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. 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. Then we made up on camera.. You had to wear nylons. So the NAACP targeted the show for protests. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! . But most have settled down to a very straight life. The show featured only white kids dancing, so Scruggs wrote him a letter in the fall of 1958 to . Oh sure, if you were Joe College [pre-preppie], you just didnt do The Deane Show. Did you ever tum into a Joe College? I ask innocently. Ladies and gentlemen, the nicest kids in town!. 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. It is hosted by the titular Corny Collins, with the exception of the monthly Rhythm and Blues special which is hosted by Motormouth Maybelle . Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Deane organized and disc-jockeyed dances in public venues across the WJZ-TV broadcast area, including much of central Maryland, Delaware, and southern Pennsylvania where tens of thousands of teenagers were exposed to live recording artists and TV personalities. 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. Checking back with the studio, no one had information concerning footage of African American dancers. He also left the Army in 1948 and began his radio broadcast career at KLXR station in North Little Rock. From 1996 to 2003, he hosted dance events in Baltimore, Pennsylvania and aboard cruise ships. 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. 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 maddening: the Mashed Potatoes, the Stroll, the Pony, the Waddle, the Locomotion, the Bug, the Handjive, the New Continental, and, most important, the Madison, a complicated line dance that started here and later swept the country. 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/. Theyd stand outside my home. Sure, as a teenager I was a guest on the show. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. And the girl Deaners, God, hair-hoppers as we called them in Towson, the ones with the Etta Gowns, bouffant hairdos, and cha-cha heels. After the screening, he was joined by Michael Musto and original cast membersLeslie Ann Powers (Penny Pingleton), JoAnn Havrilla (Prudence Pingleton), and Holter Graham (I.Q. I was Tracy, said Waters. My parents didn't talk much about racism, and as a result I grew up learning to love everybody. They all thought all the girls were pregnant by Buddy Deane, remember several. 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. Pancocojams showcases the music, dances, language practices, & customs of African Americans and of other people of Black descent throughout the world. "How 'The Buddy Deane Show' really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. While he wasnt on the committee, Waters occasionally danced on the show as a guest. 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 . It was the times, most remember. In December 1963, producers at Baltimores WJZ-TV cancelled the Buddy Deane Show rather than integrate the popular teen dance program. three, two, 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. 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 got a great review in The New York Times. Buddy offered to have three or even four days a week all black, but that wasnt it. Mr. Deane hosted a crowd of exuberant teens, who danced to the music of live rock bands, including many name acts. The whole day on the show was devoted to me.. . By representing this realityin bubble-gum, technicolor clarityHairspray does something that pure documentation, at times, cant: It makes a difficult part of a nations history accessible (and entertaining) to millions of viewers. The early look of the Committee was typically 50s. It was difficult with your peers, recalls Peanuts. My heart would have broken in two if I couldnt have gone on. Finally, Helen quit Mergenthaler (Mervo) trade school, at the height of her fame. 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. 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). The show began in September of 1957 when an Arkansan named Winston Joe "Buddy" Deane was approached by Joel Chaseman, the head of programming at WJZ-TV. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. On the show you were either a drape or a square, explains Sharon. On Negro day a group of black and white kids staged a similar sneak attack on the Buddy Deane Show. The Buddy Deane Show was a highly visible regional program that asserted a racially segregated public culture. Oh, my God, its Evanne! Autograph books, cameras, this is what they lived for. The movie was eventually turned into a musical by the same name. Voters approve of . 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. I was totally star-struck and had as much fun that night as I did at the Cannes Film Festival. Buddy Deane, a native of Pine Bluff, was one of the first radio hosts to understand the appeal of Rock n Roll in its infancy, the host of a popular 60s teen dance show, the inspiration for a film and musical character in Hairspray, and so much more. . He eventually became one of the most respected programmers in the country and was even written up in Time magazine. Soon after, he and his family moved to Memphis, Tenn. 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. Once a month the show was all black; there was no black Committee. Almost all dancers wore swim wear and beach attire, with music provided by WJZ-TV. I got these letters from the Naval Academy, Helen remembers, so I went there one day, and all the midshipmen were hanging out the windows. 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. "Hairspray" will continue at East Ridge High School through April 23. We really sprayed it, remembers Mary Lou today from her home in Pennsylvania. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. 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. The "Buddy Dean Show" was abruptly cancelled. Many top acts of the day, both black and white, appeared on The Buddy Deane Show. 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. You learned how to be a teenager from the show. On the other, Hairspray Live! Warner, Tony, Buddy's Top 20: The Story of Baltimore's Hottest TV Dance Show and the Guy Who Brought it to Life! In 1950, Deane moved to Baltimore to host 1230 AM WITH after Stan Kenton, a performer and guest he was interviewing, informed him of the opening at the radio station. 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. Over the next several years, Deane's show became the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and the highest rated local show in the United States. producers hope this story of interracial unity will be appealing to television audiences in 2016. Vanessa Udon plays Motormouth Maybelle, who hosts the monthly Negro Day on the Corny Collins Show. (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.) 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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. [citation needed]. It was even in the papers. . I was so embarrassed. Not show biz, Arlene answers, hesitating, but the record biz, the people. After you sprayed it, youd get toilet paper and blot it. 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. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. Deane died in Pine Bluff on July 16, 2003, after experiencing complications caused by a stroke. The action of the musical takes place in 1962 and centers around Baltimore's teenage obsession with the television program The Corny Collins Show, a stand-in for an actual Baltimore production of the day, The Buddy Deane Show. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. The show was a teen dance and music show and ran from 1957 to until 1964 on WJZ-TV until the show was canceled. Here is the new video celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Buddy Deane Show and the former Catonsville Community College (now CCBC). There were a lot of obscene phone calls., And the rumors, God, the rumors. (I looked like I was taking off.) And Helen, Linda, and Joanie all got out the rat-tail teasing combs. . 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. On the last day of the show, January 4, 1964, all the most popular Committee members through the years came back for one last appearance. The inspiration for this movie was born out of an afternoon teen dance show, The Buddy Deane Show, which aired on Baltimore's WJZ-TV from 1957-1964 until it was taken off the air because the owner did not want to integrate. When I get depressed, I dont go to the psychiatrist, I go to the jeweler, she says. He was 16 at the time of filming. One girl yelled Buddy Deaner and then threw her plate at me. Buddy noticed my eyes staring and said, Do the same eyes. And the camera got it. Kathy went even further. Gene calls it a big loss. It was living in a fantasy world, says Helen. Buddy himself, the high priest, returned for the event. The guys who wore sport coats with belts in the back from Lees of Broadway (10 percent discount for Committee members), pegged pants, pointy-toe shoes with the great buckles on the side, and drape (greaser) haircuts that my parents would never allow. And the whole concept of the Committee changed. . 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. Buddy Deane used to boast that every major rock 'n' roll star of the era appeared on the show, except Elvis Presley and Rick Nelson. How Actress Rachel Hilsons Baltimore Roots Influence Her Work Today, The Mount Vernon Virtuosi is Much More Than a Chamber Orchestra, Jen Michalski Discusses New Short Story Collection The Company of Strangers. Some of the really dedicated Committee members get tears in their eyes. The Nicest Kids in Town! . 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. You are out of here. Ninfa O. Barnard wrote this article for explorepinebluff.com. 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 . Unlike the tensions that followed the real integration of the Buddy Deane Show, Waterss Hairspray ends with the protesters triumphing. The Corny Collins Show, is a teen dance show in Baltimore's WYZT /WZZT Network. 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. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. But I was never a Deaner. The Buddy Deane Show: With Channing Wilroy, Buddy Deane. Oddly enough, few of the Deaners Ive talked to went on to show biz. 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. Many years later they married. The star system was born. 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. I was really mad. From 1957-1965, Deane was chosen as host of WJZ-TV, Baltimore's "The . Dick Clark patterned his ABC-TV show, Where the Action Is, after local remotes done by Deane in Maryland. Arlene Kozak, Buddys assistant and den mother to the Committee. Originally aired 11/5/1986. At 21, I married a professional football player, Helen remembers, and he made me burn all the fan mail. Many parents and local officials were angry. Winston Joseph Deane was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff. Another royal Deaner couple who met on the air and later married was Gene Snyder and Linda Warehime. 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. 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. "How 'The Buddy Deane Show' really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. This Committees committee, under the watchful eye of Arlene, chose new members, taught the dance steps, and enforced the demerit system, which could result in suspension or expulsion. The black cops would stop us and say: This isnt Greenwich Village, you know. On Sept. 13, 1964, he introduced The Beatles before their concert at the Baltimore Civic Center, and a few days later, he and his family moved back to Arkansas. 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). [citation needed]. We faked a feud. It was a real kick! Her fame even brought an offer to join the circus. 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