If you were a teenager in Baltimore in the late 1950s and early 1960s, you watched “The Buddy Deane Show.” When the final bell rang you sprinted home from school, saddle shoes smacking the sidewalk, knee socks sliding down your shins, until you skidded to a stop in front of your black-and-white TV and turned to WJZ Channel 13 to watch Maryland’s answer to “American Bandstand.” Chances are you wanted to be on “The Buddy Deane Show,” whose stars were ordinary teens turned local celebrities. The Committee, as they were known, could do all the hot dances of the day: the Madison, the mashed potato, the pony. Faced with pressure to integrate the show, something the station (and some Committee members’ parents) refused to allow, WJZ canceled Buddy Deane in 1964. ¶ Most people probably would’ve forgotten about “The Buddy Deane Show” ages ago had it not been immortalized by John Waters in his 1988 movie, “Hairspray.” In honor of the 25th anniversary of “Hairspray,” the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is staging a concert production of the musical this week, narrated by Waters and featuring a full orchestra and vocalists. We rounded up Waters and almost 20 of the original Deaners and asked a handful to recount their days as the most famous kids in Charm City.
“The Buddy Deane Show” went on the air on Sept. 9, 1957 and became the most popular local show in the United States.
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Maryland Public Television’s “The Buddy Deane Show” was the inspiration for the film and musical “Hairspray,” which will be performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Jan. 25-27.
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Almost 20 of the original stars of “The Buddy Deane Show” show off their signature dance, “The Madison.”
John Waters, writer and director of “Hairspray”: I was always obsessed by it. . . . I watched it for the fashion and for the drama, because Buddy Deane encouraged them to [date and] break up on film. I watched it like a soap opera. I watched and fantasized about it and made up stories about it in my brain.
Frani Hahn (then Nedeloff): I watched it every day with my family when I’d come home from school. We all watched that and the “Mickey Mouse Club.” [At my audition], I was not quite 14. I lied! You had to be 14 to 18 to get on.
Linda Snyder (then Warehime): Buddy was the star . . . but Arlene [Kozak, his production assistant], actually did all the work. . . . She was his right-hand man and she picked out all the kids for the show. And we became very close to Arlene. She was sort of like a mother to us. Until the day she passed away [in 2007], we were still friends.
Marie Shapiro (then Fischer): The first thing, they’d kind of look you over. I’m serious. I hate to say this, but they wanted attractive young people.
John Waters: Mary Lou [Barber] told me once that “a black girl could’ve gotten on the show easier than a fat girl.” . . . In [“Hairspray”], Ricki Lake’s character goes down to audition and they all make fun of her. I don’t think a fat girl ever came to audition.
Marie Shapiro: You’d dance with one of the Committee members. You had to be able to jitterbug and you had to be able to cha-cha, and do whatever dance was popular then, the mashed potato or the pony.
Linda Snyder: After you made the dance audition, you went to an interview with the Committee members.
Mary Lou Barber: Arlene would throw a spotlight on you, and they’d throw questions at you: What do you like about yourself, what do you like about the show? It was your personality and your thoughts. You had to be a good student.
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