For always, Dick Clark, so long . . .
TV, music pioneer leaves an unparalleled legacy
The eternal teenager has died. Dick Clark, a music- and television-industry pioneer who for most of a six-decade career seemed ageless, had a massive heart attack Wednesday morning in a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., where he had gone for an outpatient procedure. He was 82. In recent years, viewers saw a diminished Clark presiding over the dropping of the Times Square ball on ABC’S New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, the result of a stroke in 2004.
For most of his career, however, the Dj-turned-tv host was known as “the oldest living teenager.”
Fans, associates and admirers rushed to pay tribute to a career that anointed new stars and made him one of entertainment’s most suc- cessful executives. Ryan Seacrest, who considered Clark his professional role model — and helped him in New Year’s hosting duties the past few years — called him “smart, charming, funny . . . and one of the greatest influences in my life. I idolized him from the start.”
“I’m old enough to remember watching James Brown on American Bandstand, Dick Clark was the man,” Ice T tweeted. “A pioneer whose mark on American culture will be felt forever,” Quincy Jones wrote. “Dick Clark’s profound contributions to music, television and popular culture will reverberate throughout time,” L.A. Reid tweeted. “Thank you for the countless memories,” Janet Jackson posted.
“He was so instrumental in my career as well as all the other Motown acts and so many others in the recording business,” Smokey Robinson said. “Goodbye, my friend.”
Clark, who started in radio, popularized rock ’n’ roll with American Bandstand, a TV dance program introduced in 1957 that lasted for 30 years. He was rock’s “first national friend on television,” says “Cousin Brucie” Morrow, the legendary New York DJ now on Sirius XM. “He was like the boy next door. Every parent wanted a son like Dick Clark, with his twinkly eyes and that smile. He got us into people’s homes and made everybody welcome.”
“My heart is so heavy,” said Barry Manilow, a longtime friend who wrote the lyrics to the show’s iconic theme song. “He was a dear friend, supporting me and my music for all of my years in the business.”
Clark reinvented himself through the decades. He was a tenacious producer, forming his own company, and hosted game shows ($ 10,000 Pyramid), variety series and specials. He started the American Music Awards to rival the Grammys, and he produced the Golden Globe Awards.
And he created New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in 1972, when most of the TV audience was still ringing out the old to Guy Lombardo’s big band. “For 40 years, we welcomed him into our homes to ring in the New Year,” President Obama said in a statement. But more important “was the way he made us feel — as young and vibrant and optimistic as he was.”