ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN...

I was driving down the main street of our little town this morning and my eyes caught a young gal roller skating down the sidewalk--a cell phone held to one ear and a soda drink in the other hand. All I could think is "this is an accident waiting to happen." Then as so often is the case, my mind wandered on to vintage American Bandstand and I thought about the possible accidents that might have happened during the filming of the shows. Now we all know that lovely Regular Pat Molittieri had to be taken for an emergency appendectomy, but that's not an accident now is it. So that doesn't count. I wonder if there were actual accidents where a Regular had to have a nurse or doctor check on them or even a possible trip to the doctor from that little WFIL studio.

Inside the studio it looked big on TV but everyone who has been there has reported how small it actually was and how little and crowded the dance floor was. With so many kids dancing in close quarters, it would seem ripe for an accident. I wonder if anyone ever tripped and fell on the camera cords or other production materials--or even if rougher than usual camera hogging caused a dancer to be bumped and to fall or at least be bruised up. I am sure some toes were stepped on--literally and figuratively, and we know that Dick Clark had to speak to some of the dancers and even popular Regulars about moving to the back of the dance floor when they were caught camera hogging. And it is my understanding that at least one Regluar had to leave the show for repeated camera hogging. I belive the Regular herself has acknowledged that in interviews.

Well, my passing thought about any possible accidents might even be an FAQ out there in Bandstand-land and maybe someone will check in with an answer to that. But for sure we have picture documentation of one mishap during production--and that was for the special Drexelbrook Ice Skating Party. Picture below is proof positive that Dick Clark took a spill on the ice. It is a priceless picture and one I have had on my website since the creation of The Yates Collection in mid July 2007. My Early American Bandstand tribute has been on the WEB since January 2004, but I did not receive this wonderful --and at the time exclusive collection of pictures--from George Yates until mid 2007. I greatly enlarged some of these pictures at the time so that fans could identify the Regulars on the ice. Well, here's a segment of the famously rare picture in all its blown up glory. I am sure Dick Clark laughed at himself, picked himself up, and probably said The Show Must Go On.