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“That really annoyed me because quite a few of the Philadelphia dancers on ‘Bandstand’ died of AIDS,” Smith said. While “Bandstand” fans across the country imagined a true romantic relationship between Sullivan, who secretly liked girls, and her on-screen companion, Rossi, who was straight, she says it was little more than made-for-TV “puppy love.” “We were the first reality show,” she adds. Like Smith, she believes that if her true sexual preference and that of others on the show had become public in the days before Stonewall and today’s LGBT power, “Bandstand” would have been taken off the air. “Parents across America would never, NEVER have allowed their kids to put ‘Bandstand’ on,” she writes.
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‘I was so afraid that I started trying to talk myself into being straight. Sullivan and the other dancers often congregated in Rittenhouse Square, the historic epicenter of what is known as the City of Brotherly Love’s “Gayborhood.” There even was chatter and fear that Clark, who died at 82 in 2012, sent members of his production staff to spy on them and report back the names of the suspected gay regulars. “In other parts of the country, if you were a gay kid growing up, you were probably the only one in town who was gay,” Sullivan said. we were like a little family together, and we all had something in common, and we all stuck together, and that made it easier for us.”īut it was not easy on the mean streets of Philadelphia to be a “Bandstand” regular suspected of being gay. In fact, it was dangerous.Īs Sullivan puts it: “The boys danced. And then they leave the show, go up on the El, go home to their neighborhoods, they then had to run to their door because somebody was always waiting there to beat them up.” They weren’t playing baseball - they were DANCING. The bashing of “Bandstand” regulars, gay and straight, happened all the time, Sullivan and Smith reveal.