Feb. 3, 1959 was the morning when the world woke up to the news that Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and a young pilot, Roger Peterson had perished following a light plane crash. In many ways, it truly was “The Day The Music Died,”’ as Don Mc Lean’s song, American Pie, characterized the event.

“It was a death knell for the innovators of rock n’ roll, when you put it into context,” said Sevan Garabedian, a film documentary maker. “Elvis Presley was in the armed services, Little Richard had turned his back and gone into the ministry, Chuck Berry was in jail on the Mann Act, Carl Perkins never fully recovered from the car accident, and Jerry Lee Lewis was out of favor for marrying his 13-year old cousin.”

“Then, comes the plane crash. Other artists stepped into the gap, but they weren’t dangerous to social norms, and of course, the Sinatras, Perry Comos, and the like, came back into prominence on the popular music scene.”

Garabedian has been working on a documentary of the 1959 Winter Dance Party, visiting the extant sites to gather interviews from attendees, view and collect memorabilia, conduct research on musicians, and forging new friendships along the way. Some of the items obtained are mind-boggling such as locating the only known photographs from the Clear Lake, IA show at the Surf Ballroom.

However, he also noted the Winter Dance Party did not end in that Iowa cornfield with the crash, as the other members of the troupe played that evening in Moorhead, MN, with an altered line-up of headliners. “It carried on to the rest of the scheduled cities under a new banner, ‘The Shower Of Stars,’ with Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and others jumping in.”

On Valentine’s Day 1959, that grouping came to the Peoria Armory, the city’s gathering place at the time for major events including music shows, professional wrestling cards, and even, the Illinois State High School Basketball Championships. That evening, teenagers crowded the facility to see their music idols, a national craze in their own hometown.

Garabedian met attendees of the show last May, while conducting interviews for his research. A touch of history coincided with the meetings which were held at the famed Pere Marquette Hotel in the center of town, the same lodgings that the tour stayed at overnight

“I was 16, and ‘The Big Bopper’ was one of my favorites…he had been killed in a plane crash, and rock and roll was a big thing with a whole generation coming alive,” said Kathy Shumaker. “We learned the show was going on, with replacements, and we went to the evening performance, got into our seats with all these kids around, just hollering and screaming.

“They (performers) came up the center aisle, and you could reach out and touch them. I was close to the stage and brought my Hawkeye camera, so just started shooting. It was a safe time, you could go to these things and they were here, in Peoria, so it was a big thing.”

Joyce and Bob Thompson attended the show as a young married couple, with Joyce recalling, “We (wanted) to see the gentlemen in the crash, and then heard the show was on, with replacements including Fabian, who was really hot at the time.” Bob said, “The Bopper was our favorite, and we heard about the crash on the radio.”

With the National Guard, firemen, and the police trying to keep order, Dave Turbett added, “Someone sang Frankie Ford’s ‘Sea Cruise’ and that’s all I remember now. It was a big hit, he wasn’t there but someone covered it.”

The performers headlining that night were the Fabulous Fabian, Frankie Sardo, Dion and the Belmonts, Jimmy Clanton, and The Crickets, Buddy Holly’s back-up group with a young Waylon Jennings and Tommy Alsip. Billed as a “Two Hour Session,” with afternoon and evening performances, the event was sponsored by radio station WIRL.

“I’m still looking for people that attended any of the shows across the Midwest, and urge them to contact me (sevan1@sympatico.ca), so I can continue to complete the research,” said Garabedian. “This is a great undocumented piece of social and music history, lending itself more to the truth than urban legends and misinformation.”