. The boys had to wear coats and ties, dressing in the aforementioned "Continental" style. Deane and Kozak were advised by a small group of committee members on final cuts. . Buddy Deane Committee: Helen Crist Swift 1943 - 2007 - Blogger If you could claim that you were a Buddy Deaner -- a member of the regular committee that appeared on the daily show and attended weekend record hops of Deane, who died Wednesday at 78 after a stroke -- the social status attached to that was substantial. I thought I was running the world, so they developed a Board, and the Committee began governing itself. Being elected to the Board became the ultimate status symbol. Ladies and Gentleman . Buddy Dean - Oznet We really sprayed it, remembers Mary Lou today from her home in Pennsylvania. Buddy Deane Committee - Facebook Oh, my God, its Evanne! Autograph books, cameras, this is what they lived for. Vicki Defeo: Some of the people who were popular way back that Im friends with now, back then I wouldve been like, wow! ), Concetta, for one, says her connection with the show as a committee member is enduring. Five days a week on Channel 13 (first known as WAAM, then as WJZ), it played for two hours a day, and on Saturdays, two and a half. All on Pulaski Highway. (One female committee member supposedly teased and sprayed her hair so much it caught fire one night as she slept. He was 78. Marie Shapiro: I think they even asked for a note from my minister. I wanted to dance., We had a saying: The show either makes you or breaks you,' says Kathy. . In 1985 the Committee members are for the most part happy and healthy, living in Baltimore, and still recognized on the street. Thats how they rotated Committee members. Oddly enough, few of the Deaners Ive talked to went on to show biz. Baltimore Sun. I think the kids never had much of a problem with it; I think a lot of the parents may have. She is married and has a daughter, stepdaughter, stepson and six grandchildren. It was so painful. . But I was never a Deaner. Buddy Deane Committee: Pictures Just Added Taken Nov. 1983 - Blogger Owing to Deane's mid-South roots and work history, he featured many performers from the ranks of country and western music (e.g., Skeeter Davis, singing "The End of the World" and Brenda Lee singing "Sweet Nothin's"), who then achieved cross-over hits among rock and roll fans. Many years later they married. Mary Lou Raines received 100 letters a week. It was hilarious., Some of the rumors were fanned on purpose. . Im serious. The popular television Baltimore dance show aired from 1957 until 1964. I was aggressive. . Hairspray came to CCBC Essex's Cockpit in Court theater, and so did the real original castthose Committee members from the old Buddy Deane Show, whose moment in history became the premise for . committeemembers - thecommitteetohonorbuddydeane - Google Sites As well, a show was broadcast from a local farm in Westminster, Maryland. It was a target maybe of people who didnt even watch the show. Buddy Deane, center, with the Committee and teen dancers. The Buddy Deane Show went on the air on Sept. 9, 1957 and became the most popular local show in the United States. The star system was born. When Maryland Public Television wanted to film the event, it mushroomed into an even bigger affair. Its time had passed a little. Billy, especially, was picked on unmercifully "up on Belair Road," but deep inside, the ones making fun -- some of whom would wind up with heroin habits or work down at Bethlehem Steel -- were deeply envious of him. "The Nicest Kids In Town" -former dancers from the Buddy Deane Show (1957- 1964). I hate to say this, but they wanted attractive young people. Buddy Deane - IMDb . It aired for two and a half hours a day, six days a week. Linda Snyder: After you made the dance audition, you went to an interview with the Committee members. The old Buddy Deane gang is still a hit, too, still getting recognized on the street, and still remembered with affection by a generation that spanned the Eisenhower and Kennedy years. Mary Lou Barber: Ive only been able to watch [Hairspray] a couple of times because so much of it hits home. Joe Kozak still fields calls from folks wanting to speak with his late wife, Arlene, who was Buddy Deane's production assistant during the run of the program. Shes been a Realtor for the past 20 years and lives outside Philadelphia. His dance party television show debuted in 1957 and was, for a time, the most popular local show in the United States. Buddy called me up before the cameras, and I wasnt dressed my best. On the show you were either a drape or a square, explains Sharon. To say that the Buddy Deane Show was the centerpiece of every teen's life in Baltimore would be a stretch. I watched it for the fashion and for the drama, because Buddy Deane encouraged them to [date and] break up on film. She smelled like a garden of flowers and could crack her chewing gum discreetly. . But being a Buddy Deaner, or even a guest, moved a kid into a fantasyland, a world of teased hair, pointy-toed shoes and fashions by Lee's of Broadway. I was with this guy named Jeff. Mary Lou, the Annette Funicello of the show, was the talk of teenage Baltimore. Bob Mathers, who worked with Deane on three radio stations, was a close friend of Deanes and is an unofficial historian of The Buddy Deane Show.. The Buddy Deane Show was a teen dance television show, created by Zvi Shoubin, hosted by Winston "Buddy" Deane (19242003), and aired on WJZ-TV (Channel 13), the then-ABC affiliate station in Baltimore from 1957 until 1964. 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. Login to create it. Buddy Deane Show (TV Series) The Movie Database (TMDB) . Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Its host was Winston "Buddy" Deane, who died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas after suffering a stroke, July 16, 2003. The one thing everyone seems to remember about The Buddy Deane Show is its ending: amid calls to integrate the almost all-white program (as in Hairspray, there was one day a month when African Americans could dance on the show), Buddy Deane was canceled. It seems crazy nowthe idea of prohibiting black kids and white kids from dancing on the same television programbut not then. Can't find a movie or TV show? Tom Wheeler What he left us was an early introduction and enduring devotion to rock and roll. John Waters: Mary Lou [Barber] told me once that a black girl couldve gotten on the show easier than a fat girl. . At Elmley Playground, transistors would be tuned to Fat Daddy. Id get letters saying, If you show up at this particular hop, youre gonna get your face pushed in. Marie Shapiro: I think we all kind of knew what was coming. You Can't Stop the Beat: The Secret History of Hairspray as Live TV I had always studied dance, and I wanted to go on [the show]. Acts that appeared on the show first were reportedly barred from appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, but if they had been on Bandstand first they could still be on The Buddy Deane Show. 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. Friends now joke that Baltimore was the cha-cha capital of the world. Being a Deaner lifted a committee member into the rarefied air of being a star at 16. Apr 14, 1997 at 3:00 am. 1 talking about this. These kids developed a huge following of fans and hangers-on in Baltimore who emulated their dance moves, followed their life stories, and copied their look. Wayne Hahn: If you were late, you couldnt get in the door. They are still referred to, good naturedly by some, as the Ken and Barbie of the show. Gene, a member of the first Committee, and I underline first, later became president of the Board. Or Snuggle Dolls? My email is bigsales@aol.com, cell number is 410-365-6569. He went steady with committee member Bobbie Lanham, a heartthrob to legions, and got lots of telegrams inviting him and Bobbie to lead dances. Frani Hahn: The fascinating thing about it is that we all still get together, and its not like we live in the past. At her appearances at the record hops, kids would actually scream when youd get out of the car: Theres Mary Lou! When that little red light came on, so did my smile, she says, laughing. And when we sprayed it, we had to blot it so it didnt leave residue. When you dance you'll squeeze her, yes, with all your might. Ladies and gentlemen, the nicest kids in town!. Now, were talking about integrating the show. Could it be? That she has an affluent life-style surprises no one on the Committee. Buddy Deane, 78, TV Host And Inspiration of 'Hairspray' - New York Times On the last day of the show, January 4, 1964, all the most popular Committee members through the years came back for one last appearance. That dancing was integrated and I learned how to do the boomerang, shing-a-ling, the skate and the twine time. It was a real kick! Her fame even brought an offer to join the circus. John Waters: Theyre my idols in a way. Buddy Deane, 78, the impresario of Baltimore's dance show from 1957-1964, died Wednesday of complications from a stroke near his home in Pine Bluff, Ark. The kids became celebrities. Some guys, too insecure to dance even at the Little Flower CYO, thought Buddy Deaner guys were "sissies." On Saturdays, it was on in the afternoons until 5. Every day Id come to the studio in knee-highs, and Id have to take them off. Frani & Wayne. In fall of 63, Buddy called in the Committee members and said . Shake, Rattle and Roll: the Buddy Dean Scrapbook" We don't have any cast added to this TV Show. You are history. And I see Mary Lou, and I see Gene and Linda do the cha-cha, and I think: no one can do it like them. Deaners seem to come out of the woodwork, drawn by the memory of their stardom. It was over at 5. Several local art contests were also held on the show, with viewers submitting their own art work. Once a teenager joined the Committee, he or she had to abide by Deanes rules, which Deane described in a letter to the cast: Your clothing will be befitting a lady or a gentleman, and your habits, no smoking or gum chewing, will set standards for the future.. He said they asked each member of the show's committee . But boy do we love the times, the memories that we have from the past. Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of a Baltimore drugstore. I think Im honoring their great stardom. Several marriages resulted from liaisons between Committee Members. Gene and Linda Snyder met on The Buddy Deane Show as committee members in 1959 and have been married for 46 years. Ten seconds to airtime. In reality, integration spelled the demise of The Buddy Deane Show, which ran from 1957 to 1964. The more hair spray, the better. Teenagers who appeared on the show every day were known as "The Committee". https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Buddy_Deane_Show&oldid=1149520565, Black-and-white American television shows, Local music television shows in the United States, Wikipedia articles with style issues from September 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. A guy I attended City with, Carroll Weber, lived in Highlandtown and was on the committee. Why? Id wonder. She wasnt even a fan of the show. I went to Eastern High, I got out at 2:30, and at 3, the show started. I will be moving near Ocean City in July.Do you remember me. The Buddy Deane Show was over. I know he would love hearing from you! . And more important, so did the Committee, still entering by a special door, still doing the dances from the period with utmost precision. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. The Madison line dance was born here, called by the supreme voice of Eddie Morrison. When Mary Lous husband gave me the long and complicated directions to their home on the phone, he ended with And there you will find, yes, Mary Lou Raines. He later confided that when he first started dating her, he had no idea of her early career. Evanne and her brother run the John Brock Benson Dance Studios, in Pasadena, and have a line of dancers who appear at clubs all over the state. Corky,My name was Judy Kerr and I was on the committee in1958/59. Here is the new video celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Buddy Deane Show and the former Catonsville Community College (now CCBC). The dancers were known as the Committee. God forbid, in school, if you didnt smile, you were conceited. For those too young to remember this iconic show broadcast in Baltimore in 1957-1964, you certainly have heard of the movie inspired by the Buddy Deane Show known as 'Hairspray! The day Weber was approached for autographs by girls at Eastern High School, I knew without a doubt that being on the committee carried as much cachet as running first string for Dunbar High School's basketball team or having your own car with four-on-the-floor. Pictures Just Added Taken Nov. 1983. . Many were there when the show went off the air in 1964, ending a seven-year run. . There I was under the burning lights of the WJZ-TV studio, slow-dancing with a Buddy Deane Show committee member. Now, no one would ever do a commercial for a profit company without getting some compensation. [citation needed] With an ear for music seasoned by many more years as a disc jockey than Clark, Deane also brought to his audience a wider array of white musical acts than were seen on American Bandstand. . Ironically, The Buddy Deane Show introduced black music and artists into the lives of white Baltimore teenagers, many of whom learned to dance from black friends and listened to black radio. They were married in 1966 and have one daughter. The Committee, initially recruited from local teen centers, was to act as hosts and dance with the guests. I took off my steady ring and threw it down. A big strong line!) up the hill to the famous dance party set, the one that now houses People Are Talking. If you were a teenager in Baltimore in the late 1950s and early 1960s, you watched The Buddy Deane Show. When the final bell rang you sprinted home from school, saddle shoes smacking the sidewalk, knee socks sliding down your shins, until you skidded to a stop in front of your black-and-white TV and turned to WJZ Channel 13 to watch Marylands answer to American Bandstand. Chances are you wanted to be on The Buddy Deane Show, whose stars were ordinary teens turned local celebrities. The views expressed here are the author's own. So the NAACP targeted the show for protests. Dick Clark patterned his ABC-TV show, Where the Action Is, after local remotes done by Deane in Maryland. Although the show has been off the air for more than twenty years, a nearly fanatical cult of fans has managed to keep the memory alive. Deane began his broadcasting career at KLXR in Little Rock, Arkansas. . Vicki Defeo: I thought they did a great job with portraying the kids dancing. so they had a points system. . TheCommitteeToHonorBuddyDeane@gmail.com. To this day, I don't know why my late father, then in his 60s, was watching the Buddy Deane Show. Or dancing with other Committee members when you were supposed to be dancing with the guests (a very unpopular rule allowed this only every fourth dance). Gene and Linda Snyder met on The Buddy Deane Show as committee members in 1959 and have been married for 46 years. . 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. And there was a big problem with that. . Not one of the Committee members, the ones chosen to be on the show every daythe Baltimore version of the Mouseketeers, the nicest kids in town, as they were billed. No long hair, only pompadours, hurriedly combed during commercials. I was a misfit. At 21, I married a professional football player, Helen remembers, and he made me burn all the fan mail. We were from all over the city, Ann Boyer recalled. I think my father would definitely have not been agreeable to [integration] at that time. . Mary Lou Barber: My hairstyle was the biggest. She became so popular that she was written up in the nationwide Sixteen Magazine. Arguably the first TV celebrities in Baltimore. But my mother and father wont let me come down if you do that. In early December, Buddy Deane met with station officials and they said, Weve decided to cancel the program. And Buddy said, So it has to do with integration? And the station said, Thats correct. I would see this again years later, stinky and scared young guys dancing to candlelight in a sandbagged Vietnam bunker, serenaded by a tropically-warped Temptations album. . Vicki Defeo: Ive tried to think this through, because it sounds ridiculous, but [integration] was a non-issue to us. ". A special. And because a new dance was introduced practically every week, you had to watch every day to keep up. He was one of the first to showcase rock and roll music on a continual basis. Buddy wanted it to end happily, but WJZ angered Deaners when it tried to blame the ratings. The Deane program set aside every other Friday for a show featuring only black teenagers. To qualify, first you needed a solid command of the day's dances -- the pony, Madison, jitterbug, bop, cha-cha, the stroll, the twist -- and there was even a "cool" style for slow dancing. . . As one report stated, the Deane show "Teeded [ sic] off last Monday and bowed an impressive array of guests, including Kitty Kallen, June Valli, Terri Stevens, Lou Monte, The Chordettes . The Buddy Deane Show was a teenage dance party, on the air from 1957 to 1964. I had to wear stockings and cha-cha heels. The show was the highest-rated local program in the country. This man approached me, telegrammed me, showed up at the show. Untrue, but we believed it.). The show was taken off the air because home station WJZ was unable to integrate black and white dancers. . Dance was the thing. Come share the songs & dances of the Buddy Deane Show with us! Thursday at the Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda; Jan. 25-27 at the Meyerhoff, 1212 Cathedral St. Baltimore. Perhaps the highest bouffants of all belonged to the Committee member who was my personal favorite: Pixie (who died several years later from a drug overdose). Recollections differ as to whether it was Deane, the station or the parents of the Committee members who refused to allow the show to be integrated. The Committee is back in session. They kept their figures, look nice, and are very kind people, says Marie in her lovely home on Falls Road before taking off for the University of Maryland, where she attends law school. Several marriages resulted from liaisons between Committee Members. Romance was one thing; sex was another. When I get depressed, I dont go to the psychiatrist, I go to the jeweler, she says. . My fathers boss came into work one day and said, My daughter and my wife just love your daughter, and we cant believe that shes a TV star and you work for me!. When the subject comes up today, most loyalists want to go off the record. Some committee guys bought their shoes at Manchester's on Howard Street, pointy-toed footwear that sported various buckles, flaps and other avant-garde touches. . I was able after a while to afford some clothes from Lees of Broadway (whose selection of belted coats and pegged pants made it the Saks Fifth Avenue of Deaners). They would drive me nuts when theyd come in the door, and Id say Man, youre gone. I was totally star-struck and had as much fun that night as I did at the Cannes Film Festival. The Buddy Deane Show - Wikipedia Marie Fischer was the first Joe to become a Committee memberchosen simply because she was such a good dancer. (They gave her a diamond watch at the last reunion.) The 25th anniversary of the movie Hairspray provides an opportunity for members of the dance group of Baltimores The Buddy Deane Show to get back together and reminisce about the TV show that the movie is based upon. Such a thrill, oh, when she's close to you. Linda Snyder: We still love to go dancing. We all watched that and the Mickey Mouse Club. [At my audition], I was not quite 14. The school tried to throw me out before. Why not do The Deane Show on TV again? 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. Buddy could take his seat beneath the famous Top 20 Board, and the tension would build. You have to ease into it. The main thing was your hair was flat, the antithesis of Buddy Deane, she says, chuckling. It couldn't get much worse, or so I thought. Seven year old's Egg My Yard! Hundreds of thousands of teens learned the latest dances by watching Committee members on the show, copying their personal style, and following their life stories and interactions. The Buddy Deane Show aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, MD, from 1957 to 1964. 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. and my version of it is very different from theirs. I got these letters from the Naval Academy, Helen remembers, so I went there one day, and all the midshipmen were hanging out the windows. If you [broke any rules], you got the points taken off. It was the times, most remember. Linda reverently describes her Committee membership as the best experience I ever had in my life. They later became members of the Permanent Committee, the hall of fame that could come back to dance even after retiring. My email: frani@francescatravel.com Viewers often emulated the Committee members' dance moves, copied their personal style, and followed their life stories and interactions. Jump to. Its interesting that our paths have crossed at reunions and weve all chosen to stay friends. Buddy Deane, whose popular Baltimore television dance show for teenagers became the basis for the John Waters movie "Hairspray," died here on July 16. Wayne Hahn: Dick Clark [and American Bandstand], that wasnt a big thing here. He eventually became one of the most respected programmers in the country and was even written up in Time magazine. If the boys dared to sport chino pants, the crease had to be razor sharp. ''The Buddy Deane Show,'' on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, featured teenagers dancing to live bands, many of which became major recording groups. There were a lot of obscene phone calls., And the rumors, God, the rumors. I got a little power-crazed, admits Joe. My father was very strict. The 25th anniversary of the movie "Hairspray" provides an opportunity for members of the dance group of Baltimore's "The Buddy Deane Show" to get back . So was Aqua Net. Deane helped numerous black record artists in their careers -- James Brown among them.