Biography

Affectionately known as “America’s oldest teenager,” Dick Clark was significant in transforming the record business into an international industry. As host of American Bandstand, Clark provided many acts with the opportunity to reach a national audience via television, spreading the gospel of rock and roll to teenagers across the country. Born Richard W. Clark in 1929, he entered the music business as a sales manager for an upstate New York radio station at age seventeen. In 1952, he began doing a radio show ("Caravan of Music") at WFIL in Philadelphia. The station’s TV affiliate had a teen-oriented show called Bandstand ...