ALTHOUGH THE STARTING QUESTION WAS FOR AMERICAN BANDSTAND REGULAR JUSTINE CARRELLI...I WOULD APPRECIATE INPUT FROM ANY OTHER REGULARS SO THAT THE ANSWERS CAN BE PLACED HERE WITH YOUR PERMISSION AND NAME. THANK YOU.

QUESTION: This question actually comes from a nice gal named JEANNE (friend of the site and fan of American Bandstand) and was directed to American Bandstand Regular Justine Carrelli. It was phrased: "Speaking of you and Bob's photo on my dressing table, did you send out autographed photos or answer mail yourself? I am not sure where I obtained this 8 x 10 but it was cherished. It was the promo photo and so glamorous. All the mail you received must have been overwhelming but appreciated."

JUSTINE CARRELLI (American Bandstand Regular mid to late 50s, friend of the site, and contributor of many photos & history): "I am honored that you had a picture of Bob and I on your dresser table. My fan club president and my mother helped me send out photos and to answer fan mail as going to American Bandstand everyday and trying to maintain good grades was a full time job."

JEANNE: "It must have been a lot of mail!!!!! That is wonderful you appreciated your fans. Do not know how you found the time."

JUSTINE: "Jeanne, there was so much mail that if Bob did not have a car, we would have never been able to transport it out of that studio. So much mail came in to that studio for the Regulars that it was a full time job just to separate it and get it to the regular that it was addressed to. It was wild and wonderful."

CAROLE SCALDEFERRI (AB Regular, friend of the site, and contributor of many photos and much history):Thi is my experience with the fan mail from AB:
Just a brief response to your topic of "Fan Mail," - Almost ALL the Fan Mail came to the studio with our names on it. Everyone handled the mail differently, some answered, some did not, some answered whenever they could . . . (that was more the category I was in. . . "whenever possible") I used to send my fan club presidents the names and addresses of those who wrote to me, then they would respond to them, each president had a different way of doing this. Sometimes, they would send a form letter, with a picture of me, or something like that, and they would send the same letter to all that wrote to me. You can just imagine that if we were to answer all our fan mail, that's would not leave time to study, do homework, be with friends, etc. etc. so, in most cases you had to make a choice, Do I want a life? or Do I want to spend my time answering mail? And then, what if I answered a "few" what about the "others" who never got an answer, somehow I always felt it was not fair to only answer a few . . . Of course, if we had e mail back then, we could have done it, no problem at all! However, I also received some beautiful gifts, gold jewelry, cameras, photos, etc. and, I would always send a Thank You note to those who sent the gifts, since there were not that many of them, just a few here and there! It was amazing what people would send to us! Also, Dick Clark had several secretaries ( I think about 4 or 5) only one was his "personal" secretary. Everyday the secretaries would "read" our mail, and decide which letters were "appropriate" to give to us as kids on the show! We were "assigned" a secretary - this was based on our "last name" for example my last name started with an "s" so the secretary who handled that letter, opened my mail, and distributed my mail to me. I happen to remember, her name was "Audrey" - her name just came back into my spirit, and it must be 45 years or more since I've even thought about her . . . . wow! Anyhow, long story short, she was an absolute "doll" - in fact, they were all very "nice" to us, and very protective of us. Dick Clark made sure that none of us ever received any "food" (like candy, etc. because he knew even back then, that it could have been unsafe for us . . . not knowing if anything detrimental was in it) . . . . There was a time that Steve Brandt (from 16 Magazine) actually posted most of our "home addresses" and they were "real" addresses, but I think most people figured that they were "Fan Club President's" so I rarely received fan mail directly at home. I think some of the other regulars may comment on this, but I sense that it would be the same for them, most of the mail was from WFIL TV and the AB show .

DIANA BENERO (AB Regular early 1960s, friend of the website, and contributor of pictures & history): "Hi Cousin Carole,
That is pretty much how I remember the fan mail handling. I would take a "hiatus" in the summers to go to Wildwood and one of the staff (secretary) would ask me who my fan club presidents were. I think then the club presidents would get my mail forwarded to them because I never remember getting mail at Wildwood directly from the offices of AB. The presidents never answered letters like it was from me----I think they just sent out mimeographed sheets of information and some people put a stamp in the envelope to get a reply. And our mail was definitely censored. When the letters passed "inspection", there would be words, sentences and sometimes whole paragraphs that would be blacked out. It was interesting because you could tell which direction the letter was taking----for example, someone would write me "....and I love your dark hair.." and then the next few words would be blacked out. When I first got mail, I thought it looked so funny but I know why AB had to do it---they were protective of us as Carole posted. And not only did Steve Brandt at "16" magazine print our addresses but so did "Teen Screen" magazine. I think some of the addresses were correct----the first part of my address was correct but the street was not. So who knows if anyone tried to send mail there or tried to visit me.
Diana"

MARIAN DRISCOLL (Friend of the site, contributor of many pictures and much information, and a fan who visited American Bandstand and became friends with Regulars Kenny Rossi, Arlene Sullivan and Carole Higbee to name a few): "As a fan who wrote to a lot of the regulars (I think Steph and I were the most prolific letter writers) I know a little about this subject. In my experience the fan mail went to the station and then if regulars wrote back and you started corresponding they would give you their home address. Some regulars answered their fan mail, some didn't. I know Kenny Rossi enlisted friends and family to help with his. A lot of the kids had photos printed up with the name printed underneath. Some would sign photos directly to the fan."

STEPHANIE HAMMONDS (friend of the site, contributor of pictures and information): "Oooooh yes I was a big Bandstand penpal writer for sure. I think I wrote each & every dancer on that show at one time or another... My experience was this: I sent letters to the person c/o AB at the PO Box in Philly. Amazingly, most wrote back, and some became regular writers. They would often send pictures, and talk about school, dates, favorite records, gifts they rec'd for Xmas, vacation plans etc; things teenagers would talk about. Some would give me the address of their fan clubs in case I wanted to join. I ran a couple myself. I would get letters practically every day from Philly and it was the highlite of my teenage years...Many times I would strike up writing to the other kids who ran fan clubs and more penpals occurred. ~~ To me, the regulars were like movie stars, & I really enjoyed their friendship. **I can't answer how they did it, b/c between school and the show I don't know how many of them did all their fan mail, but many did a considerable amt, and I'm sure had help with it too - "