RIP Dick Clark

Well, then, Smash, he should sue the estate, not make himself look teeny-tiny when working for dcp is something he signed on for. I did pretty much say earlier he was largely about entertainment, not transcendence

 

Sell out? He went to work for an employer. He was told he'd be paid a certain amount and he got $3,000 less than promised.

 

In the chunk you excerpted he's complaining about the craft services donuts.

 

I heard Wink Martindale on KRTH (the oldies station here in LA) the morning after Dick Clark died. Along with working with him on game shows and other capacities, Wink was apparently also signed to one of Dick Clark's many record labels when he was a moderately successful teen idol wannabe in the 1950s. Although he and the host (who did radio shows produced by Dick Clark in syndication over the last few years) generally had very warm memories, they both seemed to agree that Clark was very tight with his money. (They were generous and called it "resourceful" and "spendthrifty" but it was pretty easy to read between the lines.)

 

The bigger point is why taking a job equates to "selling out."

 

Because he's complaining about the 'well produced crap' that dcp churned out. And how much money Dick Clark made producing it.

It's been widely known for decades that dcp produced shiny, supercheap crap. Clearly the complainant here feels that not only was he a) being paid to produce crap, but b) he wasn't being paid enough to do it.

If the poster had wanted to make art, or more money, he should have gone elsewhere.

Instead, he criticizes a dead man for earning and keeping a fortune.

 

One of the record companies he owned at one point was a Philadelphia label called Swan. The story goes that one day in the fall of 1963 he played a new Swan release on "Rate-a-Record" on Bandstand and it was not particularly well-received. Then, supposedly, he showed the audience a picture of the group - and the kids as well as the host thought they looked ridiculous.

The record bombed. But Swan had an opportunity to re-release it a couple of months later, and this time it shot to the top of the charts:

 

I like the do-gooder message at the top left. True, it's not "Just Say No," but still...

 

I know! Strange, eh?