Bandstand Days (1997) | American Bandstand | Full Documentary | Boomer Channel 

I was FASCINATED with this documentary and finding out "behind the scenes" -- Dick Clark was a smooth announcer, even the teens parents liked him, because he was "one of them", both teens and parents. I was 14 in 1960, and everybody there were "my friends", so to speak. I remember "Arlene", one of the fan magazines carried articles by her, she more or less talked about "bandstand". She was popular because she bore a strong resemblance to "Annette Funicello", every guy with a pulse liked Annette! By the way, later in life I didn't do too badly myself, I was in radio and TV for 50 years, emceed some dances myself, I won money on AFV, and I do a lot of "RU-vid" work! Thanks for that marvelous biog!

Lovely some were my parents days. I'm 67 now so i grew up watching American Bandstand.

This documentary is 27 years old. My God where does time go?

Enjoyed doing "Bandstand Days" - dancing and reliving this special time in my life... Bandstand inspired me to give back the "joy of dancing" and have been doing "Dance Contests" for foster children for twenty years......BUNNY GIBSON

Great to see this delightful walk down memory lane. Thanks for posting!

The Endless Teenager left us in 2012, but his legacy lives on. Today, kids have a very different challenge with the internet as they create their own celebrity and influence. There are problems and worries with each passing generation but they will look back just as this generation with fond memories. America still is a whole new frontier with an ever-changing culture of good and bad just like these kids faced. The rest is up to them as we pass the baton.

I remember watching American Bandstand especially in the mid 1970’s as young mid teen! The one dancer I remember the most was a young lady who always wore a tee shirt with words on it does anyone remember her?

I was born in 1954 and my aunts were only a decade or so older than me. Some of my earliest memories were them coming home from high school turning on band stand and dancing the latest dance with my younger brother and me. It was so much fun.

I always wondered why all the regular people “disappeared”. I quit watching because I enjoyed American Bandstand in Philly! It was like a soap opera for teenagers. I never was the same without the original regulars.

I was all of 11 y/o, 6th grade, in the Fall of 1957, when I discovered " AB " . By then in Denver, we had 1 " rock & roll station " on the radio, 1630 AM, KOSI, " cozy " . By then, more than ANYTHING , I longed to be a teenager ! I just knew I'd be cool, once I was a teen. I read " Archie " comics, & watched as much of " AB " as i could-------which sadly, wasn't much, but when I did, I soaked it in------every song, & every cute girl ! -------When I got a transistor radio, I lived with it & followed the music all the time. ---------RIP, Dick Clark, & all the AB dancers. it really was the best of times. ---------------------mjl, 77 y/o

a few years ago i was at work and someone was watching on you tube old clips of bandstand when i walked over and saw Arlene Sullivan again ,it was if i was 12 again ,i had always a crush on her ,thru all these decades and life, there on a screen was Arlene ,she was dancing to an old song by the Esquires,the very next day i stopped by a record store selling vinyl,i was looking the the albums and happen to pull out a random rack of old 45,s i had not planned that but when i opened it ,in the front was that Esquire record that Arlene was dancing to,geeze! how odd i thought,i bought it ,and in a very weird way when i play their in my memory bank Arlenes dancing to it -crazy😵but true .i.ve been married twice ,kids, been to family funerals and such wars, recession, cultural shifts yet ,i still see arlene dancing-as for kenny Rossi ,i didn,t like him much hahaha,thanks for this,it was great

God bless these ladies and gentlemen 🙏

I watched this on WFIL TV from West Chester, PA everyday after school. I remember rate a record…….”it has a good beat and is easy to dance to”.😎

The bullying that the American Bandstand regulars endured is heartbreaking, but it's also important that they relate their experiences, since kids that are going through bullying today, might be able to gain some value from the stories that the regulars such as Eddie Kelly and Arlene Sullivan are relating here. On a related note, Philadelphia was home to several violent youth gangs during the 1950's, such as The Green Street Counts (responsible for two murders between 1952 and 1954, which is of course, before Dick Clark took over Bandstand, but around the time that Bob Horn ran the show), and The Moroccans, also responsible for two gang related shooting murders in 1957 (which is when Dick Clark took over the show.) Then there was that beating murder of the South Korean foreign exchange student, In Ho Oh, at the University of Pennsylvania committed by some kids who were ejected from a local rock n' roll record hop (possibly one of Georgie Woods' hops?) That incident occurred in 1958, and was just one mile away from WFIL, literally walking distance. So that's the environment that the Bandstand regulars had to navigate around when they made it over to the WFIL studios. So when we put it in that context, the Bandstand regulars were actually quite courageous to keep on dancing on the show, and to be true to themselves, in the face of all of that. Curiously, the rules to promote a clean cut image, so strongly enforced during Bandstand's Philadelphia run, were kind of skirted during the '"Fifties Nostalgia Fad" of the 1970's (when Dick Clark was already long established in California.) There are several episodes of "American Bandstand" from the 1970's where, referencing "The Fifties," Clark had some boys dressed up in the stereotypical leather jacket and jeans with the greasy hair in the duck's a** (there's even glimpses of that in Clarks NBC "Good Ol' Days" TV special.) Ironic, because during the actual 1950's run of "American Bandstand," as shown here, none of the boys dressed up like a "juvenile delinquent," though sadly, some of them had been victims of those types of boys' assaults.

Loved it. I was on bandstand often. Had a great time.

Fascinating documentary-Thanks for posting!

I was about 7 and I remember the girls with the "white streaks" in their hair. I remember those light streaks grew in size over time. I lived in Schenectady, New York back in those days. Now I live in the same town where those girls had their "streaks" done, according to the interview on this documentary! Who knew.

saw a reunion show from the early 60's and the jobs they had gotten into were: guys---bookkeeper, beautician, hairdresser....and the girls were ALL secretaries, one said "private secretary"---different times then and in my opinion BETTER.

I never knew. I grew up with California bandstand but knew there was something more to the early days. Not feeling too good about Dick Clark now. Those kids are a big part of modern American history.

Also Dick Clark's Production Company also did "So You Think You Can Dance" that also had an Canadian Version for a hot minute. I think he was partnered with Fremantle Productions that also owned The Rights To Popstars, and The "Talent" Franchise as well as "The X Factor".

Just showed up in my time machine in 2022 to see what it’s like, headed back now to 1962, anyone here wanna come?

I started watching when I was 5.

Still haven't seen Charley. Good dancer with long legs. He was the best. (Very limber ND light on his feet).

Excellent.

Born in 1941, "I" was in my teens in the 50s! my girlfriend and I, watched American Bandstand after school, almost daily. Not only did I , learn how to do the "STROLL" But I learned much about becoming a man as well! Thanks to her I did become a man! Sooooooo...... GOD bless American bandstand, Dick Clark . And my girl friend ..... My thoughts of those days..........ARE so VERY pleasant indeed ! BLESS YOU SWEETY........YOUR MOM AND DAD,, Had the deepest and most comfortable Carpet......I have often wondered how many other kids, have memories as great as that! Richie K, or as she called me "big Dick" !

Such better times. There was RESPECT and GOD. Too much trash on TV now...wish we could go back....

the philly dancers were good but I learned to like the 64-70 crowd as well...unfortunately there was a huge gap in kinescopes from 70-75 and the program was totally different in 1975. The dancers seemed more concerned with appeasing the camera than acting like teens at a dance. Disco helped destroy the image ab HAD and it took a while in the 80s to get it back...the dancing always got better, the quality of the film got better but I think the novelty of what the dancers did for the country was lost after 1970.

It was really a SILLY show!

I wonder how you can tell she had Green hair, it was in black and white in the 50s

My fav was Frannie Giordano!

California kids Loved the Cameras.

Geez, memories flooding in! My eyes are getting misty! But I must confess that sometimes I would change the channel over to Popeye Playhouse!

Sadly, Justine recently passed away.

Hmmm.... Clark had some questionable dealings, which raised some eyebrows during The Payola Scandal, and yet, he was so strict with these teenagers as far as them "not accepting pay." Not only does it seem a bit hypocritical, but from a practical standpoint, he could have helped promote the records of Kenny Rossi, Pat Molitieri, and Justine Carrelli, making them the next teen idols, while also getting a piece of the pie. It could have been a win-win, but no, he had to have that very rigid thinking when it came to The Regulars .

Did not like the show when the moved to the West Coast. The kids could not dance.

Make a show of Rock for Babyboomers put it on Education channel

I never watched it after they left Philly. When they went to California it got to slick and contrived. The dance contest was big money prizes and it was just not the same and the dancers were NOT all that great. I watched for years. It was so sad when they cut from 90 minutes to an hour. They went to California (I lived in California) about the time I left for college.

In 1957 Philadelphia was more than 50% black. But yet there were no black folks dancing on American Bandstand Dick Clark.

What ever happen to the girl I think her name was Joanne wait a minute I think that was another show.

Dick Clark played on Perry Mason episode "The Final FadeOut" a character that close to what he really was in private 😠🤑🤯 Clark played a weasel of a producer/writer who kills the star then has to continue killing to try to cover his tracks ✔️👿Of course Perry Mason figures it out !! Clark had an iron grip on everything on the show "HIS BABY" so he was very manipulative of the kids especially!!

At the time American Bandstand was shooting, the Philadelphia, PA ABC-TV affiliate WFIL-TV shared studios with NET's WHYY-TV. I had a one season show on WHYY "Fun With Music" in 1964 and would watch American Bandstand occasionally from the director's booth since their director was also our director.

Yeah, a teen soap opera

I HAVE A NEARLY COMPLETE LIST OF ALL THE EPISODES AND CLIPS WHICH DONT OVERLAP OF AMERICAN BANDSTAND FROM 1958 TO 1988. tHE QUALITY OF THE VIDEO CAN BE PRETTY GOOD ESPECIALLY WHEN COLORIZED BUT SOME EPISODES ARE BARELY WATCHABLE. THE VIDEO IS SO BAD I MISTAKEN;LY THOUGHT DEBBIE SEWELL, RTOBIN MILLER AND CATHY HICKS WERE THE SAME PERSON OVER A PERIOD OF 1965-19670. THEN I SAW SEWELL LISTED AS A REGULAR AND MILLER AS WELL AND WAS SHOCKED AND AMAZED WHEN DICK CLARK CALLED HICKS "CATHY" IN 1970!

All you had to do to get in was be of Italian ancestry. A very ethnic community. I envied them all.

Did AB feed or serve them beverages did they get paid

😎😊📀👍