Hullabaloo, Shivaree, American Bandstand...TV Pop Shows of the 1960s

There was a summer daytime program on ABC called "Where the Action Is." It was broadcast from a beach in California.

I was in love with Donna Loren!

Still am!

Wasn't there one called Shindig?

As much as Dick Clark promoted Bandstand postmortem, it was a cheap, shitty daytime show.

I never heard of Shivaree

We had local dance shows. One was hosted by Clay Cole. Another was hosted by Lloyd Thaxton.

Clay Cole was dreamy. Neither show sated very long.

Donna Loren "Cycle Set" on Hullabaloo with Bobby Sherman on the back.... around the time that Sal Mineo was fucking Sherman. read all about it in Michael Michaud's bio SAL MINEO.

Sorry that clip is from Shindig. My mistake.

[quote]As much as Dick Clark promoted Bandstand postmortem, it was a cheap, shitty daytime show.

V. interesting.

Yes, he made it look important. That's why I'm so surprised by how very lifeless and bad it is, when I see it unedited.

[quote]There was a summer daytime program on ABC called "Where the Action Is." It was broadcast from a beach in California.

I think they also went on location, to the snow and stuff where they'd lip sync to their hits.

I loved the dancers on Hullabaloo, they could really move.

A GOGO '66!

Len Barry on Shivaree

OMG! r8.

Live from JungleLand!

That's a blast from the past.

Those were great most of the time...sometimes they were weird. The Supremes singing the Beatles.

I wish I could find Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs doing Wolly Bully back in the day when it first came out. My mother nearly shat herself when she saw them on TV.

"You CAN'T really watch that! You can't consider that music! You are out of your mind! Turn it off!"

A very strong early Christmas memory I have is of my father putting up the tree while American Bandstand was on tv. The Bandstand dancers were wearing ski sweaters and I think they had decorated the set like a faux ski lodge.

I couldn't wait to become a teenager so I could wear ski sweaters and dance to cool tunes in the lodge, drinking hot cocoa while it snowed outside. There would be ice skaters on a perfectly round pond wearing plaid shirts and turtleneck sweaters with their hands in fluffy white muffs.

Little did I know what was in store for me in my teen years.

I still can't wAit to dress up in a ski sweater and sit with a bunch of my cool friends in front of the fire at the lodge.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

The Beat (1965-66).

Black artists only.

Here's Bobby Hebb (of 'Sunny' fame).

I could never understand why there were never black girls in go-go cages in the 60s shows. Maybe this was why.

R10...I thought Jr. walker & The All Stars sang Shotgun! Those white kids singing it are embarrassing.

They also had Tom Jones sing at that zoo, in his tight jeans.

Where The Action Is was a regular daily show, not just a summer show - it didn't have a particular set and was filmed all over the place in the LA area (frequently on the beach but not always). After it went off the air, ABC did put on a daily summer show hosted by Mark Lindsay. I think it was called It's Happening.

I watched all the TV pop shows of the 60s that were shown in my area. Hullabaloo was probably my favorite. IIRC it had a different host ever week while Shindig had the same bouffant hairdo'd male, Jimmy O'Neill. Hullabaloo was also an hour while I think Shindig was 1/2 hr.

I also liked Upbeat, which must have been a syndicated show. And I remember Shivaree, Hollywood A Go Go, and Lloyd Thaxton.

I never liked American Bandstand - I wanted to watch the acts, not a bunch of kids dancing.

Hmm.. I always thought "It's Not Unusual" was a Burt Bacharach song. I just looked it up and it's not.

It sure sounded like typical 60s David/Bacharach.

R19, thanks, I've never seen the video.

That was Tom Jones BEFORE the makeover. Leather-clad, swarmy rocker to Las Vegas pop crooner. He cut his hair, had his teeth capped and did his nose, added 15 pounds, and whala! Tom rivaled Elvis in Vegas! I couldn't understand his appeal on TV in 1969, but he isn't as bad as I thought:

Hullabaloo was shot in NYC and had great production values as well as regular dancers and choreographers like Donna McKechnie, David Winters and Michael Bennett who were all working on Broadway at that time. It was more like a one hour mini-Broadway review of current rock and roll music with a different guest host each week. I loved when Petula Clark was on and also remember a fantastic medley that The Supremes did with The 4 Seasons of both group's hit songs, I guess around 1966.

Shindig was shot in LA and just looked cheap. It all looked and sounded like it was filmed underwater.

American Bandstand was seen live from Philadelphia 5 days a week just after school hours. Dick Clark had a different guest star each day singing their latest hit single. The kids that danced on that show were just local unpaid teenagers but many of them developed huge fan bases with their TV audiences and were featured in teen magazines like 16 Magazine.

R13,The Supremes did an album of British Invasion songs, A Bit of Liverpool.

"American Bandstand was seen live from Philadelphia 5 days a week just after school hours."

That was early in the show, in the 1950s.

One of my first crushes was Steve Alaimo from "Where the Action Is."

Finally some people who really know their 60s music. This is what I was hoping for and it's really interesting to read and get the info.

I'm going to check out some of those shows now.

{quote]That was Tom Jones BEFORE the makeover. Leather-clad, swarmy rocker to Las Vegas pop crooner. He cut his hair, had his teeth capped and did his nose, added 15 pounds

Here he is in 1966 before the makeover. He was so hot then. I wondered why he looked so different later on. They emasculated him.

Tom Jones' management wanted him to be sophisticated enough to get a TV show and to play Vegas ($$$), OP/R27. So did he. That meant shaving off the rough edges enough to appeal to an older more upscale audience -- the same 30+ age females that followed Elvis in 1968.

This is Jones on Ed Sullivan in 1965-66. Old nose, old teeth, thinner. Even at that time he sang adult pop music on occasion, even sang "More" on this very Sullivan show.

Nancy Sinatra - I think on Hullabaloo - a classic! Still one of my top five songs ever.

In NYC we had Hullabaloo, Shindig, Where the Action is, and I think Clay Cole. Plus Bandstand.

Here's a local show out of Steubenville, Ohio called "Teen Time."

This 1968 clip has brief dancing at the intro and towards the end but it's mostly of mime rock band -The Hello People doing Let's Go Hide in the Forest. I like the keyboardist's expressions of delight at the 2:40-44 mark.

I am so old that I remember American Bandstand when Dick Clark was not the host. A guy named Bob Horn was the original host but then he was busted for drunk driving with some statutory rape thrown in and he was gone. (He was acquitted for the rape.)

Dick was ok as the host, but very bland. I never really liked him. When he relocated AB to California, the show became unwatchable for me. Those kids did nothing but strike a pose whenever the camera was on them. Rarely looking at their dance partner and really coming to life only when the camera found them.

Just about every teenager watching the Philly version of the show knew those dancers by name. Bob and Justine, Kenny and Arlene. Big Ro and Little Ro. The sex bomb, Franny Giordano. A great time to be a teenager.

The Corny Collins Show!

[quote]Just about every teenager watching the Philly version of the show knew those dancers by name. Bob and Justine, Kenny and Arlene. Big Ro and Little Ro.

That's so funny.

Dusty Springfield convinced the producers of "Ready Steady Go!" (UK) to devote an entire show to Motown. She got what she wanted and ended up hosting.

The fame of those ordinary Philly teenagers on the old American Bandstand was the beginning of reality TV.

PBS is running a nostalgic look at Hullabaloo as part of its current pledge drive.

You all seem like such fans of the sixties, you need to catch 60s Bandstand Show in concert, it is a great show.

St. Louis had it's own dance show, the St. Louis Hop.

What the attached link fails to mention is the "Phatom Circle" dance. While a song played, a circle would hover over the dancers. When the music stopped is when the Phatom Circle stopped and whatever lucky couple it landed on got "fabulous" prizes.

[quote]and whala!

BWAAHAHAHA!

The T.A.M.I. Show!!

>>>>>> You all seem like such fans of the sixties, you need to catch 60s Bandstand Show in concert, it is a great show

I hate things like that. They're ghastly.

Check out the YT . I lasted 5 seconds.

Have to agree with R41 on that. R37, it's shows like that that totally ruin the image and memory of the real thing.

Bump...for more on the '60s dance shows.

The Baltimore dance show John Waters wrote about

WONDERAMA !!

Was big in the NYC area.

I was even on the show a few times. My aunt worked for their advertising agency's CEO.

I watch Lou Christie on YouTube, He is still Hot and that voice is unbelievable. Watch him on the Midnight Special in his well warn Levis. Check out his basket, which is a treat to look at. Many girl groups tell stories about him on tour, He was HUNG up on Diana Ross. Just ask Mary she knows all about what Diana did.

I found this little article blog interesting:

Those shows were the reason teens were given televisions for their bedrooms! I was in high school, 1963-67. Must-see TV comprised for me: Bandstand (Carmen with the white streak in her hair!); Shindig; Hullabaloo; Hootenanny; Wild, Wild West; I Spy; Laugh-In; EdSullivan; and Peyton Place.

Philly, California, and the British Invasion sounds: good times. Good times.

The clip posted five years ago of Nancy Sinatra's "Boots" performance has a hidden gem included. The backup dancer in the red top is Terri Garr.

As for the old shows, I'd like to have watched Hootenanny. The lip-sync shows like Bandstand are rather bland.

In England there was Top of the Pops, which featured a dancing troupe called ‘Pan’s People’ (in the link there’s an airing from January 29th, 1970, please ignore the presence of Jimmy Saville.)

I really admire the dolly birds in the audience who somehow manage to go-go dance to Jethro Tull’s “The Witch’s Promise”.

🚂🚃🚃🚃 Sooooul Traaaain l

[quote] Dusty Springfield convinced the producers of "Ready Steady Go!" (UK) to devote an entire show to Motown. She got what she wanted and ended up hosting.

Not hard to convince as Vicki Wyndham, who would go on to be Dusty's manager, was one of the producers and had turned Vicki on to Motown music, which had influenced her choice of a first solo single - she described hearing "Tell Him" in a record store and falling in love with the sound.

I grew up with American Bandstand, and when I was fourteen "Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars" came to my home town. Diana Ross and the Supremes were part of that show in their early years. I used to beat it home everyday after school to catch the end of "Another World" followed by American Bandstand.

Life Was Good !

R48 I love you for remembering Carmen Jimenez!! I was 6 years old and living in Wilmington, Delaware, so we were practically neighbors with Philadelphia. I could not wait for AB to come on every afternoon so I could watch Carmen and her sister Yvette dance and flirt with the camera.

My mother was an insufferable WASP who found the show to be disgusting and wholly inappropriate for a young girl "of my sort." One day I was told that I would no longer be allowed to watch my favorite after school show and I was shattered. I begged and pleaded for her to reconsider, but she was immovable. But why? What harm could watching a TV show do?

"I don't want you watching "those sort of girls with their round fannies and ridiculous hair styles." Carmen was my first girl crush, and I will always remember her.

R52 *Vicki Wickham.

The Hullabaloo dancers were awesome. There was one blonde girl who'd always be in a cage - she was so wild. I loved the tall, graceful Donna McKechnie and that fantastic Asian guy.

[quote] *Vicki Wickham.

You're right! I had a momentary lapse and confused that last name with a similar sounding name of an actress.

r52 "Tell Him" was not a Motown song.

It wasn't, R58, but it opened the doors to Dusty discovering R&B music, including Motown.