March 19th Date - Sadie Pope Dowdell Public Library

1 February 6, 011 South Amboy-Sayreville Times
The Clay Cole
Show By Henny the DJ
In the mid 60’s Clay Cole had a TV
dance show that was to popular music in
the New York City area then, what MTV is
to the whole country today. It was the ‘go
to’ place to find the hot artists and songs
and dancers of the Swinging Sixties. How
hot was the show? The best example is that
when the Rolling Stones made their first
trip to the USA in 1965, they spent a solid
week at the Daily News Channel 11 studios
hanging out with Clay Cole. What Murray
the K was to the Beatles. Clay Cole was to
the Stones.
Sadly, Clay Cole passed away recently
and Tommy Burkard asked me to write
something about his passing. Why me?
Well, guess who actually got to dance on
that very popular Clay Cole Show? That’s
right, old Henny the DJ. And, even though
I couldn’t do “The Slop” as well as Charlie
Conroy or “the Mashed Potatoes” as well
as Nonnie Nonnemacher, I knew a girl who
could and when she won Clay Cole tickets
in a dance contest at Colonel Coopers, she
called me up and asked me to take her to
New York and be her partner on the show. I
quickly said, “Love to.” So, Tommy and all
remaining Palisades Park fans everywhere,
here is a day at Clay Cole Show, Monday,
March 15th, 1965.
BEFORE THE SHOW - We knew
there was no way we were going to be able
to dance at six in the evening in a fully lit
studio, in front of TV cameras unfortified, so
after we parked the car on 42nd street by the
Daily News Building, we stopped in a nearby
Blarney Stone and emptied some Rheingold
Chug-A-Mugs. A very nice touch, I thought,
and one that proved very wise, as well.
DURING THE SHOW – In a small,
stifling hot, overly lit TV studio sitting on
folding chairs we all waited patiently during
stop and go taping where a one hour show
was taking three hours to produce. When
he wasn’t actually performing, Clay made
himself invisible. So untended we waited
while Rip Taylor, that’s right the guy from
the “1.98 Beauty Show,” the comedic guest
for the night, sang “What Kind of Fool Am
I” tossing disdainful confetti at us losers.
Surprisingly, there was relatively little
dance time for us, 6 or 7 songs. Think Soul
Train minus the Soul Train Dance Line,
flashy clothing and exotic dancers. Since
we were rookie TV types thrown in with
Clay’s camera wise coterie of Regulars, the
few instances that we actually knew which
camera was operating, we had to scramble
for face time by wedging our way through
the front line like Bronco Nagurski on third
and one to get in “camera mugging position”.
Afterwards I drove Mary Ann back
to Woodbridge, thanked her for asking me
to go with her and headed back over the Victory
Bridge for the safe haven of good old
South Amboy, Fritze’s and then the welcome
sanctum of David Street.
AFTERMATH – The great thing is
that the show was shown two days later on
Wednesday, March 17th, St. Patrick’s day at
7pm, Channel 11. At home I kept looking
hard to see if we were “on” and just as I was
about to admit that somehow we had eluded
the camera the whole dang show, “Bang”
there we were, front and center mugging and
hogging the cameras like the two rubes from
the sticks that we were, with the cheesiest
you know what eating grins you ever saw.
But being on TV then was a big deal and I
felt good about it all. Still do.
So there you have it, Tommy, Clay Cole.
“Sic transit gloria mundi.”
NEXT TIME- Part 2, No, it was not “The
Hideaway”. It was “Sheridan’s.”