Springfield, Ill.
(The State Journal)
Like many others who were teenagers at the
time, Mildred Carson remembers Feb. 3, 1959, very well.
For millions of people,
that date has become known - thanks to Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie" - as the
day the music died. For Carson, it was the day she didn't go to work.
Then 19,
Carson was too upset over the deaths early that morning of singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie
Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson that she couldn't make it to her job at
Franklin Life.
Like many other teens in Springfield, Carson had bought a ticket
for the scheduled Feb. 15 concert by Holly, Valens, the Big Bopper and others at the
Illinois State Armory.
Unlike thousands of others, she kept her ticket. Now she
and her husband Ed hope to find a buyer for what might be considered the Holy Grail of
central Illinois rock 'n' roll memorabilia: a ticket to a concert doomed never to
happen.
"It still brings tears to my eyes," says Carson, of Sherman. "We really
loved those guys."
Her memory jogged by an article last week in The State
Journal-Register, Carson dug up the old scrapbook in which she had carefully saved
tickets, news clippings, cards and other items from her teens and early
20s.
There, beneath a ticket for a Connie Francis concert at the Armory on Dec.
7, 1958, and a ticket for a Hilltoppers concert in her native Centralia, Carson found her
Buddy Holly ticket. It was neatly glued to the page along with her own typed notes about
the fatal crash. Like the other tickets on the page, the "Shower of Stars" ticket resembles a
business card in its size and simplicity.
Its price was $1, with proceeds to benefit
United Cerebral Palsy.
Its value today is unknown.
Mark Kessler,
co-owner of Recycled Records and one of the area's leading collectors and dealers of rock
'n' roll memorabilia, said he has never seen a ticket to Holly and company's ill-fated
Springfield concert. He has spoken to people who had them and did not save them, he
said.
"It's worth what someone is willing to pay for it," Kessler said. "There are a
lot of Buddy Holly collectors out there. There should be reasonable interest in it." The
ticket is something of an anomaly, he noted, because it was not a mass-produced item -
like a record - whose value can be tracked. It also appears to be a one-of-a-kind, because
others apparently have not surfaced.
Prairie Dog Productions out of Lubbock,
TX agrees; “There are 3 known original posters to exist from the tour. They are valued at
anywhere from $7000-10,000. A signed 45 by all of the artists exists and is valued at
approx. $10,000 also. I’ve really seen a wide variation of prices for unused classic concert
tickets, so I don’t have much of a clue on this one”.
Mildred Carson said she
attaches no particular sentimental value to the ticket itself, which she had forgotten about
until last week. The meaning for her is in the memory of the performers named on it and
their music.
"The Big Bopper was my favorite. He was a big ol' guy, and it
seemed like he had to put forth a lot of energy for a guy his size." Valens, too, had a
special place in her heart. The 17-year-old Valens was known for his devotion to his
mother.
"I lost my father when I was young, so I know what it's like to grow up
like that," she says.
Ed Carson had joined the army and was at Fort Dix, N.J.,
awaiting deployment to Germany when he learned of the fatal crash. He and Mildred had
been dating at the time, and the music of the day was one of the things that bound them.
They often attended the Shower of Stars dances at the Armory, and music was one of the
things they discussed in letters after his departure.
"I remember you being so
excited they were coming to town," Ed remarked to his wife as they pored over the
scrapbook. "You were going to tell me all about it after the show."
The Winter
Dance Party Tour continued after the deaths of Holly, Valens and Richardson. The show
in Springfield featured Fabian, Bill Parsons and Jimmy Clanton replacing the headliners.
Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie Sardo and Holly's backing band, the Crickets - all on the
original bill - also performed.
Though 8,000 people attended two shows here,
Mildred was not among them. She knew the concert would only remind her of the
performers she was not seeing. So she stayed at home, and her ticket went
unused.
It may prove to be the best dollar she ever wasted.
The Springfield Show...Feb.15th, 1959