. 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). 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 . 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. 'The Buddy Deane Show' was over . 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. 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. 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. 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. WJZ's show aired from 1957 to 1964 and was popular among Baltimore teens, promoting dances like the twist, mashed potato, and the Madison. Deaners seem to come out of the woodwork, drawn by the memory of their stardom. The early look of the Committee was typically 50s. Performances begin at 7 p.m. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing. The information used was obtained from WJZ. 2023 IndieWire Media, LLC. I used to get death threats on the show. Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. If a guy had one beer, it was a big deal. In her home, near Allentown, Pennsylvania, she serves me a beautiful brunch, models her fur coats, and poses with her Mercedes. And they all came together on the Buddy Deane Show, Baltimore's legendary teen dance show. 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. 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. On Jan. 4, 1964, "The Buddy Deane Show" aired its last episode. Over lunch at the Thunderball Lounge, in East Baltimore, Kathy remembers, I could never get used to signing autographs. Image Credit: OzNet.com Winston Joseph Deane was born on August 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He was one of the first to showcase rock and roll music on a continual basis. So the rules were bent a little; the big ones, the ones with the fan mail, were allowed to stay. 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. 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. For example, Carole King appeared on the show playing her single "It Might as Well Rain Until September", nearly a decade before she burst to popularity with her landmark 1970 album, Tapestry. 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. It was the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and, for several years, the highest rated local TV program in the country. (I looked like I was taking off.) And Helen, Linda, and Joanie all got out the rat-tail teasing combs. Racism is passed down from one generation to the next. Not a real one. 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. Buddy could take his seat beneath the famous Top 20 Board, and the tension would build. Some do remember a handful of kids getting high on cough medicine. The show's format mirrored Philadelphia's . Girl Scout leader, very active in my kids school. Mary Lou is still a star. THE BUDDY DEANE SHOW John Waters based The Corny Collins Show on The Buddy Deane Show, a daily Baltimore dance party show that was very popular throughout the late Fifties and early. My mother used to pick me up after school to make sure nobody hassled me., The adoring fans could also be a hassle. SOUL! From then on, all bare shoulders were covered with a piece of net. Hundreds of thousands of teens learned the latest dances by watching Committee members on the show, copying their personal style, and following their life stories and interactions. Committee members included Mike Miller, Charlie Bledsoe, Ron Osher, Mary Lou Raines, Pat(ricia) Tacey, and Cathy Schmink. Black History Month . While other radio hosts thought rock 'n' roll music was just a passing trend, refusing to play it in favor of pop songs, Deane played rock 'n' roll music on a regular basis. It is hosted by the titular Corny Collins, with the exception of the monthly Rhythm and Blues special which is hosted by Motormouth Maybelle . Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. Do you miss show biz? I ask her. 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. . That show featured local teens who danced to the hits of the era, although the entire cast was white except for one episode every other Friday for Black kids. Mr. Deane hosted a crowd of exuberant teens, who danced to the music of live rock bands, including many name acts. Mr. Deane's salary . With the rising pressures of integration, the producers decided that the show must either be integrated or canceled. Theatre producer, Margo Lion, saw a television broadcast of the film in 1998 and started to conceive it as a stage musical. The best little jitterbugger in Baltimore. This weekly time slot became known as "Special Guest Day" by the Deane Show's white performers and "Black Monday" by Baltimore's Black teens. Could it be? Every day after school kids would run home, tune in, and dance with the bedpost or refrigerator door as they watched. Id hook and have to dance in the back so the teachers couldnt see me, says Helen. Washington D.C.'s The Milt Grant Show offered "Black Tuesday" and Baltimore's The Buddy Deane Show had "Negro Day" because . 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. From 1964 to 1984, Deane hosted a show and owned KOTN-FM and KOTN-AM radio stations at Pine Bluff. On the show you were either a drape or a square, explains Sharon. By what name was The Buddy Deane Show (1957) officially released in Canada in English? However, unlike during the song "The New Girl in Town" where the Dynamites get there song stolen by 3 committee members, the Buddy . Deane hosted a morning show at WITH. Hopefully, some footage of you and the other Black dancers will be found and published online.Best wishes to you and yes, GOD HELP US! 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. Why Europeans Dont Get Huge Medical Bills. [citation needed]. If Im ever depressed, sometimes I think, Well this will make me feel better, and I go and dig in the box., Holding onto the memories more than anyone is Arlene Kozak, who is by far the most loved by all the Committee members. They would drive me nuts when theyd come in the door, and Id say Man, youre gone. The main thing was your hair was flat, the antithesis of Buddy Deane, she says, chuckling. The show designated every other friday to their black dancers, similar to "Negro Day" on the Corny Collins Show. She became so popular that she was written up in the nationwide Sixteen Magazine. This program is a tribute to long-time Maryland radio announcer Buddy Deane, who passed away in August, 2003. Once I was off the show for a while, and they said I had joined the nunnery, says Helen, laughing. BLACK MUSIC MOMENT #96: Short-Lived Integration Of The Buddy Deane Show. Winston Joseph Deane was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff. When that little red light came on, so did my smile, she says, laughing. Deane began his broadcasting career at KLXR in Little Rock, Arkansas. The protesters wanted the races to mix. Bill Haley and the Comets did their premier perf of "Rock Around the Clock" on Deane's show, and Deane was named the No. Ric Ocasek as the Beatnik cat; Pia Zadora as the Beatnik chick; Production. [1], As with many other local TV shows, little footage of the show is known to have survived. The Hairspray Live! [2], https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Buddy_Deane_Show&oldid=1101079819. Sometimes youd wrap your hair at night. I didnt mean to, because I never would have messed up the makeup.. Buddy offered to have three or even four days a week all black, but that wasnt it. Oh, black teens could dancejust not with the white kids. 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. That show featured local teens who danced to the. Why? Id wonder. She wasnt even a fan of the show. It would be a treasure to pass down to my future generations. I was aggressive. 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). But an intrepid group of local and . John Waters, a Baltimore filmmaker and Deane Show fan, loosely based "The Corny Collins' Show" in his movie "Hairspray" on Deane's show. Im the biggest ham. Although she denies being conscious of the camera, she admits, I did try to dance up front. Here, Clark's memories of American Bandstand are nested in an overview of important events in U.S. history from the 1950s and 1960s. 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. http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-madison-line-dance-got-its-name-and.html, http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/03/al-brown-and-ray-bryant-madison-records.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Deane_Show, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairspray_(2007_film), http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/06/timeline-for-cultural-use-of-saying.html, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/on-hairsprays-25th-anniversary-buddydeane-committee-looks-back/2013/01/17/a45a1cc2-5c23-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html, http://theurbandaily.com/2011/06/01/black-music-moment-96-short-lived-integration-of-the-buddy-deane-show/. Today they seem opposites. 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 very first day on the set, I didnt recognize Divine, the filmmaker said. Sources: www.IMDB.com -- Buddy Deane Biography; www.OzNet.com - A Collection of Articles About Buddy Deane; www.Variety.com -- Winston J. (There was a token all-black program once a month on the show called "Negro Day" in the movie, a phrase that now drips with surreal period flavor but no black Committee, and the protests called for integrating the show.) Joel Chaseman, also a DJ at WITH, became program manager of WJZ-TV when Westinghouse bought it in the mid-50s. We have a telegram, Buddy would shout almost daily, for Mary Lou to lead a dance, and the cameraman seemed to love her. From 1968 into 1973, the public television variety show SOUL! You are watching the "Buddy Deane Show." "The Buddy Deane Show" defined a new generation of rock & roll as well as dance on television in the late 1950s. The Best Picture Race Got a Lot More Confusing This Week, Tom Cruise Made the Rounds This Week, but Other Oscar Nominees Got More Applause Than Top Gun: Maverick, These Oscar Categories Are the Hardest to Predict, Translating the Unconscious Into Images: The Cinematography of Bardo, Poker Face Takes Viewers on a Cross-Country Road Trip Without Leaving New York, Why TR Looks Different from Every Other Movie of 2022, The 50 Best Movies of 2022, According to 165 Critics from Around the World, All 81 Titles Unceremoniously Removed from HBO Max (So Far), 10 Shows Canceled but Not Forgotten in 2022. Many top acts of the day, both black and white, appeared on The Buddy Deane Show. Voters approve of . Winston "Buddy" Deane was a broadcaster for more than fifty years, beginning his career in Little Rock, Arkansas, then moving to the Memphis, Tennessee, market before moving onto Baltimore . 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. 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 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 white kids parents came and got them. I thought I was running the world, so they developed a Board, and the Committee began governing itself. Being elected to the Board became the ultimate status symbol. Ninfa O. Barnard wrote this article for explorepinebluff.com. 2003. I'll include some of those comments in an upcoming pancocojams series about that dance.However, it seems to me that The Buddy Deane Show is more important because it exemplifies the need to go back and understand how the past has influenced the present with regard to systemic racism in Baltimore, Maryland and elsewhere in the United States. In early 2003, Deane sold KOTN and three other stations he had acquired over the years. Sure, as a teenager I was a guest on the show. Participants dressed in "country" style, and danced to country and western music as well as pop. If you were a Buddy Deane Committee member, you were on TV six days a week for as many as three hours a dayenough media exposure to make Marshall McLuhans head spin. producers hope this story of interracial unity will be appealing to television audiences in 2016. You are history. I even named some of the characters in my films after them. The first stars I could identify with. 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. 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. 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. 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. Perhaps the last thing 2016 needs is a star-studded, light-hearted musical endorsement of colorblindnessthough, viewed holistically, Hairspray is more than that. I got a little power-crazed, admits Joe. I'm sure they could have reached out to me via these posts, but did not. The Buddy Deane show aired 6 times a week and had a dance committee just like in hairspray. We are kind of like Ozzie and Harriet, says Gene Snyder as Linda nods in agreement. After you sprayed it, youd get toilet paper and blot it. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. That she has an affluent life-style surprises no one on the Committee. The Corny Collins Show, it turns out, was lifted almost literally from the extremely popular Buddy Deane Show, Baltimore's answer to Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Facing controversy over the possibility of more integrated broadcasts, the station canceled the program. The movie was eventually turned into a musical by the same name. Most Deaner girls wouldnt even tongue-kiss, claims Arlene, remembering the ruckus caused by a Catholic priest when the Committee modeled strapless Etta gowns on TV. So I gave it the happy ending that we had, Waters said. Hairspray was the actors first film, before Dead Poets Society, which came out the next year. Buddy called me up before the cameras, and I wasnt dressed my best. 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. But something unforeseen happened: The home audience soon grew attached to some of these kids. 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. He wanted me to go to a summer training session to be a trapeze artist. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Baltimore Magazine. I havent seen her since we made the movie, said Waters. Deane also held dances at various Maryland American Legion posts and National Guard armories which were not taped or broadcast on television. The Buddy Deane Show was a show from the late 50's to the mid 60's. The show was a teen dance television show, similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. Hairspray is John Waters most commercially successful film the 1988 dancing comedy spawned a hit Broadway musical, a movie and TV movie of that musical, plus multiple sequel and TV show offers that never saw the light of day. Eating the refreshments (Ameches Powerhouses, the premiere teenage hangouts forerunner of the Big Mac), which were for guests only. We faked a feud. On August 2, 1924, Winston Joseph Deane was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. 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. The Deaners didnt mind. three, two, one. The Corny Collins Show is based on the real Buddy Deane Show which, interestingly, was cancelled in 1964 for refusing to integrate black and white dancers, a core theme in this musical. 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. See production, box office & company info. This article is among features at explorepinebluff.com, a program of the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission. For the rest of the time, the show's participants were all white. Im still a fana Deaner groupie. As well, a show was broadcast from a local farm in Westminster, Maryland. Or the Bob-a Loop? 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. And more important, so did the Committee, still entering by a special door, still doing the dances from the period with utmost precision. With the 1960s came a whole new set of stars, some with names that seemed like gimmicks, but werent: Concetta Comi, the popular sister team of Yetta and Gretta Kotik. Buddy Deane. GOD HELP US! 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. Get off that furniture!? Deane died in Pine Bluff on July 16, 2003, after experiencing complications caused by a stroke. In 1948, Deane married Helen Stevenson, his childhood sweetheart, whom he first met when he was just four years old. This Article is related to: Film and tagged Divine, Hairspray, IFC Center, John Waters. The Buddy Deane Show was a teenage dance party, on the air from 1957 to 1964. | For many young people, being blocked from swimming pools, skating rinks, or dance shows like the Buddy Deane Show would be one of their first exposures to what King calls the feeling of forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness.. So the NAACP targeted the show for protests. He also left the Army in 1948 and began his radio broadcast career at KLXR station in North Little Rock. He eventually became one of the most respected programmers in the country and was even written up in Time magazine. All on Pulaski Highway. The Buddy Deane Show: With Channing Wilroy, Buddy Deane. Originally an all-white teen show with a monthly "Negro . Unlike the tensions that followed the real integration of the Buddy Deane Show, Waterss Hairspray ends with the protesters triumphing. 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. It was difficult with your peers, recalls Peanuts. These were the first role models I knew. At first I was so shy I hid behind the Coke machines., But Evanne used to come right home and head for the TV. At her appearances at the record hops, kids would actually scream when youd get out of the car: Theres Mary Lou! And although few will now admit to having been drapes, the styles at first were DAs (slicked back into the shape of a ducks tail), Detroits, and Waterfalls (flowing down the front) for the guys and ponytails and DAs for the girls, who wore full skirts with crinolins and three or four pairs of bobby socks. As with the drapes and squares of the previous decade, she explains, there were two classes of people thenDeaners and Joe College. When Barry Levinson, another Baltimore native, requested video from the show for his film Diner, the station told him it had no footage. Almost every rock 'n' roll star except Elvis graced the Deane Show stage. 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 . Mary Lou was aware that in some neighborhoods it was not cool to be a Buddy Deaner. He just didnt understand., But some have dealt with the problems in good humor. 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.

What Military Jobs Require A Polygraph, Sumner County Kansas Police Reports, Frank Boulineau Net Worth, How To Take Advantage Of All Inclusive Resorts, Articles B