NEW YORK -- Fifty years after his first appearance on the show that became known as American Bandstand, Dick Clark is ready to let go of the microphone. The famed host is auctioning off a number of items from his personal collection of musical memorabilia, including the microphone he used beginning on July 9, 1956 - his first day on the rock 'n' roll show that made him famous. "It's tough to part with that one," Clark said of the microphone, which was valued by Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey's auction house, at between $10,000 and $100,000 US.
Other items to be sold include a bass guitar that Paul McCartney played when he was a Beatle, a beaded glove that Michael Jackson wore in his moonwalking phase and the harmonica that Bob Dylan played in The Last Waltz. The host of New Year's Rockin' Eve, now 76, described himself as "a pack rat" since childhood and said his scripts and memorabilia had filled 2,520 square metres in a California warehouse. "I've got every Life magazine that was ever printed, because my grandmother saved them for me," he said.
"I've got most of the Playboy magazines. I've got Fortune - lovely photographs in there. I saved everything.
" The auction is planned for Dec. 5 and 6 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Much of the profits from the sale are to go to the T.
J. Martell Foundation, which was founded by the music industry to raise money for research on cancer and AIDS.
News RSS