Dick Clark: Host To Legends

Dick Clark: Host to Legends

A Tribute

If you were born prior to 1989 then you really don’t know much about American music or the movement of American entertainment from the 1950’s to now.  

But if you want to chart the movement, the changes, the hits and the legends of American music then you must see the reruns of American Bandstand and its host, the late great Dick Clark.

Dick Clark produced game shows, talk shows and just good fun entertainment for the last 40 years.  You can find out all that info on any number of blog sites.  But there was more to the man.  He was a man.  He was married three times and had a business office on the Sunset Strip across the street from “Little Richard”.

Dick Clark Productions also made three movies, Psych Out, The Savage Seven, and Killers Three back in the 60’s.  Dick Clark appeared in the last episode of “Perry Mason” in 1966, he played the murderer.  In 1976, Dick Clark published his autobiography, “Rock, Roll and Remember.”  But Dick Clark was far more complex, more than a personality, he was a business man who got more attention than he wanted.

Dick Clark had direct ties to at least 33 music related businesses including ‘Disc Makers’ a recording company and independent mastering studio founded in the late 40’s.  Dick Clark was summoned by Congress to testify about his 150 partial copyrights and his businesses in 1959 over a ‘conflict of interest’.  Dick Clark was not charged with any crime or forced to give up his businesses.

It was Dick Clark who first interviewed the lead singer for the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson at the age of 9.  Dick Clark introduced 599 acts not including the acts on American Bandstand before they went nationwide in 1957.  Dick Clark sold his production company to Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins for 175 million dollars in 2007.

I can only imagine what a Rock and Roll Heaven would be like with Dick Clark, Don Cornelius and Ed Sullivan orchestrating the shows, the bands and the action.  

But I am in no hurry to get there.   

God keep you Dick Clark.


Note: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/18/dick-clark-by-the-numbers-top-40-facts-about-the-tv-icon.html

DC