April 18, 2012
Dick Clark, "America's oldest teenager," has died at the age of 82. Teenagers of the late 1950s and on through the 1980s looked forward to watching Clark's "American Bandstand" every Saturday — and I was one of them.
We looked forward to seeing which popular group would be performing "live" each week and seeing how the dancers rated that week's song. "I give it a nine, Dick. It has a great beat and is easy to dance to," they'd say. Just about everybody from Elvis Presley to the Jackson Five appeared on that show.
And of course, Clark was involved in game shows such as "25,000 Pyramid" and "TV's Blooper's and Practical Jokes."
New Year's Eve will not be the same without "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve." Even after his stroke in 2004, he continued to put in an appearance on that show, but last year, viewers could really see that age was taking its toll.
According to the ABC news article I just read, the Museum of Broadcast Communications figures that Dick Clark Productions has turned out more than 7,500 hours of television programming.
I expect Dick is up there already organizing a "Bandstand" performance for the Big Guy!
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debsalomon 1 year, 1 month ago
Musicians weren't the only stars on American Bandstand. Some of the "regulars" --- Philly kids who filled the dance floor -- became teen idols. Does anybody besides me remember Justine Corelli?
grand808 1 year ago
I don't remember Justine but I used to skip school and go to Philly with friends and stand in line to get on the show. The set was much smaller than it appeared on TV but it was lots of fun to be part of the Bandstand scene.
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