The long running television show “American Bandstand” and other Dick Clark specials were all property of its creator, the late Dick Clark. A few weeks ago a Chinese investment group bought the Dick Clark Production company for one billion dollars. That’s Billion with a ‘B!’ Here are a few facts about Dick Clark worth sharing. Let’s start with his birth name Richard Augustus Wagstaff Clark Jr. Bet you didn’t see that coming!
Dick’s first radio job was working at the mail room of a radio station managed by his dad in Utica, NY. Running against the tide of the times, the Dick Clark show included people of color dancing together on stage, in the eye of the TV camera, a progresive viewpoint in the late 50s and early 60s. The show hit the big time in Philly in the late 50s and early 60s before being moved to Los Angeles in 1964.
Dick was such a big fan of the TV show and movie. ‘The Flintstones,’ that he bought the home in Malibu that inspired the abode on the screen. Before the recent sale of Dick Clark Productions, Dick was worth an estimated $200 million at his death.
—
Photo credit: a katz / Shutterstock.com