Sullivan’s co-author, Ray Smith, recently retired after 40 years as an Emmy-winning “Today” show producer. I kissed a girl, and I liked it!” Sullivan, now 74 and long out of the closet, reveals in a fascinating self-published book, “ Bandstand Diaries” - billed as “The Book You’ve Waited Over 50 Years to Read!” “I knew I was different early on, but being with all these friends, I came to terms with my feelings. But he feared that if the show’s secret ever came out, Middle America would change the channel. What they didn’t know was that Arlene and several of the other female dancers, and most of the handsome teen boys, were gay.Ĭlark, known as America’s oldest teenager, knew. Millions of kids from Brooklyn to Beverly Hills ran home from school every weekday to watch them dance, imitate their styles and fantasize about their lives. They were the squeaky-clean Kardashians of their era, and “Bandstand” could easily claim the title as the first reality show.
Angel Chevresttįive-foot-two, brown-eyed, brown-haired Arlene and handsome Kenny, a year younger, were among the TV music show’s elite, its stars, the vaunted “regulars” along with another couple often on camera - pert, blond Justine Carrelli and suave Bob Clayton. Arlene Sullivan and Kenny Rossi on the cover of Teen magazine in 1959. The big teenybopper magazines of the era - Sixteen and Teen - plastered “Bandstand” dancers on their covers and wrote glowing, gossipy stories about their lives in Philadelphia, where Dick Clark produced the show. They joined Arlene’s and Kenny’s fan clubs. Tony Romeo tends to overprice tours, example, quoted a day trip to Halong Bay, based on sit in tour with another company, at USD 120, however, such tours are only going at USD 38.When cute young teenagers Arlene Sullivan and Kenny Rossi slow danced together on “American Bandstand” back in the late ’50s and early ’60s, kids across the country swooned.
Little is done to orientate you or to point out landmarks while you make your way on the messy tour with Tony Romeo.
The so called secret places to eat that he introduces have already been featured on so many travel bloggers website with instructions on how to get there, example, Dinh cafe which served excellent egg coffee. Really bad experience with this so called local tour guide called Tony Romeo in Hanoi, whose real name should be Nguyen Dung!įirst, his tours are conducted in a very messy manner, you find yourself darting from place to place within the Old Quarters in a complete mess trying the food, which he does not explain. Hope this can be shared with others who might want to book Gay Hanoi Tours in Vietnam! Sharing this bad experience with a local tour guide called Tony Romeo in Hanoi!
Also, there have been various notable LGBTQ Vietnamese movies made, such as “Madam Phung's Last Journey” in 2014, “Finding Phong” in 2017, and the “My Best Gay Friends” YouTube series in 2013, which went viral: For example, the former USA Ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius is openly gay and was not shy about posing with his husband and baby. We even have a growing gay scene in Saigon and Hanoi.Īlso, more visibility of successful LGBTQ persons in the media helps society see us as something normal and positive rather than as something wrong or an illness. Today, of course, all that has changed, especially with the advent of Grindr and all the other gay dating apps over the past decade. At best, gay guys would seek each other out via well-known cruising spots or by friends of friends. Back in those days, the Internet as we know it today simply didn't exist and there were no queer hangouts around.
It was quite hard when I was younger because traditional Catholic Vietnamese society was not always so open and supportive toward gays. “you better clean up your room if you wanna find a good husband!!” What's it like growing up gay in Vietnam? She's always been accepting of me being gay and we always make jokes about finding husbands. For example, she now worries about me growing old alone without anyone to care for me in my old age. I think my mother, her main concern is my safety well-being and most of all my happiness in life.