We jump back to ’64 here as the kids dance to some fairly early “folk rock”. I couldn’t find much on the Nomads, but the song “San Francisco Bay Blues” was written by Jesse Fuller back in 1954 and has been performed by Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Paul McCartney, Richie Havens, Jim Croce, Peter Paul & Mary, and Eric Clapton to name a few….pretty good company. “The Bandstand” as Dick Clark calls it, was well established in Hollywood here in August of ’64 but the set was still pretty much the same one from Philadelphia. In 6 weeks the show would start its 8th season on ABC and would be retitled “The New American Bandstand 1965”. It would add the “ab” logo with the following year included in the logo such as ab65, ab66 etc... The set would otherwise pretty much remain the same until 1965 when it was finally remodeled adding the familiar riser, Hollywood Hotline, “Checkerboard Square” and “Record Review” became “Rate A Record” AB Dancers spotted: There weren’t a lot of “regulars” just yet as the show had only been in California for 6 months but you can see a very young Famous Hooks walking out of the stands (he was on AB forever!). You can also see Frank Loverde at 2:03-2:10 (in a suit), who was featured in the “Just like Romeo and Juliet” Spotlight dance clip from NRRA archives on YouTube also from 1964. Frank went on to become a DJ in New York and San Francisco, and formed a band known as “Loverde” which had a couple of modestly successful singles such as “Die Hard Lover” in 1982 which can also be found on YouTube. “Missing Links” was a short-lived game show that originally ran on NBC in ‘63 and was hosted by Ed McMahon. In ’64 it moved to ABC and was then hosted by Clark until its end in Dec. of ‘64. The “Caravan of Stars” featured some of the biggest musical acts of the day traveling from town to town in a very modest, cramped bus, from 1959 into the late 60’s. In those days stars were eager to promote themselves and would perform for “peanuts”. Performers on the specific tour mentioned in this clip included Major Lance, The Shirelles, Gene Pitney, Brian Hyland, Bobby Freeman and the Supremes! (Man would I love to have gone to one of these shows!) Here is a poster for tomorrow night’s, Aug. 2, show in Omaha: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AHqQ6Qex8zM/UxYuNeQ8dUI/AAAAAAAAAXI/Dg19gw-PeMo/s1600/CaravanOmaha64.jpg …..And just in case you missed the reference, the “Caravan of Stars” could not perform in Dallas on Nov. 22 because of the assassination of President Kennedy. In his book “Dick Clark’s American Bandstand”, Clark says of this event: “Our Caravan of Stars arrived in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. I was travelling with Bobby Rydell, Jimmy Clanton, Brian Hyland, the Dovells, and Dale & Grace. That morning, we watched President Kennedy’s motorcade drive by and turn onto Elm Street. We applauded JFK and his wife Jackie and then went back to our hotel room. We were going to work late so I took a nap. That’s why I didn’t discover until a couple of hours later that the President had been shot” Airdate: Aug. 1, 1964