My photographer and his wife woke to the alarm clock at 7:00am on Friday August 3, 2018 and as they got themselves ready for the day, I kept thinking to myself: “Come on, let’s go”. Tom had planned a very ambitious day that was filled with movie sites, a football stadium, and a visit to Ritchie Valens’ hometown of Pacoima. Film locations are always cool with me and I was looking forward to seeing the Rose Bowl, but after having been to the Surf Ballroom and the plane crash site in Clear Lake, Iowa a few years back, I was busting at the seams to pay homage to the late, great Ritchie Valens.
We arrived at our first site of the day around 8:35am after a 14-mile ride from our motel in Simi Valley. As I was carried from the Mustang to the youth baseball field in Chatsworth, I was confused as to why we had stopped there. After listening to Tom talk about some of the movie characters, it dawned on me that we were at the field used in the filming of the 1976 movie ‘Bad News Bears’. The baseball field looked totally different than it did 42 years earlier when the movie was made. Gone were the wooden dugouts and the grass infield. There was no outfield fence or scoreboard; and the concession stand was missing as well. I was carried onto the field and as my photographer toed the pitching rubber, I thought to myself: “It was right here where Amanda Whurlitzer fired her blazing fastball”. We stood at home plate, which was where the cigarette smoking/motorcycle riding Kelly Leake blasted a few of his homeruns. Then we ventured into the third base dugout where Bears’ manager Morris Buttermaker said to his sad-sack benchwarmer Timmy Lupus: “Listen, Lupus, you didn’t come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya? Now get your ass out there and do the best you can.”
With the images of the Bears’ 11 and 12-year-old players guzzling beer after their season-ending loss to the Yankees still fresh in my mind, we got back into the Mustang for the short eight-mile drive to Mission Hills. While we had six Ritchie Valens sites to visit in the area, it was the first one – his gravesite – that would prove to be the saddest. Once we had driven through the entrance to San Fernando Mission Cemetery where Ritchie Valens had been laid to rest after his tragic death on February 3, 1959, Tom easily directed his wife to the singer’s gravesite. As I stood silently inside the camera case, I was carried to the polished black marble headstone that marked the final resting place of Richard Steven Valenzuela and his mother Concepcion. First, my photographer captured a handful of images of Valens’ grave. Then Tom pulled a large spoon out of a pocket in the camera case; he knelt alongside the singer’s headstone and scooped out a small bottle-full of dirt for his showcase. As a final tribute to Valens, who was 17 years old when he was killed in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson, Tom used his phone to play three songs near the gravesite. The first tune was called ‘Donna’, which was recorded on December 16, 1958 and was written for Ritchie’s girlfriend Donna Ludwig. That was followed by ‘Come On, Let’s Go’ – the tune that was inscribed on Ritchie’s tombstone. But it was the third song that Tom played, however, that tugged at my resin-filled heartstrings. As the words to Eddie Cochran’s ‘Three Stars’ filled the air, I envisioned Ritchie as he boarded the 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza in Mason City, Iowa. Less than five minutes after the plane left the ground as the musicians headed for Fargo, North Dakota, the small aircraft plummeted into a barren corn field – it cartwheeled across the frozen field for 540 feet before it came to rest against a fence line. All four occupants of the airplane were killed instantly.
As we walked back to the Mustang, I could envision in my mind’s eye the plane wreckage outside of Clear Lake, Iowa as Ritchie’s body laid face down in the snow-covered corn field. Eddie Cochran’s song ‘Three Stars’ was still ringing in my resin-filled ears and if my painted eyes could have shed a tear that morning, it would have been for Ritchie Valens – a true rock and roll pioneer whose death robbed the world of true greatness. “Ritchie, you were just starting to realize your dreams; Everyone calls me a kid, but you were only seventeen. Now Almighty God has called you, from oh-so far away; Maybe it’s to save some boy or girl, who might have gone astray. And with your star shining through the dark and lonely night; To light the path and show the way, the way that’s right. Gee, we’re gonna miss you, everybody sends their love.”
Not too long after Richard Valenzuela became Ritchie Valens in May of 1958, the singer used some of his recording money to purchase a new house for his mother and his family. That home, located just over three miles from the cemetery, was where my photographer had Vicki drive for our next stop. When we parked on Remington Street across from the house, my cameraman carried me up to the white picket fence that surrounded the property. A couple of large orange trees concealed a portion of the home, but not enough to completely hinder our view. The Valenzuela’s owned the home for about thirty years after Ritchie bought it, but the singer’s tragic and sudden death made it difficult for Concepcion to live in the house and she moved in the mid-60s. As Tom was capturing a handful of images of the famous dwelling, I peeked out of the bag and envisioned the party that was held there just before Ritchie headed to Chicago for the start of the Winter Dance Party Tour. Little could the family have known that rock and roll’s young star was just a few weeks from falling from the sky.
Located less than two miles from the home that Ritchie Valens had bought for his mother was the first of two schools that we visited that day. The San Fernando High School was once attended by Ritchie and throughout his high school career he would play his guitar for fellow students during assemblies and after-school parties. During his junior year at San Fernando High, Valenzuela joined a band called the Silhouettes and the group quickly became a local favorite. Vicki parked the Mustang along the street near the front of the high school; my photographer carried me in his camera case to an area near the entrance where he captured a few photos. Due to his popularity and recording demands, Valens dropped out of high school at the start of his senior year. Besides Ritchie Valens, a handful of other famous celebrities had attended San Fernando High. Those famous celebrities included comedians George Lopez and Cheech Marin; along with football star Charles White.
The two of us returned to the Mustang where Vicki drove us north for less than a mile where we found the San Fernando American Legion Post 176. It was at that American Legion Post where Richard Valenzuela was discovered. In January 1958, Ritchie’s band The Silhouettes was performing at the Post and they were taped by a talent scout who was working for Bob Keane. A few months later, Keane signed Ritchie to his newly formed Del-Fi record label; he changed Richard’s name, and the rest is rock and roll history. After he captured a couple of exterior images of the American Legion hall, Tom wanted to venture inside. He knocked on the locked door a few times, but with no success. My photographer’s goal was to get inside and find a veteran who could guide us to the location where Ritchie played in 1958. But on that day, we had to settle for exterior shots.
We had one Ritchie Valens site left to visit in the area; one that was 2.5 miles from the American Legion Post. Both my photographer and I were excited to see the Pacoima Middle School because not only did Ritchie Valens attend school there, Tom had also made arrangements with staff member Dawn Greene to give us a tour of the campus. During our drive to the school, my photographer and his wife found an amazing mural that was painted onto the side of a building where R&R Auto Sound was located at 13433 Van Nuys Boulevard. The mural was called ‘The Day The Music Died’ and was created in November 2012 by talented artist Levi Ponce. From my position in the camera case, I heard my photographer say to his wife when we returned to the Mustang: “That’s the most amazing and lifelike mural I have ever seen in my life. The artist who created that masterpiece has some serious talent and it’s a great tribute to those who died in that plane crash.”
We arrived at the Pacoima Middle School around 10:15am and Vicki parked the Mustang on a side street near the school. After we entered the building, we searched for Dawn Greene who had agreed to take the three of us on a tour. Inside her office, Dawn showed us her personal record album that was recorded at the school’s auditorium on December 10, 1958. The album, which was released about two years after it was recorded, was called ‘Ritchie Valens in Concert at Pacoima Jr. High’ and was the only live performance of Valens ever recorded. Greene assured my photographer that he would see the auditorium where the concert was recorded during our tour.
During the first part of our school tour, we saw a mural that depicted the life of Ritchie Valens – the young singer who had begun to grow his professional talents at that junior high school. School alumnus and talented artist Manuel Velasquez painted the mural on June 15, 1985. From the area where the mural was located, Dawn led us to a field behind the school that played a huge part in the life of Ritchie Valens. On January 31, 1957, a DC-7B transport plane collided in mid-air with a Northrop F-89J Scorpion jet trainer plane and the debris fell to earth on the Pacoima Junior High School playground where about 220 boys were just ending their day’s athletic activities. Two boys, Ronnie Brann, 13, and Robert Zallan, 12, were struck and killed by the wreckage. A third gravely injured student, Evan Elsner, 12, died two days later in a local hospital. At least 75 other students were injured, but 15-year-old Ritchie Valens was attending his grandfather Frank Reyes’ funeral at the time of the disaster and was not at school. Since a few of his friends were injured or killed in the catastrophe, Ritchie developed a fear of flying – one that he had to outgrow at the outset of his professional career. As I was carried onto the athletic field behind Pacoima Junior High, it was as though I could see the smoldering debris scattered all around us. I became a bit nervous when a helicopter flew overhead; even though I knew lightning wouldn’t strike twice in the same place. Then again, stars don’t fall from the sky, either.
Saving the best for last, Dawn Greene led the three of us from the playground to the auditorium where Ritchie Valens performed on December 10, 1958. When we walked into the building, I could easily see the stage on one end of the large room. Four wooden steps led up to the stage that was concealed with a purple curtain. As my photographer carried me up the steps, we got a close-up look at the wooden surface of the stage and there was no doubt everything was original to 1958 – which was also confirmed by Ms. Greene.
Ritchie had returned home following a tour of Hawaii when he gave his afternoon concert at his former school. The small show was emceed by Gail Smith, who also used her small portable tape recorder to record Valens’ show that featured Ritchie on guitar and Don Phillips on drums. Ritchie began the five-song set with ‘Come On, Let’s Go’, followed by ‘Donna’, ‘Summertime Blues’, ‘From Beyond’ and he ended the historic performance with his hit ‘La Bamba’. Once Dawn Greene opened the curtain, which revealed the school’s secret that the stage area was used for summer storage, Tom and I stood there and thought about Ritchie Valens – his life and his legacy. As we looked out towards the large near-empty room where Vicki and Dawn stood on the multi-colored tiled floor, it was almost as though I could hear Ritchie ending his set with ‘La Bamba’ as it echoed off the walls. Little did anyone know, as he walked off that stage for the last time, that their local hero had less than two months to live. Although Ritchie Valens packed a lot of living into 17 short years, it’s sad to think how one coin flip had robbed the world of pure musical genius. And that’s not intended to slight Tommy Allsup, the guitar player who was originally slated to fly with Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings. Allsup lost the coin flip to Ritchie, along with his seat on the plane, after their concert at the Surf Ballroom on February 2, 1959.
Dawn Greene was an amazing host who gave us her time as we toured Ritchie’s Pacoima Junior High School. It was an experience that I will never forget and I’m sure the visit is forever imbedded in my photographer’s mind as well. Three years ago, Tom and I stood on the stage at the Surf Ballroom and envisioned Buddy, Ritchie, and the Bopper as they played their final show. On that day in Pacoima, which was some 1,800 miles southwest of Clear Lake, Iowa, the two of us had the exact same feeling as we honored the memory of Ritchie Valens.
When we returned to the Mustang, Tom set the car’s flux capacitor to 1955 for our journey Back to the Future. There were a handful of movie sites that the three of us wanted to see in South Pasadena before our scheduled 1:30pm tour of the Rose Bowl. I couldn’t understand why my photographer didn’t set the time machine for December 10, 1958 and he could’ve asked Ritchie Valens to call “tails” during his upcoming Surf Ballroom coin flip. After a 25-mile ride from Pacoima to South Pasadena, we found ourselves standing in front of George McFly’s house from the movie ‘Back to the Future’. While that house was cool, there was a site that was located a short distance from George’s house that played a huge part in the movie. It was the tree that “Peeping Tom” George McFly had fallen from as he watched Lorraine Baines change her clothes. As we stood alongside the famous tree that had one branch extending over Bushnell Avenue, I had hoped Tom would attempt to climb up onto the branch so we could get the same view that George had. But there was no way that my photographer was going to get his fat butt up into that tree, so we settled for the street view. That was okay as we still had a good view of the Baines’ house and we could easily see Lorraine’s second-story bedroom window where I envisioned, in my resin-mind’s eye, Marty’s future mother as she changed her clothes. At that moment I realized I must be a “Peeping Tom” too. There was one other movie site located on Bushnell Avenue that we had wanted to see – Biff Tannen’s grandmother’s house where the antagonizing bully had lived.
We had visited the homes of George McFly, Lorraine Baines, and Biff Tannen from ‘Back to the Future’ in South Pasadena. My photographer placed me in the back seat of the Mustang and we headed north to Pasadena where we found the home of arguably the greatest character in all of the ‘Back to the Future’ movies – Emmett “Doc” Brown. Since it was only a four-mile drive, there was no need to use the flux capacitor or to try and get the Mustang up to 88 mph. Once we arrived in the area of the Gamble House, it was hard to find a parking place close to the site; and we quickly found out why. While the other three houses that we had visited in South Pasadena were regular residences, movie director Robert Zemeckis decided to use the historic Gamble House for the exterior shots of “Doc” Brown’s house. The Gamble House was built in 1908 and was the home of David B. Gamble of Proctor and Gamble fame. The house remained in the Gamble family until 1966 when they turned it over to the city of Pasadena. The three-story, five bedroom home was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977 and was open for tours. Since we had only an hour before our Rose Bowl tour was scheduled to begin, there was no time to tour the Gamble House – which was okay with my photographer and me because only the exterior of the home was used in the movie anyways.
When we finished our exterior tour of “Doc” Brown’s house, we had less than one mile to get from 1955 to 2018 and the Rose Bowl. There was no way that my photographer wanted to be anywhere near the famed stadium in 1955 as that was the year the Ohio State Buckeyes beat the USC Trojans 20-7 on New Years Day. However, if the flux capacitor in the Mustang could’ve taken us to 1978, that would’ve been an entirely different story. It was on January 2, 1978 when my photographer, Bob Moldenhauer, and Bob Kreusel bought scalped tickets in front of the stadium; only to witness their Michigan Wolverines get upset by the Washington Huskies 27-20. So, for Tom, this was a reunion of sorts with the Rose Bowl – the last time he was here, my photographer was only 21 years old, and he had his entire adult life in front of him.
Vicki parked the car in the designated parking lot and we met our tour guide named Kathy a few minutes before our scheduled 1:30pm start time. We began our private VIP tour in an elevator that took us to the upper levels of the stadium where we toured luxury boxes, visited the press box, and then got our first glimpse of the field. At first, we were disappointed that the lines were missing from the grid-iron, and the goal posts were nowhere in sight; but we understood why they were missing as some sort of show was scheduled for that evening. After an elevator ride back to ground level, we toured the 1922 locker room, which had been turned into a small Rose Bowl Museum. Then we walked down the tunnel to field level where Kathy led the three of us out to the center of the football field. We spent roughly ten minutes standing on the 50-yard line before we headed for the present-day locker rooms. After an in-depth visit in the home and visitor locker rooms, we went out to the front of the stadium where my photographer and his wife posed beneath the famous Rose Bowl logo. The final segment of our tour was a visit to the Court of Champions that honored the participants of every Rose Bowl game – starting with the 1902 game when Michigan defeated Stanford 49-0.
Vicki loved the tour of the Rose Bowl as it was her first time seeing the historic stadium in person. My photographer loved the tour as well, and at one point during our visit, Tom pointed out the approximate location where he sat during the 1978 game. At that moment, my photographer described to his wife and the tour guide his recollection of heartbreak when he saw Wolverines’ Quarterback Rick Leach’s pass bounce off Stanley Edwards’ helmet and into the hands of Huskies’ defender Michael Jackson with 1:28 left in the game. That play, which occurred on the three-yard line, sealed the 27-20 defeat for the two-touchdown favorite Michigan Wolverines.
As the clock on the Mustang’s dashboard hit 4:00pm, I heard my photographer as he talked into his cell phone: “Siri, driving directions to 14522 Pepper Tree Circle, Tustin, California.” That was the home address of Tom and Vicki’s good friend Tom Currier who had invited the three of us to stay at his house while we were in Southern California. Although it was only a 48-mile drive to Tustin, the usual congested L.A. area Friday afternoon traffic caused the trip to take longer than we had hoped. Siri’s directions took us past Disneyland and Anaheim Stadium until we finally got to Tustin. Vicki parked the Mustang in front of Mr. Plumber’s house at about 5:45pm and we were greeted by Tom and his wife Rhonda; oh, and their dog Macy.
After we settled down in the Currier’s spare bedroom, I was placed on the wall shelf above the foot of the bed. It had been a long day, and I knew that my photographer and his wife were tired. For the past four months, Tom Currier had been planning a NASCAR party for the California members of the fantasy league that my photographer leads. The Road Hog Meet and Greet get-together was scheduled to begin at 3:00pm on Saturday and I knew that “my” Tom was anxious to meet the folks that he’s been writing about for the past three years. Hopefully they were equally as anxious to meet him – and maybe me, too!
