The Buddy Holly Story

For the Buddy Holly album, see The Buddy Holly Story (album)

For the musical about Holly, see Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story

The Buddy Holly Story
The Buddy Holly Story DVD cover
Directed by	Steve Rash
Produced by	Fred Bauer Edward H. Cohen Frances Avrut-Bauer Fred T. Kuehnert
Written by	Novel: John Goldrosen Story: Alan Swyer screenplay: Robert Gittler
Starring	Gary Busey Don Stroud Charles Martin Smith Conrad Janis Paul Mooney
Music by	Joe Renzetti
Cinematography	Stevan Larner
Editing by	David E. Blewitt James Seidelman
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	May 18, 1978
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$14,363,400 $6,400,000 (rentals)

The Buddy Holly Story is a 1978 biographical film which tells the life story of rock musician Buddy Holly. It stars Gary Busey, Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith, Conrad Janis, William Jordan, and Maria Richwine, who played Maria Elena Holly.

The film was adapted by Robert Gittler from Buddy Holly: His Life and Music, the biography of Holly by John Goldrosen. It was directed by Steve Rash.

Plot

The film opens with Buddy Holly's beginnings as a teenager in Lubbock, Texas and his emergence into the world of rock and roll with his fictional good friends and bandmates, drummer Jesse Charles (Don Stroud) and bass player Ray Bob Simmons (Charles Martin Smith), soon to be known as The Crickets. Their first break comes when they are brought to Nashville, Tennessee to record, but Buddy's vision soon clashes with the producers' rigid ideas of how the music should sound and he walks out. Eventually, he finds a more flexible producer, Ross Turner (Conrad Janis), who, after listening to their audition, very reluctantly allows Buddy and the Crickets to make music the way they want.

While there, he meets Turner's secretary, Maria Elena Santiago (Maria Richwine). His budding romance with her nearly ends before it can begin, when her aunt initially refuses to let her date him, but Buddy persuades her to change her mind. On their very first date, Maria accepts his marriage proposal and they are soon wed.

A humorous episode results from a misunderstanding in one of their early bookings. Sol Gittler (Dick O'Neill) signs them up sight-unseen for the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, assuming from their music that they're a black band. When three white Texans show up instead, he is stunned, but unwilling to pay them for doing nothing, he nervously lets them perform and prays fervently that the all-black audience doesn't riot at the sight of the first all-white band to play there. (In real life, that distinction belongs to Jimmy Cavallo and The House Rockers, who played at that venue in 1956.) After an uncomfortable start and an initially hostile crowd, Buddy's songs soon win them over and the Crickets are a tremendous hit. Gitler books them to come back several times.

After two years, Ray Bob and Jesse decide to break up the band, feeling overshadowed by Buddy and not wanting to relocate to New York City. Initially, he is saddened by their departure, but he soldiers on. When Maria announces that she is pregnant, Buddy is delighted.

On February 2, 1959, preparing for a concert at Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly decides to charter a private plane to fly to Moorhead, Minnesota for his next big concert. The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens join him on the flight. Meanwhile, the Crickets, feeling nostalgic, appear unexpectedly at Maria's door, expressing their desire to reunite the band. They plan to surprise Buddy at his next tour stop. After playing his final song, "Not Fade Away", Holly bids the crowd farewell with "Thank you Clear Lake! C'mon. We love you. We'll see you next year". A caption then reveals the deaths of Holly, Valens, and the Bopper in a plane crash that night...and the rest is Rock and Roll.

Cast

Actor	Role
Gary Busey	Buddy Holly
Don Stroud	Jesse Charles (based on Jerry Allison)
Charles Martin Smith	Ray Bob Simmons (based on Joe B. Mauldin)
William Jordan	Riley Randolph (Lubbock D.J.)
John F. Goff	T. J. (Nashville Producer)
Amy Johnston	Cindy Lou
Conrad Janis	Ross Turner
Albert Popwell	Eddie Foster
Fred Travalena	'Madman' Mancuso (Buffalo, New York D.J.)
Jack Denbo	New York Cabbie
Maria Richwine	Maria Elena Holly
Dick O'Neill	Sol Gittler
Freeman King	Apollo M.C.
Paul Mooney	Sam Cooke
Jerry Zaremba	Eddie Cochran

Production

The actors did their own singing and played their own instruments live during the filming, with guitarist Jerry Zaremba overdubbing the guitar parts. Busey, in particular, was admired by critics for recording the soundtrack music for the film live and losing a considerable amount of weight in order to portray the skinny Holly. According to Busey's biography, he lost 32 pounds to look more like Holly, who weighed 146 lbs at the time of his death. His accurate portrayal was aided by knowledge gained from a previous attempt to film part of the Holly life story, the ill-fated Three-Sided Coin, in which he played Crickets drummer Jerry Allison (the film was cancelled by 20th Century Fox due to pressure from Fred Bauer and his company, who had made deals with the Holly estate). The screenplay of Three-Sided Coin (by Allison and Tom Drake) revealed many personal details about Holly, and Busey picked up more during off-set conversations with Allison.

The film follows Buddy Holly from age 19 to 22 (1955 to early 1959). Gary Busey was actually 33 when he played the role. Charles Martin Smith, who played Ray Bob Simmons, auditioned for the role of Buddy, but since Busey had been cast, the producers cast him as Simmons because they liked his audition.

Awards

The film won the Academy Award for Best Adaptation Score. Busey was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Tex Rudloff, Joel Fein, Curly Thirlwell and Willie D. Burton for Best Sound.

External links

• The Buddy Holly Story at the Internet Movie Database
• The Buddy Holly Story at AllRovi
• The Buddy Holly Story at Rotten Tomatoes