NEWSWORKS TONIGHT

It's another steamy summer day in Philadelphia—but for a devoted group of music lovers, Wednesdays are something to look forward to. Legendary Philadelphia radio disc jockey Jerry Blavat is attracting an oddly mixed crowd of young hipsters and older fans.

It's Wednesday and Dottie Flynn is on the dance floor at Sugarhouse Casino. "I live for my Wednesdays and I have a ball," said Flynn. She says the Wednesday dance parties "are like a fountain of youth."

She says there aren't many places she can go to dance to this kind of music.

A lot of memories

"It brings back my days of Bandstand and the oldies and I feel like a young kid again," said Flynn. "And there's not many places that the older generation can come and remember the songs back then! And they were songs! Not like today. They were songs! When I come here, I'm a kid..."

The agile 77-year-old hairdresser from the Holmesburg neighborhood wears tight white pants and a beehive-like hairdo. When DJ Jerry Blavat starts the music, she puts on the dance moves of a teenager.

"This is my husband, and we're going to celebrate his birthday. This is Stewie. Stewie's been coming longer than I have. Stewie and Arlene. Jerry calls him Germantown Stew."

72-year-old Delores Burkett travels from Camden, but not every week. "I would come every week, but I'm a loser when I get on the machines, so I try to make it every other week," said Burkett. "I come because of that fabulous man over there, Jerry Blavat. I lose my money but I enjoy coming over here."

The retired cafeteria worker says the lure of gambling can't stop her from hitting the dance party. When Jerry Blavat comes in, Burkett says it "seems like the sky opens up. It brings back a lot of memories cause it's back in my time. I'm 72 years old."

Appeal across generations

Blavat has nicknames for all the regulars including 26-year-old Jaime Fountaine, who's decked out in a purple dress. "I'm a Geatorette! I'm one of the Geatorettes!" said Fountaine. "I started coming here because Jerry comes into the coffee shop where I work, and he told my coworker and I that we should come out—when he first started doing this in February—and we decided it might be fun on a whim to get dressed up and go dancing at 5 p.m. on a Wednesday. We've pretty much been here every week since because it's amazing."

Fountaine's a fan of garage rock, girl groups, and Tom Waits. She and her brother Blaise, who's here to dance too, are proof this music has appeal beyond nostalgia.

"I come out because it's nothing but stars here," he said. "All the time at the Sugarhouse. Hottest place. This is what Atlantic City used to be. And I come for the ladies—not my sister."

Older ladies? Or younger too?

"Older," said Blaise. "Way older."

"I think this is when music was about dancing," he said. "You could have fun and go out and dance to music. Now there's not really music geared towards dancing you know? Music is trying to do one thing or another. This music was really just so people could go out and have a good time!"

A mission of fun

Blavat clearly loves the music he's playing and the people who have come to dance. He also talks up the casino while he's doing the radio show from Sugarhouse.

"Blaise is here! The fabulous Blaise is here! He just came in from the Wild Wild West!" shouts Blavat. "That's my man Blaise with the beautiful Jaime."

Blavat seems to really care that the people here—of all ages—have fun: "These are the people that grew-up with me when I first began 51 years ago. Back then when you had Wagner's Ballroom they did the 81, they did the Boogaloo, they did the Wagner Walk, the Chez-vous Walk and they still do all of these dances today!"

Blavat says the dancing at Sugarhouse is kind of like when people from different neighborhoods used to meet up at dances. "Today in our world everybody has problems," he said. "But to come together for a couple of hours and dance and be happy, that's my mission."

Couples, singles, a woman in a wheelchair, dancers young and older return to the dance floor, and they're all smiling.