Buddy Holly: Biography (64 page)

On research trips, perfect strangers who became fast friends include Beverly Simpson, Jack Fretwell, and John Greene of Winchester, Virginia; Jerry Barnes of Tifton, Georgia; and Laura Mead of Thomasville, Georgia. In New York, where I saw the delighful British musical
Buddy,
Stanley Bard of the Chelsea Hotel extended a warm welcome and arranged for comfortable quarters, as always.

Shelley Winters continues to enrich my life with love and steadfastness, as do Nell Crisante, Pat Loud, Tyler Hardeman, Jack Larson, Eugenia Trinkle, Kent Henderson, Judy Feiffer, Richard Howard, Florence Rome, Joseph LeSueur, Bill Jamison, Esther Mitgang, Linda Gravenites, Cindy Langford, and Allston and Pepper James.

Several friends died in the years I worked on this book: James Bridges, the brilliant, ever-young director of
Paper Chase, China Syndrome,
and
Urban Cowboy,
and lovable Sam Mitnick, with whom I worked in perfect harmony when we were executives at Dell Publishing Company and later at G. P. Putnam’s Sons. And I’ll miss the laughing voice of the late Joyce Rogers, my dearest friend since college days at Texas Christian University and Columbia University and author of
The Second Best Bed: Shakespeare’s Will in a New Light.
Joyce died on Christmas Eve 1994. Her spirit still guides me. I owe the greatest thanks, of course, to the higher power who guides us all, when we’re in touch, and even, sometimes, when we’re not. Years ago my friend Steve West gave me a crucifix. It has been on the power drive of my computer ever since.

Notes

Full bibliographic details are given in the Bibliography.

Abbreviations

AC: Alan Clark

ACOB: “A Celebration of Buddy Holly: The Legend Moves On”

AP: Associated Press

BB: The Big Bopper

BBH:
Big Beat Heat

BG: Bill Griggs

BH: Buddy Holly

BHMS: Buddy Holly Memorial Society

BHTLL: “Buddy Holly: The Legend and Legacy” by William J. Bush,
Guitar Player
magazine, June 1982

BM: Beverly Mendheim

BW: Bruce Wilcox

CA: Carroll Anderson

CB: Carl Bunch

CLMR:
Clear Lake Mirror-Reporter

CW: Charles White

CT:
Chicago Tribune

DD: Dion DiMucci

DE: Don Everly

DLF: Donna Ludwig Fox

EH: Ella Holley

FM: Fred Milano

G&B: Goldrosen and Beecher

GBOF:
Great Balls of Fire!
by Myra Lewis and Murray Silver

GP:
Guitar Player
magazine

HG: Hans Goeppinger

IC:
Iowa Connection

JA: Jerry Allison

JB: John Beecher

JBM: Joe B. Mauldin

JG: John Goldrosen

JJ: John Jackson

JN: Jack Neal

JP: Jeremy Powers

JT: Jeff Tecklenburg

JW: Jim Weddell

KF: Ken Fuson

KJ: Ken Johnson

KL: Kurt Loder

LAJ:
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

LDM:
London Daily Mail

LH: Larry Holley

LK: Lois Keeton

LL: Larry Lehmer

LOH: L. O. Holley

LR: Little Richard

LW: Larry Welborn

MCGG:
Mason City Globe-Gazette

MEH: Maria Elena Holly

ML/MS: Myra Lewis and Murray Silver

MS: Mark Steuer

NP: Norman Petty

NS: Niki Sullivan

PM: Paul McCartney

PE: Phil Everly

PN: Philip Norman

PS: Peggy Sue Gerron Allison Rackham

P&T: Jeremy Powers and Jeff Tecklenburg

QOR:
The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock
by Charles White

RK: Robert Knight

RV: Ritchie Valens

VP: Vi Petty

RB:
Remembering Buddy

RBHS: Paul McCartney’s
Real Buddy Holly Story

RES: Ralph E. Smiley

R50:
Rockin’ 50s
magazine

RM:
Reminiscing
magazine

ROA:
Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll
by Ed Ward, Geoffrey Stokes, and Ken Tucker

RP: Roger Peterson

SC: Sonny Curtis

TA: Tommy Allsup

TBIK: “The Buddy I Knew!” by Larry Holley

TC: Tinker Carlen

TGBH: “The Guitars of Buddy Holly” by William J. Bush,
Guitar Player
magazine, June 1982

TRSI:
The Rolling Stone Interviews

TW:
The Wanderer
by Dion DiMucci and David Seay

WB: William Bush

WJ: Wayne Jones

WJEN: Waylon Jennings

WJRBH: “Waylon Jennings Remembering Buddy Holly” by William J. Bush,
Guitar Player
magazine, June 1982

Prologue

“Forget about that movie”: Author interview with LH.

“well-built” … good looking”: Quoted by Lou Antonicello in BG, “Duane Eddy and BH,” RM, p. 11 (undated clipping).

then called juvenile delinquency: Author interview with TC. LH says BH took various musical instruments belonging to him, which were kept in the Holley home, to raise money.

He got into fights: Author interviews with RK, LW, TC.

who carried a chain: Author interviews with LH, TC.

far more Rabelaisian: Author interview with TC.

fathered an illegitimate offspring: Author interview with NS; PN, “Secret BH: Honeymoon in Acapulco and PS Came Too,” LDM, 9/1/94, p. 52.

dance in juke joints: Author interview with NS.

racially and bisexually: CW, QOR, p. 84 (copyright page lists Richard Wayne Penniman as copyright holder).

little-known orgy:
Ibid.;
author interview with SC.

[ingrained Texas prejudices: Author interview with LH (BH “didn’t like [a famous rock ’n’ roll star, who] had a bigoted attitude, like Buddy used to be”).

yet crafty as a fox: Author interviews with TC and LH (TC: BH shoplifted and on one occasion took money from a child; LH: BH lifted some musical instruments from the Holley home. JA in G&B, RB, p. 138: although BH wouldn’t deliberately have cheated JA and JBM, BH possibly was in arrears to them; there may have been occasions when BH failed to give JA and JBM their share of tour earnings, but JA adds that there were also times when BH paid them amounts in excess of their actual earnings.

his manager’s wife: Author interview with NS; PN, “Secret BH: Honeymoon,” p. 52.

“got it on” with:
Ibid.

He proposed to his: Author interview with MEH.

religious fervor temporarily derailed Little: Lazell, Reed, Crampton,
Rock Movers & Shakers,
p. 301.

Scandal damaged Jerry Lee’s: ML/MS, GBOF, pp. 1–2,
passim.

unmercifully hounded Berry: Berry,
Autobiography,
pp. 203–11.

smashup sidetracked Perkins: Stambler,
Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul,
p. 515; Stallings,
Rock ’n’ Roll Confidential,
p. 86.

the church, the police, the press: JJ, BBH, pp. 200–203, 205–206.

harrowing travel conditions: Author interviews with MEH and HG; Ward, Stokes, Tucker, ROA, p. 194; DD, TW, p. 87; TA, RM 15, p. 13; Dodge,
Not Fade Away,
pp. 160–61.

film biography after his: Flippo, “BH Story,” quoted in G&B, RB, p. 170.

devout fundamentalist Christian: Author interviews with KJ, LH; “What We Believe,” Tract #406, Tabernacle Baptist Church: “We are fundamental.… We are premillenial”; Bynum, “Superstar:
Jesus Christ Superstar
Critically Examined in the Light of the Bible,” Tract B-401, Tabernacle Baptist Church.

condemned rock as evil: TBIK; Bob Church, BG, RM 27, p. 7.

helped shape the new musical: Keith Richards, RBHS; Cott,
RS Illustrated History of Rock & Roll,
p. 81; Duffy, “’50s,”
Life,
12/1/92, p. 44.

top of the drive-in: illustration, Hi-D-Ho, 6419 University Avenue, Lubbock, Texas; author interviews with Sherry Holley and Shannon Hughes; Jan Fulton qtd. in BG, “Jake Goss: BH’s Barber,” RM 25, Winter/82, p. 13.

“Uncle Buddy used to: Author interview with Sherry Holley.

a fire in the belly: EH quoted in RM 43, 7/86, p. 4; EH qtd. in RM 11, 7/79; G&B, RB, p. 23.

high spirits: PE told KL that Buddy was so drunk he had to be helped home in “The Everly Brothers,” TRSI, p. 146.

Chapter 1

“We all sorta spoiled him,”: Author interview with LH.

he began to cry: TBIK.

hard-shell Baptists: “What We Believe,” Tract 406: “Five words … set forth what we believe …
Baptist, Fundamental, Premillennial, Missionary, and Independent
 … The Anti-Christ will be manifested here upon the earth and the seven years of tribulation shall begin”; G&B, RB, p. 22.

first of them to graduate: “516 Lubbock Graduates to Get Diplomas at Ceremony Today,” LAJ, 5/27/55; author interview with LH.

as little as $12: Dave Skinner, “A Meeting With Mr. and Ms. Holley on June 12, 1969,” RM 43, 7/86, p. 4.

from job to job: LAJ, AM edition, 7/10/85.

September 7, Labor Day: EH quoted in BG, “Mrs. Holley,” RM 4, 9/77, p. 5. It was also Dollar Day in Lubbock, EH added; BH high school English theme quoted in G&B, RB, p. 27.

at 1911 Sixth Street: BG, “Tour Schedules, Television Appearances, and Recording Sessions of Buddy Holly,” unpublished, 6/29/91, p. 1.

dawned cloudy and overcast: References to Lubbock weather throughout: LAJ, 1936–1959.

the time Buddy arrived: 3:30
P.M.
, to be precise: EH quoted in BG, “Mrs. Holley.”

English and Welsh descent: BG, RM 27, Summer ’83, p. 3.

one-fourth Cherokee:
Ibid.

Claremore, Oklahoma: O’Brien,
Will Rogers,
no publisher or city listed, book found in Tift County Library, Tifton, Georgia, p. 23.

of his Cherokee heritage: Rogers,
Autobiography of Will Rogers,
p. 18.

“My ancestors didn’t come: O’Brien,
Will Rogers,
p. 24.

1927, and Patricia in 1929: G&B, RB, p. 13.

“too long for such: quoted in ACOB.

smiling towheaded: BG, RM 14, 3/80.

mother taught him “Have:
Buddy Holly: A Rock-’n’-Roll Collection,
double LP, MCA 24009; IC.

he was five, he won: BH letter to Paul Cohen, 3/2/56, quoted in RM, 3/82, p. 28; reproduced in G&B, RB, p. 36.

County Line, a rural: IC.

himself on the violin: BH letter to Cohen, 3/2/56.

didn’t like to study: EH quoted in “Buddy Holly: The Man,” IC.

Holley children to excel: TBIK.

Holley’s twin sister: BG, “Buddy in Bronze,” RM 17, 12/80, p. 5.

“Right after Iwo Jima: BHTLL, p. 76; Travis Holley, ACOB.

taught Buddy how to: BHTLL,
Ibid.

acoustic Epiphone:
Ibid.;
TGBH, p. 84.

“made a clean sound,”: Quoted
Instant Recall
TV program.

banjo and mandolin: BHTLL, p. 76.

belting “Love Sick Blues,”: TBIK.

more interested in chasing:
Ibid.

on sleeping between them:
Ibid.

“infectious laugh. He just: Author interview with LK.

“Because I can see:
Ibid.

peroxided his hair: Author interview with LH.

“King and Queen of: BG, RM 30, Spring 1984, p. 26.

Wayne Maines brought his: TBIK.

Mahalia Jackson’s “Move On: G&B, RB, p. 124.

The Baptist gospel singer: Schwerin,
Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel,
passim.

precursor of rock: Wexler and Ritz,
Rhythm and the Blues,
p. 85.

“a bigoted: Author interview with LH

Gatemouth Page’s radio: G&B, RB, p. 16.

Bluegrass has been: Stambler and Landon,
Encyclopedia,
p. 477.

“big hams … push”: Quoted in BG, “Mrs. Holley,” p. 2.

electronics store temporarily: G&B, RB, p. 48.

notorious C&W novelty: Malone,
Country Music U.S.A.,
p. 225.

PTA open-house: G&B, RB, p. 18.

“really impressed,”: Quoted in BG, “JA—Part One,” RM 23, 6/82, p. 7.

Jerry played Fats Domino’s:
Ibid.;
“Allison Recalls How Music Grew,” MCGG, 2/1/89.

Booker T. Washington: Yanak and Cornelison,
Great American History Fact-Finder,
pp. 404–405.

small black kitten: EH qtd. in BG, “Mrs. Holley,” p. 3.

“I was ten years: Author interview with LH.

“stole, cussed, and chased: Author interview with TC.

“choked to death:
Ibid.

often drove to Mexico: Author interview with Charlie “Slob” Evans.

“crotch crickets”: Author interview with TC.

“I went down and got fucked:
Ibid.

Buddy’s first sexual encounter:
Ibid.

“grandmother’s house,”:
Ibid.

stopped for gas at:
Ibid.

“wondered if Buddy had: Author interview with LH.

“Baptists seem like…”:
Ibid.

never lost his spirituality: Author interviews with LH and PS. PS: “BH was gifted with the white light of Christianity. Music is the food of the soul. Buddy comes from the radiance of the white light of God.”

underlined his copy of: I found BH’s copy of this New Testament book in a box of his memorabilia which BG kindly permitted me to handle and inspect in Lubbock. It was among items the Holley family gave to BG.

always kept a copy: BG’s Holly memorabilia collection,
Ibid.

trials, temptations, troubles: Rice and Martin, eds.,
Soul-Stirring Songs & Hymns,
p. 369.

“Take it to the Lord:
Ibid.

“I think I’m going: Author interview with TC.

newly discovered pleasures of sex:
Ibid.

“I’m ashamed of a lot [and subsequent dialogue with TC]:
Ibid.

baptized by Ben D. Johnson: Author interview with KJ.