Recent performance photo of Tommy Allsup, guitarist for Buddy Holly in 1959 and former member of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys band. Image courtesy of Nick Barber, via the Voices of Oklahoma oral history project.
Screen shot of www.VoicesofOklahoma.com oral history project. When you go to the site, please note the "Listen to the Interviews" menu link in the upper left hand corner of the screen and the green "LISTEN" button on the right side. You will then have a "detached audio player" and you can scroll through the various segments of the interview. Works quite well, once you get the hang of it.
On the night of Feburary 2, 1959, a single-engined 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza airplane was chartered at a fee of $36 per passenger to fly most of the troupe the 380 miles from the Mason City, Iowa, airport to Hector Airport in Fargo, North Dakota. The pilot was 21-year-old Roger Peterson, who worked for Dwyer Flying Service of Mason City. At the time, Peterson was studying for his instrument flight rating (IFR) and was reportedly not yet certified for flight into weather that would have required operation of the aircraft solely by reference to the plane's instrumentation. Despite popular belief to the contrary, there was no blizzard at the time the plane departed the ramp and taxied to then-Runway 17 at around 12:55 A.M. Central Time on Tuesday, February 3rd. Only light snow was falling at the time with a ceiling of 2,000 feet.
The plane crashed at 170 miles per hour in a cornfield less than 6 miles from the airport. The pilot, Valens, Richardson and Holly were all killed.
As you will learn in Erling's interview, Tommy Allsup had one of those four places on the plane but Ritchie Valens wanted it. To decide who would go on the plane, Allsup said to Valens: "I'll flip ya for the remaining seat." As he says in the interview, Allsup pulled out a half-dollar and said, "Call it, Ritchie." The coin came up "heads" and Valens went instead of Allsup. That's way he tells it in the interview with Erling.
There is, however, another version of that "coin toss" story. According to a current Wikipedia article, Bob Hale, a DJ with KRIB-AM, was working the concert that night and flipped the coin in a stage-side room at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Bottom line, though, had Allsup won instead of Valens, you wouldn't be able to hear the guitarist tell his story today. I go with Allsup's version; after all, he was there.
"The Bopper," Richardson, had the flu and asked Waylon Jennings for his seat on the plane. After Holly had learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly with him, he said, in jest: "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up" and Jennings responded, also in jest, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." This conversation would haunt Jennings for the rest of his life. (Source: Erling interview and Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia)
In his interview with Erling,Allsup talks about the historical facts in the music industry at the time of the deaths of these young superstars, and how the tragedy prompted Don McClean's 1971 hit album and single: American Pie.
(L-R) Bob Wills, Tommy Allsup, Johnnie Lee Wells (circa 1958), originators of the true "Western Swing" music the Wills' band was famous for. Image used with the permission of the Voices of Oklahoma oral history project.
You'll want to take a little time and listen to all the parts of Erling's interview with Allsup, available on the Voices of Oklahoma website. You can get there by clicking here. The actual web address is www.VoicesofOklahoma.com. Trust me, if you're a fan of one of the performers who were killed on that tragic flight, or of Bob Wills and Texas Playboys, and would like to learn more about Tommy Allsup's role in all of this rock-n-roll and Texas Swing musical history, by all means listen to John's outstanding interview.
John Erling
John Erling was the host of "Erling in the Morning," the top-rated morning talk show on KRMG Radio in Tulsa for over 25 years, retiring in September of 2005. He was a pioneer in talk radio in North Dakota, hosting the afternoon program What's Your Opinion? on WDAY Radio, Fargo, ND, for a number of years back in the late 1960s and 70s. His colleague, Bob Aronson, hosted the morning talk show on WDAY, Viewpoint, during the same period. I was privileged to work with both of these outstanding broadcasters during that period.
Minnesota born, John is now the chief interviewer and producer of the Voices of Oklahoma oral history archive and has interviewed dozens of famous Oklahomans, such as Allsup, Oral Roberts, and many others. My thanks to John for calling my attention to this recently completed addition to the oral history of his adopted state.
