Winter Dance Party Cedar Rapids 59

Buddy Holly Final Concert Surf Ballroom Poster (1959). It was 'the Day the Music Died" -- the infamous plane crash that took the lives of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J. D. "Big Bopper" Richardson." The three performers, along with fellow headliner Dion DiMucci and Buddy's new band members Waylon Jennings (playing bass), guitarist Tommy Alsup, and drummer Carl Brunch, had just played a show at the Surf Ballroom in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Conditions on the "Winter Dance Party" tour bus were miserable; the bus was constantly breaking down, and the lack of heating resulted in both Richie Valens and Big Bopper coming down with colds. Buddy's decision to avoid the bus and charter a plane to Moorhead, Minnesota, the next stop of the tour, turned out to be a tragic one, as was the coin flip that gave Valens a seat over Tommy Alsup, and Richardson talking Waylon Jennings out of his seat.
The final show in Cedar Lake was a last-minute addition to the tour, leaving very little time for promotion. Only an ad in local newspapers and radio spots announced the show. At the town's high school, a few posters, printed in black and blue ink and using an enlarged version of a generic flyer for the tour (also used for the newspaper ad), were prepared to hang at the venue. This poster is on of them, secured from the wall of the club by a young fan. The poster measures approximately 10.75" x 17".