It was a beautiful sunshine-filled morning when the alarm went off at 6:00am on Thursday July 18, 2019. Although I knew that there were no Presidential sites scheduled for that day, I was excited for my photographer because it was a day slated to be filled with some Rock and Roll history. Don’t get me wrong, Tom’s first love is with American history that’s centered on the Presidents; as well as the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. A close second, however, was his focus on Rock and Roll history; primarily with the legends who performed and then perished during the 1959 Winter Dance Party tour.
To kick-off our day of sightseeing, we headed Northwest for 25 miles until Vicki had the Highlander parked across the street from Louisiana’s State Capitol Building in Baton Rouge. From an opening in the camera case, I was afforded my first glimpse of the Capitol; to me it looked like a skyscraper. I couldn’t have been more disappointed. I had expected to see a large dome and some columns; but instead, all I saw was a limestone monstrosity that resembled a miniature 450-foot tall Empire State Building. Tom carried me around to the front of the building where we walked into the beautifully landscaped Capitol Gardens. Shrubbery lined the pathways and flower beds were in abundance. Located in the center of those gardens was a monument to Huey Long, the former Governor of Louisiana. But the 30-foot tall monument, which was topped by a 12-foot bronze statue of Long, was more than just a hallowed memorial; it was Long’s actual gravesite. While serving his four-year term as Louisiana’s Governor, Huey Long led the charge to design and build the Capitol Building in the shape of a skyscraper. Shortly after the Capitol was finished, Long was elected to the U.S. Senate where he quickly became one of the most flamboyant and popular Senators in the nation. His outspoken and brash ways also made enemies. So much so, in fact, that Long claimed in an early 1935 speech that his political enemies had a plot to kill him. On Sunday September 8, 1935, his prophecy came true when Dr. Carl Weiss allegedly pulled out a handgun and fired a single bullet into the torso of Long after the two had crossed paths inside the Capitol Building in Baton Rouge. Although he was rushed to the hospital where surgery to repair his perforated intestines was performed, Huey Long died 31 hours later at the age of 42. Following a huge funeral where his body laid in state in the Louisiana Capitol, Long was buried on the Capitol’s grounds. While the front of the monument looked good, the back was equally as amazing; especially with the statue of Long gazing up at the Capitol he helped design.
After we spent about 20 minutes in the garden and around Huey Long’s grave, the three of us headed up 49 granite steps to the Capitol’s entrance. Each of those 49 steps were engraved with a state’s name and the date it joined the Union. We were very lucky as the building was open to visitors at 8:00am; which is usually unheard of in the sightseeing world. After we cleared security, my companions and I visited the Senate and House chambers before we were led to the spot where Huey Long was shot in 1935. Bullet holes were still visible in the wall and a nearby marble column; those holes were made by bullets fired from Long’s security detail when they riddled the assassin’s body with gunfire. Once we finished our tour of the lower level of the Capitol, the three of us boarded an elevator and headed to the observation deck located on the 27th floor. When Tom carried me outside onto the deck, the view of Baton Rouge and the surrounding countryside was breathtaking. The humidity was lower than it had been, which gave us a clear view for miles in every direction. Not only did we have a great view of the Mississippi River; the view of the Capitol Gardens and Huey Long’s monument below us was more amazing than words could describe. Although we had spent roughly 15 minutes near the top of the tallest Capitol Building in the country, I didn’t want to go back down to ground level. My original critique of that building was not favorable, but I was wrong. Louisiana’s Capitol Building and its surrounding grounds were the most impressive that I had ever visited; and the interior was second-to-none as well. The icing on the cake for me was the people we had met inside; men and women who worked in the main interior lobby and Memoria Hall were beyond friendly – they made the three of us feel at home with their Southern hospitality and warm charm.
Before we made our way across the ‘Mighty Mississippi’ and westward towards Texas, my photographer wanted to capture several images of the Capitol Building from the opposite side of nearby Capitol Lake. Once Vicki found a place to park, Tom carried me to the shoreline of the large manmade reservoir where we had a ‘postcard view’ of the Capitol.
The three of us had been on the road for a week when we finally drove over the Mississippi River. With the view we had from the Horace Wilkinson Bridge, it was easy to see the longest river in the United States was filled to the rim with brown water. I rolled my eyes when I heard my photographer say aloud: “It looks like it’s filled to the rim with Brim”; Tom once again reverted back to a TV commercial he remembered from his youth. There was little doubt that the river was busting at the seams due to the flooding caused by Hurricane Barry, which hit the area earlier in the week. We were Texas-bound, and I looked forward to visiting the Presidential sites that were in the Lone Star State; not to mention the few days that we had planned to spend with Bill and Kim Johnson at their farm.
Roughly 25 miles after we crossed the Sabine River into Texas, we arrived at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Beaumont. We spent some time blindly searching the large cemetery before I heard my photographer say to his wife: “I see a historical marker over there; that has to be it.” For once he was right – we had found the gravesite of “The Big Bopper” J.P. Richardson and Tom couldn’t get out of the vehicle fast enough. As an enthusiast of the 1959 Winter Dance Party tour, my photographer has taken me to numerous sites associated with the ill-fated tour; including visits to the graves of Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas and Ritchie Valens near Los Angeles, California. Our visit that early afternoon completed the ‘trifecta’ for us; and for Tom it was a rollercoaster of mixed emotions.
Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. was a KTRM disc jockey and entertainer who had recorded a couple of hit songs in late 1958. Due to the success of ‘Chantilly Lace’ and ‘Big Bopper’s Wedding’, Richardson was invited to perform on the Winter Dance Party tour that began on January 23, 1959 in Milwaukee. On their eleventh day of crisscrossing the upper Midwest in record-breaking freezing temperatures and on a bus that broke down twice, Buddy Holly arranged to charter a flight that would take him and his backing band, Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup, to their next venue in Moorehead, Minnesota. At some point during their February 2nd performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, Richardson had asked Jennings for his seat on the plane because The Bopper was running a fever and had a touch of the flu. Ritchie Valens, who also wanted to fly rather than take the cold bus, won a coin toss with Allsup for his seat. At roughly 12:55am on February 3, 1959, pilot Roger Peterson guided his small plane into the dark and snowy sky over Mason City Municipal Airport with three of America’s biggest Rock and Roll stars onboard. Roughly five miles from the airport, the 1947 V-tailed Beechcraft Bonanza impacted a frozen cornfield at 170 miles per hour and the four-seat single engine plane cartwheeled for 540 feet before coming to rest in a mangled pile along a fence line. When the wreckage was discovered after daybreak, J.P. Richardson’s frozen body was found in the adjoining cornfield, lying on his right side about 40 feet from the mutilated fuselage. Holly and Valens had also been ejected and their bodies were discovered about 17 feet from the plane; while the pilot’s body remained strapped inside the wreckage. Of the four victims, Bopper was the oldest at 28 years. Buddy Holly was 22, Roger Peterson, the pilot, was 21; and Ritchie Valens was only 17 at the time of his death. On the day the music died, Richardson’s wife Adrienne (Teetsie) was pregnant with their son – Jay Perry Richardson. Bopper, Jr. was born on April 28, 1959; less than 90 days after his father’s death.
From an opening in the camera case, I could see The Big Bopper’s headstone that was at ground level in front of us. The base appeared to be made of marble and was roughly 36 inches wide; a bronze plaque was affixed to the base and was inscribed: ‘In Loving Memory, Jiles P. Richardson, Jr. (The Big Bopper) Oct. 24, 1930 – Feb. 3, 1959’. A bouquet of red roses had been placed in the designated holder on the tombstone.
Once my photographer had secured a small bottle of dirt from The Bopper’s grave for his Winter Dance Party collection, Tom paid tribute to the fallen rock star. First, he played the upbeat and comedically suggestive ‘Chantilly Lace’ as we stood motionless at the grave. That song, which was released in the summer of 1958, was Richardson’s biggest hit and earned him a gold record; an award that was scheduled to be presented to him on February 8, 1959. Following ‘Chantilly Lace’, my photographer ended his personal tribute with the solemn tear-jerker tune ‘Three Stars’ by Eddie Cochran. It may have been small, but Tom’s personal tribute was a somber moment for the three of us; and the image of The Big Bopper permeated my mind when I heard Cochran’s words: “I see a stout man, the Big Bopper’s your name; God called you to heaven, maybe for new fortune and fame. Keep wearing that big Stetson hat and ramble up to the mic; And don’t forget those wonderful words, you know what I like.” J.P. Richardson seemed as though he was a fun-loving gentle giant with a huge voice whose best days were yet to come when he was killed. Since that fateful cold February day in 1959, there have been a large handful of airplane crashes that have killed famous celebrities. But none of those have had the impact of the crash that ended the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. “Look up in the sky, up towards the North; There are three new stars, brightly shining forth. They’re shining oh so bright from Heaven above; Gee, we’re gonna miss you, everybody sends their love.” Although that historic and tragic moment has come to be known as ‘The Day the Music Died’, the music that The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens recorded will live on forever.
With a heavy heart, my photographer carried me back to the Highlander where Vicki waited for us. We had spent about 25 minutes paying tribute to J.P. Richardson at Forest Lawn Memorial Park; but we weren’t finished with The Big Bopper in Beaumont. It was only a short four-mile ride through downtown Beaumont where we parked across the street from the historic Jefferson Theater. The large, brick structure opened in 1927 and two decades later it played host to the 1946 premiere of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ with James Stewart in attendance. But it wasn’t Stewart’s ‘wonderful life’ that brought us to the Jefferson Theater. During a week in May 1957, KTRM disc jockey J.P. Richardson’s alter-ego ‘The Big Bopper’ had set-up a remote broadcasting station in the theater’s lobby and conducted his brain-child that he dubbed “Disc-a-thon”. For five days, two hours, and eight minutes, The Bopper spun 1,821 records; he only stopped to shower or go to the bathroom during the five-minute newscasts. Richardson’s “Disc-a-thon” broke the world’s record by eight minutes for a non-stop radio broadcast.
With me tagging along in the camera case, Tom tried to enter the building through the lobby’s front doors; but they were locked. Once he caught the attention of a person inside, my photographer explained what we were there for and she let us inside the lobby where The Big Bopper made radio broadcasting history. We were not allowed to see the theater’s stage or seating area as workers were setting up props for an upcoming production, but that didn’t matter to Tom because his focus was the lobby. As my camera guy snapped photos of the lobby from different angles, a poster caught my eye – I was in disbelief. It was a large placard that advertised the “45th Anniversary Tour” of Los Lobos that was scheduled for September 19th at the Jefferson Theater. The irony was the fact that Los Lobos was featured in the 1987 movie “La Bamba”; a film that chronicled the life of Ritchie Valens. During our ten-minute visit, however, we never saw anything that mentioned what the Bopper had accomplished in that theater; which was disappointing to both of us.
After my photographer thanked the woman who allowed us to visit the Jefferson Theater lobby, we headed back to the Highlander where Vicki waited for us. Located a little over two miles away and on the west side of town, we found our final Big Bopper site – Beaumont High School where Jiles Richardson graduated in 1947. While a student in that school, The Bopper sang in the choir and played on the football team. Beaumont High merged with another school in 1975, then closed for good in January 2018 after it was damaged by Hurricane Harvey four months earlier. With me once again riding shot gun in the camera case, my photographer and I tried to get a good view of the school’s exterior; which was difficult as the property was protected by fencing and locked gates. With some persistence, however, Tom found an opening near an outbuilding. Before I could say “Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor”, we were standing in front of the historic school.
During our hour-long visit in Beaumont, Texas, it was as though The Big Bopper was along for the ride as we caught a glimpse into the life of Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. The larger-than-life personality with the huge voice was more than just a footnote in the Buddy Holly plane crash. The Bopper was a visionary who recorded one of the biggest hits of the 1950s. My photographer did his best to find information on where The Bopper lived in the Beaumont area, but he came up empty. As a matter of fact, it was surprising and disappointing that J.P. Richardson’s legacy wasn’t celebrated more in Beaumont; the only mention of his name that we saw was at the cemetery where The Bopper was buried. Of the three stars killed in the 1959 plane crash in Iowa, two were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Buddy Holly in 1986 and Ritchie Valens in 2001. It is the humble opinion of this bobble head that The Big Bopper deserves his immortal place in Cleveland with the other two.
At about 2:00pm, we bid farewell to Beaumont and its native son The Big Bopper. When we arrived in Port Arthur, Texas about twenty minutes later, the three of us were stunned by what we saw – vacant buildings, closed businesses, and a town whose better days have passed it by. Our first stop was located north of downtown Port Arthur at a four-bedroom, one-story wooden house that was mostly hidden by trees and ferns. It turned out the foliage-infested place was the childhood home of Janis Joplin; the rock star who lived there from her pre-school years (late 1940s) until she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1960. After she graduated and then dropped out of the local college, the socially-outcast Joplin moved to Austin, Texas and then out to California where she became one of the most famous rock stars of her era. With several albums and hit songs such as ‘Piece of My Heart’ and ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ under her belt, Joplin made her last trip to Port Austin on August 15, 1970 to attend her high school reunion at the Goodhue Hotel. A little over seven weeks later, Janis Joplin was found dead at the age of 27 of an accidental heroin overdose in her Los Angeles hotel room. After Vicki parked our vehicle near the famous house, my photographer walked as close as he could get to the private property where he captured a handful of pictures. The historical sign in the front yard was easy to see, but the front of the house was nearly concealed by the overgrowth of vegetation. There was no doubt the current owners wanted their privacy.
Our visit to the childhood home of Janis Joplin lasted about five minutes. When Tom returned to the Highlander, Vicki navigated through the streets of Port Arthur for nearly five miles before we arrived at the Museum of the Gulf Coast. During our ride through downtown Port Arthur at 2:30pm on a Thursday, we were stunned by the desolation. The city of about 54,000 people seemed like a ghost town and we saw more businesses boarded-up than were open. Luckily for us, the museum that we drove out of our way to visit was open; which wasn’t a surprise. Weeks before our trip began, my photographer had contacted museum director Tom Neal as he searched for information about The Big Bopper – primarily an address of where J.P. Richardson and his wife had lived in Beaumont. Although Neal struck out in his month-long effort to obtain the Beaumont home address of the Richardson’s, the director did mention they had some Bopper artifacts on display in the museum; and that was all Tom needed to hear.
As soon as we entered the museum, my photographer and his wife were introduced to Tom Neal. After the director apologized for his lack of information about The Big Bopper’s home site, he pointed the three of us in the direction of the singer’s artifacts – and we weren’t disappointed. Not only were there two statues of The Big Bopper; one of ‘Jape’ with a guitar and the other with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens; there was also a large display case that featured the gold record Richardson had been awarded for his hit song ‘Chantilly Lace’ – an award that arrived about a week after he was killed. For us, the highlight in the showcase were the four small items that had been placed on plastic risers; all four items were recovered at the plane crash site. I couldn’t believe my two painted eyes when I saw four dice and a cigarette lighter than were in The Big Bopper’s pants pockets when he was killed. The dice were used during the long bus rides on the Winter Dance Party tour; and it’s likely all of the recording stars had held those dice in their hands. Equally as impressive was the bottle of Bufferin and a hair brush that were found in Richardson’s brief case that had been ejected from the plane upon impact. I stared in amazement at the personal items of The Big Bopper; after all, he likely ran that brush through his perfectly coiffed flat-top before he went on stage at the Surf Ballroom. At one point during our visit, I heard my photographer say to his wife: “This display has some really cool and historic artifacts; but there’s no doubt in my mind that my Winter Dance Party collection would enhance what they have. Maybe someday my collection will find a home there – we could loan it to the museum so other fans can enjoy my stuff.”
Located next to the display case dedicated to the life of The Big Bopper was one that featured Beaumont-born Edgar and Johnny Winter; but my photographer couldn’t walk past their stuff fast enough as he has never enjoyed their music. Another reason for Tom’s neglect of the Winter’s was because he saw what he believed to be Janis Joplin’s Porsche that stood nearby. Unfortunately, the psychedelic 1965 Porsche 356 Cabriolet was only an exact replica and I knew exactly how my photographer felt about reproductions. Since my camera guy was a huge fan of the psychedelic blues singer known as ‘Pearl’, he found solace with a display case near the car that featured authentic items that once belonged to Janis; including some of her personal artwork, a handbag, and a shot glass used by the legendary singer.
The three of us continued our visit inside the Museum of the Gulf Coast for about a half hour, but nothing else compared with the section that was dedicated to the local musicians. While we saw displays that were focused on local sports celebrities, such as Jimmy Johnson and ‘Bum’ Phillips, they paled in comparison to The Big Bopper and Janis Joplin. Near the end of our stay, the three of us reconnected with Tom Neal in the museum’s gift shop where he and my photographer discussed The Big Bopper. “My” Tom usually isn’t one to buy souvenirs at a museum, but that gift shop had two things that he had to have for his collection – a brick from Janis Joplin’s original childhood home; and a book that was dedicated to the legacy of The Big Bopper and was signed by his son, Jay Perry Richardson; aka Big Bopper, Jr.
It was a pleasure to meet Tom Neal and to visit his Museum of the Gulf Coast. In my resin heart, I knew that someday I would be back for another visit. Hopefully by then, my photographer will have discovered where The Big Bopper’s home was located. Once Tom had securely placed me on the back seat of the Highlander, Vicki easily navigated through the deserted streets of Port Arthur as we made our way to Interstate 10. My photographer’s original goal was to get us into San Antonio before nightfall, but the heavy rush-hour traffic in Houston put a damper on those plans. As the dashboard clock neared seven o’clock, Vicki said to her husband: “I’ve had enough fun for one day – that traffic jam in Houston kicked my butt. There’s no way that I can make it another 125 miles to San Antonio yet tonight.” She was right; both of my companions were exhausted and I knew that my photographer gets weird when he gets tired; similar to Clark W. Griswold when he’s on vacation.
As the Sun grew lower in the western sky, Vicki vacated the expressway at the Columbus, Texas exit where we quickly found an inexpensive motel – an America’s Best Value Inn. After my companions unpacked the Highlander and lugged their stuff to the room, they collapsed on the bed. Since they were too exhausted to travel far for dinner, Tom and Vicki decided to walk next door to the Sonic Drive-In; which was the second consecutive night for their supersonic cuisine.
When the room’s lights went out at 9:00pm, I stood alongside the television set in the darkness and thought about The Big Bopper. “Jape” seemed as though he was the most loveable and fun-loving entertainer that’s ever taken the stage and it was a shame the world lost him at such a young age. His friends described Jiles Richardson as a shy country boy; until he transformed into his alter ego The Big Bopper. As The Bopper, “Jape” was a wide-eyed, big voice, larger-than-life persona that everyone loved and no one could ignore. It’s just a shame that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has ignored him for 60 years. As I stood there, deep in thought about The Bopper, his lyrics to “Chantilly Lace” popped into my resin-filled mind. And the funny thing was – I could’ve sworn he was singing about me: “Chantilly lace and a handsome face; And a pony tail a hangin’ down. That wiggle in your head; And a giggle’s all you said; makes the world go round. There ain’t nothin’ in the world, when your flag’s unfurled; That makes me act so funny, Make me spend my money. Make me feel real brave, near a President’s grave; Oh baby that’s what I like!”
