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The Nicest Kids in Town

Matt Delmont, Author

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Notes for Mitch Thomas, Television Pioneer

[xxiv] Eustace Gay, “Pioneer In TV Field Doing Marvelous Job Furnishing Youth With Recreation,” Philadelphia Tribune, February 11, 1956; Gary Mullinax, “Radio Guided DJ to Stars,” The News Journal Papers (Wilmington, DE), January 28, 1986, p. D4.
[xxv] “The NAACP Reports: WCAM (Radio),” August 7, 1955, NAACP collection, URB 6, box 21, folder 423, TUUA.
[xxvi] Otis Givens, interviewed by author, June 27, 2007, transcript in author’s possession.
[xxvii] Quoted in Roberts, From Hucklebuck to Hip-Hop, 37.
[xxviii] On the Philadelphia Tribune’s “Teen-Talk” coverage of Mitch Thomas’ show, see “They’re ‘Movin’ and Groovin,’” Philadelphia Tribune, July 31, 1956; Dolores Lewis, “Talking With Mitch,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 9, 1957; Lewis, “Stage Door Spotlight,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 9, 1957; “Teen-Age ‘Superiors’ Debut on M.T. Show”; Laurine Blackson, “Penny Sez,” Philadelphia Tribune, December 7, 1957; Dolores Lewis, “Philly Date Line,” Philadelphia Tribune, December 7, 1957; “Queen Lane Apartment Group [photo],” Philadelphia Tribune, December 7, 1957; Jimmy Rivers, “Crickets’ Corner,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 21, 1958; Edith Marshall, “Current Hops,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 1, 1958; Marshall, “Current Hops,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 8, 1958; Marshall, “Talk of the Teens,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 22, 1958; Marshall, “Current Hops,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 22, 1958; Marshall, “Current Hops,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 5, 1958; Rivers, “Crickets’ Corner,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 22, 1958; “Presented in Charity Show [Mitch Thomas photo],” Philadelphia Tribune, April 22, 1958; Blackson, “Penny Sez,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 26, 1958; Rivers, “Crickets’ Corner,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 29, 1958.
[xxix] Art Peters, “Negroes Crack Barrier of Bandstand TV Show,” Philadelphia Tribune, October 5, 1957; “Couldn’t Keep Them Out [photo],” Philadelphia Tribune, October 5, 1957; Delores Lewis, “Bobby Brooks’ Club Lists 25 Members,” Philadelphia Tribune, December 14, 1957.
[xxx] On the crossover appeal of black-oriented radio, see Ward, Radio and the Struggle for Civil Rights in the South; Barlow, Voice Over; and Susan Douglas, Listening In, 219-255.
[xxxi] As noted in chapter one, The Grady and Hurst Show was a televised version of the Joe Grady and Ed Hurst’s 950 Club. The teens who danced during the 950 Club radio broadcast influenced WFIL’s decision to develop Bandstand. On the The Grady and Hurst Show, see Jackson, American Bandstand, 28, 48.
[xxxii] “Black Philadelphia Memories” dir. Trudi Brown (WHYY-TV12, 1999).
[xxxiii] “Teen-Age ‘Superiors’ Debut on M.T. Show,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 19, 1957.
[xxxiv] On Mitch Thomas’ concerts, see Archie Miller, “Fun & Thrills,” Philadelphia Tribune, December 4, 1956; “Rock ‘n Roll Show & Dance,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 19, 1958; “Swingin’ the Blues,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 5, 1958; “Mitch Thomas Show Attracts Over 2000,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 18, 1958; “Don’t Miss the Mitch Thomas Rock & Roll Show,” Philadelphia Tribune, July 2, 1960.
[xxxv] Mullinax, “Radio Guided DJ to Stars.”
[xxxvi] Ray Smith, interviewed by author, August 10, 2006, transcript in author’s possession.
[xxxvii] Herbert Howard, Multiple Ownership in Television Broadcasting (New York: Arno Press, 1979), 142-147.
[xxxviii] Ibid.
[xxxix] Barlow, Voice Over, 129; Giacomo Ortizano, “One Your Radio: A Descriptive History of Rhythm-and-blues Radio During the 1950s,” (Ph.D. diss, Ohio University , 1993), 391-423.
[xl] Art Peters, “Mitch Thomas Fired From TV Dance Party Job,” Philadelphia Tribune, June 17, 1958.
[xli] Howard, Multiple Ownership in Television Broadcasting, 146.
[xlii] Gerry Wilkerson, Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, http://www.geocities.com/broadcastpioneers/whyy1957.html (accessed March 1, 2007).
[xliii] Mullinax, “Radio Guided DJ to Stars.”
[xliv] MacDonald, Blacks and White TV, 17-21, 57-64; Jannette Dates, “Commercial Television,” in Split Image: African Americans and the Mass Media, ed., Davis and Barlow (Washington, D.C., Howard University Press, 1993), 267-327; Christopher Lehman, A Critical History of Soul Train on Television (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2008), 28; Stamz, Give ‘Em Soul, Richard!, 62-63, 77-78; Barlow, Voice Over, 98-103; and Clarence Williams, “JD Lewis, Jr., A Living Broadcasting Legend,” ACE Magazine, October 2002, http://www.cbc-raleigh.com/capcom/news/2002/corporate_02/williams_lewis_story/williams_lewis_story.htm (accessed August 15, 2010).
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