Shindig! premiered on 16 September 1964 and made Wednesday nights something special for every American teenager.
The show was hosted by Jimmy O’Neill, a disc jockey in Los Angeles at the time, who also created the show along with his wife Sharon Sheeley (former fiancée of Eddie Cochran who had been present with him in his fatal car crash in the UK in 1960) and production executive Art Stolnitz.
Shindig! was produced by Englishman Jack Good who had already had success in the UK with the music television shows Six-Five Special and Oh Boy before deciding to seek his fortune in Hollywood.
The premiere telecast starred Sam Cooke and featured such acts as the Everly Brothers, the Righteous Brothers, the Wellingtons, Bobby Sherman (a Shindig “discovery”), and comic Alan Sues. The second season had an even bigger opening, as the show expanded to two nights a week and opened with The Rolling Stones.
The Shindig Dancers included Diane Stuart, Pam Freeman, Gina Trikinis, Carole Shelyne, Marianna Pecora, Teri Robinson, Laurine Yarnell, Virginia Justus, Maria Gavha and Rini Jarmon.
During the 1965-1966 season, guest stars from other areas of show business also began to appear, such as Mickey Rooney, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ed Wynn, and – on Halloween – Boris Karloff.
