Dick Clark Has Stroke

December 8, 2004

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Report: Philly Legend Dick Clark Has Stroke (NBC10.com)

Access Hollywood tells NBC 10 that legendary Philly entertainment entrepreneur Dick Clark has had a stroke.Access Hollywood didn’t report Clark’s condition or where he had the stroke. Last April, Clark announced he had type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes, since 1994, but kept it a secret from everyone except close friends and family. Clark is now a spokesman for the American Association of Diabetes Educators and the pharmaceutical maker Merck & Co.

Clark, 75, was a Philadelphia radio disc jockey in the early 1950s, when he took over a local show, American Bandstand, on WFIL-TV. Clark’s show was later syndicated nationally and he moved to Los Angeles as his entertainment empire expanded. In 1973, Clark produced the American Music Awards Show. Shares of Dick Clark Productions began trading in 1987. In 1990s, he produced made for TV films as well as theatrical movies. Dick Clark was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Best wishes, obviously, for Clark’s full recovery. Bandstand‘s heyday was well before my time. Indeed, I knew Clark mostly as host of the $10,000/$25,000/$100,000 Pyramid game show, the lame New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, and the running joke that he was America’s oldest teenager.

4 responses to “Dick Clark Has Stroke”

Peter

December 8, 2004 at 6:47 pm

His success in the late 50’s and early 60’s is before my time too, although as a young kid I do recall a Bandstand show in ’64 or ’65 probably, centered on the theme of who was better, the Beatles or Elvis.

And while New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is and has been lame for decades, let’s remember that the competition Clark faced when it premiered in 1972 or so was none other than Guy Lombardo, who’d been doing a New Years show perhaps since the inception of television broadcasting. By the early 70’s nothing was more lame than Guy Lombardo, which just goes to show, I suppose, that if you hang around long enough in the entertainment business you end up becoming the guy you beat out when you started.