Dick Clark passed away this morning in Los Angeles.
For those of us of a certain age, he was MTV before there was MTV (and when MTV actually played music).
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He had a great tune, nice words, and always found something we could dance to. I give him a ten.
I remember running home from school to watch AMB and dancing along. Guy Lumbardo’s the one who took New Years Eve with him, but Dick sure gave it his best shot. He will surely be missed. An ICON!
As a lady “of a certain age,” I remember the same scenario as Jenny, running home from school and turning on the tv to watch American Bandstand and trying to dance like the teenagers on the show.
Dick Clark was a lovely gentleman- always. Rest in peace, friend.
He was a great ICON in the world of music and dance. I would tune in to see the latest dance craze and the latest in recording artists, he knew them all. Best of all, he loved romance in having “the spotlight dance.”
Amen. He had a good life and sheesh..look what the “bandstand” notion has evolved into…dancing with stars..whole slew of off shoots.
Guy was the genuine article unlike alot of what we observe today and will be missed Im sure.
R.I.P., good man.
Jenny | April 18, 2012 at 4:35 pm
You and me both. I remember my brother went to one of the shows, but I was too young to tag along and a nuisance, seeing as how I was only in grade school!! He was an icon and AMB was fun and, comparatively speaking, wholesome!
RIP Dick Clark. He was amazingly well preserved for years and then started to decline quickly. It happens to us all.
My dad, a Hollywood make-up man (among many other things), rarely had bad things to say about celebrities.
He warmly HATED Dick Clark. We never discussed just why, but it must have been pretty bad. (Errol Flynn, for whom he did fencing and stunt doubling, was a punk, and he never excoriated Flynn like Clark.)
Had the pleasure of meeting him briefly back in 1981, iirc, when he produced the pilot American version of a Japanese game show – The First Annual All-American Ultra-Quiz. I managed to survive such areas as (mostly my names for these) Dodger Stadium Sudden Death, Little Rock Massacre, London Blitz. The two episodes of the show were hosted in the field by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and in studio by Jayne Kennedy and Richard Simmons.
I never had to rush home for AB since it aired only on Saturdays in my area. I remember him never appearing to age on the show. I remember his stroke and knew that it was the effective end of his career and was glad when he was able to make a partial comeback on his New Year’s Eve shows.
He will be missed.
Dick Clark was an icon and pioneer like Alan Freed, in bringing Rock & Roll music into the American cultural mainstream for young people to enjoy, and especially for the musical artists performing their music when it was not popular with the authority and establishment in the 1950’s and 60’s.
Of course Dick Clark always tried to maintain that teenager image and persona, but in the end age and time caught up with him, as it does with all of us.
I send my prayers, sympathies, respect, and condolences to the Dick Clark Family.
Does Dick Clark have to answer for this…?