Yes, Pat was the best dancer (RIP in heaven), I've been watching Bandstand the Philly Years videos every day this last year and I really like it, but It's curious that most of the music that the Philly Bandstand kids listened and danced to was performed by black singers or bands, but they were not allowed to enter or dance with them. I'm glad Dick Clark finally realized (though I think more for business reasons) that there was no place for racial segregation in music. Well, they were different times. Greetings from Lima Peru
I was only 7 but these teens i looked up to and watched them dance after i came back from school. Kids today cant comprehend how these teens were national celebrities and even though Dick Clark was great host the kids made the show!❤❤
I am 65 now and Watched Bandstand every day after school...And I actually could do this dance... Not many kids in Chicago could,,but I could because of Bandstand.. Go Philly.........
Sorry for your loss ❤ so cool he was in this show. Looks like he had alot of fun. I was born after this tike period, I would have LOVED to have loved then but I cam still listen to the music watch videos etc and imagine which is great. Hope you are well
rock and roll is here to stay no matter what ur age I am 68 years old I feel like a reborn teenager love it I watched american bandstand every day just like every teenager did that was the thing to do August 7 2016
I worked at a restaurant in the early nineties, and every friday and saturday night there was a dance floor and dancing and I was the first one to dance to this song...This is what management wanted to break the ice.....and I was it.......:)
So great seeing Pat Molitierri and Arlene Sullivan...wow what memories. Takes me back to high school so many years ago. I was hooked on that show after school!
I watched American Bandstand for many of years but this was a wee bit before I started watching. Wasnt til 73--74 but it was much earlier. Mom was hooked. Born in '71!!
Love these videos.!!!!I wish they would show more. Love the Philly Ab. Best dancers. That's where I learned. I'm 72. Still can dance . BEST DANCE EVER. JUST LOVE IT. Wish it was 1957 again. So innocent times and great times. Loved them. .🥰🥰🥰🤗🤗🤗👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏💖
Watching this reminds me of when times were all about fun times. Everyone enjoyed everyone's presence on the floor. No color. No culture. Just dancing all the same dance steps in our own versions. Miss those days terribly.
It all looked like just a good times dance party, but the dance floor of American Bandstand was one of the most highly regulated ares in the 1950s/60s American culture. Everyone had their place on that floor and if you dared try to move up a row, you were not allowed back for a certain amount of time, if ever. It transitioned from a music show in the early days, to a soap opera of personalities and "who's dancing with who" in the mid to late 60's when the music started to deteriorate.
Makes my eyes water to see these teens here as though they were live on TV. But now they are all grown up and me too and some have passed away even too early. Really brings back memories. Not too long ago I tried to do the hop, LOL forget it! Don't have any more spry in my legs. LOL
I watched every day after school. My cousin and I still do the bop whenever a DJ plays "At the Hop"!!! Of course, we have to sit down for about an hour afterwards.
@@steve3ri yes, his name was Joe Licari. He's in the beggining of this video, the tall dark haired guy with the blonde girl. I've seen him in other videos as well.
@@Licari86 , there is a facebook group where I belong called American Bandstand The Philly Years 1952 to 1964. Request to join and tell them your dad was on the show. I think you will enjoy the group and they will be happy to make the connection. It is a nice group.
Just had a magical time with my sister surprising our dad with his high school buddies from these days. We grew up hearing the stories of all these great people, and it was such a tear jerking moment when they all got together, walkers and all!!!!!! Most love and respect for this generation!!!! I wish we were still there to share it with you Mom and Dad!!! ❤❤❤
You are as passionate as I am about the regulars on AB. I remember the Beltrante sisters, my favorite reg was Carole Scaldeferri, Frani Giordano and Pat Moliteri. I could watch these reruns forever, it's sad that there were never any dvd's made of the early AB days. There's a demand for this stuff, I would pay any price to be able to get these copies...
Not only are they not available on DVD, they weren't recorded or if they were, they have since long been lost since '71 when ABC was junking things in their warehouse.
75 here, Me and the wife 63, have joined a Swing Dance group in our city. I can still do the Bop, JIve, Lindy Hop. Just not for as long as I used to!! It's great fun, and will keep you alive and young at heart and soul!!
I remember my mom teaching me this dance for my schools 60s sock hop I was 15 then we found a old long poodle skirt i had a pink sweater that matched that was one fun night
Damn! someone who actually wore a Poodle Skirt, besides my wife!! All the gals in my era wore Poodle Skirts, bobbi sox, no shoes!! Which is why I became a very good dancer! I would have died instantly had I stepped on my wife's toes!! I would spin her out on the floor, and her knee length Poodle Skirt would fly up and show the cutest bottom and the Best Legs in Nevada!!! She is a Strawberry Red, Redheaded woman, and now at 63 is still hot as she was back in the day! We still do the Bop at our local dance groups meets. She still wears that Darn Skirt, and still has the cutest bottom, and best Legs around!! Peace, Love, and all good things to you!!
This is the better video of the hop on Bandstand 1957. There are some great foot movements. Kool. Notice that girl who looks like she is on a stick. Pat Mollitieri and other favorites of Bandstand. They were the days. Wow! Seen them all on TV.
63striker Look at the very end of the video. She is on the left side in the dark skirt and long sleeve light colored sweater. She and her partner both do a spin move right at the end of the dance.
John thank you for that synopsis of the show. I was a 7 year old kid when American Bandstand premiered and never missed a show! You are correct the show never was the same after Dick Clark moved it to LA. I lost interest! Then again the British Invasion soon caught my attention as a teen in the 60s❤
There is actually an original broadcast of American Bandstand you can get on dvd. It’s from Dec 18, 1957 consisting of an hour of the show with an excellent hour documentary for about 10 to 20 dollars on line. Many of these Philadelphia clips are from that show. The quality is only so so but considering the piece of history it represents it’s worth it.
This was not the first dance show in the Philadelphia area. Before this was the Grady and Hurst Show, which premiered from Wilmington, Delaware and later moved to Philadelphia. I think later on, it came from Atlantic City. I remember kids from my high school, going to nearby Wilmington to be on the Grady & Hurst show, and that would have been about 1952 or 1953.
I love your comment. It's insane I can type words to someone born in 2006 and they know what I'm even saying...as I was 60 years old then, and yet, I still dance and sing...like a lot. Find a place to dance, it will change everything.
Is it any coincidence that American Bandstand left Philly Feb.1964. Just when the Beatles and the British Invasion started. It was as if Rock&Roll (jitterbuggin) and Philly AB agreed to end together!
About coming home to watch AB. Did it from my freshman year through senior, and my first year in college - when the Philly chapter came to a close in '64. That to me, ended my love affair. It was never the same in LA. Crushes? You know them: Scaldeferri, Giordano, Betrante, Marcen, Hamill, Molittieri, Carrelli, Di Pietro (sounds like an Italian law firm). Wasn't just the ladies, it was the guys too, and the total package: the East Coast kids, mature, great dancers, excellent music in the era (best of all-time IMO), and Dick as the handsome boy-next-door, master of understatement and humility. Where do you find that today? A time in my life that'll never be repeated. Memories and longing for that era remains. Forever. Probably didn't hurt that your teen years were, for me, the most impressionable, where your first love entered and you reached young-manhood.
Well said, and true. I lived close to PA in Ohio when I watched AB at 9 thru '64, and then amazingly I too, moved to L.A.! There was so much going on in music (Shindig, Hullabaloo, Shebang, Where the Action Is)...AB had lots of TV competition, as well as the music changed so dramatically. I will agree, a time in my life too, that can't be repeated...but for the memory cells that literally make me move, swoon and have a visceral experience just watching and hearing some of the recordings from back then. Not just nostalgia, but I feel very moved by it, and do still dance. As well, the kids on the Philly show...I knew their names too...and thought every single one of them was what I wanted be when I turned 16. Yes, Clark was very understated; starting his career as a DJ, a low key, very hip and cool voice, made history. rip DC
This was a few years before my time...but I do remember how prized a boy was who could dance well. Every girl wanted a boy who could really dance. And vice versa, I suppose, but I remember the praised heaped on a boy who knew all the steps and could really jive.
Yes, you're so right that we would always go for the boy that knew how to dance. I loved to dance and still do. Sad that most of my men friends that I danced with have passed but the memories are still there.
Which is why I became a very good dancer, was on the school boxing team, was a big guy, so I learned how to dance, so I would not crush my date's feet!! It served me well, met my wife on a dance floor, and the rest is history!!
Recently there was a wonderful interview with Arlene Sullivan on RU-vid and she was promoting a book about these times. She had many positive things to share about the show but it wasn't all a bed of roses for some of the boys who were bullied at school for being on the show and knowing how to dance ! She and Kenny, Justine and Bob, Carol, Pat , Frani, Rosalie, Carmen were national teen celebrities
You go Philly girls Jitterbugging in your, more than likely, your West Catholic school uniforms on national television. My hometown made teenagers cool. Take care and stay safe everyone 😷Go Birds 💚🏈🦅
In my teens, I thought "the Bop" was a dance that would never die. At age 43, I attempted the dance with a woman my age when "At the Hop was played - we could not finish the dance, it was so strenuous, and I was in great shape and running 10k races at the time. Here's to the energy of youth.
That dance was a knee and ankle killer even at a young age. I can't even imagine trying it now at 66. It would be a very short dance...call 911 please.
Who is the couple on 2:00-2:14? They look sweet together. I enjoy watching them dancing together in another video. He's a great dancer, showing her the dance moves. She so cute, maybe shy.
The gals in the catholic high school uniforms had guts. The nuns used to chastise them for being on TV wearing their uniforms on the show. I guess those nuns were Bandstand fans.
In the rest of the country, many girls didn't know that those were uniforms that the girls on Bandstand would put on a sweater. So after Bandstand became popular, girls would go into dress shops and clothing departments and ask for a dress with the Philadelphia collar.
Girls from St. Maria had to wear a sweater to cover the uniform emblem. These girls must have been from West. Could you imagine how mortified the girl with the big bow and streamers must have felt, minutes before leaving the house, tears streaming down her face, seeing her mother, hellbent on being able to pick out her daughter on television and brag to the neighbors, at the front door saying, "you're wearin' the bow, or you're not gawn!"
i never understood why Dick Clark would not release all the early American Bandstand tapes. those of us who remember the shows from the late 50's/early 60's are mostly in our 70's now. we would have been the ones who wanted to see these-and we were the ones who faithfully watched him. selfish man.
When Bandstand was broadcast in the 50's Video tape did not exist. What you see here is a tech actually made a movie of a TV screen showing Bandstand. They had to hold a camera up to the TV screen to do this, so the idea of making a movie of every episode of a low budget, daily, long show had no commercial appeal then. We are lucky to have some of the hit sitcoms available.
To add on to what Phillip Green said, yes, videotape had not been released, Kinescopes were what they used to record TV, like how he said, aim a 16mm film camera at the TV screen, and record. Most were not recorded and the ones that were have since been lost/junked.
Nice times for those who were straight but there is another side of the story about bandstand which I never knew until about 6 years ago and the guys and girls have admitted it. Little did anyone know as they watched the show everyday after school. But yet there were those who were ok and very good dancers and the sad part of it now is most are not with us anymore. I only hope their children and grandchildren see them here dancing.
@TwoCam Sam, well, freestyle dancing started in the early 60's. The 60's revolutionized many things in society for better or for worse. It was in the 60's that teenagers finally had an "identity", having their own style and thinking. The parent's bondage of the 50's were broken and teenagers weren't "proper" replicas of their stern parents anymore. They were free. As for the time being "fun" and "happy", that will depend on who you ask, of course.
