The Hippest Trip in America by Nelson George

access to a phone. They had the right to call their parents to let them know they were all right and to set up rides back home. Freeman also argued for herself and others to get Soul Train ID cards that would allow them to park in the studio parking lot.
    The lanky lady’s popularity helped Soul Train, but she may have created some tension with its host. “I remember Don Cornelius was looking at me angry because he didn’t want the dancers to interact with guest stars,” she said of her legendary dance with Joe Tex. “I just knew this would be my last time on Soul Train . But the episode aired, and the show’s ratings went up.” Whatever his reservations at the time about Damita Jo, Don would, in 1982, admit that her freestyle with Tex helped Soul Train ’s popularity.
    After she danced with Brown on the show, the Godfather invited her to open for him at a concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Damita Jo brought many of the dancers she’d met at Maverick’s Flat (Little Joe Chism, Scooby, Gary Keys, Alpha Omega Anderson, Perry Brown) with her, setting two precedents that would define the rest of her career: she’d quickly build a life away from Soul Train ; and she’d empower other dancers using doors opened by her.
    Freeman’s first big non– Soul Train opportunity came via Dick Clark’s American Bandstand , which made her a contestant in its national dance contest. Of course Freeman, dancing with Soul Train partner Joe Chism, won the contest and a free trip to Hawaii. In 1973 she appeared in the musical Two Gentlemen from Verona at the Music Center. In 1974 she danced as part of Diana Ross’s show in Las Vegas. After that, her list of credits rolled on as she became a mainstay of LA show business, choreographing for TV specials and tours, including Clark’s American Music Awards up through 1992. She even had a brief fling with acting, appearing in the 1980 Goldie Hawn comedy Private Benjamin .
    Freeman’s participation in American Bandstand was no accident. Dick Clark was very aware of the talent Don Cornelius’s show was unearthing. The next year that same American Bandstand dance contest featured two other Soul Train regulars, Tyrone Proctor and Sharon Hill, and they won. But more than just poaching dancers, Clark actively tried to co-opt Soul Train ’s black audience. (But it’s a little early for that part of the story.)
    After Campbell’s inauspicious start on Soul Train , he became an influential figure via the broadcast. “For me, Don Campbell was the reason I wanted to be on that show,” said Jeffrey Daniel, who was then living (and watching TV) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “One Saturday afternoon, I saw the other dancers dancing, but this guy didn’t dance. He walked down the aisle to the beat of the music, stopped, stuck out his hand, gave himself five, hunched his shoulders, and pointed. I was like, Oh my God. That just totally changed everything I knew about dance.”
    Daniel, who is really a scholar of popular dance’s evolution, says Campbell “broke all the rules . . . when you’re looking at dancing from the sixties up until that point.” The twist, the monkey, and other popular dances were full-body movements with isolated movements of specific body parts, while locking “started a whole new level of body isolations from your hips to your head movements,” Daniel said.
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    Don Campbell and the Lockers brought innovative dance moves from LA clubs to Soul Train.
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    Campbell’s impact on the show was magnified by the fact that he arrived on Soul Train “posse deep” with his Maverick’s Flat dancing buddies, including his then girlfriend Toni Basil, Adolfo “Shaba-Doo” Quinones, and Fred “Rerun” Berry, infiltrating Don’s dance floor. Not only were they bringing new moves to the nation, they introduced a flamboyant style