When Don Campbell did his own unique and odd looking dance people watched. When he kept on winning dance competitions around LA he started making a name for himself as a dancer.
He and other dancers he liked to dance with were becoming known in their local area. However it was only really when The Lockers formed in 1973 and they started doing high profile TV performances that locking became big news.
As a group The Lockers performed with some of the biggest names in showbusiness such as Frank Sinatra. They danced at big events, did commercials and TV shows such as the Grammys, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Schlitz Malt Liqour.
Before The Lockers formed, locking was beginning to be seen on television via Soul Train. Don Campbell and other lockers were seen to be locking on this show.
As The Lockers formed though, producers realized that they would have to become to a degree commercialized and things needed to be done a certain way in order to be ready for mass consumption.
So this was done, uniforms established etc (e.g. black and white stripes). While it was not ideal, it exposed locking to a large audience and became accepted as a dance style.
Of course as more people tried to copy The Lockers, more lockers sprang up and the more people that do something the more popular the thing becomes.
By the time The Lockers split up, their mark had been left and locking was known and could be seen in the clubs, streets and the box at home.
Locking made its way into music videos and other TV formats. For example Toni Basil, Shabba Doo, and Fred 'Rerun' Berry had successful careers in television and as choreographers in the case of the first two.
Much later in 1984 with locking still going strong, and popping and breaking having entered the dance scene the film Breakin' was released.
This film featured many of the top dancers from these street movements including Shabba Doo, Poppin' Pete, Poppin' Taco and Anna 'Lollipop' Sanchez and gave further mainstream publicity to these dance styles.