Here's something you probably didn't know: Dick Clark likes to cook.
"My wife and I are amateur chefs; we have a nice kitchen, and we love cooking," Clark said during a stop at the Salt Lake City International Airport Tuesday to visit his American Bandstand Grill.
"I'm also a pack rat," he said. "I collect stuff. So, you can see why I wanted to start a theme restaurant."
Clark's Salt Lake establishment, one of 11 around the world, has been in operation at the Salt Lake City International Airport for about 18 months. And its 72-year-old owner is quite proud about how things have been "cooking," especially in the past two weeks.
"The staff there has survived the avalanche," Clark said, referring to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. "They served more people than some of my other restaurants in bigger cities. And I'm very proud of them. That's why I came to town. I wanted to congratulate them."
For a while in the late 1980s and early '90s, the theme restaurant was the talk of the town. Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood and Marvel Comics eating establishments were popping up all around the world. And they enjoyed some popularity for a few years, but gradually their clientele waned, and in some cases, as with Planet Hollywood, they even fell into bankruptcy.
Clark noticed but still took a chance. "I remember going to the very first Hard Rock Cafe, maybe 20 to 30 years ago," said the eternal teenager. "It was just this little hamburger joint in London. And I loved it. But something happened as those types of restaurants came of age. I didn't like the fact that people had to stand behind chains to get into an empty restaurant.
"I wanted my restaurant to be more family oriented. I wanted it to be a comfortable and family-friendly place to eat."
Clark, who has been in broadcasting since 1947, when he joined a radio station station in Utica, N.Y., never thought of being a restaurant owner. "I just wanted to be in broadcast," he said, adding, "I never wanted to be on the performing side of the business."
He began hosting the Philadelphia-based radio show "Bandstand" in 1956. The next year, Clark teamed up with ABC to bring to television, airing the program nationwide.
The precursor to MTV and VH1, "American Bandstand" played all the current hits and brought all the latest fashions into living rooms across the country. And it was a big hit with teens.
Today, Clark is a world-renowned producer/writer, having hosted game shows ("The $25,000 Pyramid"), a series of "Blooper" shows and, currently, a daily gender-switch version of "The View," with an all-male panel. He also produced the now-canceled "Donny and Marie Show," featuring those famous Utah siblings in a talk-show format.
And then there's his annual special in Times Square, "Dick Clark's Rocking New Years Eve." "We're actually contracted for another four years," said Clark. "If I'm still around, God be willing, I'll be there. If not, America will still see the ball drop."
While Clark's plate seems full, he manages to make space for still more more projects. "As of today, I've got at least three big 'American Bandstand' projects in the works," he said. "One's a Broadway play, the other two are TV specials — a one-hour documentary and an 'American Bandstand' anniversary show."
Lately, Clark, as producer of the American Music Awards, has been stirring up a bitter rivalry with Michael Greene, CEO of the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences, which produces the Grammy Awards that aired Wednesday on CBS. Clark contends that Greene's policy of preventing artists who will perform on the Grammy's from appearing on the AMA's, and vice-versa, is artistic blacklisting.
"I'm fed up," Clark said. "I filed suit earlier this year, and it continues. I can't say too much about it, because we live in such a litigious society, but what has happened is Michael is depriving musicians from performing and depriving music fans of the joy of hearing and seeing their favorite artists playing music. Its discrimination and that's wrong."
E-mail: scott@desnews.com