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50th anniversary of 'Bandstand'

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By DAVID HINCKLEY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, August 4th 2007                                                                                        
                                                                                      
                                                                                              A young Dick Clark

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ABC didn't have a lot to lose, frankly, when it launched a national broadcast of "American Bandstand" on Aug. 5, 1957.

At the time, ABC running third in a three-network race, and rock 'n' roll, which "Bandstand" was to showcase, was considered a passing nuisance from the wacky teen culture that produced Hula-Hoops.

But "Bandstand" was cheap enough that there was little risk involved. The show had been produced in Philadelphia for five years, so all ABC had to do was tweak the set and broadcast it.

It didn't stop for 32 years, until "American Bandstand" had helped chisel rock 'n' roll into American culture. As safe as its version of rock 'n' roll often sounded, the show gave the music a national platform. It turned rock 'n' roll dancing into something that teenagers from Palisades Park to Pacific Palisades felt like they were doing together every afternoon.

Like most TV shows, "Bandstand" was most popular when it was new. By the mid-'60s, clean-cut lip-synching was no longer on the cutting edge, and by the time MTV was born in 1981, "Bandstand" was widely seen as an artifact from rock's attic.

But that's how kids always look at their parents, and MTV is a DNA-certified child of "Bandstand," just as surely as "Bandstand" owed a lot to the likes of "Your Hit Parade."

TV has never been a great medium for music. But for decades it was the only in-home visual mass medium, so viewers made do with small sound on small screens.

Viewers also made do with Dick Clark, who was the host of "American Bandstand" in August 1957 because a year earlier the original host, Bob Horn, had been hit with accusations of DWI and seducing an underage girl. He was acquitted on the sex charge, convicted of drunken driving and gone from the show.

Clark, who had no previous interest in rock 'n' roll, eventually parlayed both "Bandstand" and himself into wealthy institutions.

Whether he liked the music or not, he knew how to sell it. If the early "Bandstand" was segregated and often favored bland pop over harder-edged rock - the first show featured Billy Williams, the Chordettes and Kitty Kallen - that may have helped it survive the payola scandals and hold the fort until reinforcements arrived.

The week "Bandstand" went national, the No. 1 record in America was Elvis Presley's "Teddy Bear." When it signed off, on Oct. 7, 1989, Janet Jackson's "Miss You Much" was just bumping Milli Vanilli's "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" out of the top spot.

ABC plans no big bash this year, because it threw one in 2002 to mark the anniversary of the show's debut in Philadelphia.

That doesn't change the fact that 50 years ago (today), a car eased onto the track and changed the race.