Description
Book SynopsisAmerican Bandstand, one of the most popular television shows ever, broadcast from Philadelphia in the late fifties, a time when that city had become a battleground for civil rights. This book reveals how the program directed at teens discriminated against black youth and how black teens and civil rights advocates protested this discrimination.
Trade Review"Reveals a hidden history of racial segregation on the United States' first television program centered on the teenage population... Provocative." Orange County Register "Well-researched, tightly-written... Impressively bright, clear, and comprehensive." History News Network "Excellent... Offers a valuable understanding of the ... melding of African Americans into the national youth culture." Choice "The study illustrates how ... nostalgic representations of the past ... can work as impediments to progress in the present." Cbq Communication Booknotes Qtly "The Nicest Kids in Town counters the (false) mythology of American Bandstand with valuable descriptions of 'forgotten' cultural productions." -- Gayle Wald, George Washington University Jrnl Of The Society For American Music (Jsam)
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Making Philadelphia Safe for "WFIL-adelphia" Television, Housing, and Defensive Localism in Bandstand's Backyard 2. They Shall Be Heard Local Television as a Civil Rights Battleground 3. The de Facto Dilemma Fighting Segregation in Philadelphia Public Schools 4. From Little Rock to Philadelphia Making de Facto School Segregation a Media Issue 5. The Rise of Rock and Roll in Philadelphia Georgie Woods, Mitch Thomas, and Dick Clark 6. "They'll Be Rockin' on Bandstand, in Philadelphia, P.A." Imagining National Youth Culture on American Bandstand 7. Remembering American Bandstand, Forgetting Segregation 8. Still Boppin' on Bandstand American Dreams, Hairspray, and American Bandstand in the 2000s Conclusion Everybody Knows about American Bandstand Notes Index
