  Detroitpetanque Member Username: Detroitpetanque Post Number: 84 Registered: 09-2006 |
a friend from work has been telling me fascinating stories about her childhood. One of the things she talked about was her dancing on a program which was broadcast from a Windsor studio but for Detroit television. It was called: "Swingtime" and Robin Seymour was the emcee. Does anyone recall this show? Was it popular, like... "Soul Train" and "American Bandstand" was in New York? | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 437 Registered: 09-2007 |
Wildly Popular! It was really cool to see gals & guys in their Eastern, Cooley, Mackenzie, Cass Tech letter sweaters dancing and be-bopping around. The program aired on TV9-CKLW, it featured all the popular rock & soul acts from Detroit to L.A. - and back again! | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 4055 Registered: 02-2004 |
Swinging Time. It was, well it was Swinging. Almost every city had a show like that, ours was just the best. | ||
Ditman Member Username: Ditman Post Number: 42 Registered: 05-2007 |
Anyone remember a similar type show on WXYZ on Saturday's hosted by Mickey Shorr? I was on 1 time in 1958. | ||
Birwood Member Username: Birwood Post Number: 79 Registered: 10-2007 |
We actually had 2 popular programs in Detroit. Swinging Time daily 4pm at CKLW, Channel 9 in Windsor hosted by Robin Seymour and later hosted by Tom Shannon. On Saturday afternoon WXYZ Channel 7 we had CLUB 1270, started by Mickey Shorr, but later hosted by Lee Alan and Joel Sebastion. In the summer they would do live broadcasts, sometimes on Friday or Saturday evenings from Edgewater Park, The Roostertail, Metropolitian Beach or the Walled Lake Pavillion | ||
Ditman Member Username: Ditman Post Number: 43 Registered: 05-2007 |
Got email from another Detroit website-••••••••••••••••. They are hosting a Detroit-Arizona wkend in Phoenix April 19. Special guest speaker-Tom Shannon from CKLW & 80 yr old Robin Seymour. Anybody feeling just a little bit more older? | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 931 Registered: 10-2003 |
Hey, guys! It was called "Swingin' Time." Mickey Shorr hosted "Mickey's Record Room," not Club 1270. Lee Alan, Dave Prince and Joel Sebastian shared hosting duties on 1270. | ||
Exmotowner Member Username: Exmotowner Post Number: 462 Registered: 06-2005 |
My brother used to dance on Swingin time so I remember it well. Do any of you remember a couple named Ricky and Diane? They pantomimed Sugar Sugar by the Archies many times. Ricky was actually VERY well known in the Detroit gay community as none other than Lady T "Tempest"! Also, another guy that was a regular on the show, Bobby, was Very well known in the gay community, not just in Detroit but all over the country as Miss Gay America Jennifer Foxx. Wasnt there also another show (I think it was the Lively Spot) and it shot at chanell (I think)56 out in novi. I remember going with mom to drop my brother off. I was pretty young. | ||
Gary Member Username: Gary Post Number: 275 Registered: 02-2004 |
Swingin' Time was great...one of my 9th grade classmates appeared on the show once, he was dancing with this really stacked, gorgeous girl. We thought he was Da Man until we found out the girl was his cousin. Even so, we still had to give it up to him for being on the show at all. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 2025 Registered: 01-2006 |
I figured Ed_golick would check in on this thread and point out the correct, apostrophed name of the show. Swingin' Time had nothing on The New Dance Show, however. I'm still somewhat in the grip of a forever-crush on a dancer named Barbara from that show. I think that show could have survived longer than it did; I suspect that the folks behind the show screwed around and, through lack of a serious, professional effort to keep it afloat, let it "rot on the vine." Too bad. WADL-TV38 has a dance show going on now, in fact, called "D Party." I'm not really into today's music or dance styles, but I'm glad that somebody is keeping up the semi-tradition of broadcasting a local dance show on TV. | ||
Servite76 Member Username: Servite76 Post Number: 11 Registered: 02-2008 |
Ravine, my babysitter who lived across the street was on Swinging' Time all the time. Her name was Barbara. Even though I was young, I knew what hot was. My mom use to get pissed because Barbara would take off to Windsor on days when she needed her. As for Tom Shannon, I spent many days after school smooching with Cathy Shoemake in her basement listening to Tom on the Big 8. Years later I had the opportunity to work with Tom at WMJC FM when he did mornings. I made sure to tell him thank you. | ||
Birwood Member Username: Birwood Post Number: 80 Registered: 10-2007 |
Ed_golick, Thanks I forgot about "Mickeys Record Room" also with a correction, Club 1270 was done live at the Walled Lake Casino not the Pavillion as I had earlier mentioned. I believe that early 50's Bud Davies hosted on CKLW-TV the "Top 10 Dance Party" How about " Sunday with Surrell" on WXYZ Channel 7 and WXYZ_AM radio hosted by Jack Surrell his show featured African-American performers Ed McKenzie, the original " Jack the Bellboy" on WJBK-AM hosted "Saturday Dance Party on Channel 7. Does anyone remember a Detroit Bandstand program that followed American Bandstand or am I confusing it with one of the other local shows | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 932 Registered: 10-2003 |
Detroit Bandstand aired on WJBK and was hosted by Dale Young. The show suddenly disappeared in November of 1959 when Young resigned for fear of being implicated in a Payola scandal at the station. | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 933 Registered: 10-2003 |
Don't forget WXYZ's Club Polka, where dancers shook their dupas to the music of Detroit's accordian master Stas Wisniach. | ||
Terryh Member Username: Terryh Post Number: 710 Registered: 11-2006 |
Mickey Shorr is son of Purple Gangster Henry Shorr. Can anyone post a pic of Mickey hosting that show? | ||
D2dyeah Member Username: D2dyeah Post Number: 100 Registered: 09-2005 |
On Swingin Time, the best part was when they would have one of the kids on the show come up and lip sync one of the popular songs at that time. Then they would secretly turn on the microphone on the unsuspecting "performer". We would crack up hearing them sing along. It was mean, but fun. | ||
Sharms Member Username: Sharms Post Number: 53 Registered: 07-2007 |
Didn't Mickey Schorr get caught up in the payola scandal? | ||
Leoqueen Member Username: Leoqueen Post Number: 1889 Registered: 07-2004 |
I havent thought about Swinging Time for a LONG time! And it reminds me that somewhere in my junior high era stuff stashed away I have a membership card in the Swinging Time Fun Club! I'll bet its a real collector's item! | ||
Leoqueen Member Username: Leoqueen Post Number: 1890 Registered: 07-2004 |
Another thing I just remembered! When I graduated from Cass in 1972, I had Don Cornelius sign-off message engraved in my class ring......"LOVE, PEACE, and SOUL!" I watched Soul Train incessantly! | ||
Brougham Member Username: Brougham Post Number: 54 Registered: 01-2007 |
It was a great after school show no doubt ! I watched pretty faithfully. Somewhere I have a short clip that I took with my 8mm kodak. It was the day that three-dog-night visited the swingin' time show, probably 1969-70 ? I'll have to see if I can find it and capture to digital or at least a still frame. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 439 Registered: 09-2007 |
Funniest thing I remember about Swingin' Time and Swingin' Summer Time...how the performers would lip-sync the lyrics and "air-play" their instruments (without cables and amplifiers). I watched the Lovin' Spoonful sing "Do You Believe in Magic" on the show back in early 1966; John Sebastian chit-chatted with Robin Seymour about leaving most of their gear with Customs officials. Ain't it strange how we can remember the minutia of some things as an eight year-old.....but, find it difficult to remember what you had for lunch today. Great Thread! | ||
Danny Member Username: Danny Post Number: 7172 Registered: 02-2004 |
It was a great time for all Local Detroit and Windsor T.V. stations to write, produce and broadcast their own shows. Now there all network puppets for CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CW, MY, ION and cable, digital cable and satellite cable and they all pulling their strings. | ||
Royaloakian Member Username: Royaloakian Post Number: 97 Registered: 05-2004 |
Met Robin Seymour a couple years ago he still looked good I had no idea he is eighty). He had one of the dancers from his show with him which I thought was kinda cute. I thanked him for Swinging Time and introducing me to Motown music. Everybody just also looked so cool on that show. He said he lives in California. http://www.opportunityproducti ons.com/information.html | ||
Savannah Member Username: Savannah Post Number: 7 Registered: 02-2008 |
I remember I was about 4 or 5 yoa and seeing Seymore introduce "Little" Stevie Wonder,and thinking why is he calling him little when he's a head taller than he(Seymore) is. | ||
D2dyeah Member Username: D2dyeah Post Number: 101 Registered: 09-2005 |
Does anyone remember a girl who always danced in the front on Swingin Time, named Carmen? She had black hair with a blonde streak in the front and we thought she was the best looking and the best dancer. | ||
Sludgedaddy Member Username: Sludgedaddy Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2008 |
Not too long after their release of "Freak Out" in 1965, the Mothers of Invention appeared on Seymore's Swingin'Time. Frank Zappa came out in front of the TV camera barefoot and while painting weird scribbles on an easel, invited the Swingin' Time dancers to "Freak Out". Robin Seymore apologized the next day for having the Mothers on his program. | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 1008 Registered: 08-2007 |
Bud Davies "Dance Party." I remember watching that show. I didn't meet him till years later, but my husband was a regular on that show. He won three dance contests; one for dancing the "Chicken" (remember that dance?); one for the shortest hair (he had a brush cut); and one for "spotlight slow dance." He didn't live very far from CKLW Studio. So he and a bunch of his friends would get tickets and go all the time. He said you had to dress nice in order to get on camera. He wore white bucks, nice dress pants and a well pressed shirt. Said he always got on camera. Since he won the dance contest for his rendition of the "Chicken", he got the nickname "Chicken Legs." For an old guy he can still do that dance - he can't dance it for as long as he used to; but I don't think any of us can do anything for very long anymore! I once met Joel Sebastion when he emceed at some teen fashion show I was in at Crowley's downtown. We grew up during a really good period in Detroit. There was stuff for us kids to do. We had fun, didn't we? | ||
Plymouthres Member Username: Plymouthres Post Number: 473 Registered: 02-2007 |
I grew up in the neighborhood across the street from the VA hospital in Allen Park during the 60's and 70's. The name of the subdivision was "Princeton Estates". I remember Robin Seymore and his family lived on Parkside for a while, but the exact years elude me now. I believe it was around '72 but I can't be certain. He was doing the Swingin'Time thing, as I distinctly remember his and his wife's attire:they were dressed in huge bell bottoms, and he was wearing some kind of neckerchief thing. His wife was about half his age, and wore the tightest clothes I ever saw! She was a knockout, of course. He was a dinky dude, too. He and his family didn't stay long, either, as I recall. | ||
Dannyv Member Username: Dannyv Post Number: 118 Registered: 08-2007 |
sludgedaddy, I vividly recall that Mothers episode. My brother was in the Navy and my folks took him to Metro to catch a flight. The Mothers happened to be in the airport at the same time. My Mom said they looked dirty, smelled funny and had long hair. A few years later she could say the same about me. Help I'm a rock! | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 680 Registered: 05-2004 |
I remember seeing Bob Seger and the Last Herd on Swinging Time in the 60's. | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 2038 Registered: 01-2006 |
Paulmcall, that sounds like the time & place for them to perform "East Side Story," arguably Bob's first hit record. | ||
Ladyinabag Member Username: Ladyinabag Post Number: 447 Registered: 03-2007 |
You guys totally forgot Bud Davies Dance Party. It was the dance party before Swingin' Time....somewhere around 1956(?). I used to argue with my sister after school. It was either Bud Davies or Mickey Mouse Club. It was transition time for me. I would watch Bud Davies in my Mickey Mouse ears. I had a Davy Crockett 'coon-skin hat as well. Does anybody remember the plastic frog-men that came free in Kellogg's Frosted Flakes? You unscrewed the bottom and put in baking soda, and the frog-man would sink to the bottom of the tub and bubble. I used to play with mine in the basement sink....as well as roller skate in the basement to Bix Beiderbeck and Nellie Leucher (He's Got Such A Fine, Brown Frame). I also had a trapeze down there. Aren't you jealous and wish that you could have come over and played with me? (Message edited by Ladyinabag on March 09, 2008) | ||
Dannyv Member Username: Dannyv Post Number: 119 Registered: 08-2007 |
It's not too late to play with you now, baglady, is it? | ||
Walkerpub Member Username: Walkerpub Post Number: 201 Registered: 12-2003 |
From the archives of The Walkerville Times: http://www.walkervilletimes.co m/27/CBC1.html Going to a Dance Party According to Percy Hatfield, a reporter with CBC TV since 1978 and CBC radio since 1975, “CKLW programming hooked you as a child, kept you as an adolescent and then kept you coming back for more as an adult.” Local radio disc jockeys were keen to show teens the latest dances on TV. Ed Mackenzie, Robin Seymour and Bud Davies offered programs featuring local kids dancing the “Chicken,” the “Stroll,” the “Swim” and a whole lot more. Bud Davies “Top Ten Dance Party” was the first to launch a format that would eventually morph into music videos and MTV. Seymour’s “Swinging Time,” a dance party that was a hot commodity on CKLW until 1968, predated the MTV era by almost 20 years. Entertainers performed “live,” including the popular “Motown Sound” artists including as Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross, and hot artists of the day, who “lip synched” their hit songs, often to comical effect as their timing could be slightly off. Seymour’s career spanned everything from the big band era to the British invasion. But he missed a beat somewhere when he predicted that Elvis Presley was a sure loser, who “wouldn’t last more than a year.” Seymour’s television show featured 50 to 75 local kids dancing six days a week. Two were chosen for each show to give “yea” or “boo” opinions on new records. Tom Shannon, a popular DJ on the BIG 8 CKLW, tweaked the format with a Johnny Carson-style teen talk show, but the kids just wanted to dance and the show was a flop. The program is famous for an interview with Alice Cooper, who pioneered “shock rock” with his elaborate stage shows including snakes, guillotines and pyrotechnics. Cooper decided in the middle of an interview that he wanted to rip apart Bill Kennedy’s famous interview chair – live on the air! He had to be restrained but had the stunt occurred, it would surely have gone down in TV folklore. |
