The Day the Music Died...

In remembrance of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.

and almost Waylon Jennings...

From yesterday's newspaper:

In search of rock history

Two young film producers weren’t alive to hear the news that a single-engine plane crashed in a cornfield, killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper after their electric performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, 1959. But Sevan Garabedian and Jim McCool have become passionate storytellers, trying to preserve little-known details and find long-forgotten black-and-white images from the grueling, ill-fated tour.

They traveled the same logistically insane route that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, Dion and Waylon Jennings did that bitterly cold winter 52 years ago. They've visited the still-standing ballrooms on the Winter Dance Party Tour and talked to some of the people, now in their 70s, who crowded the stages and danced to the best rock 'n' roll of the time.

These two young film producers, Sevan Garabedian, 34, of Montreal and Jim McCool, 36, of Madison, Wis., weren't alive to hear the news that a single-engine plane crashed in an Iowa cornfield, killing Holly, Valens and the Bopper (J.P. Richardson) after their electric performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake on Feb. 2, 1959. But they've become passionate storytellers, trying to preserve little-known details and find long-forgotten photos from the grueling ill-fated Midwestern tour and the Day the Music Died.

Their film documentary, titled "Gotta Travel On: The Winter Dance Party Odyssey," should be released sometime next year if they can find a distributor. The producer duo has visited every tour venue before the crash -- Milwaukee, Kenosha, Wis., Mankato, Eau Claire, Wis., Montevideo, Minn., St. Paul, Davenport, Iowa, Fort Dodge, Iowa, Duluth, Green Bay, Wis., and, of course, Clear Lake. They've interviewed about 150 '50s teeny boppers who attended the shows and two emcees -- including Bill Diehl, who was host in both St. Paul and Mankato. And they've put out the call for any photos taken by kids with Brownie cameras who stashed them away somewhere and then forgot them.

Only one show remains with no photos found -- the Capitol Theater in Davenport. At the elegant Prom Ballroom in St. Paul, a 12-year-old boy took photos backstage of Holly and others, but none have surfaced of the concert itself. Garabedian and McCool are offering "a significant cash reward" for pictures from St. Paul and Davenport.

"I am convinced there are plenty of photos still tucked away in a dusty shoebox somewhere in the Twin Cities," Garabedian says.

One of their big finds was photos taken at the Clear Lake show, just hours before the plane crashed. In late 2008, Mary Gerber of Walters, Minn., read a story in the Albert Lea Tribune about how the two were looking for pictures. A few years earlier while cleaning out her mother's home, she had found negatives of photos she took at the Surf as a teenager.

"She called us up and said 'I was at that show and I took seven photographs,'" McCool told a TV reporter in Lubbock, Texas, Holly's hometown.

Gerber's pictures -- the only known photos taken that night -- are now on display at the Surf.

Garabedian and McCool have spent years tracking down and interviewing the still-living tour survivors, including Frankie Sardo, Carl Bunch (Holly's drummer who was hospitalized for frost bite when the bus broke down in Wisconsin), Freddie Milano and Carlo Mastrangelo of the Belmonts and a saxophone player. They soon will interview Tommy Allsup, the Cricket who will go down in rock 'n' roll legend for giving up his seat to Valens when he "lost" a coin toss. The duo has made friends with Dion but he has not yet agreed to do an interview. Jennings, who gave up his seat to the ill Bopper, died in 2002.

Eight of the 12 concert venues are still standing, including ballrooms in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Mankato, Fort Dodge and Green Bay. The one that really thrilled Garabedian was the Kato Ballroom in Mankato, where the tour stopped on Jan. 25, 1959.

"The Kato Ballroom looks exactly the same as it did that night," he said. In 2008, a woman gave them photos taken of Valens and Sardo at the Kato, showing an ashtray in the background. When Garabedian and McCool visited Mankato, there was the same ashtray in the same place. "The exact same spot, can you believe that? How amazing is that?"

Another venue still standing is the old armory in Duluth, where a young Robert Zimmerman -- soon to be Bob Dylan -- saw Holly and was mesmerized. A group in Duluth is working to save the dilapidated armory, and Garabedian and McCool were unable to film there. But they found people to interview who had been at the show.

Garabedian and McCool have one more tour city to visit -- Moorhead, where the show went on that February night in spite of the crash. While the famous old armory has been torn down, they'll visit the site next week and interview fans who were grief stricken, but went anyway and heard 15-year-old Robert Veline (soon to be Bobby Vee) sing with his group, the Shadows.

They have collected five photos from the Moorhead show, including one of the 19-year-old Jennings on stage.

"You can see the anguish on his face," Garabedian said.

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: and almost Waylon Jennings...

...and a nice V tail Bonanza...

(HUGE language warning) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlSefQglcQI

It's a big thing here in Lubbock. The radio stations have been playing Buddy Holly songs all day. He did make some good music. Same for Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson.

The Buddy Holly Center is having a reception and showing a movie by Paul McCartney .

gamby wrote: (HUGE language warning) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlSefQglcQI

I was totally gonna link that

stuart in mn wrote: From yesterday's newspaper: ... the Kato Ballroom in Mankato, where the tour stopped on Jan. 25, 1959. "The Kato Ballroom looks exactly the same as it did that night," he said. In 2008, a woman gave them photos taken of Valens and Sardo at the Kato, showing an ashtray in the background. When Garabedian and McCool visited Mankato, there was the same ashtray in the same place. "The exact same spot, can you believe that? How amazing is that?"

I'd say that's pretty amazing.

still my favorite R&R performer

may he (and they) rest in peace

hard to imagine what R&R might have become had Buddy not died so young