Today (December 21, 1963,) Baltimore TV station WJZ-TV announced in Billboard magazine that they were cancelling the Buddy Deane Show, a popular dance show featuring every major Rock & Roll star.
According to sources, the powers that be at the Group W (Westinghouse Broadcasting Company) were up in arms over “integrated dancing” among “negro and a white.”
Deane reportedly took the position that if the kids couldn’t dance together, they wouldn’t do the show at all.
The official reason given was that WJZ-TV wanted to “broaden their appeal of the Channel 13 schedule, hence enable the station to serve to better serve more than its potential audience.”
The Buddy Deane Show was a highly influential American Bandstand-like TV show that aired from 1957 until January 1964.
Deane was born Winston “Buddy” Deane. He started in radio first in Little Rock, Arkansas, then Memphis, Tennessee, until he settled in on the Baltimore’s WITH-AM, where he started playing Rock & Roll music.
Key scenes in John Waters’ hit movie “Hairspray” were directly taken from Deane’s show, as Waters was a follower of members of “The Committee,” the dancing regulars who appeared on the show, according to his book Shock Value.
Deane died of a stroke on July 16, 2003 of a stroke at the age of 78.
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