Buddy Deane Show

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The Buddy Deane Show was a teen dance television show that aired on WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland from 1957 until 1964, similar to Philadelphia's American Bandstand. The show was taken off the air because it refused to integrate black and white dancers. Its host was Winston Buddy Deane (b. 1924), who died in Pine Bluff, Arkansas after suffering a stroke, July 16, 2003. He was 78.

Winston "Buddy" Deane was a broadcaster for more than fifty years, beginning his career in Little Rock, Arkansas, then moving to the Memphis, Tennessee market before moving onto Baltimore where he worked at WITH-AM radio. He was one of the first disc jockeys in the area to regularly feature rock-and-roll. His dance party television show debuted in 1957 and was, for a time, the most popular local show in the United States. It aired for 2 1/2 hours a day, six days a week.

The core group of teenagers who appeared on the show every day were known as the "Committee." These kids developed a huge following of fans and hangers-on in Baltimore who emulated their dance moves, followed their life stories, and copied their look. Several marriages resulted from liaisons between committee members.

Many top acts of the day, black and white, appeared on the show. Acts that appeared on the Buddy Deane Show first were reportedly barred from appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. But if they were on Bandstand first, they could still be on the Buddy Deane Show.

The failed racial integration of a take-off of the show, dubbed the The Corny Collins Dance Show, is the back drop to the John Waters movie and musical Hairspray. As a teenager, Waters himself once appeared on the show and in turn gave Deane a cameo in the film where he played a TV reporter who tried to interview the governor as he was getting out of the limo.