Alan Freed on To Tell the Truth (1957)

Comments

[Michael RJ Plath]

Alan Freed got chumped. The Congressional Payola investigations weren't fair to him. He may have taken a few 'writer' credits as a thank you for supporting some of the early groups every now & then. He and several other DJ's & a few record promoters were scapegoats for the investigation that was leading nowhere. I mean, there was this guy with a daily TV show on ABC playing records, featuring live/in person performances by artists on record labels he had part or all ownership in (Swan, Cameo-Parkway for instance, right there in Philadelphia for Christs Sake) and he also operated record pressing plants. Fortunately for him ABC supplied attorneys and in actuality all he did was sign disclaimers stating he never took money to play records, which in fact may have been true. If the disclaimers said he never MADE money from the same activity that would have been a lie and perjury. The sad thing is he was the dirtiest player of all and got out of it unscathed. Sorry about this epistle, but I champion Alan Freed and it was a shame that he died unrecognized and a penniless drunk with fatal liver problems. The dumbest part of the Congressional investigation into payola was their not even noticing the records played on ABC stations and the potential conflict of interest with ABC-Paramount, APT and other labels owned by ABC. It was totally out in the open and went right by them.

[Rocket Morton]

The Feds went after him because he was integrating the races. The payola charges were just a smokescreen until they completely crushed him and got him out of the way.

[Michael RJ Plath]

Oh, so there weren't any black acts on the Bandstand show in addition to a bevy of what some then termed 'racist' music, being played not only out of Philly TV everyday, but all over the country. I suppose you have the same explanation (or something as broadly based) for the quiz show investigations. Did the Feds have it in for the Professor, Jack Barry or Jack Narz? Maybe Congress had a trade off with Geritol. Oy!