January 14, 1955: Alan Freed Hosts New York's 1st Rock and Roll Concert

January 14, 1955: Alan Freed, disc jockey on WINS, 1010 on the AM dial, hosts New York City's 1st rock and roll concert, at the Saint Nicholas Arena. The demand for tickets is so strong, a 2nd show is booked for the following night.

Freed did not coin the term "rock and roll," but he was the first person to use it to describe the form of music itself, thinking it a better term than "race music," "jump music," or even "rhythm and blues" (R&B).

In 1952, he hosted what's recognized as the 1st rock and roll concert anywhere, at the Cleveland Arena. In 1954, WINS brought him to New York to be the Big Apple's 1st white DJ to play rock and roll.

His critics said he was corrupt, that he took money to play certain records. It was true. It was equally true that, if he didn't like a record, he wouldn't play it no matter how much you offered him. He kept a copy of the Manhattan phone book in the studio, and, if he thought a record had an especially good beat, he would pound his fist on the phone book, to make the beat even better.

Both nights of the show were sold out, and featured Big Joe Turner, the Moonglows, Fats Domino, and the original, Clyde McPhatter-led lineup of the Drifters. Unfortunately, no audio recording, no film, and no photograph of these shows is known to exist.

Despite the all-black concert lineup, and the name reminiscent of St. Nicholas Avenue, the Arena was not in Harlem. It was at 69 West 66th Street, off Columbus Avenue, now across from Lincoln Center. It was built in 1896 and was The City's first major skating rink, and America's premier hockey venue before the 1925-1968 version of Madison Square Garden, what came to be known as "The Old Garden," was built.

It continued to host boxing cards until 1962, when ABC bought it, used it as a production center, and tore it down in the 1980s to build their new studios. WABC-Channel 7's Eyewitness News, and Live (with Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Kelly Ripa, and so on) are taped there. So were Good Morning America and The View, before their moves to bigger studios. So were the now defunct The Rosie O'Donnell Show and The Rachael Ray Show.

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January 14, 1955 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA, including a doubleheader at the Boston Garden. In the opener, the New York Knicks beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 97-83. In the nightcap, the Boston Celtics beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 100-95.

And the Milwaukee Hawks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 86-84 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. The Hawks couldn't draw in Milwaukee, and, the next season, moved to St. Louis. In 1968, they moved to Atlanta. The Pistons moved to Detroit in 1957, and the Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1968.

There was 1 game in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-2 at the Chicago Stadium. Most likely, if either the Knicks or the Rangers had been playing at The Garden that night, the Freed concert still would have sold out.