It was 5:45am when Tom’s alarm rang on Friday August 5, 2022. My photographer wanted to get an early start on the day so he could fulfill his goal of being the first one inside the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. In Tom’s mind, he wanted us to be alone with the spirits of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper inside the venue where they took the stage for the final time. I was excited to go back inside the Surf as well. In the past week, I had stood on the stages of the Duluth Armory and Kato Ballroom where the trio performed during the ill-fated Winter Dance Party tour. But eight miles away stood a Rock and Roll time capsule; frozen in time where the calendar was still stuck on February 2, 1959. In a sense, it’s Groundhog Day every day at the Surf Ballroom – Buddy, Ritchie, and J.P. were still there. And over the years, they’ve also been joined by Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, Carl Bunch, Frankie Sardo, and the Belmonts’ Carlo Mastrangelo and Fred Milano.
It took only about 12 minutes for the three of us to make the short jaunt from our hotel in Mason City to the historic ballroom in Clear Lake where my photographer’s wife parked the Jeep in the rear parking lot. The first thing I thought about when we stepped out of our vehicle was the Winter Dance Party bus was likely parked in the same area in 1959. The entire troupe of performers walked in and out of a rear door to the Surf as they carried their instruments and stage clothes to the “Green Room”. With a few minutes to spare before the doors of the Surf Ballroom were scheduled to open, I posed for more images near the exterior of the building. In my mind, the ballroom looked spectacular under the cloudless blue sky; but nothing compared to how the place affected me the previous night.
A few minutes after the front doors were unlocked, the three of us walked inside and were immediately transported back in time to February 2, 1959. Tom was like a kid in a candy store, and the kid had the entire store to himself. Without hesitation, my photographer made a beeline to the historic stage where I posed for my first interior pictures. While it was great to stand on the stages at the Duluth Armory and Kato Ballroom, the stage at the Surf Ballroom was where Rock Royalty reigned for the final time. Over the years, the black hardwood stage had been enlarged to accommodate modern-day equipment, but it was easy to distinguish the footprint of the original stage. When Tom placed me on the precise spot where Buddy Holly stood and performed for the final time, it was a very emotional moment for the two of us. I looked out at the massive 6,300-square-foot original dance floor; high above the massive space were painted murals of Holly, Valens, and Richardson looking down on me. The presence of the three performers was very evident inside the Surf; in my mind, Buddy, Ritchie, and The Big Bopper were still performing on that historic stage. Then, as he did at the other two Winter Dance Party venues we had visited, Tom held his phone and played ‘Rave On’ by Buddy Holly – a little over 63 years after Holly had belted out the same lyrics for the last time on that very spot.
With Holly’s voice still echoing in the empty ballroom, Tom and I walked to stage right, down four steps, and into the Surf’s original “Green Room’ that’s been used by every performer since 1948. I had to laugh because the “Green Room” wasn’t painted green. Instead, the walls were white and filled with a countless number of signatures – including Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, Maria Elena Holly and original Crickets Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, and Niki Sullivan. There was even a small section on one of the walls where Don McLean wrote the lyrics to a verse of his song ‘American Pie’. Then I saw another signature, written in black Sharpie, on the same wall not too far from Mrs. Holly’s name. The autograph looked familiar, but at the same time, it looked like a four-year-old took a black crayon and scribbled on the wall. It turned out to be the signature of Donald J. Trump, who delivered a campaign speech from the Surf Ballroom’s stage on January 9, 2016. But to me, that small room was more than just a graffiti-filled dressing area stocked with a few chairs, two sinks, and a mirror. It was the place where Rock and Roll history was forever altered when Ritchie Valens won a coin toss that cemented his place inside the Beechcraft Bonanza airplane chartered by Buddy Holly.
Let’s take a look at the images that were captured by my photographer inside and outside of the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. “Long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance, I’d share Tom’s photos to help enhance, and hopefully you’ll be happy for a while. I can’t remember if I cried, when my thoughts of Buddy wouldn’t subside. Then something touched me deep inside, it was the day the music died.”
Our visit to the Surf Ballroom lasted about two hours, and during that time, I had the opportunity to pose in s few places where greatness once stood. And for once, that greatness didn’t include a President – even though Donald Trump had graced (or disgraced) the Surf’s stage in early 2016. For a few fleeting moments, I stood on the spot where Buddy Holly raved on; where Ritchie Valens fell in love with Donna all over again; and where The Big Bopper rambled to the mic and said: “You know what I like!”
But the forgotten star of the show was Dion DiMucci; a 19-year-old kid from The Bronx who simply wondered why. Dion wondered why his friends were killed. He wondered why no one approached him for his story when the Winter Dance Party tour had finished. And he wondered why Tommy Allsup fabricated the story of a coin flip he allegedly had with Ritchie Valens.
There was a coin flip, alright, but according to Dion, it was between him, the Bopper, and Valens. During Frankie Sardo’s set, which was the first act of the night, Buddy Holly called the other three headliners into the Surf’s “Green Room” and closed the door. Holly told the three performers he had chartered a flight to Fargo, North Dakota – and since the headliners were the ones making the money, they should be the ones to fly. But there was a problem; there were only four seats on the plane, including one for the pilot and one for Holly – one of the other three would have to ride the bus. Dion said the three recording artists agreed to flip a coin – “Heads” meant the person would fly with Holly; “Tails” and they’re riding on the cold bus. Dion said Bopper went first and flipped “Heads”; Dion was next, and the coin also came up “Heads”; going third, Ritchie’s coin landed with “Tails” showing and he was out. However, when DiMucci found out the price to fly was $36, which was the amount his parents paid for a month’s rent, he gave his seat to Ritchie Valens – who had flu-like symptoms and was homesick. As a matter of fact, in Dion’s version of the story, he said to Ritchie: “Please, you go on the plane. Take your coat. Stay warm. I’ll watch your guitars.” As a final attempt to set the historical record straight, Dion went on to mention that Holly said to him: “Watch my guitar, too. Take care of it like you would take care of your testicles.”
Tommy Allsup’s version of the story, the one where Tommy said he flipped the half dollar coin with Ritchie Valens, has been accepted by most historians over the years as fact. However, Dion’s story seemed far more logical to me. Why wouldn’t the stars of the show be asked to fly instead of the backup musicians? Perhaps Allsup learned about the headliner’s coin flip later in the tour and adopted it as his own claim to fame. And since 2002, there was no one to refute Allsup’s tale except Dion DiMucci.
But the last piece of the “coin flip puzzle” shouldn’t be ignored, and that was Waylon Jennings story. From the moment it happened until his death in 2002, Ol’ Waymore had been steadfast with the fact that he and Allsup were originally slated to fly with Holly. When he was asked by J.P. Richardson for his seat on the plane because The Bopper had the flu, Waylon compassionately gave up his seat. In between sets, Buddy learned that Jennings had given his seat on the plane to Richardson and said to Waylon: “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up.” Jennings quickly shot back, tongue-in-cheek: “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes.” A couple of hours later, Waylon Jennings’ jokingly-yet-prophetic wish came true; and it haunted Hoss for the rest of his life. As a matter of fact, Jennings once said that for years, he thought he caused the plane crash because of what he said to his friend.
In my resin mind, the two vastly different coin flip stories meant one thing: Someone was lying. Since Allsup and Jennings both said they were originally asked by Buddy Holly to fly to Fargo with him, I believe that to be the truth. Nobody, except Dion DiMucci, said it was the headliners, and not the two backing musicians, who were petitioned by Holly to take the plane. I wonder why the wanderer has claimed it was him who had escaped death in the still of the night on February 3, 1959?
There are two sides to every coin, and usually two sides to every story. We may never know the entire truth about the Day the Music Died.
