"Got a Pop History/Pop Culture question from the 60's, 70's, 80's or 90's?" Just askmrpophistory@mrpophistory.com

Alan Freed (on right)

From Pepper J – Mr. Pop – Thank you for a tremendously informative website. I don’t know how you do it – is it only you? I am a big, big fan of Dick Clark, who you can’t deny set so many pop trends. I was reading your 1950’s pages and Dick Clark and rock ‘n’ roll DJ Alan Freed come up often. Did they know each other? What did Dick Clark think about his (then) rock ‘n’ roll rival?

Mr. Pop History – Thanks and I’m just glad you’re getting something out of all this. Yes – it’s all me – and all those weeks!

Dick Clark-Alan Freed. According to a long-ago interview with Dick Clark – he had this to say about Alan Freed: “I never knew Alan Freed ruing his radio heyday, only after the bubble had burst. Me and Bobby Darin were his last friends. During the payola thing, we weren’t close and I think it was partly because I was going on t other things. I won’t say anything bad about him. It’s not nice. He was an extraordinary man, irascible, he was generous, bright, abrasive, a rebel.” “Without his insight what white people would listen to black music, this whole industry might have never gotten off the ground.”

Now, according to Lance Freed – Alan Freed’s son – “My father felt bitter about Dick Clark the last couple of years perhaps because how his life turned-out and how Dick Clark’s did. My dad was in the hospital three weeks and word got out that he was broke, that he needed help. I recall my stepmother saying, ‘would you believe Dick Clark never returned my call.’”

Remember in pop history – Alan Freed took the payola fall – and Dick Clark didn’t – even though many believe he had his hand in the pie. Here’s an AP headline from November of 1959: “Two of the country’s most popular disc jockeys – Dick Clark and Alan Freed – face investigation shortly by Congressional probers, it was reported unofficially today.”