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. He was one of the first disc jockeys in the area to regularly feature rock and roll. His running joke with listeners was that he ran the town from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. until the city's real mayor took over. On the air before Dick Clark debuted, the show was a hit from the beginning, says Arlene today. Theyd stand outside my home. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Today they seem opposites. Image Credit: OzNet.com. This page was last edited on 29 July 2022, at 06:25. 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. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Joe started working for Buddy as teen assistant and, along with Arlene, oversaw the Committee and enforced the strict rules. I am here and on FB as well as NOBLE BRUN in the event the footage can be located. It was horrible/ says Joe. As you can see from the December thread my question concerning African Americans was totally dismissed by the Committee member who was speaking. 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. 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. You received demerits for almost anything: Chewing gum. Another royal Deaner couple who met on the air and later married was Gene Snyder and Linda Warehime. Many parents and local officials were angry. Washington D.C.'s The Milt Grant Show offered "Black Tuesday" and Baltimore's The Buddy Deane Show had "Negro Day" because . Arlene Kozak, Buddys assistant and den mother to the Committee. Mary Lou was the last of the Buddy Deane superstars, true hair-hopper royalty, the ultimate Committee member. [citation needed] In several instances, the show went on location to the Milford Mill swim club on the westside of suburban Baltimore County. 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. All rights reserved. I had to get up there on time. 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. 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. They are still referred to, good naturedly by some, as the Ken and Barbie of the show. Gene, a member of the first Committee, and I underline first, later became president of the Board. And the whole concept of the Committee changed. Once a Deaner, always a Deaner, as another so succinctly puts it. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. 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. Thank you for including me as one of the Buddy Dean family. . This article is among features at explorepinebluff.com, a program of the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission. In a long list of reasons why we find it difficult to wait for freedom, King writes: When you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she cant go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. Material from the Associated Press is Copyright 2023, Associated Press and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. I saw the show as a vehicle to make something of myself, remembers Joe. Marie Fischer was the first Joe to become a Committee memberchosen simply because she was such a good dancer. The school tried to throw me out before. 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. [1], As with many other local TV shows, little footage of the show is known to have survived. Here, Clark's memories of American Bandstand are nested in an overview of important events in U.S. history from the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the old Committee kept up with the times and made the transition with ease. Deane even dubbed himself "the morning mayor." MPT did a segment which included interviews with former African American dancers who appeared on the show. "If you first appeared on The Buddy Deane Show then you could not appear on The Dick Clark Show," Deane said. My mother used to pick me up after school to make sure nobody hassled me., The adoring fans could also be a hassle. Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. The "Corny Collins Show" in Hairspray is loosely based on the Baltimore teen dance program called the "Buddy Deane Show." One Baltimore woman fought to get black teens on the popular show back in 1958. On Negro day a group of black and white kids staged a similar sneak attack on the Buddy Deane Show. Get off that furniture!? 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.. 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 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. We used to go to stand in front of Reads Drugstore, and people would ask for our autograph.. Buddy called me up before the cameras, and I wasnt dressed my best. The Hairspray Live! Other vices were likewise eschewed. Many years later they married. 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. The Deane program set aside every other Friday for a show featuring only black teenagers. Nicknamed "Buddy" as a child, Deane developed an early love for radio. (NWA Media). 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. 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 Like many couples, Joe and Joan met through the show and became an item for their fans. . In 1985 the Committee members are for the most part happy and healthy, living in Baltimore, and still recognized on the street. At 21, I married a professional football player, Helen remembers, and he made me burn all the fan mail. Once a month the show was all black; there was no black Committee. 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 . 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. . Some do remember a handful of kids getting high on cough medicine. He was so happy. 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. 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. Sure, as a teenager I was a guest on the show. It was the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and, for several years, the highest rated local TV program in the country. From 1996 to 2003, he hosted dance events in Baltimore, Pennsylvania and aboard cruise ships. 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. (I looked like I was taking off.) And Helen, Linda, and Joanie all got out the rat-tail teasing combs. The films executive producer Craig Zadan argued that what makes Hairspray work is, you never feel like were on a soap box, or were preaching to you, or were saying this is a lesson you need to learn and yet, hopefully, you come away from it with something serious to talk about afterwards. There is no guarantee that viewers will take up these discussions, but Hairspray offers plenty of material for those who choose to do so. The "Buddy Dean Show" was abruptly cancelled. My parents didn't talk much about racism, and as a result I grew up learning to love everybody. Oh, black teens could dancejust not with the white kids. This man approached me, telegrammed me, showed up at the show. The Buddy Dean Show was the inspiration for the "Corny Collins Show" in the 2007 musical. I only saw Divine alive one more time after that night, so it was a great, great night to remember. Not show biz, Arlene answers, hesitating, but the record biz, the people. I wanted to get into the record businessand years later he did. 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. 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. Some of the really dedicated Committee members get tears in their eyes. 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. Hairspray was the actors first film, before Dead Poets Society, which came out the next year. The show was a teen dance and music show and ran from 1957 to until 1964 on WJZ-TV until the show was canceled. And none are bitter. I was able after a while to afford some clothes from Lees of Broadway (whose selection of belted coats and pegged pants made it the Saks Fifth Avenue of Deaners). So the NAACP targeted the show for protests. In 1948, Deane married Helen Stevenson, his childhood sweetheart, whom he first met when he was just four years old. On Wednesday, NBC is broadcasting Hairspray Live! See, the fictional Corny Collins Show is actually based on the real Buddy Deane Show, which aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland from 1957 to 1964, and was the inspiration for John Waters . 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/. I had trunks of it. [1] He was 78. 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. For example, consider the comments of members of the "Committee" [the regularly featured White teenagers on that show] about boys having it worse than girls because boys weren't supposed to dance. Greetings, Pat Brun.Thanks for commenting in this pancocojams discussion thread. 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.. But most have settled down to a very straight life. The Buddy Deane Show was a teenage dance party, on the air from 1957 to 1964. Could it be? Several local art contests were also held on the show, with viewers submitting their own art work. "Where: 800 N. Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201. The Committee, initially recruited from local teen centers, was to act as hosts and dance with the guests. Youre in Baltimore. Helens fans flocked to see her at the Buddy Deane Record Hops (Committee members had to make such personal appearances and sign autographs.) 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. 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. Both black and white activists picketed the . On the show you were either a drape or a square, explains Sharon. 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. 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. 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. In December 1963, producers at Baltimores WJZ-TV cancelled the Buddy Deane Show rather than integrate the popular teen dance program. Rather than integrating, the show was canceled. 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. So the rules were bent a little; the big ones, the ones with the fan mail, were allowed to stay. Before long I started getting lots of fan mail: I think youre neat. The show was a teen dance and music show and ran from 1957 to until 1964 on WJZ-TV until the show was canceled. 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 whole day on the show was devoted to me.. That really hit home then., He adde, That scene where Tracy and [Link] are making out outside and the homeless guy walks up the street singing, that is exactly true. In mixed marriages (with non-Deaners), many of the outsiders resented their spouses pasts. Ironically, The Buddy Deane Show introduced black music and artists into the lives of white Baltimore teenagers, many of whom learned to dance from black friends and listened to black radio. C. Fields in drag.), This movie is the only radical movie I ever made because it snuck in mid-America. "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. It is hosted by the titular Corny Collins, with the exception of the monthly Rhythm and Blues special which is hosted by Motormouth Maybelle . 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. 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. This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. Hairspray encourages its audience to take the fight to integrate a teenage TV show seriously, but it does so through songs, dances, and costumes that celebrate and satirize the 60s. 1957, it was a huge success as it was portrayed in the musical. As with the drapes and squares of the previous decade, she explains, there were two classes of people thenDeaners and Joe College. Girl Scout leader, very active in my kids school. Mary Lou is still a star. From 1968 into 1973, the public television variety show SOUL! I was really mad. Mr. Deane hosted a crowd of exuberant teens, who danced to the music of live rock bands, including many name acts. Print Headline: Buddy Deane Show was huge hit for young viewers in the late 1950s, Copyright 2023, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. as its newest live-television musical adaptation. Pauline Kael praised him. (The rave appeared in The New Yorker, where Kael said it was really Divines movie, calling him W. But I was never a Deaner. three, two, one. Only white teens became members of the elite Committee the Buddy Deane equivalent of the Mouseketeers. Facing controversy over the possibility of more integrated broadcasts, the station canceled the program. So there you have it. Friday, February 19 at 7PM. Waters grew up with "The Buddy Deane Show" in Baltimore, and modeled his fictitious "Corny Collins Show" after it. The racial integration of a take-off of the show, dubbed The Corny Collins Show, provides the backdrop to the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. While the rest of the nation grew up on Dick Clarks American Bandstand, (which was not even shown here because Channel 13 already had Buddy Deane), Baltimoreans, true to form, had their own eccentric version. They just wanted to know if you were real. It was the times, most remember. While he wasnt on the committee, Waters occasionally danced on the show as a guest. 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. From 1964 to 1984, Deane hosted a show and owned KOTN-FM and KOTN-AM radio stations at Pine Bluff. 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. Why Europeans Dont Get Huge Medical Bills. 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. 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. Integration ended The Buddy Deane Show. (They gave her a diamond watch at the last reunion.) Because Buddy Deanes competition was soap operas, the budding teenage romances were sometimes played up for the camera. Winston Joseph Deane was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff. But it went something like this: Buddy Deane was an exclusively white show. If I have one regret in life, its that I wasnt a Buddy Deaner. 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. From then on, all bare shoulders were covered with a piece of net. 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. She was one of the chosen few who went to New York to learn how to demonstrate the Madison, and was selected for the exchange committee that represented Baltimores best on American Bandstand. Participants dressed in "country" style, and danced to country and western music as well as pop. Just once. I had always studied dance, and I wanted to go on [the show]. 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