American Bandstand was the first national TV show to feature teens off the street. Carmen MonteCarlo and Charlie Zamil were two high school students who danced on the show five times a week. Bandstand dancers were local Philadelphia kids fourteen to eighteen years old, mostly from two high schools, West Catholic and South Philadelphia who came to dance and to be seen dancing every afternoon from 2:30 to 5:00 P.M. It was after-school fun, way for teenagers to express who they were and, for a nationwide teen population with nine billion dollars to spend in allowance money, Bandstand was the showcase for latest records, the hippest fashions, and the newest products The teens watching at home finally had a show that they felt part of, learned from, and measured themselves against. Vera Badamo, who grew up in Brooklyn Hills in the fifties, remembers how "wonderful it was to come home everyday and tune in Bandstand and see Italian kids, just like me. You never saw them on regular TV. And, to see some of them wearing Catholic school uniforms was extraordinary. I realized the kids in Philly were just like kids in Brooklyn."