On Dick Clark

April 18th, 2012
05:08 PM ET

Anderson Cooper on Dick Clark
Anderson Cooper reflects on the life and legacy of Dick Clark.Below are select bites from his interview with Candy Crowley:

CROWLEY: And certainly someone that we have come to expect on New Year's Eve.

We want to bring in CNN's Anderson Cooper.

Anderson, I know you also we're beginning to expect to see on New Year's Eve, but I know you have some thoughts about Dick Clark.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, just a couple of things.

One of the things I found remarkable about him is that as a child we all knew him as a TV host and as a TV personality, but as I kind of grew up in the TV business and started looking more into business, just him as a businessman, there are very few people I think who came of age in the time that he did in television who also owned and produced television content.

You know, his production company, and I think his model of being a TV host and businessman is something that somebody like Ryan Seacrest has really followed and kind of taken even to a whole new level, but I think Dick Clark really broke the mold in that sense of producing content, owning content and not just being a hired gun, somebody who would host a game show. He also had ownership stake in the game show, obviously, made a tremendous amount of money over the years.

And certainly key to that was just owning real estate in the world of television, and his, you know, being on New Year's Eve every year became a tradition for so many people and a tradition that has continued, even though, as you pointed out, Candy, just in the last couple of years he had suffered a stroke and really was not at the level that he had once been at.

And I think it's very telling that he kind of brought in Ryan Seacrest into the New Year's Eve franchise because Ryan really has taken up the mantle or at least the model of Dick Clark as an on-air person as well as someone who owns content and produces content.

CROWLEY: He was kind of one of the original TV moguls I think in some ways.

Anderson, can you stand by just one second? Because I understand Kareen Wynter has some new information. I will be right back with you.

Kareen, if you're with me, what have you got?

WYNTER: Hi, Candy.

Yes, it's short. I will just read this to you. This is just now coming in from the family saying that: "Entertainment icon Dick Clark passed away this morning at the age of 82 following a massive heart attack. It was announced by his family. Clark, 82, had entered St. John's Hospital." This is in Santa Monica last night. It was for an outpatient procedure, Candy, and it also says here attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful. He's survived by his wife, Kari, and his three children, Richard, Duane, and Cindy.

We are now able to confirm Dick Clark passing away following a massive heart attack - Candy.

CROWLEY: Thanks, Kareen.

A life well lived as you were pointing out, Anderson. I wonder, Anderson, did you ever meet him? Did you have occasion to get to know him?

COOPER: I think I met him once or twice, but I did not know him well in any way.

I think we had sort of briefly met in some public events. I can't even honestly remember when they were, but the interesting thing about Dick Clark is I think everybody sort of feels like they knew him in one realm or another.

CROWLEY: Right.

COOPER: And there was something also about the fact that he never seemed to change. I mean, it's - there's a number of people who kind of have looked the same through the years, but Dick Clark looked the same decade after decade after decade. It was often the butt of jokes that he took part in as well, but you look at those images of him from the '60s and '70s, '80s, everybody could identify Dick Clark.

He's probably one of the most recognizable people that all of us of all ages have grown up with and know from one realm or another, whether it is hosting a game show, hosting a music program or hosting New Year's Eve. There's something so iconic about New Year's Eve as this celebration that we all take part in and having Dick Clark be a part of that evening even as you said, in later years, when his health had been failing and he wasn't, you know, in full charge of that program anymore and he turned over the reins largely to Ryan Seacrest and others.

He still had his hand in it and people still want to check in with Dick Clark on New Year's Eve because it's part of that American tradition.

CROWLEY: Yes. He became a tradition in so many ways. It strikes me, Anderson, that you're on to sort of why - I think the people who last in entertainment and who last in television seem to be the ones that we think are the most like us. He has spanned almost three-and-a-half generations of television watchers, my parents, me, my kids.

COOPER: Right.

CROWLEY: And then the generation coming up, and I think he really just did seem like somebody you might just run into in the coffee shop or next door. That was his particular talent.

COOPER: Interestingly enough, too, is for all his recognition and all his recognizable-ness, I don't think most really people know very much about Dick Clark, and I think that was part of his appeal, in a way, that almost, he could be any man, anybody and you could kind of project on to him whatever you wanted and whatever you thought he might be.

He never interjected himself to really tell you one way or the other who he really was and it wasn't about knowing every detail of Dick Clark's personal life or his life. Even to hear his family life, I don't think most people would like he had three children or where he lived or what kind of a life he lived.

I think he came of age at a time when that was possible, to be as recognized as he was and yet kind of unknown in many ways still.

CROWLEY: Have a life, yes.

COOPER: Yes. And he was not a controversial figure in any way and he warrant taking stands on anything that would be controversial. It wasn't his job and certainly it wasn't how he saw his role. He was there to entertain and also on the business side.

CROWLEY: Sure. He wasn't one of those people you said, well, yes, he sang and we heard him on occasion sing certainly "Auld Lang Syne."

But his talent literally was hosting.

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: He was an entertainer who made you feel like I have got these great - look at these folks dancing. Or I have got this great new song I want you to hear.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: He also made it seem very easy. It is very easy to say - people, you can make the joke all of the time about people who are well known on television, what do they actually do? They're not a reporter. They're not a singer, they're just a host and what exactly is that?

It's a hard thing to define. It's a hard skill set to really put your finger on, but it is a skill set. And it is something that is difficult and he could make it seem effortless. He would make it seem like he was just a guy with the microphone talking to you and interviewing people and moving things along. And it always seemed to move smoothly with Dick Clark.

That takes a lot of rehearsal and it is a skill set and there were few people like him that were able to not only do that as a presence on TV like he could, but also to know that behind the scenes he had his hands involved in everything and, in fact, in some cases owned the program that he was on. Most people would probably just see him as just the guy with the microphone directing things.

He owned it, was making an awful lot of money from it, and did that decade after decade after decade.

CROWLEY: Right. And never seemed to change - the Dick Clark I recognized was the one my father recognized and one my son recognized which is so remarkable.

But you're absolutely right. He did the toughest job in television for more than 40 years, which is to let people, you know, turn on the TV and let them into your living room and say - and it was never really about Dick Clark. It was about these contestants on the "Pyramid".

COOPER: Absolutely.

CROWLEY: Or it about this New Year's Eve celebration and he did –

COOPER: Which is why so many people liked him - I mean, who was Dick Clark? You know, he was the guy - he seemed like a friendly guy and seemed like a nice guy, you recognized him and you have a history with him and you don't know much about him. But it’s not really about him. He's just one of those guys that you just kind of know and you like and you welcome him into your home.

CROWLEY: Where do you think he stands with TV's early age, golden age, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, he just basically remains an icon, does he not?

COOPER: He does. You know, the term broadcaster comes behind. And there are fewer and fewer people who are broadcaster. You think Regis Philbin, somebody who has had this remarkable career in television, still has a remarkable career ahead of them, still is going strong, but who has a good skill set and is a very likable presence.

And, you know, there were - I think in the so-called golden age of television, there were a number of people who were accomplished broadcasters and it's a smaller and smaller number. People are much more now known as your reality TV star or your journalist or reporter. There are few people that kind of span the spectrum of skills that somebody like Dick Clark had.

He could be comfortable in a music setting. He could be comfortable in a game show setting. He could be comfortable even in a kind of newsy setting when he was on the air about it, and an entertainment setting.

And there's very few people like that who kind of span that skill set.

CROWLEY: Anderson, stand by a second.

We want to bring in Jack Cafferty - because, Jack, I am told that you had met Dick Clark and might have some thoughts.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: I’m probably the only guy at CNN who's close to his age, but I did a local newscast here in New York called "Live at Five" for years, and Dick was not a frequent guest, but he was on several times, I got to know him a little bit.

He was the quintessential I think television performer in the sense he was non-threatening. He was very cool, extremely smooth. I never saw him, in all of the years watching "American Bandstand," which we all did as kids, you never saw him flustered. You never saw him nervous. You never saw him ducking a curveball.

But I think more importantly and one of the points that really needs to be made about him is that show, "American Bandstand," changed the landscape of music and to a lesser degree even race relations.

You’ve got to remember, back in the mid-50s, this was a very racially divided country, and the racism was a lot more obvious and more pronounced than it is now. Black artists like Little Richard and Chuck Berry and Fats Domino and some of the early rock and roll and rhythm and blues performers couldn't get their music played on white radio stations. They called it race music and they wouldn't play it unless, of course, you slipped them a couple of bucks under the table.

So it was very hard for a lot of these performers to get exposure to the white audience and the white audience is here the money was, the white kids were the ones that could afford to go out and buy the records.

And when people like Chuck Berry appeared on "American Bandstand," it was because - you remember the old tag line, it was a good beat and easy to dance to. It was all about the music. It wasn’t about what color or what gender or what social position, it was just about the music. And these were breakthrough performances in terms of exposure to the white audience for people that otherwise might have struggled to a great degree in obscurity in the music business.

So a lot of the white rock 'n' roll artists, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis took their music from black artists and black performers. You listen to some of the early records that were recorded by Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, too, in particular, it was all music that was written by Chuck Berry or performed by Little Richard, done by Big Mama Thornton, black blues artist who recorded "Hound Dog".

But it was all - the white people took this music and made money with it and got it played on the radio station. Dick Clark gave exposure, white exposure to these black artists and in that way, he affected I think a very profound change to the music landscape and the opportunities are available to black recording artists.

CROWLEY: Jack, I have one more question for you and Anderson, but I want to reset for my audience. Dick Clark, "American Bandstand", host of the "Pyramid," the game show, "New Year's Rockin' Eve," has died today of what we are told was a massive stroke after some sort of outpatient procedure yesterday. He was 82 years old.

Jack, this is a man who has been in television since late '50s. What do you think the key thing that accounts for his staying power?

CAFFERTY: Well, he was good at what he did. Anderson talked a little about that. He had a set of skills like Johnny Carson had. I mean, he was just - he was beyond cool. He was very smooth, and he looked young and TV is all about - what was Rather’s book was called? "The Camera Never Blinks."

He was television worthy for a whole lot longer than most of us ever are, and, you know, he was never threatening. He was likable. You couldn't watch a Dick Clark program and say, gee, that guy is - you know, got an attitude, or I don't like him or he's snotty and sarcastic.

He was vanilla ice cream and a loaf of white bread. But he was good at it. He was the best at it that I ever saw, except maybe for a guy like Johnny Carson.

And so, you know, he was - plus he was smart. He was a smart businessman. He knew how to market himself. He knew how to market his programs, how to merchandise the content that he owned.

So, he was the whole package and revolutionary. He was the first ones to come along that had all of that going for him. So, he got a lot of attention and he knew how to stay in the spotlight and make it a career that lasted a very long time.

He was a nice guy. I remember when he would come on "Live at Five." He was a nice guy. He never came on with attitude. He never had an entourage.

You know, he was just Dick Clark. He was the same guy I saw on "American Bandstand" in Philadelphia in 1954.

CROWLEY: And, Anderson, pretty much the same question to you with this twist. Is the template now broken? Or - you mentioned Ryan Seacrest a couple of times, is he in that same mold? Is there no one - because of the times he lived in and the person he was that’s never going to be another Dick Clark?

COOPER: You know, I don't think that's true. I mean, I think he has actually - I think he raised the bar in television and kind of gave a lot of people who followed him an example of what was possible. I think he opened a lot of doors and made it possible to own content, to - you know, to be more than just a hired gun working on a game show or working on a music program.

He really - it's a difficult thing to do in the television business to break through and own content and have a stake in what you're doing, but he really kind of made that possible, and I think a lot of people have followed in his mold. I mean, I think Ryan Seacrest is the best example of that and has really taken it to an extraordinary level, and I think Ryan has, you know, the work ethic that Dick Clark had.

I mean, Dick Clark was a very tireless worker and Ryan Seacrest I think, you know, is probably one of the hardest working guys in the television business, and has his fingers in a lot of different aspects of the business, and I think that's possible now in a way almost that it wasn't possible before. I mean, you can now work for, you know, have programs on different networks. You can branch out in a way that I think was more difficult maybe even when Dick Clark was doing it because I think you had - back then, it was more you had a relationship with one network and it was very hard to try to have multiple relationships, which I think is something that is possible now.

So, I don't think it's that there is not going to be anybody else like him. I think there will be and there continue to be, and I think as the Internet certainly grows, that is going to grow as well. People will be able to have kind of empires like Dick Clark had.

But as a kind of multi-talented broadcaster, you know, we see only a few people like him who are in the business. It's not an easy thing to do. He made it look easy and that’s the extraordinary thing. He made it look effortless.

And it was anything, but effortless. And I think that's a testament to his skill. I mean, it's one thing to be able to do all of the things he did. It's another thing to be able to do them and make it look like you're just talking, because he was doing a whole lot more than just talking.

CROWLEY: That, he was.

Anderson Cooper and Jack Cafferty, two of my best buds, here helping me through the breaking story this hour.

Dick Clark died of a massive heart attack at the age of 82 - entertainer, businessman extraordinaire. Again, Dick Clark dead at the age of 82.

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Be Seein' You, Dick Clark...