A Sign You Can Dance To

Dick Clark wasn’t there when American Bandstand struck up its first note on Philadelphia television in March 1952, when it debuted as replacement programming. The World’s Oldest Teenager didn’t sign on until July 1956, shortly after which the local show became a national sensation – “the coolest weekly American sock hop to ever air,” as the Los Angeles Times once put it, “where Clark exposed audiences to a nifty little thing called rock ’n’ roll.” The show brought to television the revolution that was beginning to take shape on the radio, featuring R&B acts like the Shirelles and James Brown and the Famous Flames; country musicians including Johnny Cash and Conway Twitty; and Motown artists such as Mary Wells and Smoky Robinson and the Miracles. As Matthew Delmont wrote in his book The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ’n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia, “If American Bandstand helped push Philadelphia Schlock up the charts in this era, it also exposed viewers to a wider range of music than did Top 40 radio.” The sign in this auction, featuring the logo that debuted in the late 1960s and was used throughout the show’s most influential decade, bundles up all that history into a single iconic moment.