Dick Clark

Didn’t Dick Clark seem to be one of those rare celebrities whom just about everyone liked? I’m sure there were some people who didn’t like him, since everyone is disliked by somebody, but he just seemed so well regarded for so many decades. There aren’t too many people you can say that about.

I always liked Dick Clark but didn’t think all that much about him, probably because he was just so familiar during my lifetime and a few decades before. He was just a part of our culture. Pretty much everyone has seen the New Year’s Eve specials. People of a certain age watched American Bandstand and I remember watching it on Saturdays, along with Soul Train. Didn’t Dick also host $25,000 Pyramid? I watched that game show all the time but I don’t remember the host. There was also the immortal TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes with Clark and Ed McMahon. The man did a lot.

It’s extraordinary to think of how much of pop music history Dick Clark witnessed firsthand and had a hand in creating. Between him and Don Cornelius, the two of them saw just about everyone who would make it in music someday. I was watching a retrospective of the artists on American Bandstand and it was sort of breathtaking how many big artists got their starts on the show. They showed the Jackson 5 getting their big break on Bandstand, Sonny and Cher in black and white, Barry Manilow, Bon Jovi, John Travolta talking about the upcoming Saturday Night Fever, Neil Diamond, a barely-old-enough-to-drive Janet Jackson, Gloria Estefan and a very green Madonna telling Dick she wanted “to conquer the world.”

How amazing is it that he was there at the start of so many stellar careers? How lucky was Dick Clark?

The first New Year’s Eve after he had his stroke, Dick showed up at Times Square barely able to speak. That had to be one of the saddest things I’d ever seen on TV — America’s eternal teenager laid low. It brought a big “thud” to the ball dropping.

But the more I think about it now, the fact that Dick Clark continued to go to New Year’s Eve was not depressing but triumphant. The guy was in his 80s and even a stroke couldn’t keep him away from Times Square. He was in his 80s and was worse for wear but he was still there, a witness to pop culture. How lucky he was to do what he did.