By James and Ellen Perry
It was a cold cloudy morning February 3, 1959. The best I can remember it was on Wednesday morning, and my brothers and I were at home. Our mom was at home cleaning the house, as she had been laid off for a short period from her job at Knox Porcelain Plant. I had our Philco radio tuned to WIVK in Knoxville.
An announcer cut into the record that was playing and said that Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens had been reported killed in an airplane accident in Iowa. My mother told me in her most direct command to turn that radio down, it was too loud.
I sat there listening to the announcer trying to conceive of the news that three of the most famous and liked teen idols were dead. The news was confirmed later that morning. It had been six years since Hank Williams had died unexpectedly and this was three very popular young stars. Back in 1959 we did not have satellite news coverage, no cell phones, no Facebook.
All we had for video of this news was Chet Huntley and David Brinkley on NBC Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. Maybe they would have video of this tragic accident. It would be years before Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens fans would know the true story of what happened that night of February 3, 1959, at 1 a.m.
Buddy Holly had separated from his band the Crickets and Norman Petty, who owned a recording studio in Clovis, New Mexico, where up until their recording separation, Buddy Holly had done all of his commercial recordings.
Buddy had moved to New York City and married Maria Santiago, started with acting lessons, got an apartment for Maria and himself, set up his next and last recording session at Decca’s Pythian Temple for a four-song session with 18 members of NBC’s Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dick Jacobs, for October 21, 1958.
Norman Petty became enraged by Buddy Holly leaving Texas and relocating to New York City and recording at Pythian Temple and held up on paying Buddy Holly his royalties from his prior hits recorded with Norman Petty.
Buddy was running low on money caused by his move from Texas to New York City, his leasing an apartment, his acting lesson’s cost and overhead. Maria was also two months pregnant.
Buddy had become close friends with Don and Phil Everly and also Paul Anka.
The Everly Brother took Buddy under their wing, convinced him to dress better and keep a clean haircut. The Everly Brothers also taught him how to always be friendly and to always sign autographs after a concert.
Paul Anka had phenomenal success from the age of 16 when he wrote and recorded a song written about Paul’s babysitter as a child.
That song from was “Diana” which went international #1 in 1957. Paul was a few years younger than Buddy Holly and the Everlys. Paul wrote a song for Buddy Holly to record at Pythian Temple Studios on his October 21, 1958, session which was “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore.” The song was released by Coral, which was a Decca subsidiary, after Holly’s death in 1959.
Paul knew that Buddy’s wife, Maria, would need money. So, Paul instructed the music publisher to give all his writer royalties to Buddy’s widow, Maria Elena. Paul Anka was a true friend as the writer’s royalties could reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The four songs recorded at Pythian Temple that October of 1958 were:
1. True Love Ways - by Buddy Holly
2. Moon Dreams - by Norman Petty
3. Raining in My Heart - by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant
4. It Doesn’t Matter Anymore - by Paul Anka
Because of Norman Petty’s holding up Buddy’s royalties Buddy had to go on tour again. Buddy worked with the tour promoter in getting singers and would use Buddy’s band to back each singer. The singers were:
1. Jackie Sardo - Show Opener
2. Buddy Holly - International Recording Star
3. Dion and The Belmonts - National Star
4. J.P. Richardson “The Big Bopper” - National Star and Writer
5. Ritchie Valens - Seventeen New National Star
6. Bobby Vee, Jimmy Clanton, Fabian and Frankie Avalon all performed
This tour was to cover 24 cities in the upper Midwest and the winter weather there was very cold. Daytime was at or below 20 degrees F. and nighttime would drop to -10 degrees F. The buses chartered for the tour were retired from commercial use and broke down almost daily. The heaters did not work properly. So, everyone on board was constantly very cold. The drummer Carl Bunch had to spend some time in a hospital caused by frostbitten feet.
Conditions with the buses were so bad that Buddy Holly chartered an airplane from Dwyer Flying Service to fly him and two more to Fargo, North Dakota, after the concert at Clear Lake, on February 2, 1959. It wound up that the two entertainers to fly with Buddy Holly were the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens because they had flu symptoms. The pilot was a 21-year-old Roger Peterson who had logged over 700 hours but did not have an instrument rating.
Dwyer Flying Service was not sanctioned by the FAA to conduct flights under instrument flight rules. Roger Peterson was married with children. He had been up all day February 2, 1958, and the Beechcraft Bonanza with Roger Peterson, Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens did not take off from the Mason City, Iowa, airport until 1 a.m. Just one hour after midnight on February 3, 1959, Peterson took off into deteriorating weather with a 3,000-foot ceiling, and the airplane had a Sperry Gyro Artificial Horizon which I doubt Peterson was familiar with, and the NTSA investigation found the Sperry Artificial to be caged or locked so it would not give any information.
That, coupled with snow showers, being not able to see the natural horizon, led to the plane flying into a cornfield three to four minutes after liftoff.
The airplane did not cause the accident, it was caused by Peterson not being taught and passing an instrument flight written and flying test and not taking time to do a proper pre-flight check of the airplane. The Sperry instrument should not have been caged. A proper pre-flight would have prevented this.
Peterson being only 21 and probably thinking he was bulletproof, and being on duty for most likely 19 hours without proper sleep is asking for trouble. Your mind is not alert and when situations go bad you’re thinking and reasoning process takes too long. Especially in a 180-mph airplane.
This scenario has happened so much with entertainers and most incidents follow along with what happened from Mason City, Iowa, airport on February 3, 1959.
Here are a few examples:
1. Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins - March 5, 1963 - 6:29 p.m. EST
2. Jim Reeves, Dean Manual - July 31, 1964 - 4:50 p.m. EST
3. Lynyrd Skynyrd Band members & flight crew - October 20, 1977 - 6:51 p.m. CST
4. Ricky Nelson, band members, girlfriend - December 31, 1986 - 5:14 p.m. CST
5. Otis Redding, band members, pilot, assistant - December 10, 1967
All of the above died in aircraft accidents caused either by lack of proper training, not being properly checked out in fast airplanes, pilots not properly checking fuel on board before departing and inadequate maintenance.
Today entertainers employ professional pilots with intensive training or type certification in the aircraft that they are flying. Because you are a super star entertainer that does not qualify you in aviation. The lessons were hard taught but thankfully today the fatal accidents have made entertainer’s aviation safer. We have lost so much talent since February 3, 1959.
See you next month.