THE SILHOUETTES and DICK CLARK

The rush of Trump-mania, unfortunately, continues.  Who knows what he is really worth (Forbes now says more than $8 billion), but his continued splurge of success from staying alive resulted in Trump Media & Technology Group, parent of the social media platform Truth Social, jumping in value more than a billion dollars.  He has a 65% stake in the company, which is now worth $4.6 billion.

Going on to some mundane nostalgia, I was watching on Music Choice this morning one of their music channels, and noted that two of the Silhouettes would have been around a 100-years old if they were still alive.  So I checked, and found this 2009 article entitled, Last member of Silhouettes dies, noting that the Rev. John "Bootsie" Wilson, who was not an original, died at the age of 69.  This means he would have now have been 84.  But that's not 100.

So I further researched and saw that Earl Beal was born in 1924.  Yup, 100 years.  The Silhouettes:

• Formed in Philadelphia in 1956 by gospel singers Beal and Raymond Edwards (would have been 102 today), Bill Horton (would have been 95--he was replaced John Wilson in 1961) from North Carolina and Richard Lewis.

• 
  Biggest hit was Get a Job in 1958, reached #1 and sold more than a million copies.  Performed on the Dick Clark Show in December 1957.  
• The Silhouettes disbanded in 1968, just as doo-wop act Sha Na Na (who took their name from the Get a Job lyrics) started.

• 
  But the four original members reunited in 1980, appeared in the 1986 movie Joey (the whole film) and continued touring until 1993.
• Horton died in 1995, Edwards in 1997, Beal in 2001 and Lewis in 2005.

About Dick Clark.

• The World's oldest teenager, he was born in Bronxville, New York in 1929 and had three wives.
• Was an average student who at the age of 16 began working in the mailroom of an AM radio station, WRUN, which was managed by his father.  In this period, filled in as weatherman and such.
• Graduated from Syracuse University in 1951 and went back to WRUN.
• Moved to Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, and became a disc jockey on WFIL, which had a TV station of the same call sign, where since 1952 there was a program called Bob Horn's Bandstand.
• 
  Horn was arrested for drunk driving and was dismissed.
• In July of 1956 Clark took over.
• The ABC television network picked up the program and renamed it American Bandstand, debuting on 5August1957.  Originally, only records were played.

• 
  In 1958, The Dick Clark Show was added to ABC's Saturday night lineup, had a viewership of 20 million, becoming national (with Pat Boone, Jerry Lee Lewis, Connie Francis, Johnny Ray and The Royal Teens on the original show), and dancers were all only from 14 to 18 years old.  Performers lip-synced their song.  Sponsored by Beechnut, and dancers were encouraged to chew this gum. 

Dick Clark’s public persona was “squeaky clean,” “All American,” and “choir-boyish”—an image he assiduously cultivated. Clark recognized, especially as rock ‘n’ rock gained popularity among teenagers in the mid-1950s and was widely regarded by their distraught parents as a sign of moral collapse, that as a pitchman for the music that drove their kids to euphoric distraction, Clark would need parental trust. By the time Clark delivered a revamped Bandstand to national audiences as American Bandstand in 1957, the show was ostensibly squeaky clean.

• 
  The final Dick Clark Show was 10September 1960, showing highlights from past performances.

• Bobby Darin ("Splish Splash", "Mack the Knife")
• Connie Francis ("Lipstick on Your Collar")
• Frankie Avalon ("DeDe Dinah")
• Fabian ("Turn Me Loose")
• Bobby Rydell ("Kissin' Time")
• Annette Funicello and Paul Anka (Medley of hits)
• Duane Eddy and The Rebels ("Rebel Rouser", "Forty Miles of Bad Road")

• Clark moved the show from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in 1964 to link closer to "surf" groups, and was notable for becoming more diverse and featuring more minorities.
• Was weekly on Saturdays from 1963 to 1988.
• Show featured 10,000 love performances, but never hosted Elvis, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
• Listed in Guinness Book of Records as the longest-running variety show in TV history.
• 
  Over two-thirds of people who've been initiated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had their television debuts on American Bandstand.
• In 1968 he wrote, produced and starred in the 1968 film, Killers Three (the whole movie), a promotional vehicle for Merl Haggard and Bonnie Owens.

• 
  In 1972, he produced NBC's New Year Eve coverage, the one with the dropping ball at Times Square, New York  His challenge was to overcome the dominance of Guy Lombardo on CBS.   Moved two years later to ABC, and becoming the host.  Lombardo passed away in 1977. Suffered from a stroke in 2004, was largely replaced by Ryan Seacrest.

• 
  In 1973 he also filled in for Casey Kasem for America Top 40 and over the next few years created a competing radio program like Dick Clark's National Music Survey, evolving into similar programs until his stroke in 2004.
• From 1982 there was also Dick Clark's Rock, Roll and Remember, which continued until his stroke.
• In 1973 served as the first moderator for the $10,000 Pyramid, where several spinoffs were created into this century.

• 
  Won three Emmys.
• His personality, and maybe it was just that, kept him clean throughout his career, unlike Alan Freed, who got caught in the Payola War of 1959.
• Dick Clark passed away from a heart attack in 2012 at the age of 82.

One more item.  Today and tomorrow are Prime Days on Amazon.  Should you jump in?  Well, according to Nathan Burrow, Wirecutter's senior editor of deals coverage:

I should know. My team and I have already reviewed over 60,000 deals (and counting) this Prime Day.

And less than 1% of them have been good enough for us to share with you.

What is Wirecutter?  It is a New York Times company.

Wirecutter helps people buy the right things for the way they want to live. Experts research, test and review hundreds of products across categories in real-life scenarios to recommend the best option for the task at hand.

Also, avoid scams.

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