Herman Spero, a Glenville High School graduate, was the producer of The Upbeat Show, but before Upbeat he produced the TV show Polka Varieties at Cleveland’s WEWS Channel 5. Polka Varieties ran from 1956 – 1983. It looked something like this…
In August of 1964 Herman Spero began producing the TV music show Upbeat. Initially the show was known as The Big 5 Show since it ran on Channel 5 at 5 O’Clock on Saturday evenings. Once it became syndicated to other cities it was known as Upbeat. The start of the show looked like this…
In 2016 Cleveland.com’s Dave Anderson had a conversation with David Spero, Herman’s son, about some of what he recalled about the show. David worked on the show while a teenager. He then went on to DJ at various radio stations around Cleveland including WMMS. He also became the manager of a number of musical acts including Michael Stanley and Joe Walsh. David talks here about the initial idea that his father had behind Upbeat.
Upbeat ran from 1964 – 1971. That’s a pretty good run for a locally produced syndicated show. Yet still just a fraction of the time that Polka Varieties was on the air. David Spero talks a bit about the changing times that led to the show coming to an end.
Initially the show was hosted by local Disc Jockey’s from radio station WHK. Those DJ’s included Johnnie Walters, Ron Britain, Bob Friend, “Emperor” Joe Mayer, and “The Good Guys of WHK”. Herman Spero wanted to get the show syndicated nationally, so he knew he needed a host to appear regularly, just like American Bandstand. David Spero recalls that his dad “… had seen Don Webster up in Canada on a dance party show and said, ‘That’s our guy, he’s our Dick Clark’.”
Don Webster with Bobby Goldsboro (from Clevelandseniors.com)
Don was born in Ontario, Canada and started working in radio in Hamilton, Ontario. He moved to TV in Hamilton where he was working when the offer to move to Cleveland, OH came along.
Upbeat had many memorable moments over the seven years it was on the air. One of those included the first TV appearance by a duo that was unknown at the time but became household names not long after. Herman Spero talked to Clive Davis about having Aretha Franklin on the show, and Davis agreed on the condition that Spero would also book an act he was promoting. In 2018, News 5’s John Kosich sat down with former Upbeat host Don Webster and Don explains that appearance this way.
Unfortunately Upbeat had a memorable last moment as well. On Saturday December 9, 1967 Otis Redding and his backing group The Bar-Kays appeared on Upbeat in the afternoon and played at Leo’s Casino that night. It was Otis Redding’s final TV appearance and the show at Leo’s Casino was his final performance. They took a flight from Cleveland to Madison, WI on Sunday December 10, 1967 where the plane crashed into Lake Monona just a few miles short of the runway. According to the article “The Heartbreaking Death Of Otis Redding” there were eight people on board, seven of them died in the crash. The lone survivor was trumpet player Ben Cauley. Another Bar-Kays member, bassist James Alexander, took a commercial flight to Madison separate from the band.
Here is Otis Redding, The Bar-Kays, and Mitch Ryder closing out that Upbeat show.
In April of 2000, WEWS was presented with this plaque as part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark Series. The plaque notes the famous first and last that occurred on the show. It’s worth noting that Leo’s Casino also was designated as a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Landmark.
The plaque also says “virtually every major Rock, Soul, Jazz, Country and Pop artist performed on Upbeat”. But why?
From The Upbeat TV show legacy 1964-1971
Before the days of satellites, Channel 5’s Jay Kerekes and Herman Spero came up with “bicycling”, one of the earliest forms of syndication. It was a way for “Upbeat” to be seen in 105 TV markets around the country. “We would tape it on Saturday afternoon, rehearsal started at nine, took a break at noon, came back at 1:30 and shot the show and hopefully it was done by five o’clock when you had to see it,” David Spero said. Because videotape was so expensive the videotape of the one-hour “Upbeat” episode would be copied and sent to a station in each of the top ten markets, played, and then that station would send to a station in the next lower market size, shipped or “bicycled” from market to market.
The acts didn’t come to Upbeat for the money (which usually was a couple of hundred dollars per appearance), they came for the exposure. As David Spero explains…
Speaking of rehearsal time. Let’s take a look at a clip where rehearsals must have been important. Here Stevie Wonder is singing “For Once In My Life” with the Upbeat dancers around him. Notice the dancer in the front on the right and how she gets the harmonica to Stevie when he needs it.
And then notice how the dancer in the front on the left is there for Stevie as he finishes up with his harmonica solo. Teamwork!
The Upbeat dancers were paid dancers and The Upbeat Show had choreographers. Back in 1995 Channel 5 aired an anniversary show and they reminisced a bit about the dancers and choreographers.
During that same anniversary show Don Webster interviewed Gary Puckett from Gary Puckett and The Union Gap who appeared on the show back in the ’60s. Here are Don and Gary taking a look back at the band’s outfits from back in the day.
And here is Gary singing the hit song “Young Girl”. Try to catch the lyrics if you can.
In that Upbeat: 30 Years Later anniversary show was a musical montage of some of the acts that appeared on the show. This first clip from the montage has Kenny Rogers & The First Edition – “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town”, Edwin Starr – “War”, and The Classics IV – “Spooky”.
This clip has Doc Severinsen, Iron Butterfly – “Filled With Fear”, and The Box Tops (with teen vocalist Alex Chilton) – “The Letter”.
And finally here are Three Dog Night – “One”, Johnny Mathis – “I’ll Never Fall in Love”, The Cowsills – “The Rain, The Park and Other Things”, and The Funkadelics (with George Clinton)- “I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody’s Got a Thing”.
Another look back with David Spero has him recalling an appearance by the Yardbirds including Jimmy Page on guitar. Shortly after, the Yardbirds would morph into Led Zeppelin.
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