The Milt Grant Show

Runtime: 55 minutes

Language: English

Format:  DVD-R (region free)

Price: $12.95

The Milt Grant Show

Produced in Washington, D.C. at the same time that Dick Clark's American Bandstand was coming out of Philadelphia, THE MILT GRANT SHOW was less slick and a lot funnier, more spontaneous, and warmer than Clark's program. The one-hour program features dancing teens (to "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Bros., "I Just Don't Know" by the Four Aces, "Love Letters In the Sand" by Pat Boone, "Pink Champagne" by the Tyrones, and "Suzie Q" by Dale Hawkins), special guest rhythm-and-blues legend LaVerne Baker ("Jim Dandy" "Let's Play the Game of Love") and Johnny & Jo ("Over The Mountain and Across the Sea") lip-syncing to their records, and a Rate-a-Record sequence featuring the Cellos' "Rang Tang Ding Dong" and Johnny Mathis's "It's Not For Me to Say."

But the real beauty of THE MILT GRANT SHOW, apart from the performance sequences and the music, are the kids, who come across as really honest and sincere, even in their awkwardness, as they joke about their dancing and their music, and Grant himself, who doesn't try to be one of them, but still builds up a heady enthusiasm for the music. The show was local, and includes lots of plugs for local and regional businesses, including Washington's Music Box Record Shop, Briggs Ice Cream, a nearby amusement park and Tops Drive-inn, as well as the then-current crop of Columbia Records artists. A real blast from the past, and a delight not only to anyone in their 30's and 40's who remembers this era, but a must-own for anyone who wants to get a glimpse of what it was like to be a real teenager during that period.

55 minutes - from the TV Days Collection