Buddy Holly's Last Tour

Didn't know how bad conditions were and why he took the plane

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/38282249.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4OW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsl

 

Damn. That was a great read. I thought it ended a bit quick, but still. Thanks for the link.

 

Maria Elena Holly, his widow, has always accused Norman Petty of embezzling money from Buddy's earnings and making that winter tour necessary.

Poor Waylon never got over losing Buddy like that, although he'd emerge from his sadness as the "lonesome, orn'ry and mean" man that Nashville came to love and hate.

The real Peggy Sue is alive and still lives in Lubbock, btw.

 

I've seen other photos of the plane crash that are horrible to look at. These photos actually show the bodies strewn all over the ground. It's not a pretty sight.


I agree with 'Gola. Good story, but it ended rather abruptly. It might have been good if the writer would have gotten the people she interviewed to talk about where they were when they heard of the crash and how it affected them.

 

Odd line from the story, as if from a Colbert skit:


He recalls arriving at the scene to find the guys "complaining about the cold and scared of bears."


----

Also, from coroner's report:

Personal effects, Charles Holley

Cash $193.00 less $11.65 coroner's fees - $181.35 2
cuff links, silver 1/2 in. balls having jeweled band Top portion of ball point pen.

 

The coin toss was not last minute like in the movies. It happened at a concert venue well before takeoff.

It's a good article though. Those boys officially died in a plane crash, but it was poor management which killed them.

 

Am I stupidly missing something here? That crammed quite a lot into eight grafs, but, still, eight grafs? There's a much more comprehensive story in the latest Texas Monthly. Saw it on a newstand, but online all I could access was this:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2009-02-01/feature4

(Mini rant: Is it possible to see at least one story about Buddy Holly's death without some sort of reference in the head to the day the music died? It's such an easy crutch it's become a cliche'.)

 

The story is five internet pages long. You have to keep clicking at the bottom.

 

There are two bodies in the main picture in that story, linked here.

Buddy Holly is just right of centre (looks like a white or grey blanket) and Ritchie Valens is the dark figure at about 3 o'clock.

Larry Lehmer wrote a great, wonderfully detailed account of the tour and the crash. He interviewed pretty much everyone there was to interview, with the exception of Maria Elena. He talked to others on the tour, including Waylon Jennings and Dion, he talked to family members of the deceased, he talked to promoters and fans from the various concerts. He even talked to the people who lived in the farm houses that the plane almost crashed into right before it hit the ground.

http://www.amazon.com/Day-Music-Died-Bopper-Ritchie/dp/0825671736

By the way, the graphic is exactly right in calling it "the tour from hell." Check out the itinerary. Whoever laid it out that way needed their balls slammed in a vice over and over again. Seriously. The criss-crossing of the midwest is bad enough by itself, let alone trying to drive those roads in vehicles with no heat and having not one single day off. It's insanity. It's a wonder more of them didn't die.

 

Doh!

 

One of my former publishers was the cops reporter in Mason City at that time and was on the scene of the crash that morning. He said it was not pretty.

I've been the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake. It's a neat old venue.

 

Actually, Holly thought he was such a genius that he bet everybody he could teach a drunk monkey to fly the plane.