Marc,

The Milt Grant Show was on from the late 1950s to 1961. Teenarama Dance Party on Channel 14 was on in the mid-1960s. I think you're accidentally comparing Teenarama to Channel 20's Wing Ding which was on roughly 1966-1968ish. Milt put Wing Ding on the air, yes, but it was Hullabaloo vs Bandstand- reflecting the spirit of the times.

Anyone who ever spoke to Mr. Grant, certainly Marc Opsasnick, would know that Milt Grant left WTTG Channel 5 WITHOUT his films and when he attempted to collect them, they had already been destroyed. This is not only the common rumor I heard in high school in the 1980s, but Milt described it with some visible anger at the Archives event- after all, many documentary filmmakers would pay big bucks for 1950s TV footage of Link Wray- Milt lost serious coinage by not retaining those films. One kinescope was taken home by a crewmember and then released by film collecter Ira Gallen (www.tvdays.com) on VHS in the 1980s. It is the only surviving broadcast of the show and is pretty darn great- closing with Wailin' Bill Dell's monster "You Gotta Be Loose."

It was sad that the last time I spoke with Link Wray's adult kids (and Jerry Dallman who was also at the party/wake in attendance) they said Milt had been suffering from Alzheimer's for many years and could not attend any events following Link's untimely death.

I had the good fortune to speak and quasi-interview Milt at the Archives event. The best source for Milt Grant information (besides microfilm copies of the Washington Times teen column) was a profile written in a... 1987? issue of Regardies. There was also a very nice profile in an issue of Broadcasting magazine around 1970 or so... whatever year he reached some level of financial success with Channel 20 prior to selling it to Taft Broadcasting.

I remember when the Milt Grant show went off the air in the early sixties and we had to reluctantly switch to watching the (what we considered) lame "American Bandstand" show after school. Dick Clark couldn't hold a candle to Milt Grant. One star I fondly recall seeing on the show was Sam Cooke, singing "You Send Me". Great stuff. May Milt rest in peace.

Meanwhile, Balimore had to settle for Buddy Deane. Yuck.

Mr. Fischer:

I am a producer at WHUT-TV (Evening Exchange with Kojo Nnamdi) and the producer of Dance Party: The Teenarama Story which features the success of the African American teen dance show, The Teenarama Dance Party, which was produced and aired on WOOK Ch. 14 from 1963-1970.

In your blog you refer to the link of a review that Theresa Wiltz wrote for the Post in April 2006. Despite Ms. Wiltz adverse review of this documentary, the program celebrates African American teenagers in the District who were not given an opportunity to dance on the popular Milt Grant Show becaue of Jim Crow and basked in the glory of having a show to call their own.
And despite Ms. Wiltz adverse review, this documentary was picked up by 94 PBS Stations nationwide and broke records in the DC Film Festival in 2006. The documentary also received a 2007 Telly Award for broadcast excellence.
Ms. Wiltz never interviewed me to understand the excitement that Teenarama was and still means to the African American community despite what the Milt Grant Show did not offer them.
Maybe one day, someone from the Washington Post will re-review Dance Party: The Teenarama Story and tell the true story of two segregated teen television shows, and their impact on a generation.

As a young teenager, I went on Milt Grant several times with a group of friends. We loved to dance. We were so into the music that I don't think we were aware of "Black Tuesdays" because I remember arriving once to a studio of all black kids. Everyone looked at us strangely, but we were there to dance so we stayed. I guess no one had the nerve to ask us to leave either. First time I've thought of this in more than 40 years!

There was a great jazz DJ on WMAL named Felix Grant. Does anyone know if he and Milt Grant were related?

"The best source for Milt Grant information (besides microfilm copies of the Washington Times teen column) was a profile written in a... 1987? issue of Regardies."

I think you meant the Washington Star teen column, for anyone doing research.

Of course I meant the Washington Star teen column. I have a giant stack of poor quality microfilm photocopies of those in my basement. "Milt Grant plugs a new hit: His Own," indeed!

Anyone ever ask Milt about how he co-wrote "Rumble?" Ho-ho! I was about 19, but he knew I knew and I knew he knew I knew.

I also can't believe that no one from the Post called up Dick Dyszel for a simple quote about working for Milt Grant at Channel 20. Milt created that station from nothing and the Captain 20 show that Milt managed and Dick hosted affected a generation of Washingtonians!!! In the pre-internet era, Television programming created childhood culture. Respect that!

Four additions:

1) WTTG-TV did not change owners in 1961. In 1955, the DuMont Television Network separated from DuMont Labs as "DuMont Broadcasting Company", and was shortly renamed "Metropolitan Broadcasting Company". By 1956, John "Jack" Kluge had gained a controlling interest in "Metropolitan Broadcasting" (owner of both DC's and NYC's Channels-5.) In 1961, Kluge merely changed the name of his "Metropolitan Broadcasting" to "Metromedia".

2) According to one news report from the week of March 13, 1961; "Deejay Milt Grant will lose his WTTG-TV (Channel 5) weekday dance show come April 15. It was a big money maker for Grant who is 'extremely disappointed'. The buzz is it has to do with the station's upcoming license renewal and it doesn't even want a hint of payola queries." (Source: http://www.mrpopculture.com )

3) Another more plausable explanation for the cancellation of The Milt Grant Show: It's a fact that Milt bought airtime for his show outright from Channel-5 and then lined-up his own set of sponsors. There's a good chance that, in order to renew the show, the Metromedia suits demanded more participation in Milt's ad revenue stream, which Milt declined. Instead, Milt eventually took his show to a weekend network of DC area AM stations, buying the time outright as he had once done on Channel-5.

4) There is only one surviving kinescope film (from the broadcast of Monday 5/27/1957) of Milt Grant's TV Show, which features the teens from Silver Spring's Northwood High. You can find bits of that program posted on YouTube.com (such as the appearance by LaVern Baker.)

The upbeat theme song of the Milt Grant show was Opus #1. Can anyone provide the lyrics Milt adapted to that tune? Steve Callanen

For those interested in learning of the African American The Teenarama Dance Party teen television dance show (WOOK-TV Ch. 14, Washington, DC, 1963-1970) visit

www.dancepartytheteenaramastory.com

The only phrase I can remember is
"the cream of the crop" in the
theme song. Anyone remember more ??

The Milt Grant show was on the air
at the same time as the Micky Mouse
Club. My older brother would torture
me in order to see it.

I did love Link Wray and those Glen
Echo shows.

In the early 1970's, Barry Richards hosted a Saturday late night music show airing on Channel 9[I think]. I believe it was called Barry Richards Presents.
Ocasionally he ran old RnR films such as Go Go Mania and the like. One evening,he ran the complete 5/27/57 kinescope of The Milt Grant Show. It is likely the only time it was broadcast after the '57 air date.The episode also ran as a loop on monitors during the 2006 Link Wray memorial in Rockville to the fond memories of many attendees.
I have heard that Grant was somewhat in the running to "Go Network" as a certain other regional dance show would ultimately make its national debut on August 5,1957 from Philadelphia. Possibly Grant's show was filmed that day to give some network suits a possible alternative to "Bandstand".
Not to promote unauthorized distribution of old TV shows,but both the Grant show and at least one American Bandstand episode from December 18,1957 can be sourced without much difficulty on the net.
Viewers of both will see that The Milt Grant Show had production values equal to its big network competitor and only Milt had that great Top's Drive In commercial. Even better,the Grant episode survives complete and is near pristine in viewing quality.
It is unfortunate that no other Milt Grant episode exists nor not one nanosecond of the Teenarama series to show the world that once upon a time DC was one of the great music towns.
One may debate that the Grant show's exclusionary policies would later indirectly birth Teenarama.
All I know for sure is DC had them both once and that's two shows more than most places ever had.

When The Milt Grant Show was on the air, I lived in the all-black neighborhood of Deanwood. In that insular, self-contained world, with our own entertainment venues, the shortchanges of segregation were rarely in our faces-until we watched The Milt Grant Show. Then, our situation as a marginalized majority was clear. The show's relegation of black dancers to one segregated day a month (it seemed less often at the time) or even one day a week reflected the apartheid nature of Wash. D.C. during the late '50s. I can't blame Mr. Grant for the way he ran his show; no doubt he was under great pressure to maintain race boundaries. His was the only game in town (until Teenarama and Soul Train), so when colored people came on The Milt Grant Show, we were fixated to the tv screen. The dancers were so smooth; they were a thrill to watch. The white dancers must have been watching too. Their dancing was smoother, too, after "colored people's day".