Once a month the show was all black; there was no black Committee. Buddy Deane. Print Headline: Buddy Deane Show was huge hit for young viewers in the late 1950s, Copyright 2023, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. I was really mad. Image Credit: OzNet.com Winston Joseph Deane was born on August 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. . The more hair spray, the better. This Article is related to: Film and tagged Divine, Hairspray, IFC Center, John Waters. With the rising pressures of integration, the producers decided that the show must either be integrated or canceled. The Committee, initially recruited from local teen centers, was to act as hosts and dance with the guests. "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. (They gave her a diamond watch at the last reunion.) Committee members included Mike Miller, Charlie Bledsoe, Ron Osher, Mary Lou Raines, Pat(ricia) Tacey, and Cathy Schmink. Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. 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. 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. 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. You had to wear nylons. 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. 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. In its version of 1960s Baltimore, teenagers sing and dance their way past race. "Hairspray" will continue at East Ridge High School through April 23. If I have one regret in life, its that I wasnt a Buddy Deaner. The white kids parents came and got them. . BLACK MUSIC MOMENT #96: Short-Lived Integration Of The Buddy Deane Show, Jun 1, 2011 By TheUrbanDaily Staff. You will be redirected back to your article in, Get The Latest IndieWire Alerts And Newsletters Delivered Directly To Your Inbox. 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. In my on-going search for African American footage I stumbled across this article in Google. Originally aired 11/5/1986. [1] He was 78. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. (NWA Media). "Do You Love Me" by The Contours, or "Hide and Go Seek" by Bunker Hill). Waters took inspiration from the real-life Buddy Deane Show, a local dance party program that ran from 1957 to 1964 in the Maryland area. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. One time I was going with this guy, and he was dancing with this guest I didnt like, says Evanne. 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. Hairspray was the actors first film, before Dead Poets Society, which came out the next year. Museum Day; Art; Books; Design; Food; Music & Film; Video; Newsletter; Travel. Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. 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. Almost all dancers wore swim wear and beach attire, with music provided by WJZ-TV. Friday, February 19 at 7PM. 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. I got a little power-crazed, admits Joe. Jul 24, 2017 - Explore Bruce Clarke's board "Buddy Dean Show", followed by 154 people on Pinterest. Romance was one thing; sex was another. But black kids in . Owing to Deane's mid-South roots and work history, he featured many performers from the ranks of country and western music (e.g., Skeeter Davis, singing "The End of the World" and Brenda Lee singing "Sweet Nothin's"), who then achieved cross-over hits among rock and roll fans. 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 Nicest Kids in Town! These dances included the Mashed Potato, the Stroll, the Pony, the Waddle, the Locomotion, the Bug, the Handjive, the New Continental and the Madison. MPT did a segment which included interviews with former African American dancers who appeared on the show. Mary Lou, the Annette Funicello of the show, was the talk of teenage Baltimore. That's what really happened, and the show shut down." 3. And according to Arlene, Buddy encouraged one popular Committee member (Buzzy Bennet) to teach himself to read so he could realize his dream of being a disc jockey. In 1985 the Committee members are for the most part happy and healthy, living in Baltimore, and still recognized on the street. Over lunch at the Thunderball Lounge, in East Baltimore, Kathy remembers, I could never get used to signing autographs. It was a fluke. I took off my steady ring and threw it down. That was our whole social life, being a Buddy Deaner, says Gene. When: Summer 1963. The very first day on the set, I didnt recognize Divine, the filmmaker said. Deane hosted a morning show at WITH. I still believe that footage is out there somewhere. 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. Id get letters saying, If you show up at this particular hop, youre gonna get your face pushed in. [citation needed]. The Buddy Deane Show was a teen dance television show, created by Zvi Shoubin, hosted by Winston "Buddy" Deane (19242003), and aired on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), the ABC affiliate station in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. Buddy called me up before the cameras, and I wasnt dressed my best. Hairspray is firmly rooted in 1960s America, but it offers both sophisticated and (tellingly) simplistic ways of understanding racism today. Joe remembers a sport coat I bought for $5 from somebody who got it when he got out of prison. The regulars . Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. 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 show's format mirrored Philadelphia's . He was one of the first disc jockeys in the area to regularly feature rock and roll. Other vices were likewise eschewed. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. In her home, near Allentown, Pennsylvania, she serves me a beautiful brunch, models her fur coats, and poses with her Mercedes. When Barry Levinson, another Baltimore native, requested video from the show for his film Diner, the station told him it had no footage. 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.. I must have had ten different phone numbers, says Helen, and somehow it would get out. . 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 Buddy Deane show aired 6 times a week and had a dance committee just like in hairspray. 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. The television news reporter covering the Corny Collins Show in the film sums up the climactic scene: Youre seeing history being made today. The Buddy Deane Showwas a teen dancetelevision show, created by Zvi Shoubin, hosted by Winston "Buddy" Deane(1924-2003), and aired on WJZ-TV(Channel 13), the ABCaffiliate station in Baltimorefrom 1957 until 1964. August 8, 2022 at 3:55 a.m. 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 Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. Buddy returns on a pilgrimage from St. Charles, Arkansas, where he owns a hunting and fishing lodge and sometimes appears on TV, to spin the hits and announce multiplication dances, ladies choice, or even, after a few drinks, the Limbo. It ran two hours a day, six days a week. It would be a treasure to pass down to my future generations. So the rules were bent a little; the big ones, the ones with the fan mail, were allowed to stay. It is hosted by the titular Corny Collins, with the exception of the monthly Rhythm and Blues special which is hosted by Motormouth Maybelle . Kings mention of Funtown is preceded by references to lynch mobs, police brutality, and the airtight cage of poverty, and followed by references to hotel segregation and racial slurs. On the show you were either a drape or a square, explains Sharon. 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 . (I looked like I was taking off.) And Helen, Linda, and Joanie all got out the rat-tail teasing combs. In 1948, Deane married Helen Stevenson, his childhood sweetheart, whom he first met when he was just four years old. 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. Or Hartford Motor Coach Company? 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. You could throw her down on the ground, and her hair would crack, recalls Gene. 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! It was so painful. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! 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.. Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. Deane fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded a Purple Heart during his time in the Europe. Evanne and her brother run the John Brock Benson Dance Studios, in Pasadena, and have a line of dancers who appear at clubs all over the state. 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. I was a misfit. 2003. The "Buddy Dean Show" was abruptly cancelled. 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). In 1984, he sold the station to a local college but bought it back in 1996. After a surprise interracial broadcast, WJZ-TV received bomb and arson threats, hate mail, and complaints from white parents. He just didnt understand., But some have dealt with the problems in good humor. Im still a fana Deaner groupie. In meetings with the show's white performers, the producers realized that though most of the dancers were in favor of integration, their parents would not be. 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. 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. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. They sent cakes on my birthday. It was a real kick! Her fame even brought an offer to join the circus. How The Buddy Deane Show really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. 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. Pancocojams showcases the music, dances, language practices, & customs of African Americans and of other people of Black descent throughout the world. 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. All rights reserved. No matter how progressive we become, there will always be those who will still hang on to the tradition of hate. We faked a feud. 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. [citation needed] With an ear for music seasoned by many more years as a disc jockey than Clark, Deane also brought to his audience a wider array of white musical acts than were seen on American Bandstand. Weve been searching for her for years, even Ricki Lake couldnt find her when she had her TV show., John Waters and members of the original cast of Hairspray. The Funtown reference is powerful because it captures one of the ways that Jim Crow segregation and white supremacy played out for children and teenagers. On the one hand, the storys feel-good conclusion implies that colorblindness is the silver bullet that ends racial discrimination, that good intentions and individual acts of bravery are enough to bring about harmony. Yeah it was Cosenel, says Joe. Some of the really dedicated Committee members get tears in their eyes. "Buddy" Deane was a broadcaster for more than 50 years, beginning his career in Little Rock, Arkansas, then moving to the Memphis, Tennessee market, before moving on to Baltimore, where he worked at WITH radio. ', Although many parents and WJZ insisted that Committee members had to keep up their grades to stay on the show, the reality could be quite different. 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. American Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late fifties, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. Both black and white activists picketed the . "Hairspray" is set in the 1960s and is based on a TV show called "The Buddy Deane Show," which featured Baltimore-area teenagers dancing to popular music but was canceled in 1964, after the . The show featured only white kids dancing, so Scruggs wrote him a letter in the fall of. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Baltimore Magazine. That's one of the things that the Black Lives Matter movement is talking about. Six days a week and often two hours a day, Buddy Deane and his Committee Members--the privileged regular teen dancers . For the rest of the time, the show's participants were all white. "The Buddy Deane Show," which aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. . Almost every rock 'n' roll star except Elvis graced the Deane Show stage. See production, box office & company info. While at WITH, Deane was the first Baltimore disk jockey to capitalize on the new musical phenomenon that was rock 'n' roll. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. He was one of the first to showcase rock and roll music on a continual basis. . We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. . 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. 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