Bob Clayton

(1957 to 1960)
Cool, Confident, charismatic, Bob Clayton was one of the first popular male dancers in the early years of American Bandstand. The ideal all-American boy.

Bob Clayton grew up in grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and was a 1958 graduate of P. S. DuPont High School. Bob was best known for his love of music and dancing on American Bandstand with his partner Justine Carrelli from 1957 to 1961.

Clayton was first a dancer on Grady and Hurst's dance show in Wilmington, Delaware when he noticed Justine Carelli on Bandstand. After watching Justine without steady partner, he decided to go to Philadelphia to make her his girlfriend.

Borrowing his family's black 1957 Chevrolet Impala,  skipping study hall and he made his way 32 miles up oute 13 from P.S. DuPont High School to the Bandstand studio. He was going to make Justine his girlfriend. Justine played hard to get but they dancing together by end of show.

Bob Clayton - “I used to come home from school and tune into Bandstand and I started seeing this little blonde dancing around the place. I just thought she was so cute. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to go up there!’ At first, she would’t even dance with me. She said she had a boyfriend, so I danced with all her girlfriends. I went over to her towards the end of the show and said, ‘Are you going to dance with me or what?’ and she finally said, ‘Okay.’ So we danced, and I think a week after that I told her she was going to be my girlfriend. We connected very quickly.”

Justine Carrelli - "He walked over real cocky and sure of himself and he said, ‘I’ve driven all the way from Delaware and you are going to be my girl!’ And I said, ‘Oh, really?’ He asked me to dance and I refused him because I just thought he was so bold, but then after watching him with the other girls and just how good he was, I finally did break down and I danced with him. It was like I had danced with him forever. There were other famous couples, but we seem to be the ones most remembered. I’m very honored. Your real first love is something you never forget."

Bob and Justine would later enter and win the 1957 Jitterbug contest. They won with a million postcard votes and each received a jukebox stocked with 200 records. Every day they'd dance with the other Regulars; after the show walked down to Pop Singer's to have a cherry coke and talk with fans and other dancers,. Bob often drove Arlene Sullivan and Pat Molitterri home on his way back to Delaware. On Saturdays and Sunday, Bob and Justine would go to dances on Saturdays and Sundays and around Philadelphia. Many held dance contests of which they won many.

Bob had numerous fan clubs around the country, numbering about with 500,00 total members. When he left the show, he was hoping those fans would help him become a recording star. Bob and Justine recorded Drive-In Movie on the Fransil label. That broke a Bandstand rule and they were ordered off the show. It didn't mattered much to Bob as he aged out of appearing on Bandstand. The record flopped, his singing career ended, as did his romance with Justine.

Every week day they danced after show he walked to Pop Singer's, Often Bob drove Arlene Sullivan and Pat Molittieri home in his 1957 Impala. Saturdays and Sundays he attend local dances in and around Philadelphia, most in Catholic schools

1960 Bob went west to Hollywood for a screen test,  5' 8" , surrrounded by 6-foot wannabes. Clayton decided his chances were slim, phoned home and asked his father to send money for the trip back to Delaware.

He had a drinking problem but quit it cold-turkey in 1980. He suffered from high-blood pressure and had a heart attack at 54

Bob and Elizabeth "Litsie" Clayton

Bob married his second wife Elizabeth "Litzie" Clayton in 1985. Following American Bandstand Bob embarked upon a career in the retail and wholesale business beginning with Storm's Shoes; The Little Heel; and Wanamaker's Department Store. He left Wanamaker's to own his own stores, ultimately co-owning four. Later he went into the chemical business at Diamond Chemical & Supply Co. which he retired from in 1998. Later he and his wife Elizabeth "Litsie" Clayton owned a gift boutique store, but he was a stay at home retired partner. They had been married 31 years at the time of his death

Bob Clayton, age 75 passed away at home on November 6, 2016.