It is hard to know with precision how many Black performers might have been given the spotlight on local TV shows in the 1950s. Venerable blues pianist Roosevelt Sykes hosted his own 15-minute TV show in Mobile, AL in 1954–55 called The Toast of the Coast. This anomaly is probably best explained by the popularity of the blues in that Deep South city and by Sykes’s ability to convey even the most downtrodden blues in a convivial manner.18 No footage survives from this show, and it’s likely that other African American artists may have made similarly historic appearances that are lost to posterity. Until she made a comeback in the 1990s,19 few remembered the name Hadda Brooks even though she had been among the first African American women to host her own television show, The Hadda Brooks Show (KCOP-TV) in 1957. She used “That’s My Desire” as her theme song, but she was best known for her 1945 single “Swingin’ the Boogie.”
Race, Part 2
In 1957, R&B artists gained visibility on network TV when American Bandstand went national. While most of the dancers who appeared on camera came from two predominantly White Philadelphia Catholic schools—at one point management issued membership cards in order to limit the number of African Americans in the studio audience—the talent took on a more national scope, including many R&B artists. The preference for neo-doo-wop, pop-leaning Black groups such as The Five Satins, Lee Andrews & the Hearts, and Little Anthony & The Imperials was clear, but Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, and Chuck Willis were among dozens of seminal Black artists who also had their turns.20 Ruth Brown, who appeared on American Bandstand exactly once (performing “Lucky Lips,” her biggest hit if not her best record), summed up the situation succinctly. “Rhythm ‘n’ blues became rock ‘n’ roll,” she told Rolling Stone, “when white kids danced to it” (Jeske).
Brown was undoubtedly more comfortable when she appeared on The Mitch Thomas Show, a local program out of Wilmington, Delaware (WPFH-TV 1955–58), the first dance show with a Black DJ/host and a predominantly African American audience. In the DC, Pennsylvania, Delaware region, it was often referred to as “the Black Bandstand.” Ray Charles, Little Richard, and Frankie Lymon were among the other artists who performed on the Thomas show. Another local program oriented to Black artists was Teenage Follies (WRAL-TV, Raleigh, NC, 1958–83), a long-running show hosted by Raleigh disc jockey J.D. Lewis. The show was able to withstand attacks by North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms primarily because Pepsi, in competition with Coca-Cola for Black customers, maintained its sponsorship. A third R&B-centered show, Teenarama Dance←40 | 41→ Party (WOOK-TV, Washington DC, 1963–70), hosted by Bob King, benefitted from proximity to the Howard Theatre, often one of the first stops for Black artists touring the Southern “chitlin’ circuit.”
Although overshadowed by the powerful country music establishment, Nashville’s Jefferson Street was a mecca for Black musicians much like Beale Street in Memphis, and a rollicking Friday night TV show, Night Train (WLAC-TV, 1964–67), fed off this scene. Hosted by Noble Blackwell and boasting Robert Holmes as Musical Director (who also worked at Excello Records, Nashville’s superlative blues label), Night Train showcased artists such as Jimmy Church, The Hytones, The Spidells and others who made the show must-see local viewing but never achieved national prominence. Among the nationally known artists who made appearances on the show are James Brown and the underexposed Dyke & the Blazers.
Another R&B-oriented show with Nashville roots, and one that achieved some level of national syndication, was The !!!! Beat (1966), which emanated from WFAA-TV in Dallas due to the fact that no TV station in Nashville could shoot in color at that time. The host was the entrepreneurial DJ William “Hoss” Allen, one of several White DJs who played a great deal of Black music on Nashville’s clear-channel WLAC (others were Gene Nobles and John “John R” Richbourg). Some of the lip-syncing on The !!!! Beat is cringe-inducing, undermining the immediacy and personal power of the singers, but roughly half the performances on the show were done live. The greatest strength of the show was the house band, among the best in TV history, led by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman (a young Jimi Hendrix also played guitar in this band for a brief period).
Artists performing on The !!!! Beat were paid little or nothing. They were grateful for the exposure, but they were also mindful of Allen’s influence as a disc jockey, booking agent, and record producer. Among those who showed up were Etta James (nee Jamesetta Hawkins), Louis Jordan, Lou Rawls, and Little Milton (nee James Milton Campbell). Unfortunately, The !!!! Beat lasted only 26 episodes, but the last one was memorable. With Allen indisposed and many of the regular musicians having jumped ship, Otis Redding stepped in as host and The Bar-Kays provided back-up for a lineup that included Sam & Dave, Percy Sledge, The Ovations, Garnett Mimms, and Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles.
Similar experiments unfolded in Chicago, “the home of the blues.” In the 1940s, Al Benson (nee Arthur Bernard Leaner) was a groundbreaking DJ on WGES, known as “the Godfather of Black Radio” and “The Old Swingmaster.” Christine Acham credits Benson, an ordained minister, with being among the first DJs to bring the oral tradition from the pulpit into broadcasting, and making no←41 | 42→ pretense of “passing or sounding white on radio” (57). Wildly popular with Black Chicagoans, he was on the air at all times of day and night, hosting more than 40 shows each week, and gradually extending his reach to include concerts, record labels, and merchandising. In 1950, WKBK gave him his own TV show, called Spotlight Talent, with Ruth Brown and The Dozier Boys appearing on the debut. The following year, he moved over to WGN-TV with The Al Benson Show, but it was short-lived. Benson’s radio empire remained intact well into the 1960s.
Another DJ at WGES, Richard Stamz, also took a stab at TV. Stamz had been in the entertainment business for years, having performed in minstrel shows alongside Ma Rainey. Adopting the persona of a prince, replete with crown, scepter, and ermine cape, he drove around Chicago in his sound truck, playing music and advertising products on behalf of local merchants. Having proved himself on the streets, in 1955 he caught on with WGES, where he helped Al Benson build the station into a powerhouse, with his show called Open the Door Richard, taken from the title of a 1947 hit by vaudeville star Dusty Fletcher. The following year, WKBK-TV gave him a 30-minute variety show called Richard’s Open Door which ran for 13 episodes. In 1963, Stamz was one of the Black DJs who got caught up in the payola scandal and he ended up serving a short prison sentence for tax evasion. After doing his time, Stamz briefly returned to WGES before moving on to WVON (owned by Leonard Chess) and other radio endeavors.
One Chicago youth who came of age listening to Benson and Stamz was Don Cornelius. Starting as a fill-in DJ on WVON, he moved to local UHF station WCIU-TV as a sportscaster. After he put a travelling group of R&B artists on what he called a “soul train” tour of area venues, he pitched WCIU on what he unabashedly acknowledged was a Black version of American Bandstand. Offered his own weekly live show in the summer of 1970, Cornelius was not only a natural in front of the camera, but a gifted salesman behind it. Within a year, Soul Train was syndicating “the hippest trip in America” to 25 markets across the country. He later explained the immediate appeal of his show by saying, “there is an inner craving among us all…for television that we can personally connect to” (Meisler). Finally, a national Black audience had a television show that belonged to them.
“A dance show is a dance show is a dance show,” Cornelius insisted to The New York Times (Meisler), but this was a Black dance show, and the path was not smooth. Frustrated by the difficulty of breaking into larger markets, Cornelius moved Soul Train to Los Angeles in 1971 while continuing to oversee a local Chicago edition, hosted by Clinton Ghent. Despite the show’s success, it took almost four years for Soul Train to reach into 100 markets. This was a Black enterprise from its production team to its show-stopping dancers, and there was little precedent for niche marketing to a Black audience. Soul Train (Syndicated 1970–2006) served as an important←42 | 43→ reflection of Black culture at a time when there were still relatively few non-White faces on network television. Checking out Soul Train for the latest dances, sounds, and styles