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. I had to get up there on time. It was the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and, for several years, the highest rated local TV program in the country. It was a family: Buddy was the father, Arlene was the mother.. Buddy noticed my eyes staring and said, Do the same eyes. And the camera got it. Kathy went even further. 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. Both entities launche. I even won the twist contest with Mary Lou Raines (one of the queens of The Buddy Deane Show) at the Valley Country Club. "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. Also, read the comments in that same excerpt about the series only wanting "attractive" teenagers as featured dancers. 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. Jones). So the rules were bent a little; the big ones, the ones with the fan mail, were allowed to stay. You received demerits for almost anything: Chewing gum. I saw the show as a vehicle to make something of myself, remembers Joe. All on Pulaski Highway. Helens fans flocked to see her at the Buddy Deane Record Hops (Committee members had to make such personal appearances and sign autographs.) Committee members included Mike Miller, Charlie Bledsoe, Ron Osher, Mary Lou Raines, Pat(ricia) Tacey, and Cathy Schmink. Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on July 16, 2003, after suffering a stroke. All rights reserved. It was difficult with your peers, recalls Peanuts. 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. Its host was Winston "Buddy" Deane (1924-2003), who died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas after . The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. Arlene Kozak, Buddys assistant and den mother to the Committee. BLACK MUSIC MOMENT #96: Short-Lived Integration Of The Buddy Deane Show. In 2003, "Hairspray" went on to sweep the 57th Annual Tony Awards, winning a total of eight awards. Ninfa O. Barnard wrote this article for explorepinebluff.com. Plot. 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. 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.. The musical is based on John Waters' 1988 campy movie of the same name. So you cant imagine how excited I was when I finally got a chance to interview these local legends twenty years later. The more hair spray, the better. I was a misfit. If "The Buddy Deane Show" didn't exactly end happily (canceled in 1964, it never did integrate the dancers), Waters remains a fan. 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. Mary Lou was the last of the Buddy Deane superstars, true hair-hopper royalty, the ultimate Committee member. Teenagers who appeared on the show every day were known as "The Committee". They just wanted to know if you were real. 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. The show featured only white kids dancing, so Scruggs wrote him a letter in the fall of 1958 to . I still believe that footage is out there somewhere. Theatre producer, Margo Lion, saw a television broadcast of the film in 1998 and started to conceive it as a stage musical. Yes, I miss it very much. 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. It was the times, most remember. 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. Could it be? 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. Once I was off the show for a while, and they said I had joined the nunnery, says Helen, laughing. He left behind his wife, Helen Stevenson Deane; his three daughters, JoEllen, Dawn, and Debbie and their families. Deane fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded a Purple Heart during his time in the Europe. Not show biz, Arlene answers, hesitating, but the record biz, the people. I used to lie in bed at my parents house, and there was an African-American community up the street and they went by singing along to the radio. While at WITH, Deane was the first Baltimore disk jockey to capitalize on the new musical phenomenon that was rock 'n' roll. This program is a tribute to long-time Maryland radio announcer Buddy Deane, who passed away in August, 2003. That was our whole social life, being a Buddy Deaner, says Gene. Print Headline: Buddy Deane Show was huge hit for young viewers in the late 1950s, Copyright 2023, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC. 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. Just once. If a guy had one beer, it was a big deal. It was the era of rock n' roll ducktail, pegged pants, and beehive haridos. On this day in 1979, Sweeney Todd first opened on Broadway . In mixed marriages (with non-Deaners), many of the outsiders resented their spouses pasts. The show was a teen dance and music show and ran from 1957 to until 1964 on WJZ-TV until the show was canceled. Or Hartford Motor Coach Company? Hairspray was the actors first film, before Dead Poets Society, which came out the next year. At her appearances at the record hops, kids would actually scream when youd get out of the car: Theres Mary Lou! It was horrible/ says Joe. He was mad because I was as popular as he was. Originally known as The Buddy Deane Bandstand, the show first went on the air at 3 p.m. Sept. 9, 1957, and aired for two hours; the show often preceded the Mickey Mouse Club. Thats what really happened, and the show shut down.. Influencers: Profiles of a Partnership 2022, How to Pitch Stories and Articles to IndieWire, John Waters Shares His 10 Favorite Films of 2022, 'Peter Von Kant' Tops List, John Waters to Write and Direct 'Liarmouth' from His Own Novel, Quentin Tarantino's Favorite Movies: 50 Films the Director Wants You to See, Oscars 2023: Best Animated Feature Predictions. In Little Rock, white teens went from protesting integration at Central High School to dancing in the afternoon on Steves Show. This discrimination was explicitly or tacitly supported by an array of advertisers, television stations, music producers, city authorities, and federal communications officials. Deane hosted a morning show at WITH. A special. . All of those dances were real, they were real dances, we didnt make any of them up and two were cut out. See production, box office & company info. The Buddy Deane Show was a highly visible regional program that asserted a racially segregated public culture. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. Buddy called me up before the cameras, and I wasnt dressed my best. Once a month the show was all black. Image Credit: OzNet.com Winston Joseph Deane was born on August 2, 1924, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The Department of Education even withdrew its support of the show, and the show had to be filmed in the parking lot at times because of the threats they received. 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. 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. 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. (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.) In fact, "American Bandstand" was not shown on television in Baltimore because Deane's show was so popular. As well, a show was broadcast from a local farm in Westminster, Maryland. No! she answers, with a conviction that gives me the chills. 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. Some kids on the show went a little nuts, with stars in their eyes; they thought they were going to go to Hollywood and be moviestars.. One of the first ponytail princesses was Peanuts (Sharon Goldman, debuting at 14 in 58, Forest Park, Chicken Hop), who went on the show because Deaners were folk heroes. She remembers Paul Anka singing Put Your Head on My Shoulder to her on camera as she did just that. Thank you for including me as one of the Buddy Dean family. [citation needed]. The 1988 John Waters film, newly adapted into an NBC live musical, presents a view of racial discrimination thats by turns nave and enlightening. 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.. But it went something like this: Buddy Deane was an exclusively white show. The night was full of delightful anecdotes, including these ten you may not have heard before. NBCs Hairspray Live! Some of the old Committee kept up with the times and made the transition with ease. If you couldnt do the Buddy Dean jitterbug, (always identifiable by the girls ever-so-subtle dip of her head each time she was twirled around), you were a social outcast. Here, Clark's memories of American Bandstand are nested in an overview of important events in U.S. history from the 1950s and 1960s. You are watching the "Buddy Deane Show." "The Buddy Deane Show" defined a new generation of rock & roll as well as dance on television in the late 1950s. And the other ladies in Allentown blue-collar neighborhood in Baltimore were talking to her and saying, Yeah, what kind of movie is this? They thought she was a real woman that lived on the street, you know. Or the Bob-a Loop? The school tried to throw me out before. Even today Gene and Linda are the quintessential Deaner couple, still socializing with many Committee members, very protective of the memory, and among the first to lead a dance at the emotion-packed reunions. Even racists like it, Waters said in his opening remarks. The white kids parents came and got them. Special appearances. My mother wanted me to go, she took me down to the tryouts. He also left the Army in 1948 and began his radio broadcast career at KLXR station in North Little Rock. Waters grew up with "The Buddy Deane Show" in Baltimore, and modeled his fictitious "Corny Collins Show" after it. Winston & quot ; Buddy & quot ; Deane ( 1924-2003 ), many of the Buddy Deane who... 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