That's what really happened, and the show shut down." 3. In 1985 the Committee members are for the most part happy and healthy, living in Baltimore, and still recognized on the street. 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 mixed marriages (with non-Deaners), many of the outsiders resented their spouses pasts. You Cant Stop the Beat, for example, is an upbeat dance number that resolves the issue of segregation on the Corny Collins Show. 1957, it was a huge success as it was portrayed in the musical. Being a teenage star in Baltimore had its drawbacks. This article is among features at explorepinebluff.com, a program of the Pine Bluff Advertising and Promotion Commission. These dances included the Mashed Potato, the Stroll, the Pony, the Waddle, the Locomotion, the Bug, the Handjive, the New Continental and the Madison. Romance was one thing; sex was another. But I was never a Deaner. Not a real one. Thank you for including me as one of the Buddy Dean family. In meetings with the show's white performers, the producers realized that though most of the dancers were in favor of integration, their parents would not be. 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 Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. You are history. NBCs Hairspray Live! Deane hosted a morning show at WITH. Deane also held dances at various Maryland American Legion posts and National Guard armories which were not taped or broadcast on television. So a year later when he had his own show, it seemed only right that "Rock Around the Clock" premiered on "The Buddy Deane Show.". Joe started working for Buddy as teen assistant and, along with Arlene, oversaw the Committee and enforced the strict rules. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Deane died in Pine Bluff on July 16, 2003, after experiencing complications caused by a stroke. The 1988 John Waters film, newly adapted into an NBC live musical, presents a view of racial discrimination thats by turns nave and enlightening. It was similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. . It was so painful. Image Credit: OzNet.com. Soon after, he and his family moved to Memphis, Tenn. 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. Deane also played songs that other disc jockeys, including Dick Clark, refused to present to mostly white teen TV audiences because the acts sounded "too black" (e.g. This Article is related to: Film and tagged Divine, Hairspray, IFC Center, John Waters. Mary Lou was the last of the Buddy Deane superstars, true hair-hopper royalty, the ultimate Committee member. "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. Oh, black teens could dancejust not with the white kids. Buddy offered to have three or even four days a week all black, but that wasnt it. Over the next several years, Deane's show became the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and the highest rated local show in the United States. Thats what really happened, and the show shut down.. Deane died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on July 16, 2003, after suffering a stroke. Youre in Baltimore. The show featured only white kids dancing, so Scruggs wrote him a letter in the fall of 1958 to . 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 . 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. Nicknamed "Buddy" as a child, Deane . 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. The movie was eventually turned into a musical by the same name. This man approached me, telegrammed me, showed up at the show. Many parents and local officials were angry. . 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. The show featured only white kids dancing, so Scruggs wrote him a letter in the fall of 1958 to . were the highest rated local TV show in America." Amazingly, Deane's show was aired live, two-and-a-half hours each day on five days a week with three hours on Saturday. August 8, 2022 at 3:55 a.m. My parents didn't talk much about racism, and as a result I grew up learning to love everybody. From 1968 into 1973, the public television variety show SOUL! It suggests a way of understanding race that allows viewers to disavow bigotryframed in the story as the belief that white and black Americans should live in separate sphereswithout acknowledging, confronting, or seeking to overturn the actual structures of discrimination. In 1950, he moved to Baltimore to WITH. Oh sure, if you were Joe College [pre-preppie], you just didnt do The Deane Show. Did you ever tum into a Joe College? I ask innocently. [1], Deane's dance party television show debuted in 1957 and was, for a time, the most popular local show in the United States. They just wanted to know if you were real. I even won the twist contest with Mary Lou Raines (one of the queens of The Buddy Deane Show) at the Valley Country Club. And although few will now admit to having been drapes, the styles at first were DAs (slicked back into the shape of a ducks tail), Detroits, and Waterfalls (flowing down the front) for the guys and ponytails and DAs for the girls, who wore full skirts with crinolins and three or four pairs of bobby socks. (I looked like I was taking off.) And Helen, Linda, and Joanie all got out the rat-tail teasing combs. Checking back with the studio, no one had information concerning footage of African American dancers. It aired for two and a half hours a day, six days a week. sively white show. All rights reserved. Oddly enough, few of the Deaners Ive talked to went on to show biz. See production, box office & company info. 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 studio (the so-called Black Monday). The school tried to throw me out before. In 1948, Deane married Helen Stevenson, his childhood sweetheart, whom he first met when he was just four years old. Debuting at a mere 11 years of age, taking three buses every day to get to the show, wearing that wonderful white DA (created by her hairdresser father), and causing the first real sensation. Arlene Kozak, Buddys assistant and den mother to the Committee. You had to wear nylons. . By representing this realityin bubble-gum, technicolor clarityHairspray does something that pure documentation, at times, cant: It makes a difficult part of a nations history accessible (and entertaining) to millions of viewers. Baltimore teenagers rushed home to catch the show daily to listen to the popular music, watch their favorite dancers, copy their style and learn the new dances that were introduced almost every week. . "I remember it well," recalls Evanne. 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. Its host was Winston "Buddy" Deane (1924-2003), who died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas after . 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. The Buddy Deane Show was over. Everywhere we went, people would say Theres Mary Lou. I wondered if she had just been released from the penitentiary.. Waters grew up with "The Buddy Deane Show" in Baltimore, and modeled his fictitious "Corny Collins Show" after it. Another royal Deaner couple who met on the air and later married was Gene Snyder and Linda Warehime. The buddy dean show debuted on Sep. 9. And it was not unique: Dick Reids Record Hop in Charleston, West Virginia; Ginny Paces Saturday Hop in Houston, Texas; John Dixons Dixon on Disc in Mobile, Alabama; Bill Sanderss show in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dewey Phillipss Pop Shop in Memphis, Tennessee; and Chuck Allens Teen Tempo in Jackson, Mississippi, were all segregated dance shows. After you sprayed it, youd get toilet paper and blot it. Theatre producer, Margo Lion, saw a television broadcast of the film in 1998 and started to conceive it as a stage musical. That show featured local teens who danced to the hits of the era, although the entire cast was white except for one episode every other Friday for Black kids. Every week she had a different dothe Double Bubble, the Artichoke, the Airlifteach topped off by her special trademark, suggested by her mother, the bow. Some do remember a handful of kids getting high on cough medicine. Oh, my God, its Evanne! Autograph books, cameras, this is what they lived for. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to what it meant for young black people to be excluded from entertainment spaces like the Buddy Deane Show. Get off that furniture!? 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.. Black teens were only allowed to dance on the show one day per month. 'Buddy' Deane; www.WashingtonPost.com -- The Messy Truth of The Real 'Hairspray.' I wanted to join the circus., Two other ponytail princesses who went on to the Buddy Dean hall of fame were Evanne Robinson, the committee member on the show the longest, and Kathy Schmink. This program is a tribute to long-time Maryland radio announcer Buddy Deane, who passed away in August, 2003. 2023 IndieWire Media, LLC. Motormouth Maybelle, a fictional black deejay and civil-rights activist played in the NBC version by Jennifer Hudson, sings: You cant stop today as it comes speeding down the track / Child, yesterday is history and its never coming back / Cause tomorrow is a brand new day and it dont know white from black. In the films narrative, this utopian vision of a colorblind future solves the problem of segregation and racial injustice. Powers was a particularly special addition, having disappeared in the years since the films release. I havent seen her since we made the movie, said Waters. Almost all dancers wore swim wear and beach attire, with music provided by WJZ-TV. Hairspray is the gift that never stops giving, Waters told an adoring crowd at New Yorks IFC Center this past weekend, the theater where Hairspray first opened thirty years ago. It was the era of rock n' roll ducktail, pegged pants, and beehive haridos. Also, read the comments in that same excerpt about the series only wanting "attractive" teenagers as featured dancers. Buddy could take his seat beneath the famous Top 20 Board, and the tension would build. It was the top-rated local TV show in Baltimore and, for several years, the highest rated local TV program in the country. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. WJZ's show aired from 1957 to 1964 and was popular among Baltimore teens, promoting dances like the twist, mashed potato, and the Madison. It's not just about police brutality. It was hilarious., Some of the rumors were fanned on purpose. Once a month the show was all black; there was no black Committee. The information used was obtained from WJZ. 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. by And if you dared to dance the obscene Bodie Green (the Dirty Boogie), you were immediately a goner. He wanted me to go to a summer training session to be a trapeze artist. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Baltimore Magazine. 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. At first I was so shy I hid behind the Coke machines., But Evanne used to come right home and head for the TV. They sent cakes on my birthday. Last spring, five hundred people quickly snapped up the $23 tickets to the third Buddy Deane Reunion, held at the Eastwind, in Essex, to raise money for the Baltimore Burn Center. Hairspray is John Waters most commercially successful film the 1988 dancing comedy spawned a hit Broadway musical, a movie and TV movie of that musical, plus multiple sequel and TV show offers that never saw the light of day. I wanted to go, but my parents wouldnt let me. ', Although many parents and WJZ insisted that Committee members had to keep up their grades to stay on the show, the reality could be quite different. Facing controversy over the possibility of more integrated broadcasts, the station canceled the program. Some of the old Committee kept up with the times and made the transition with ease. [citation needed]. Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. In 2003, "Hairspray" went on to sweep the 57th Annual Tony Awards, winning a total of eight awards. Just once. You werent one of them anymore. Outsiders envied the fame, especially if they lost their steadies to Deaners, and many were put off by boys who loved to dance. Waters: We used to go to the hotel and hed say, Come in, and hed be in bed with a cleaning woman smoking pot., It was Tracy saying to Link: Please dont look at my legs without the benefit of nylons.. See more ideas about buddy, historic baltimore, baltimore. . The Buddy Dean Show was the inspiration for the "Corny Collins Show" in the 2007 musical. Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Once I was off the show for a while, and they said I had joined the nunnery, says Helen, laughing. I appreciate the contribution that you and NOBLE BRUN, and other Black dancers on the Buddy Dean dance show made on that series. The first big stars were Bobbi Bums and Freddy Oswinkle, according to Arlene, but no matter how big anyone got, someone came along who was even bigger. Joe Cash and Joan Teves became the shows first royalty. Pancocojams showcases the music, dances, language practices, & customs of African Americans and of other people of Black descent throughout the world. Im still a fana Deaner groupie. When: Summer 1963. GOD HELP US! And the whole concept of the Committee changed. 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 . This discrimination was explicitly or tacitly supported by an array of advertisers, television stations, music producers, city authorities, and federal communications officials. offered an unfiltered, uncompromising celebration of Black literature, poetry, music, and politics, capturing a critical moment in culture whose impact continues to resonate today. Many top acts of the day, both black and white, appeared on The Buddy Deane Show. Pauline Kael praised him. (The rave appeared in The New Yorker, where Kael said it was really Divines movie, calling him W. Although he never appeared on Deane's show, Waters attended high school with a "Buddy Deaner" and later gave Deane a cameo in the film, in which Deane played a TV reporter who tried to interview the governor who was besieged by integration protesters. The film would spawn a 2002 Broadway musical adaptation starring Harvey Fierstein and Marissa Jaret Winokur, and a 2007 film adaptation of the musical starring John Travolta and Nikki Blonsky. Voters approve of . It ran two hours a day, six days a week. 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. Please read our Terms of Use or contact us. As well, a show was broadcast from a local farm in Westminster, Maryland. Based loosely on the 1988 film by John Waters, Hairspray centres on Baltimore teen Tracy Turnblad (Carmel Rodrigues), who in 1962 wants nothing more than a chance to dance on the local pop music TV. Mary Lou laughs at the memory of doing a pimple medicine spot on camera. Interviews with leading film and TV creators about their process and craft. 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. I dont think Ill ever get over missing it, if you want to know the truth., Many of the Committee members spouses faced an even bigger adjustment. Sources: www.IMDB.com -- Buddy Deane Biography; www.OzNet.com - A Collection of Articles About Buddy Deane; www.Variety.com -- Winston J. 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. Buddy Deane was the host of a Baltimore dance show that ran on TV from 1957 to 1964 six days a week. It was very interesting to see my conversation quoted in this article. And none are bitter. Waters's nostalgic and detailed appreciation for The Buddy Deane Show, . That's one of the things that the Black Lives Matter movement is talking about. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. "The Buddy Deane Show" ran on Baltimore's WJZ-TV from 1957 to 1964. "How 'The Buddy Deane Show' really went off the air is the white kids crashed Negro Day to integrate it. But it went something like this: Buddy Deane was an exclusively white show. 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. The first and maybe the biggest Buddy Deane queen of all. If a guy had one beer, it was a big deal. The Buddy Deane Show was over. John Water's himself said that in his movie, he "gave it the happy ending that it didn't have". Nationally, American Bandstand blocked black teens from entering the studio during its years in Philadelphia, despite host Dick Clarks claims to the contrary. I was so embarrassed. Each reunion (and a new one is in the works) ls bigger than the last. Ladies and gentlemen, the nicest kids in town!. Deane even played a small role in the movie, which premiered to moderate success but went on to become a cult classic. The Buddy Deane Show was taken off the air because home station WJZ-TV was unwilling to integrate black and white dancers. And they all came together on the Buddy Deane Show, Baltimore's legendary teen dance show. as its newest live-television musical adaptation. 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/. Hopefully, some footage of you and the other Black dancers will be found and published online.Best wishes to you and yes, GOD HELP US! . With the rising pressures of integration, the producers decided that the show must either be integrated or canceled. 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. Some fifty years later, the mindset is STILL the same. "Hairspray" is set in the 1960s and is based on a TV show called "The Buddy Deane Show," which featured Baltimore-area teenagers dancing to popular music but was canceled in 1964, after the .
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