“A long, long time
ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile…” ~
Don McLean, American Pie
In late 1958, General
Artists Corporation started putting together a rock and roll tour that
would travel through the upper Midwestern states and feature some of
music’s biggest stars. It was billed the Winter Dance Party tour and
featured Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper,
Dion and The Belmonts and Frankie Sardo and set off on January 23rd,
1959 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It became one of the most infamous tours in
rock and roll history.
Organizationally
speaking, the tour was a complete catastrophe. The shows were often
scheduled hundreds of miles apart from one another as they zigzagged
through one of the deadliest winters the Midwest had seen in decades, in
the worst possible transportation available. Throughout all of this, the
performances remained electric, lifelong friendships were forged, and the
music brought a joy that would remain forever in the hearts and minds of
all who attended. Then, the unthinkable happened.
After their
performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa on February 2nd,
1959, Buddy Holly, 22, Ritchie Valens, 17, and J.P. “The Big Bopper”
Richardson, 28, were killed when their small plane crashed shortly after
taking off from nearby Mason City Municipal Airport.
The flight need not have been chartered had the travel conditions
on the tour been even halfway acceptable.
The rest is rock
‘n’ roll history. That day was forever immortalized as ‘The Day The
Music Died” by Don McLean in his 1972 anthem American Pie. For many
people, that tour, and subsequent crash symbolized the end of a period in
both rock and roll and American history. That entire era came to an end as
the turbulent sixties approached. The Winter Dance Party tour became the
swan song for that era and this documentary will illustrate just how
unique a time it was, and just how much has changed since. The innocence,
it seems, was forever lost.
This feature-length
documentary will revisit the venues that the tour played in Wisconsin,
Minnesota, and Iowa with the surviving musicians and hear them recount
their memories from that tour, fifty years later. What was it all like?
How have their lives changed since then? What is it like being there again
almost half a century later? This film will also detail the hectic touring
schedule, the uncomfortable conditions the tour members had to deal with
as well as profiles of each performance. In-depth interviews with the
musicians, fans and emcees, on-location filming, and several new
revelations and surprises will be featured.
This
will be a celebration of the music, the fans, and the artists who made it
all happen, as well as a look at the heartbreak endured by all when three
members of the tour became the victims of rock and roll's first great
tragedy. Our film will illustrate how the music lives on and how magical a
time that golden era was. It will be a walk down memory lane for what many
consider to be the most significant tour in rock and roll history.
