"This is Alan Freed, the ole king of the moondoggers. Welcome to sold-out Cleveland Arena" - Alan Freed (3/21/52)...
You could just smell trouble, big trouble, when the oversold Cleveland Arena opened its doors or to be accurate, had it's doors broken down by the unruly crowd that came in record numbers to witness the "Moondog Coronation Ball" hosted by WJW disc jockey Alan Freed on a chilly March night in 1952. By some estimations more than 25,000 had flooded an arena that held 10,000. The show was promoted by record store owner Leo Mintz who provided the cash to pay for a lineup of mostly non-descript R&B acts. The only known act was Billy Ward and the Dominoes with a bunch of lesser knowns (Paul Williams & his Hucklebuckers, Tiny Grimes, Danny Cobb, Varetta Dillard and as the poster added, "many others", of which, one was Screamin' Jay Hawkins)...
The surging crowd started a riot that Cleveland's finest and bravest would be called in for and they promptly shut down the bar and had Freed make that unpopular announcement on stage. The show was then shut down and Freed wound up on his knees after his protest to keep the show going to the police was denied and a scuffle left the "King of the Moondoggers" gasping for breath. This could have signaled the end of Alan Freed's radio career but what happened the following night turned in the disc jockey's favor...
Freed started his WJW show asking his listeners to call the switchboard and tell the operator either "I'm with the Moondog" or "I'm not". He made a vow to his listeners that if most of the calls were against him he would leave the air. Of course phone calls were overwhelmingly in favor of Freed, he stayed in Cleveland before leaving for WINS in New York 2 years later, in 1954. Freed would add "Rock 'n' Roll" to our vocabulary, become the "King of Rock & Roll", expose the genre of music to untold millions and rule the airwaves until trouble showed up again with the arrival of the payola investigations a few years later...
More March 21 Memories...
1788) Nearly all of New Orleans is destroyed by fire (856 buildings and shops burn to the ground)...
1902) In New York City, 3 Park Avenue mansions are destroyed when a subway tunnel roof collapses...
1928) President Calvin Coolidge gives the Congressional Medal of Honor to Charles Lindbergh for his 1st trans-Atlantic flight...
1939) "God Bless America" is recorded by Kate Smith...
1946) The U.N. sets up temporary headquarters at Hunter College in Manhattan...
1946) One year before Jackie Robinson breaks the color barrier in baseball, halfback Kenny Washington becomes the 1st black player in the NFL when he's signed by the Los Angeles Rams...
1952) What's is referred to as "the 1st Rock & Roll show" is (almost) held at Cleveland Arena (see feature story)...
1963) Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould walk down the aisle...
1963) Alcatraz Prison in the San Francisco Bay closes...
1964) The Beatles are #1 with "She Loves You"...
1964) Coach John Wooden wins the 1st of his 10 NCAA titles at UCLA with a 98-83 victory over Duke...
1964) Judy Collins makes her debut in Carnegie Hall...
1965) More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators are led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on a march from Selma to Montgomery, AL...
1970) Yugoslavian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj shows us "the agony of defeat" on ABC-TV's "Wide World of Sports"...
1970) "ABC" by the Jackson Five is released (and every New York station not having the "ABC" call letters ever uses the title of the song on air)...
1975) Frankie Valli is #1 with "My Eyes Adored You"...
1980) President Jimmy Carter announces to the world that the U.S. Olympic team will not participate in the Summer Games in Moscow in a boycott against Soviet intervention in Afghanistan...
1984) "Jump" puts Van Halen at the top of the singles chart...
1987) Dean Martin Jr. dies in a plane crash while in the Air National Guard...
1994) Bruce Springsteen wins a "Best Original Song" Oscar for "Streets of Philadelphia" from the movie "Philadelphia"...
2002) In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh is charged with murder for his role in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. 3 other Islamic militants in custody are also charged as accomplices...
(To ensure accuracy of dates and content, mulitple reference sources are used in the timeline)...
Happy Birthday To...
1940) Solomon Burke...
1946) Timothy Dalton...
1951) Russell Thompkins Jr. (falsetto lead singer of the Stylistics)...
1962) Rosie O'Donnell...
1962) Matthew Broderick...
Commentary...
Some of the factors in the "Moondog Coronation Ball" riot:
- Having a bar at the arena...
- The show was scheduled for 10pm to 2am on a Friday night (hello !)...
- The lure of a live radio show...
Interestingly enough the poster used to promote the show contained the following description, not once but twice: "The Most Terrible Ball of Them All". An apt description...
(Today is the 80th day of 2006 with 285 days remaining in the year and just 11 days until opening day)...
