In the boardroom of his production company, Dick Clark earned a reputation as shrewd, tactful and always demanding perfection.

That in mind, Bob Gautieri nervously approached one of the producers, Larry Klein. Gautieri, a graphic designer for Dick Clark Productions, handed him a design for an American Music Awards logo he made in one of his first years on the job. Klein warned him that the last designer brought Clark a fistful of sketches, none of which Clark liked.

‘He threw all of the papers up in the air and was out of the office before a single one hit the floor,’ said Gautieri, a 1976 Syracuse University alumnus and current co-founder of Design on the Fly design firm. ‘And here I was coming to him with just one design.’

Nervously, the young designer pushed the sheet from across the desk to the media mogul. Clark smiled, asked him to make a few minor changes and told him it was great.

‘I walked out of there feeling sky high,’ Gautieri said.

Such is the legend of Clark, a 1951 SU alumnus who died of a heart attack at age 82 on Wednesday. A man who lived up to his nickname as ‘America’s oldest teenager’ even in his twilight years. A producer whose keen business sense was only matched by a knack for creativity. A television personality who maintained his affable nature even when the cameras stopped rolling.

‘Dick Clark telling you he liked what you were doing was like having Muhammad Ali watch your boxing and saying he liked watching you spar,’ Gautieri said.

During the 1960s and ’70s, whirlwind decades when the civil rights movement and rock ‘n’ roll were gaining momentum, Clark kept his finger on the pulse of the wild heartbeat of the American youth. His show ‘American Bandstand’ bridged cultural gaps between generations and cultures, and it was one of the first to incorporate popular music in television.

Dennis Rosenblatt, a 1974 SU alumnus and freelance director, often stood behind the camera for shows during Clark’s tenure at DCP. When Clark hosted a show, Rosenblatt said Clark would always arrive on time prepared to give a great performance.

‘It didn’t matter what his traveling schedule was like,’ Rosenblatt said. ‘If he was ready to go, you had better be ready to go or have a really good explanation why you weren’t.’

Clark’s affinity for radio and television took root during his college days at SU, when the school was still relatively small. He said he felt lucky to be accepted at a time when the campus was bursting with veterans returning from World War II, according to a 1992 Post-Standard article.

‘The University wasn’t ready to expand yet,’ Clark said in an article in the Winter/Spring 1976 edition of SU Alumni News. We were jammed, living on top of each other. It’s probably the last time it was a little college.’

Growing up with a father who was a radio entrepreneur, Clark intently looked for a management position at the school’s radio station, WAER-FM. When none were open, he tried his hand behind the microphone, reporting newscasts and announcing for pop and country shows.

‘I did imitations in those days, so I’d cup my hand over my ear, lower my voice and sound like a disc jockey,’ he said in the SU Alumni News article.

At WAER, Clark developed what would eventually become one of the most recognizable voices on television. He spent summers working at the now defunct WOLF-AM 1490 station in Syracuse, making a dollar an hour as a staff announcer, according to a 1992 Post-Standard article.

Working seven nights a week at WOLF, Clark missed his own graduation ceremony in 1951. In the 1960s, the opportunity to purchase the radio station tempted him, according to The Post-Standard article.

‘To be able to buy the radio station you started at – oh boy!’ he said in the article. But because the station was losing money, Clark’s sound business mindset trumped his sense of nostalgia.

Clark juggled his business studies with his passion for radio at SU. He was a B student in the College of Business Administration, according to a 1959 Post-Standard article. In the four radio courses he enrolled in, he achieved straight A’s.

One of his lasting legacies stems from Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Clark pledged in 1947 and moved into the DKE house as a sophomore. President of the fraternity his senior year, from 1950-51, he revived the tradition of building an ice castle on the fraternity’s front lawn each winter, according to a 1981 Daily Orange article.

In 1991, Clark helped DKE buy the Horace Wilkinson Mansion on Walnut Avenue. The president at the time, 1993 alumnus Lee Taurman, said he felt grateful Clark paid for part of the house, valued at $886,000.

When DKE hosted a private ‘American Bandstand’-themed reception during 1992’s Homecoming, Clark came and mingled with students, even when a line of his fans spilled down Walnut Avenue, Taurman said.

‘He was not only gracious but brave,’ Taurman said.

When the fraternity’s brothers gathered, Taurman met Clark and his DKE roommate of three years, Bob Cleland. The nickname ‘America’s oldest teenager’ proved true to Taurman.

‘He looked at least 30 years younger than his roommate,’ he reminisced. ‘It was incredible.’

In 1951, Clark graduated with a degree in business management. He left Syracuse to work in Utica, N.Y., but his alma mater didn’t forget Clark. In 1959, SU’s television, radio and film department awarded him an alumni award. At 29, he was the youngest alumnus honored by the university.

Tom Nalesnik, a 1974 alumnus, was a senior and president of SU’s chapter of Alpha Epsilon Rho when the fraternity invited Clark to campus to receive the Distinguished Service to Broadcasting Award.

‘I thought because it was Dick Clark, there’s no way he’d answer,’ Nalesnik said. ‘But he wrote a letter back saying he’d be delighted.’

Nalesnik’s first job in the television business, ‘the low man on the totem pole at a station in West Virginia,’ reconnected the SU alumnus to his idol. The owners of WOWK-TV had close connections with Clark, and when he came to visit the station, Nalesnik drove to the airport to greet him with the station’s general manager.

‘He walked right past the GM and said, ‘Hi, Tom!” said Nalesnik, who was surprised Clark remembered him. ‘It just goes to show his skill at making relationships and remembering people.’

Dick Clark Productions got Gautieri his foot into show business in Los Angeles. He first met Clark as a 21-year-old gofer on the set of the ‘American Bandstand’s 25th Anniversary.’ He recalled stars of the show, including jazz legend Chuck Mangione, dropping their egos in the presence of Clark.

‘He was like Yoda,’ Gautieri said. ‘Performers bowed down to him.’

The Dick Clark Productions company felt like family to Gautieri, who feels that no one in show business will live up to the standards set by Clark.

‘If there was a Mount Rushmore of entertainment, he’d be the first one on it,’ Gautieri said. ‘He wasn’t one in a million. He was just one. There will be no one like him again.’

ervanrhe@syr.edu

Published on April 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman