Though I tuned into American Bandstand many times as a teenager in the 1970s, I did not know much about the show's history until I read American Bandstand by John A. Jackson and Bandstandland by Larry Lehmer. The books, the definitive works on the program, served as background reading for several chapters in my latest novel.
In Let Time Fly, Jake Maclean and Rachel Ward, a teenage couple with access to an ancient time portal, travel from the Philadelphia of 1780 to the one of 1958. They take a break from the American Revolution by making an appearance on American Bandstand in its storied prime.
Even as an author of time-travel stories, I never tire of taking characters from one era and placing them in another. Readers familiar with the Stone Shed series know that Jake is a boy from 2024, who, like his older brother, Noah, decides to live out his life in the distant past. Rachel is a girl from the 1700s who travels on occasion to the 1900s and 2000s. In Let Time Fly, both experience a day trip for the ages before returning to realities of life in the eighteenth century.
Choosing American Bandstand in 1958 as an escape for Jake and Rachel was an easy call. The show, which Jake's grandmother attended frequently as a girl in Philadelphia, seemed like a no-brainer for two amorous teenagers who like music, dancing, and adventure.
Though fictional, the Bandstand chapters are based on actual episodes of the show before it moved to Los Angeles in 1964. Even Dick Clark will get some play. The host, perhaps best known for his New Year's Eve countdowns in Times Square, will interview Jake, Rachel, and other dancers, much as he did on Bandstand on a regular basis.
As mentioned earlier, Let Time Fly is now in the editing stages. I plan to publish both the Kindle and print editions of the novel next month.
Photo credit: The 1973 photograph above is courtesy of Mary Frampton, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0
