Anthony Mammarella (September 2, 1924 - November 29, 1977) was the first producer and second host of American Bandstand

American Bandstand

American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...

.

Mammarella, a World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 veteran, started with Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV

WPVI-TV

WPVI-TV, channel 6, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. WPVI has its studios located on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd, and its transmitter is located in the...

 in 1947 as a switchboard operator and moved his way up to various positions in production.

In 1958, as a way of increasing his financial portfolio, he, along with Dick Clark and Bernie Binnick started Swan Records

Swan Records

Swan Records was a mid-20th century United States based record label, founded in 1957, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It had a subsidiary label called Lawn Records....

, with the first signed artist being "Dickie Doo and the Don'ts". The label would later be notable for being the first American record label for The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

.

Once the payola

Payola

Payola, in the American music industry, is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day's broadcast. Under U.S...

 scandals of 1959 played out, ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 required anybody that dealt with music to diversify from any music interests. Clark decided to stay with ABC and Mammarella stayed with Swan.

Mammarella succumbed to brain cancer on November 29, 1977.