Author says ‘Bandstand’ blocked blacks

Philadelphia Daily News

PHILADELPHIA

Professor Matthew Delmont set out to write about how the ’50s dance show “American Bandstand” was an integrated bastion of pop culture, where Philadelphia’s black and white teens mixed and mingled on television even though the rest of the country was bitterly divided by race.

Then he discovered his entire premise was dead-wrong.

In the resulting book, “The Nicest Kids in Town,” this assistant professor of American studies at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., details how “American Bandstand” kept African-American teens off the show, despite host Dick Clark’s later claims to the contrary.

When he was in graduate school, Delmont wanted to write a book about how segregation differed in the North from the South, where tactics were more overt.

Indeed, there was nothing overt about racism on “Bandstand.” The show didn’t hang a shingle outside of its 46th and Market studio barring African-Americans from the premises.

“What they did was use what could only be described as underhanded tactics,” Delmont said. “They would have a dress code and black teens would just so happen not have the right clothes on.”

“Bandstand” used a core group of 10 to 20 dancers. If other teens wanted to get on the show, they had to write in for passes. Producers would screen the ticket applications for classically ethnic names, picking out kids with Polish, Irish and Italian names who they assumed were white.

In the book, Delmont talks with Walter Palmer, who lived in West Philly during “Bandstand’s” heyday. “‘Bandstand’ was segregated,” Palmer told Delmont. “There were white kids from all of the Catholic schools, but no black kids. West Catholic was on 46th, and they were always there; our school (West Philadelphia High School) was on 47th (and we could not go).”

Palmer and his friends waged a protest. “(His group) wrote in with different last names, with Polish, Italian and Irish last names, so they were able to get passes for that day,” Delmont said.