Dick Clark, host of American Bandstand and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, dies
On this day in 2012 Dick Clark the TV personality and producer best known for hosting American Bandstand an influential music-and-dance show that aired nationally from 1957 to 1989 and helped bring rock n roll into the mainstream in the late 1950s dies of a heart attack at age 82 in Santa Monica California.The clean-cut youthful-looking Clark dubbed Americas Oldest Teenager also was the longtime host of the annual telecast New Years Rockin Eve and headed an entertainment empire that developed game shows awards shows talk shows made-for-TV movies and other programs.Richard Wagstaff Clark was born on November 30 1929 and raised in Mount Vernon New York.His father was a salesman who later managed a radio station.
Clark graduated from Syracuse University in 1951 and moved to Philadelphia the following year to work as a radio disc jockey.In 1956 he became the host of a local teen-oriented TV show called Bandstand (launched in 1952) after the original host was fired.In 1957 American Bandstand as it was renamed began airing nationwide.The program which showcased ordinary teenagers dancing to records and musical acts introduced by Clark quickly became a hit with millions of young viewers who tuned in for the latest music fashions and dance crazes.
Clark helped end the then-standard practice of having white singers cover the songs of black artists on TV and a number of African-American performers including Chuck Berry and Chubby Checker made their national TV debut on American Bandstand.In 1960 amidst the shows success Clark was called to testify before a congressional subcommittee investigating the practice of payola in which record companies bribed disc jockeys in order to get airplay for records.At the hearings Clark testified to holding an ownership stake in more than 30 different record labels distributors and manufacturers and featuring the acts from those labels on American Bandstand.He denied doing anything illegal and was never charged with a crime.
However prior to the hearings ABC which broadcast American Bandstand directed Clark to divest himself of all his music-related businesses a move said to cost him millions of dollars.The music impresario furthered his place in pop culture as the host and producer of Dick Clarks New Years Rockin Eve a TV special that debuted in 1974 and included musical performances and live coverage of the ball drop from New York Citys Times Square.Clark helmed the telecast every year until December 31 2004 having suffered a stroke earlier that month.Though the stroke left him speech-impaired he returned to the countdown special the following year with Ryan Seacrest as co-host and continued to make annual appearances through 2011.
