Danny Schechter - My 30 Minutes of Fame: Rocking In The Shadows Of Dick Clark
April 25, 2012 Listen to Danny on "The News Dissector" every Friday at 1pm (Eastern Time)
The News: DICK CLARK DIES AT AGE 82
“Dick Clark has died. Clark's agent confirmed the news in a statement that the 82-year- old TV legend, who brought rock and roll into the American living room, died of a massive heart attack this morning." For Mr. American Bandstand, Rock and Roll was a brand, here to pay! He parlayed one show into becoming a TV icon, endlessly on the air every New Year’s Eve even when he could barely talk or stand. He became most famous for being famous.
The Memory: JOCKO Enters My Life With Dick's demise, I had a reason to reflect on my own experiences as a participant on similar shows. I was always considered a good dancer and the rock n'roll dance show was a staple in my teen years. When I was at DeWitt Clinton High School, I was invited- -don't remember how or why--on a more racially mixed American Bandstand local look- alike show for the New York market called Teen Bandstand, hosted by Jocko Henderson, a radio DJ, who was rapping before rap was even known as a musical form. Jocko used to introduce himself this way:
"Ooo Boop a Doo, How Do You Do? Hey. This is the Jock, on the Scene with the record machine…."
He was a lively raconteur, an original hipster. great at jive talk. He MCed the show I was on. (Jocko so impressed me that I tracked him down decades later and included him many years later on a TV report I produced for ABC's 20/20 called "Rapping to the Beat"(1981), the first national TV segment on hip-hop.)
Back then, there was a dance contest each night and then the winners were asked back to compete against each other in a weekly dance-off.
I won the prize on my big night---a "gold plated" Coke Bottle that I still have, and a pair of white buck shoes from Tom McCann that I wore out pretty quickly. (It was a low budget show).
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