Legendary Broadcaster Was 82
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Dick Clark,
the ever-youthful television host and tireless entrepreneur who helped
bring rock `n' roll into the mainstream on "American Bandstand," and
later produced and hosted a vast range of programming from game shows to
the year-end countdown from Times Square on "New Year's Rockin' Eve,"
has died. He was 82.
Spokesman Paul Shefrin said Clark had a heart
attack Wednesday morning at Saint John's hospital in Santa Monica, a
day after he was admitted for an outpatient procedure.
Clark had continued performing even after he suffered a stroke in 2004 that affected his ability to speak and walk.
Long
dubbed "the world's oldest teenager" because of his boyish appearance,
Clark bridged the rebellious new music scene and traditional show
business, and equally comfortable whether chatting about music with Sam
Cooke or bantering with Ed McMahon about TV bloopers. He thrived as the
founder of Dick Clark Productions, supplying movies, game and music
shows, beauty contests and more to TV. Among his credits: "The $25,000
Pyramid," "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes" and the American Music
Awards.
For a time in the 1980s, he had shows on all three
networks and was listed among the Forbes 400 of wealthiest Americans.
Clark also was part of radio as partner in the United Stations Radio
Network, which provided programs -- including Clark's -- to thousands of
stations.
"There's hardly any segment of the population that
doesn't see what I do," Clark told The Associated Press in a 1985
interview. "It can be embarrassing. People come up to me and say, `I
love your show,' and I have no idea which one they're talking about."
The
original "American Bandstand" was one of network TV's longest-running
series as part of ABC's daytime lineup from 1957 to 1987. It later aired
for a year in syndication and briefly on the USA Network. Over the
years, it introduced stars ranging from Buddy Holly to Madonna. The
show's status as an American cultural institution was solidified when
Clark donated Bandstand's original podium and backdrop to the
Smithsonian Institution.
Clark joined "Bandstand" in 1956 after
Bob Horn, who'd been the host since its 1952 debut, was fired. Under
Clark's guidance, it went from a local Philadelphia show to a national
phenomenon.
"I played records, the kids danced, and America
watched," was how Clark once described the series' simplicity. In his
1958 hit "Sweet Little Sixteen," Chuck Berry sang that "they'll be
rocking on Bandstand, Philadelphia, P-A."
As a host, he had the
smooth delivery of a seasoned radio announcer. As a producer, he had an
ear for a hit record. He also knew how to make wary adults welcome this
odd new breed of music in their homes.
Clark endured accusations
that he was in with the squares, with critic Lester Bangs defining
Bandstand as "a leggily acceptable euphemism of the teenage experience."
In a 1985 interview, Clark acknowledged the complaints. "But I knew at
the time that if we didn't make the presentation to the older generation
palatable, it could kill it."
"So along with Little Richard and
Chuck Berry and the Platters and the Crows and the Jayhawks ... the boys
wore coats and ties and the girls combed their hair and they all looked
like sweet little kids into a high school dance," he said.
But
Clark defended pop artists and artistic freedom, the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame said in an online biography of the 1993 inductee. He helped give
black artists their due by playing original R&B recordings instead
of cover versions by white performers, and he condemned censorship.
His
stroke in December 2004 forced him to miss his annual appearance on
"Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve." He returned the following year
and, although his speech at times was difficult to understand, many
praised his bravery, including other stroke victims.
Still
speaking with difficulty, he continued taking part in his New Year's
shows, though in a diminished role. Ryan Seacrest became the main host.
"I'm
just thankful I'm still able to enjoy this once-a-year treat," he told
The Associated Press by e-mail in December 2008 as another New Year's
Eve approached.
He was honored at the Emmy Awards in 2006,
telling the crowd: "I have accomplished my childhood dream, to be in
show business. Everybody should be so lucky to have their dreams come
true. I've been truly blessed."
He was born Richard Wagstaff
Clark in Mount Vernon, N.Y., in 1929. His father, Richard Augustus
Clark, was a sales manager who worked in radio.
Clark idolized
his athletic older brother, Bradley, who was killed in World War II. In
his 1976 autobiography, "Rock, Roll & Remember," Clark recalled how
radio helped ease his loneliness and turned him into a fan of Steve
Allen, Arthur Godfrey and other popular hosts.
From Godfrey, he
said, he learned that "a radio announcer does not talk to `those of you
out there in radio land'; a radio announcer talks to me as an
individual."
Clark began his career in the mailroom of a Utica,
N.Y., radio station in 1945. By age 26, he was a broadcasting veteran,
with nine years' experience on radio and TV stations in Syracuse and
Utica, N.Y., and Philadelphia. He held a bachelor's degree from Syracuse
University. While in Philadelphia, Clark befriended McMahon, who later
credited Clark for introducing him to his future "Tonight Show" boss,
Johnny Carson.
In the 1960s, "American Bandstand" moved from
black-and-white to color, from weekday broadcasts to once-a-week
Saturday shows and from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. Although its
influence started to ebb, it still featured some of the biggest stars of
each decade, whether Janis Joplin, the Jackson 5, Talking Heads or
Prince. But Clark never did book two of rock's iconic groups, the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Elvis Presley also never performed,
although Clark managed an on-air telephone interview while Presley was
in the Army.
When Michael Jackson died in June 2009, Clark
recalled working with him since he was a child, adding, "of all the
thousands of entertainers I have worked with, Michael was THE most
outstanding. Many have tried and will try to copy him, but his talent
will never be matched."
Clark kept more than records spinning
with his Dick Clark Productions. Its credits included the Academy of
Country Music and Golden Globe awards; TV movies including the
Emmy-winning "The Woman Who Willed a Miracle" (1984), the "$25,000
Pyramid" game show and the 1985 film "Remo Williams: The Adventure
Begins." Clark himself made a cameo on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and
a dramatic appearance as a witness on the original "Perry Mason." He
was an involuntary part of Michael Moore's Academy Award-winning
"Bowling for Columbine," in which Clark is seen brushing off Moore as
the filmmaker confronts him about working conditions at a restaurant
owned by Clark.
In 1974, at ABC's request, Clark created the
American Music Awards after the network lost the broadcast rights to the
Grammy Awards.
He was also an author, with "Dick Clark's
American Bandstand" and such self-help books as "Dick Clark's Program
for Success in Your Business and Personal Life" and "Looking Great,
Staying Young." His unchanging looks inspired a joke in "Peggy Sue Gets
Married," the 1986 comedy starring Kathleen Turner as an unhappy wife
and mother transported back to 1960. Watching Clark on a black and white
TV set, she shakes her head in amazement, "Look at that man, he never
ages."
Clark's clean-cut image survived a music industry scandal.
In 1960, during a congressional investigation of "payola" or bribery in
the record and radio industry, Clark was called on to testify.
He
was cleared of any suspicions but was required by ABC to divest himself
of record-company interests to avoid any appearance of a conflict of
interest. The demand cost him $8 million, Clark once estimated. His
holdings included partial ownership of Swan Records, which later
released the first U.S. version of the Beatles' smash "She Loves You."
In
2004, Clark announced plans for a revamped version of "American
Bandstand." The show, produced with "American Idol" creator Simon
Fuller, was to feature a host other than Clark.
He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1994 and served as spokesman for the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
Clark,
twice divorced, had a son, Richard Augustus II, with first wife Barbara
Mallery and two children, Duane and Cindy, with second wife Loretta
Martin. He married Kari Wigton in 1977.
As read on: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/entertainment/dick-clark-dead-of-heart-attack-at-age-82-20120418-ms
