Did you know ...
-- In the first 5 1/2 years after his marriage to Barbara Mallery, Dick Clark lived in a succession of rented apartments in the Drexelbrook complex. The couple's first apartment was a simple one-bedroom unit that cost $67 a month in 1952. They later moved to a two-bedroom unit ($87 a month) before settling in to a three-bedroom, two story "garden" apartment that set him back $110 a month. Drexelbrook was an old golf course that was converted to a housing development after World War II.
-- In the early years of the Clarks' marriage, they owned a miniature dachsund named Looie. Looie was deaf and Clark used a 20-foot length of clothesline to walk him.
-- Clark was inundated with record promotion men in American Bandstand's heyday. In fact, he said the biggest problem he faced each broadcast was picking which records to play. He received about 200 each week but was limited to playing between 24 and 28 each day.
-- Clark rarely talked about any regrets he had while hosting American Bandstand and his Saturday Night Show, but one he admitted to was his treatment of Jerry Lee Lewis in 1958. That was the year Lewis, who was legally married to his second wife, took a third wife anyway. The latest Mrs. Lewis turned out to be Lewis' 13-year-old cousin. After Clark was tipped off that Lewis intended to tell the world about his new bride on Clark's show, Clark canceled the appearance. Clark's instincts proved correct. After Lewis made the marriage announcement from the tarmac of a London airport, his entire British tour was canceled and his career went into a tailspin.
Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand -- Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.
Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.
