August 5, 1957"American Bandstand," hosted by Dick Clark, made its network TV debut on ABC.
In the late ‘50s, afternoon TV shows helped me go from elementary student to big sis to my younger siblings.
Howdy Doody brought us together watching a program we all enjoyed. Can you say ‘Howdy Doody’ without smiling?
We hung out for a while in the magical world of The Mickey Mouse Club where anything was possible.
After the end of big kid school, the sounds of Les Elgart playing Bandstand Boogie took us to American Bandstand. In real life, those teenagers would have never let us so close. We watched what they wore, listened to what they said, paid attention to what they liked. We dreamed of one day ‘hopping over to Philadelphia’ and being on band stand with them. We identified Philadelphia with American Bandstand before we knew about the Declaration of Independence.
I found this video of the original theme music. I’m not able to verify it’s legality, but the photos are great. I love the photo of the saddle oxfords. My socks always looked like those.
Howdy Doody, Mickey Mouse and American Bandstand. Could life had been any better?