  Margaret Member Username: Margaret Post Number: 246 Registered: 06-2007 |
does anyone remember the J. L. Hudson's charm school that teenage girls attended at the department store? I would love to share memories of that...also, does anyone know if there is a way to get footage from the old Robin Seymour 1960s teen dance show, "Swing Time" ?? I think that's the right name...I used to dance on there! seems like a friggin lifetime ago now... | ||
Grumpyoldlady Member Username: Grumpyoldlady Post Number: 350 Registered: 06-2005 |
Correct name of the show was "Swingin' Time" | ||
Sumas Member Username: Sumas Post Number: 728 Registered: 01-2008 |
Yes, I remember, I had friends that attended. It seemed reserved for the pretty girls. I wasn't one of them. | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 962 Registered: 10-2003 |
Margaret, What years did you dance on the show? | ||
Maof2 Member Username: Maof2 Post Number: 1406 Registered: 06-2008 |
Robin Seymour is going to be at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts. There doing a 60's thing that will From 2/28 through 5/16. | ||
Isle_of_fun Member Username: Isle_of_fun Post Number: 200 Registered: 10-2008 |
oh film of that would be fun, To get on the show you just had to show up, get in line, the first to arrive were the first to get in to dance. To bad you had a bad experience Sumas, I remember those oh so sensitive years. We used to flip a coin to see if we were going to take the bridge bus or the tunnel bus, it seems that it was easier to go there in the tunnel bus, due to the rain,snow and winds. The show was open to all and many of my classmates went, as often as they had BUS fair. For those of us that worked after school we went on our days off. There were times that if U showed up so many times they did give U a pass so that U did not have to wait in line. Never forgot the time the Woolies( or was it the wolfman?) played and the singer put his foot through the stage floor. I think they always had a live band. Ed did U go and dance? What a wild and crazy time. | ||
Alfie1a Member Username: Alfie1a Post Number: 174 Registered: 10-2007 |
Margaret, do a search in Youtube, there are a few swingtime videos there. Tell us which one is you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =-uix3LbpqEg Sumas, thanks for starting my day with a laugh.  | ||
East_detroit Member Username: East_detroit Post Number: 1933 Registered: 11-2003 |
Sumas, I'm sure you had a nice personality. | ||
Sumas Member Username: Sumas Post Number: 734 Registered: 01-2008 |
I was talking about the charm school sponsored by Hudson's. I laugh now too! Such a sensitive age. The charm school, at least at Eastland, screened participants. They used them as models, in store. At that age I was fat and they rejected me. Never tried to get on the dance show although I was popular at school dances because I could dance well. PS at age 13, I was 5 ft 7 inches and went from a size sixteen to a size eight. All my girlfriends were a size three or five and so I still felt fat. | ||
Sumas Member Username: Sumas Post Number: 735 Registered: 01-2008 |
East Detroit, at that age, the church ladies would console my mother with this comment,"At least she has a beautiful complexion". Too funny. | ||
Buyamerican Member Username: Buyamerican Post Number: 905 Registered: 02-2007 |
For information about "The Sixties: A Decade that Defined a Generation", go to www.macombcenter.com or call 586-286-2222 It looks like there are many interesting presentations regarding Detroit, Hudsons, Motown Robin Seymour and much more. | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 500 Registered: 07-2008 |
Swingin' Time!! That truly is a blast from the past. It gave many local acts a chance to perform (usually lip synching) on TV. Good publicity for their next show, and bragging rights at school the next day. East_Detroit: I don't know how far back you go, but East Detroit's own "Outcry" band performed on the show. I believe they performed their song: "Gravy Covered Fruitcake". | ||
Detroitbred Member Username: Detroitbred Post Number: 249 Registered: 06-2008 |
Montgomery Ward's had a "charm school" too, called Wendy Ward, which I attended. I'm pretty sure it wasn't my idea. Someone must've thought I need help to make it through my "awkward teenage years". Don't remember too much, except being scared and embarassed to be on stage for a fashion show. Seems like 100 years ago! | ||
Margaret Member Username: Margaret Post Number: 247 Registered: 06-2007 |
thanks, you guys!!! especially for the You Tube resource. hmmmmmm LOL! I danced on the show in the late 60s, when I was in high school. I wish I had the actual dates, but I don't. used to go a lot, and probably got one of those passes, and I got to boogie on one of those pedestal things, LMAO!!! holy jerking tailfeather, Batman! that was so much fun...I wish I could remember more details from that time. as for the charm school, I went to the one downtown. was it on Saturdays? we did things like sewed outfits, yes had a fashion show, balanced books on our heads, and read from those crazy pink notebooks they would hand out. remember that, anyone? thanks again, you guys! I sure do love these blasts from the past... | ||
Margaret Member Username: Margaret Post Number: 248 Registered: 06-2007 |
p.s. thanks also for the tip about the 60s event going on. but now I'm way over here in Montana, so I don't think I can make it. but then again hmmmmm is it time for a road trip???? | ||
Margaret Member Username: Margaret Post Number: 249 Registered: 06-2007 |
p.s. thanks also for the tip about the 60s event going on. but now I'm way over here in Montana, so I don't think I can make it. but then again hmmmmm is it time for a road trip???? | ||
Dianeinaustin Member Username: Dianeinaustin Post Number: 211 Registered: 02-2008 |
I went to the Wendy Ward school too. I pretty much felt the same way you did. I think for me it was actually about 45 years ago, which now seen in print may as well be 100! | ||
Detroitbred Member Username: Detroitbred Post Number: 250 Registered: 06-2008 |
Daine..I would've gone about that same time too. It was at Wonderland Mall in Livonia. I don't think I learned much...I am certainly not a fashion statement! I hate going to weddings ( or funerals ) because I never know what to wear and hate buying clothes. Just give me jeans and a t-shirt. | ||
Isle_of_fun Member Username: Isle_of_fun Post Number: 203 Registered: 10-2008 |
okay a correction to my post #200 the song was "Wooly Bully" by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs. Although the singer was very hairy looking. Heck I was only in 9th grade. | ||
Sludgedaddy Member Username: Sludgedaddy Post Number: 286 Registered: 01-2008 |
...and now a little nostalgia for the old folks...The Woolies were a Michigan band, who had a minor hit with the cover of Bo Didley's "Who do You Love?". Sam the Sham was a hairy Mexican guy from Texas who wore a turban, drove around in a hearse and fronted a band called "Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs". I do remember Swingin' Time and would watch it after school. I can't recall very many pretty gals on the show. Most looked like they were hand picked for a "Dog Fight". There were hardly any males dancing and the females would dance around together. I can recall there was a regular on the show who was refered to as "The Lovely Lana". Nothing could compare to the girls who danced on nationally syndicated shows like "Hullabaloo" and my favorite, for girl watching,"Hollywood A Go Go". Robin Seymore once apologized for having Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on his show around 1965 or 1966. Do any of you Charm School ladies remember an appearance at Hudson's of Model Jean Shrimpton? | ||
Isle_of_fun Member Username: Isle_of_fun Post Number: 204 Registered: 10-2008 |
SLUDGEDADDY ......=+++++++===== U, because U must look like your name to start a fight with some of the most street smart beautiful gals that the two cities ever saw at that time WRITTEN by SLUDGEDADDY " I do remember Swingin' Time and would watch it after school. I can't recall very many pretty gals on the show. Most looked like they were hand picked for a "Dog Fight". There were hardly any males dancing and the females would dance around together. I can recall there was a regular on the show who was refered to as "The Lovely Lana". Written by ISLE_OF_FUN Heck U just showed your true colors, and it is obvious that none of them match!!!! It is also obvious that U never got a chance with any of them gals either ... U were two busy playing fantasy with the other dance TV shows. Well sonny boy its like this, there are those that do and there are those that sit around wishing they had done. We now know which one you are!!!!!!!!!!!! | ||
Sludgedaddy Member Username: Sludgedaddy Post Number: 288 Registered: 01-2008 |
Ms. Isle...spoken like a true Hudson's Charm School Graduate, my dear. | ||
Dannyv Member Username: Dannyv Post Number: 555 Registered: 08-2007 |
Sdaddy, It must have been in '66 that the Mothers of Invention were on Swingin' Time. My parents took my brother to Metro Airport for his flight to Great Lakes for Navy boot camp. At Metro, they ran across some long haired men who appeared dirty and disheveled to my Mom. It was the Mothers. I recall them lip syncing Help I'm A Rock on Swingin' Time. http://globalia.net/donlope/fz/videography/1965-69.html#SwinginTime (Message edited by dannyv on February 17, 2009) | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 503 Registered: 07-2008 |
S: ".The Woolies were a Michigan band, who had a minor hit with the cover of Bo Didley's "Who do You Love?". They also were Chuck Berry's hired band when he played Michigan area gigs. Also, I thought several of the dancers on Swingin' Time (especially Betty O. from my high school) were quite attractive and would have been interesting to meet! | ||
Margaret Member Username: Margaret Post Number: 250 Registered: 06-2007 |
hey there, Isle, you go girl! tell him how it is...we perhaps need to send this sludge bozo to some sort of charm school, whaddya say? thanks, Bobl, yes many of us dancing on that show were quite attractive... hey, Isle! sludge be the kinda guy who goes slinking around hiding from The Real Thing, eh? hey sludge you ^&*%& we'll assault you with our big huge charm school books, hahahahaha!!! when I was dancing on there, it was pretty much the Motown Sound. lots of bugaloo, the pearl, the jerk, the temptation walk, the monkey, the shingaling. how about you, Isle? | ||
Blueidone Member Username: Blueidone Post Number: 485 Registered: 03-2007 |
I was a Wendy Ward charm school graduate too...probably about 1965 or '66. I went to the Ward's in Warren at Universal Mall. I was very nervous for the fashion show, but I enjoyed the classes. My mom worked a lot and there were five kids, so we didn't to much one-on-one "girl time". I did learn a lot about make up and manicures and pedicures. I was really against it at first, but after it was done, I was glad I went. | ||
Sludgedaddy Member Username: Sludgedaddy Post Number: 290 Registered: 01-2008 |
Ladies....Please....I must confess to having all the charm and good looks of a certain Mr. Charles Bukowski. But, you must admit, there was a lack of male dancers on "Swingin'Time". Maybe something to do with white teen-age male dancing being lame and not quite as "cool" as hanging out in the local hippie park or neighborhood psychedelic dungeon. With all due respect to the lovely Daughters of Bilitis, of whom I am sometimes in contact through business dealings, "Swingin'Time" sometimes invoked an Isle of Lesbos Beach Party. Since we apparently are survivors of that wonderful era of long ago, surely you must remember that old "Twilight Zone" episode "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder. ...and to one and all I hoped Frank and The Mothers Freaked You Out. | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 509 Registered: 07-2008 |
Frank on Swingin' Time, and Velvet Underground at the State Fair must be two of the most unusual moments in Detroit music history. I offer an honorable mention to the White Mud Blues Band at St Margaret's! | ||
Sludgedaddy Member Username: Sludgedaddy Post Number: 291 Registered: 01-2008 |
Mr.Bobl, You,sir, and a certain Mr. Dannyv are quite the knowledgable hipsters when it comes to the psychedelic version of Kaye Kayser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge! Here's one...The MC5 played a dance at St. Stanislaus near Chene St. in the late 1960's when one of the Catholic School girls of that alma mater offered up her charms to get the band to play at a St. Stan's dance. It is notable, that before the plug was pulled by the Bastard (ahem) Pastor,The 5 belted out this challenge: "Kick Out the Jams, Mother Superior!" | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 513 Registered: 07-2008 |
S: Thank you, thank you. I owe it all to Mr Sandoz, who gave me knowledge, and to Mary Weiss, whom I tried to know. She left me walking in the sand. | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 1490 Registered: 05-2008 |
Interestingly enough, we Catholic school girls didn't need charm school. The nuns taught us the business of comportment. | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 515 Registered: 07-2008 |
S: re: MC5 @ St Stanislaus dance... "Sister won't you tell me where I went so wrong I used to say my prayers baby all night long I'd listen to the Gospel ringing in my ears Come on Sister Anne save me from my fears if you can I know you can I know you can You're my Sister Anne" Fred Smith credit added (Message edited by Bobl on February 18, 2009) | ||
Slick Member Username: Slick Post Number: 53 Registered: 02-2008 |
"St. Stanislaus near Chene St. in the late 1960's when one of the Catholic School girls of that alma mater offered up her charms " That's not the only reason they offered up their charms. Class of 67, go Bronco's | ||
Bobl Member Username: Bobl Post Number: 664 Registered: 07-2008 |
Margaret: What high school did you attend? Which local band of the late sixties was your favorite? Isle_of_fun: I was one of those that did....and it often got me in too much trouble! Which late sixties local band did you like? |
