World saddened by passing of “The Oldest Teen-ager”
By Lynn Ramage’
Not many Philadelphian Legends have gotten the attention that the Passing of Dick Clark has received nationally since his passing o of a sudden Heart attack on April 18, 2012. Born Richard Wagstaff Clark on November 30, 1929, Dick was only 82 when he left us. He knew since he was a small boy he wanted to pursue a career in Radio. As a teen in 1945, he landed a job in the mailroom at radio station WRUN in New York. Not long after he was promoted to weather and then News announcer.
In 1952 he moved to WFIL radio in Philadelphia in 1952.”American Bandstand” then propelled Clark’s career from 1957 all the way to 1989 which featured many new and budding artist’s such as “The Jackson’s, Madonna, and our own local teen throb in 1959 was Bobby Rydal and Fabian were on his show too! He will be very missed by so many of the heavy hitters here in this area such as Chubby Checker, Bill Wright, Sr., from WIBG (Wibbage),Tommy McCarthy Program Director from WOGL, Jerry Blavat, Mikey Vagnoni from OOTT and I even saw collaborator, producer/ songwriter Jerry Ross on the news who very saddened by this as well. This has really hit home with so many local Philadelphians. Some say “American Bandstand put Philadelphia on the map! The show was a teen sensation as it showed the way teens from all over danced to the hits of the day! American Bandstand was here in Philadelphia until 1963 then the show was moved to Hollywood until it ended in 1989 which aided Dick into developing other shows along the way such as ”The $25,000 Pyramid and TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes.”
In 1972 we saw the first “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” which Dick Hosted even after his stroke till just this past New Years Eve. One wonders if bringing in the New Years will ever be the same without Dick now. Even after his stoke which left him partially paralyzed and caused difficulty of speech you have to give him credit for still hosting the News Years to millions of Americans who looked forward to seeing him bring in the New Year!
Some of Dick’s famous Quotes were; “If you want to stay young looking, pick your parents carefully” and “I Don’t pick Trends, I find out what they are and then Exploit the living heck out of them” and finally We’ll leave you with his most famous words; “Music Is the Soundtrack of Your Life”