Dick Clark hosted the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve from 1975-2004, but after suffering a stroke Regis Philbin hosted the 2005 show. Ryan Seacrest would take over the main hosting duties from 2006-2011. Dick Clark still appeared on the show, but the stroke had done so much damage to his voice, that he was no longer able to host the entire show.
It was sad to see the Dick Clark we knew from American Bandstand having problems speaking, but it seemed like his voice had improved somewhat in the last show.
We had a family tradition of having chips and dip and ice cream sherbet and ginger ale punch on New Year’s Eve. Dick Clark was part of that tradition as he counted down the last seconds, till when the ball would drop, indicating a new year had begun.
Dick and his wife Kari would kiss to celebrate the new year, which was another tradition of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
Ryan Seacrest would host the show starting in 2005, but the real attraction to most of us was to see Dick Clark, who was seldom seen during the rest of the year after his stroke.
These posts could go on forever about how Dick Clark influenced the history of television as a host and as a producer.
This list at imdb.com shows better than anything I could write, just how involved Dick Clark was involved in television. It lists every show he produced during his career.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0163863/
The following article at imdb.com tells even more than Dick Clark:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0163863/bio#trivia
Dick Clark appeared in five movies, including Because They’re Young and Spy Kids and appeared in many television series including Perry Mason and Lassie. He appeared in the episode filmed of Perry Mason.
Dick Clark may be gone but his legacy will continue for years to come. It would be nice to see the early American Bandstand shows from Philadelphia again, so we could once again see the disc jockey Clark, that became a multi-millionaire producer of television shows.
Nostalgia and Now 