Now here's where we get to the stretching point. As I said, I honestly don't remember the specific performers in that show, but a year or two later - specifically in February of 1959 - that same friend who'd talked me into going to the show came up to me and asked if I'd heard about Buddy Holly dying in a plane crash. I had, and of course I knew of him and his music, but then the friend said, "Wasn't he in the rock and roll show that night? You know, in the Crickets?"
Buddy toured (and recorded) under various names - as a solo, or as Buddy Holly and The Crickets, or just as The Crickets - but the group would have been less well-known at the time of the show, and besides that I didn't remember the names of most of the acts. There had been no printed programs and I probably wasn't paying that much attention to the names, anyway. But unless someone knows for sure that the Crickets were not touring the Midwest around 1957, I guess I'll always think that I might have seen them in person, and can almost even remember them singing "Oh, Boy" — or maybe not. Either way though, that night at the show was a musical eye-opener for me.
The second time occurred almost thirty years later. By then, the big theater had deteriorated, closed, and then been reopened as a bargain movie house. The old lady was still pretty elegant even if a little run down and showing her age, with 
chips in the sculptures and peeling paint on the walls, and it was said that sometimes you could see bats flying around way up near the ceiling. I kind of liked it though, and one day I decided to go see Amadeus, which had already made the rounds of the regular theaters. I hadn't bothered to see it before because at that time my interest in classical music was minimal, mostly just enjoying a little of the lighter stuff from the Boston Pops or even Ferrante and Teicher. I figured a movie about Mozart would be boring to the extreme, but I had nothing better to do so decided to risk a dollar.
Article comments
1 - alessandro nicolo
Classical music is not music. It's the manifestation of the human soul to its extreme heights. It must have been something to see Holly. I''m 34 and still see the value in his work. Buddy Holly and rock'n roll are one and the same.
2 - alessandro nicolo
Silly me. I neglected to add nice, nostalgic article by the way.
3 - Big Geez
RE: "It must have been something to see Holly."
I only wish I remembered the details of the show more clearly - specifically the Crickets - but I do remember how the show affected me, so I guess that's important too.
Thanks for the comments, Alessandro...