Fifty Years Ago, to the Day

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, "The Big Bopper," on their Winter Dance Party tour, played the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Then they went to the Mason City airport. They boarded an airplane to go to Fargo, North Dakota, the nearest airport for the next stop on their tour, Moorhead, Minnesota.*

Winter Dance Party

Wikipedia entry, The Day the Music Died

* Wikipedia says it was Duluth. Someone clue me in.

Edited: someone already has. The Wiki for the Surf Ballroom confirms it was Moorhead.

[mediaman007]

1. It was Moorhead, MN. I think that they were in Duluth before they

went to Iowa.

[virgogal]

2. I actually remember that day. God,it's been fifty years?

[virgogal]

3. Dup----sorry.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

4. I thought it was Clear Lake, Iowa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_lGx3UPpMw

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Clear Lake

is where the Surf Ballroom still is. That's where they played their last show. Try Google images for "Winter Dance Party" to see posters from the tour. At the end of that show, they headed off to the Mason City airport to fly to the next stop, which the second poster in this thread has informed me was Moorhead, Minnesota.

[madeline_con]

5. Edit the Wiki article if it's wrong. No biggie.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. I just did.

Reluctantly, I add, as I am no expert on the subject. The Wiki for Surf Ballroom, though, says the flight was headed to Fargo, which is the airport for Moorhead. There was an internal conflict in Wikipedia.

[tularetom]

8. I remember it like it was yesterday

I was a senior in HS and we were coming back from an away basketball game. My sister picked me up at the school and told me. I wasn't a real big fan of music then and I wasn't sure who these guys were.

But for some reason I have a clear memory of that night. Maybe it's because we had snow flurries, something that happens maybe every 5 years here in central CA.

[Odin2005]

9. Yep, it was Moorhead. Folks here in Moohread never fail to correct people about TDTMD.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. As sad as that was, it has always bothered me that they call it

The Day the Music Died.

Bullshit.

Look what came just a few years later - THE BEATLES.

And I have always thought that even if all those wonderful musicians had not died that day, The Beatles still would have been more significant in music history.

[serrano2008]

11. Actually February 2, 1959...must not have remembered it that well.

I'm nitpicking here but your post was on Feb. 1st which is the day they played Green Bay, WI.

They played Clear Lake, IA on Feb. 2nd and the plane took on at 12:05am on Feb. 3rd.