Editorial: Dick Clark showed human side too

For decades Dick Clark showed us seemingly eternal youth and vitality: hair dark and lush, teeth white, and skin taut even as the years mounted. Who'd have guessed, through decades of televised vigor, that he would also show us infirmity hitting home by fighting the effects of a stroke on one of the world's biggest stages?

Clark, who died yesterday at 82, was a Mount Vernon native who was working at WFIL in Philadelphia when the host of a televised afternoon music show was arrested. Clark got the job, and the show became "American Bandstand," the national sensation that brought rock and roll into America's dens.

He expanded into game shows, including "The $10,000 Pyramid." He invented the American Music Awards. And he dropped the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

America rang in 1975 with Clark on ABC, and every year thereafter -- except one. In 2004, Clark suffered a stroke, and missed a midnight. The next year he was back, his speech slurred and his movements wooden, evincing discomfort from many and cheers from others. No longer representing eternal youth, he fought infirmity in the public eye. For Clark to show such frailty, where beauty had ruled, was courageous.

And each New Year's he returned, his speech and movement better. He was battling back, still inspiring.

This New Year's Eve, without Clark to count down, we'll fondly remember one auld acquaintance who definitely should not be forgot.