The idea wasn't new. TV shows featuring teens dancing while popular
acts performed their latest hits had been done.
But before 1971, nothing like "Soul Train" existed. The variety show took the template Dick Clark had set with "American Bandstand" and made it funky, showcasing almost exclusively black dancers and artists.
The ever-cool presence of Don Cornelius, the program's creator and host, gave "Soul Train" a touch of streetwise class. His measured, silk-and-velvet baritone became as iconic as the show itself.
Cornelius was found dead Wednesday morning in his Los Angeles home from a gunshot wound to the head. He was 75. His death is being investigated as an apparent suicide.
Recently sidetracked by a divorce and other personal issues, Cornelius had been out of the spotlight for a while. But his legacy as a cultural visionary had long been cemented.
"Soul Train" ran for 35 seasons, introducing to mainstream America unfettered images of commercial blackness. Virtually every important urban trend and black musical style
born between 1971 and 2006 were splashed on the show.
Performers of color who were stars in the ghetto but largely unknown elsewhere - such as Millie Jackson, Johnnie Taylor and Evelyn "Champagne" King - often graced the show's train-shaped stage. Dancers with moves that were part athletic and part tribal shimmied, glided and even flipped down the famous "Soul Train line."
The program, especially in the early years, regaled viewers with music and fashions that embraced elements of Afrocentricity. Beaming into TVs during the height of the Black Arts Movement and just three years after the assassination of the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., "Soul Train" became a cultural touchstone that smartly evolved with the times.
And Cornelius remained at the helm, introducing established and burgeoning acts, until 1993, when he stepped down as the host. By that time, hip-hop's brashness had seized the culture, and Cornelius' tailored-suit dapperness no longer fit the show.
He was born Donald Cornelius in Chicago on Sept. 27, 1936. His distinctive voice made him a natural for radio, and he started his career at Chicago's WVON, the legendary radio station specializing in blues and R&B. He read the news. Outside the station, he hosted a series of talent shows in Chicago he called "The Soul Train."
In the summer of 1970, Cornelius premiered the black-themed music variety show on Chicago's WCIU-TV, where it aired twice during the week. The show was a hit and, in 1971, secured national syndication with co-sponsorship by Johnson Products Co., maker of Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen
cosmetics. (The Johnson commercials during "Soul Train" are cheesy jewels of the era.)
Soon after the show became syndicated, Cornelius, the executive producer, moved its operations to Los Angeles, where the program was produced until 2006.
After Cornelius left as host, several tried to fill his polished loafers, including comedian Mystro Clark and actors Shemar Moore and Dorian Gregory. But the magic had faded.
As the mainstream absorbed the undiluted black urbanity showcased on "Soul Train," the show didn't seem as necessary anymore. Before they became untouchable pop superstars in the 1980s, Michael Jackson and Tina Turner sang and got down on "Soul Train." But after MTV started airing music videos in 1981, street-tough acts such as Run DMC, LL Cool J and, later, Mary J. Blige were ubiquitous on that station.
Never a cultural or political phenomenon, the show was nevertheless a benchmark in the marketing of black style. Its success later opened doors for the entrepreneurial pursuits of Russell Simmons, Sean Combs, Jay-Z and 50 Cent.
Don Cornelius graciously introduced sounds and images that previously had been dismissed. Although his interviews could be laconic and a touch condescending at times, he was still a charming presence, hosting a fun and funky ride every Saturday morning to the most soulful corners of pop.
One couldn't have asked for a cooler conductor.
Rashod Ollison, 757-446-2732, rashod.ollison@pilotonline.com
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