Thursday September 21, 2023 began for the three of us when Tom’s alarm rang at 5:45am. My photographer wanted to get an earlier-than-normal start because we were still 100 miles from our first destination of the day – the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was almost humorous as I watched him move around the room at an impressive tempo that morning; he showered, put on his clothes that featured his Buddy Holly shirt, and he got all of his gear ready for transport to the van in near-record time. It was even more humorous to watch Vicki, who didn’t seem to have as much urgency as her husband. I knew my anxious photographer had wanted to be out of the hotel and on the road by 7:15, but as I watched the clock tick down, his goal was slipping away by the minute.
The one detail that morning I found interesting was Tom hadn’t made his usual “daily deposit”, if you know what I mean. That morning ritual is like clockwork – once he visits the porcelain throne, my photographer is good to go for the entire day. But for some reason, he failed to “log out” before we left the hotel, and I hoped that decision wouldn’t come back to bite him in the butt.
We were nearly a half-hour behind schedule when we finally hit the road at 7:40am. The first half of the one-hundred-mile ride was completely uneventful, but the second half was something I’ll not soon forget. With roughly 50 miles of roadway left before we reached the Riverside, I heard Tom groan and say to his wife: “If you see a Rest Area or a McDonald’s, please stop. The brown dog is barking at the back door.” I was laughing so hard, I nearly fell out of my camera case. For the next half hour, while we were driving through the middle of nowhere, his groans grew louder with every passing mile. Suddenly, I heard Tom say in his Clark Griswold voice: “We pass a damn McDonald’s every hundred yards for a thousand miles, but when you really need one, you end up with McNuggets in your pants.”
My poor camera guy rode the “Prairie Dog Express” all the way into Green Bay before Vicki saw a billboard advertising a McDonald’s restaurant. A handful of minutes later, when Vic pulled into the Mickey D’s parking lot, Tom said: “My toes are so curled right now, I don’t know if I can walk. I sure in the heck-fire hope their usual one stall isn’t in use or that bathroom will end up looking like a war zone with no survivors.”
I watched from my position on the back seat of the van as my photographer waddled up to the door of the restaurant – then I saw him stop without going inside. It turned out he came face to face with a sign that read: ‘Inside lobby closed for remodeling – please use Drive-Thru.’ I saw he had a panicked look on his face as he shuffled his way over to the gas station convenience store located next to McDonald’s – then he disappeared from view. Ten minutes later, Tom emerged from the store with a huge smile on his face and a bounce in his step. It was obvious he had taken the Browns to the Super Bowl and emerged victorious.
By 9:40am, we had finally made it to the historic Riverside Ballroom, which was forty minutes later than Tom had hoped for. But for me, being a little late wasn’t a deal breaker as it seemed great to be back, and I was excited to go inside. During our first visit on July 26, 2015, the doors were locked, which kept our tour of the ballroom limited to the exterior.
After I posed for a dozen or so images around the building’s exterior, which included the stainless-steel memorial to the three fallen Winter Dance Party performers, Tom carried me through the front doors of the Riverside. The entire dancefloor was filled with round tables, which were elegantly decorated for a wedding reception the following night. But once my photographer carefully placed me onto the historic stage, I was transported back in time to February 1, 1959.
The Riverside Ballroom opened in 1936 after the original 1929 ballroom burned down. At the time, the new building was billed as “the finest and best equipped ballroom in America”. So much so, in fact, it was used by Coach Curly Lambeau and the Green Bay Packers for two days in 1940 as their indoor practice facility.
Its biggest claim to fame, at least in my resin mind, came in February 1959. The Winter Dance Party tour was travelling from the Duluth Armory towards Wisconsin when their bus broke down just south of Hurley, Wisconsin on the night of January 31st. Stranded, the performers spent the night in nearby Ironwood, Michigan before they took a train, and then a greyhound bus, into Green Bay. Buddy Holly and the rest of the tour arrived in the snow, ice, and freezing temperatures just in time for their eight o’clock show at the Riverside on February 1st. Because of the transportation problems during the trip towards Green Bay, including the heating issues on the bus, Buddy Holly had made up his mind he was going to charter an airplane as soon as they arrived in Clear Lake, Iowa the following day. He was tired of being cold, wearing dirty clothes, and riding in an old, cramped bus. That night at the Riverside Ballroom, as Buddy sat backstage on a set of old wooden stairs, was when the 22-year-old star knew that he and two of his bandmates would be flying the next night. The one thing he couldn’t have known, however, was he was about to soar into Rock and Roll history.
During our one-hour visit inside the historic Riverside Ballroom, Tom and I were absorbed with visions of the Winter Dance Party performers. They were there with us – Buddy was still 22 years old; Ritchie was only 17; and the Bopper still was rockin’ at 28.
At one point, while Tom and I were standing on the stage, I was pleasantly surprised when Riverside owner Ken Tedford took time out of his busy morning to talk with my photographer and answer his questions about some of the ballroom’s history. That’s when Ken mentioned the original two-tiered stage from 1959 had been altered when their insurance safety inspector forced them to raise the stage surface to the level of the drum kit riser. Tedford said it was painful to cover the original stage where Buddy Holly once stood, but he had no choice. “The original stage is still there – you just can’t see it anymore. I wish there would’ve been some way to keep the original stage in use, and still meet the safety requirements by the insurance company at the same time.”
Moments before Ken went back to work, he left us with an amazing story that centered around J.P. Richardson, Jr., the Big Bopper’s only son. Ken’s story originated from a show he hosted at the ballroom, which turned out to be one of the anniversary performances headlined by Winter Dance Party re-enactor Johnny Mueller. Tedford’s story went something like this – “Big Bopper Junior was standing on this stage, right where you’re standing, when he looked out at the packed crowd. As he began to speak, the audience grew quiet – you could hear a pin drop. Bopper talked about how he wasn’t born yet when his daddy was killed; and even though he was blessed with his father’s voice, he never got to see him, or be held by him, or hear his dad say, “I love you”. That moment tugged at the heartstrings of everyone in this ballroom and tears were in the eyes of most. Then Johnny Mueller came from backstage and approached Bopper with a telephone in his hand. Just as Mueller was about to hand the phone to J.P., it rang. Bopper put the receiver to his ear and said: “Hellooooo Baby”. The crowd erupted with Chantilly Lace, and it was as though The Big Bopper himself was back at the Riverside. It was truly a magical moment and one I will never forget – Bopper Junior unfortunately died not too long after that night.”
The Riverside Ballroom concert on February 1, 1959 was the second-to-last show ever performed by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper. They were each killed, along with pilot Roger Peterson, a little over 24 hours later when their plane crashed into a frozen cornfield outside of Clear Lake, Iowa.
While the music lived at the Riverside on that cold Sunday night in 1959, the deaths of the three young stars the following night could’ve been a fatal blow to the future of Rock and Roll. Elvis Presley was in the Army. Little Richard had quit Rock and Roll and began singing in the church. Jerry Lee Lewis fell out of favor with fans when he married his 13-year-old cousin. And Chuck Berry was in and out of trouble with the law for most of 1959. Then suddenly, Holly, Valens, and Richardson were gone.
Thankfully, Rock and Roll didn’t die on February 3, 1959. And today, the music lives on through radio, records, and tribute artists such as Johnny Mueller. But just as important, historic venues such as the Riverside Ballroom have been preserved as well; places where interested visitors can walk in the footsteps of those talented musicians and bask in the ambiance of years gone by.
I thoroughly enjoyed our brief time with owner Ken Tedford, whose roots were deeply embedded in the historic Riverside. Beginning in 1978, Tedford washed dishes for the ballroom’s owners John and Anne Kafka, who did remarkable and extensive renovations to the building inside and out after their purchase in 1965. Later, Ken became the ballroom’s head chef, a position he held for many years. Due to his passion for the Riverside and his love for history, Ken Tedford bought the venue in 2004 and has owned it for nearly twenty years.
When the three of us had finished our visit inside the ballroom, Tom rendezvoused with Ken in the lobby where the owner proudly showed my photographer a display case, one he had built to show off some Winter Dance Party memorabilia that was donated. While Tom’s collection at home was more impressive, at least in Vicki’s and my mind, Ken’s display did feature a large handful of cool items from the show at the Riverside Ballroom.
Back in the van at eleven o’clock, it was decision time for my two companions. Tom’s original agenda had us driving south to Madison, Wisconsin, then around Lake Michigan for a scheduled home arrival on Sunday afternoon. Of course, my photographer had a couple dozen sites penciled-in all along that route. Before Vic fired-up the van, however, I was shocked when I heard Tom say: “I don’t think I feel like dealing with Milwaukee and Chicago. Let’s go north and across the Upper Peninsula. We’ll spend the night in St. Ignas, go across the Mackinac Bridge on Friday morning and get to Bay City that afternoon. The twins have a flag football game on Saturday we can watch, which will also give us a chance to celebrate a belated birthday with the boys.” I knew Vicki was as surprised as I was, but she was “all in”.
At precisely 12 noon, we had made it to the Michigan border. While it seemed good to be back in our home state, we were still nearly 500 miles from our house in St. Clair.
There will be one final post to wrap up my 2023 trip to Glacier National Park. While I hadn’t seen a Presidential site since we visited Mount Rushmore on September 18th, Tom surprised me when we stopped at a little-known Presidential home located near the tip of Michigan’s thumb. Please stay tuned – it’ll be a post you’ll likely want to forget about shortly after you read it.
