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Bob Horn hosting American Bandstand, Philadelphia, PA., 1955.
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A black and white photograph of a group of people dancing in a room decorated with banners and balloons. Visible in the background is the host at a podium.

Credit: Courtesy Urban Archives, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia

In 1952, Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV debuted Bandstand, a popular music show hosted by local radio disk jockey Bob Horn, who introduced Snaders, the forerunners of modern music videos. The show soon switched to kids dancing to hit records. When Horn was fired in July 1956 after a drunk driving arrest, the station brought in twenty-seven-year-old deejay Dick Clark, who took the show, now renamed American Bandstand, national the following year.

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