He Encouraged the Integration of Pop Music
From Bandstand's beginning, Clark had committed to integrating the show. The image of a racially diverse crowd of teenagers doing “The Twist” right alongside Chubby Checker is amongBandstand’s most indelible, and would later be dramatized in movies like Hairspray and on NBC’s American Dreams (which Clark produced). In 1958, Clark curated and promoted the first racially integrated pop concert – a fact fondly recalled by the estate of Michael Jackson.*
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| Clark (l) non-estate Michael Jackson (r): Two dead people when they weren't. |
"It still wasn't acceptable for them to dance with white kids, so the blacks just danced with each other. We were waiting for the explosion, but it never happened," Clark said in a 1998 interview with Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine. "The wonderful part about our decision to integrate then was that there were no repercussions, no reverberations, no battles at all — it just happened right there on a television screen in front of millions of people."
*Bad enough that corporations are considered "people," but now estates are sentient as well? We shudder to think what amorphous entities will be granted rights & feelings next.
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