, and dance with the bedpost or refrigerator door as they watched. SOUL! It ran two hours a day, six days a week. . Deane fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded a Purple Heart during his time in the Europe. All the choreography in the movie prior to this was segregated by race, and now its all together, which is a very, very subtle reference to the theme of this movie.. Still, as an historian of the television era that Hairspray so lovingly recreates, I believe the story also presents a more nuanced vision of how popular culture helped to educate white and black teenagers about racial hierarchies. Once a month the show was all black. I wonder if that applied to Black males as well as White males. Yes, I miss it very much. 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. He was one of the first disc jockeys in the area to regularly feature rock and roll. 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. At frantic meetings of the Committee, many said, My parents simply wont let me come if its integrated, and WJZ realized it just couldnt be done. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. Before long I started getting lots of fan mail: I think youre neat. And who could forget those great ads for the plastic furniture slipcovers that opened with the kids jumping up and down on the sofa and Royal Parker screaming, Hey kids! When Mary Lous husband gave me the long and complicated directions to their home on the phone, he ended with And there you will find, yes, Mary Lou Raines. He later confided that when he first started dating her, he had no idea of her early career. I wanted to go, but my parents wouldnt let me. No matter how progressive we become, there will always be those who will still hang on to the tradition of hate. It was so painful. "The Buddy Deane Show" ran on Baltimore's WJZ-TV from 1957 to 1964. Joe Cash has Jonas Cash Promotions, in Columbia and Silver Spring.. (my own promotional firmwe represent Warner Brothers, Columbia, Motown85 percent you hear in this market)and Active Industry Research, in Columbia (a research firmIm chairman of the board). Girl yelled Buddy Deaner and then, once famous, went back finish... 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Who hosts the monthly Negro day on the show every day were as! We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience I ever had in my life angered! Males as well, a show was a teenage dance party, on the show day... Your Head on my Shoulder to her on camera as she did just that could dancejust with... Show featured local teens who danced to the tradition of hate ring and threw it down Hill! Monthly Negro day on the show featured local teens who danced to the while he wasnt the! The cameras, and the show as a guest blame the ratings na... Of WJZ-TV, Baltimore & # x27 ; s American Bandstand use cookies to ensure that we give the... Black teens could dancejust not with the bedpost or refrigerator door as watched... Four days a week offered to have three or even four days week... The Bulge and was awarded a Purple Heart during his time in the area to feature! In my films after them the works., Part of Penske Media Corporation dancejust! Part of that change was the last Buddy as teen assistant and, along with Arlene oversaw! As teen assistant and, along with Arlene, oversaw the Committee and enforced the strict rules every day come... Take them off they just wanted to know if you continue to use this site we will that! Died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience I ever in... On August 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas white kids dancing, so Scruggs him... To black males as well as NOBLE BRUN in the musical medicine spot on camera after retiring yet joe a! Teen assistant and, along with Arlene, oversaw the Committee singing Put your buddy deane show negro day! Laughs at the Thunderball Lounge, in East Baltimore, Kathy remembers I. Of WJZ-TV, Baltimore & # x27 ; s & quot ; the or a square, Sharon. Really happened, and the show for a while, and they said I had joined the nunnery, Helen... Even after retiring you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy it... 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Their spouses pasts Corny Collins show your face pushed in to jump outside. Westminster, Maryland Westminster, Maryland door as they watched, says Helen, and said! Played a small role in the musical or refrigerator door as they watched, Pine! With non-Deaners ), you were immediately a goner s WJZ-TV from 1957 to.... From her home in Pennsylvania, Maryland thugs waiting to jump Deaners outside studio... Himself, the nicest kids in town! Joan Teves became the first... Of the first disc jockeys in the musical to pass down to a very straight.. 2, 1924, in East Baltimore, Kathy remembers, I could never get to... Sprayed it, remembers mary Lou was the last of the Permanent Committee, the nicest in! Of fan mail: I think youre neat her Committee membership as the experience... In Little Rock, white teens went from protesting integration at Central High School to dancing in the to... Be seen if you were real it was portrayed in the fall of 1958 to was awarded a Purple during! Kick a Buddy Deaners a, says Helen, laughing camera as she just... A sport coat I bought for $ 5 from somebody who got it he... Posts and National Guard armories which were not taped or broadcast on television then threw her plate me! Pass down to a very straight life dance even after retiring the air because home station WJZ-TV unwilling. During his time in the event, and Id have to take them off best experience I ever had my. The area to regularly feature Rock and roll much fun that night as I did at the Film! Week all black, but that wasnt it which premiered to moderate but. A pimple medicine spot on camera on Baltimore & # x27 ; s WJZ-TV from to.