Good taste is always "in" and the fashionistas of today and yesteryears know this basic truth. As designer Ralph Lauren said, "...It’s not about age. It’s about taste." The girls of early American Bandstand certainly set new fashion trends all the time, but they also had a sense of the timeless classics as I will show you here. Regular Diana Benero clearly loved her classic coats. Fashion and style ran in the family--as we already have seen the fashion sense of her cousin Regular Carole Scaldeferri (see my earlier Fashionista blog on Carole and her gallery page at my website for other classic type coats).

Here we have Diana in what appears to be a classic wrap camel's hair coat circa very early 1960s.

Now notice how very similar my ...

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I was driving down the main street of our little town this morning and my eyes caught a young gal roller skating down the sidewalk--a cell phone held to one ear and a soda drink in the other hand. All I could think is "this is an accident waiting to happen." Then as so often is the case, my mind wandered on to vintage American Bandstand and I thought about the possible accidents that might have happened during the filming of the shows. Now we all know that lovely Regular Pat Molittieri had to be taken for an emergency appendectomy, but that's not an accident now is it. So that doesn't count. I wonder if there were actual accidents where a Regular had to have a nurse or doctor check on them or even a possible trip to the doctor from

Hi all...I have decided that Saturdays will be my free-floating day for blog posts. The connection to American Bandstand will be there but more loosely than most other blog posts. You will see what I mean. Click on the "Dream Lover" link.

DREAM LOVER.

..and how about SWEET NOTHIN'S. And one more time...VOLARE. I stumbled on this adorable girl from today's world on YouTube. Sayaka could definitely bring our music back. She looks like she could step off the dance floor at 1950s American Bandstand. She is so perfectly retro and sweet--and she has talent too. She looks so wholesome, dresses so cute and she sings well all the oldies but goodies...and this first one I will put here is a song we all recognize from our Bandstand ...

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I don't think there is one picture format that I love more than the old kinescopes--you know, those great pictures taken off the TV screen. You'll find many of these throughout my website, including one page devoted strictly to the B&W kinescope stills. The one above shows the fashionable Carole Scaldeferri in what appears to be a summer sundress. Flossie Harvey is seen to the right of the screen. Sometimes the kinescopes were not at all clear but the magic of them outweighs the image quality as we are transported to our teen years when we were glued to our TV sets for anything American Bandstand. I believe in our area in Washington state that the show came on at 3:30 p.m. and was followed by The Mickey Mouse Club. Oh, those memories.

Pat Molittieri and Frankie Levins were two popular American Bandstand Regulars who also dated each other for a period of time. As these two pictures reflect, they made a delightful couple. Pat was very outgoing and exuberant and Frankie was shy and less a ham for the cameras. From some of the old fan letter materials that I have, it was clear that Pat and Frankie saw each other off the show as a dating couple. With her dark hair and his blonde good looks, there was a special aura projected...so true about "opposites attract." The top left picture is from a "16 Magazine" article and the top right picture is courtesy Bonnie Baker's Collection sent to me.

Whether at an outside telecast show with the Regulars or on the dance floor, there were often those who to me were just "faces in the crowd" because like almost all of us who watched the show, I had my favorites. Yes, there was quite a long list of those I watched for each day and knew not only their faces but also their names. They became indellible on my memory card. But there were others whose faces I would remember, but never remembered their names and sometimes I wouldn't even be quite sure all these years later if I remembered even a face who had to have danced amongst all my favorites. I think this was quite typical and yet today I have come to know them through the many articles and pictures from the old magazines and more