Dick Clark to Turn 60 Without Fanfare or Fuss

Dick Clark, the Pied Piper of rock music known to generations as America’s oldest teen-ager, will turn 60 Thursday secluded on another continent far away from the enamored masses.

The squeaky-clean packager of pop will blow out the candles on a birthday cake with his wife, Kari, and another couple somewhere in Brazil, publicist Paul Shefrin said. No fanfare. No party. No fuss.

Whether out of modesty or vanity, Clark, who lives in Malibu, turned down an interview request.

For decades, Clark’s youthful looks were the butt of jokes. The multimillion-dollar entertainer-producer once compared the burden to that of female sex symbols.

“They’re constantly told how wonderful they look, but it gets to be a drag after a while because someday the looks have got to go. It would be nice to be allowed to age gracefully,” he said.

Clark joins other celebrity sexagenarians this year--Jacqueline Onassis, Bob Newhart, Audrey Hepburn, Berry Gordy, June Carter Cash, Ed Asner, Adam West, Jules Feiffer, Jean Simmons and Arnold Palmer.

Clark arrived in the nation’s living rooms in 1956, through his “American Bandstand” television show, to introduce teen-agers to Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5 and Madonna, as well as the Bunny Hop, Twist and Jerk dance crazes.

In March, he hung up his saddle shoes after 33 years of hosting “American Bandstand.”