March 21, 1952: The 1st Rock and Roll Concert

Alan Freed hosting the Moondog Coronation Ball

March 21, 1952: The Moondog Coronation Ball is held at the Cleveland Arena. It is now widely regarded as the 1st rock and roll concert -- and the 1st example of backlash against rock and roll.

It was hosted by Alan Freed, a disc jockey at Cleveland radio station WJW, 850 on the AM dial. He hosted a classical music show, until he met Leo Mintz, owner of Record Rendezvous on Prospect Avenue, on the East Side, which was, and remains, mostly black. Mintz was selling records made by black performers to both black teenagers and white teenagers.

For songs like this, there were various terms used: "Race music," "jump music," and "rhythm and blues," or "R&B" for short. Mintz agreed to sponsor Freed's show, if Freed would play these records. The words "rock" and "roll," sometimes close together, were used in many of the songs, and while it is disputed whether Mintz or Freed was the first person to call the entire genre of music "rock and roll," it seems pretty clear that, together, they started it.

Freed called his show "The Moondog House" and himself "Moondog." It proved so successful that Mintz agreed to produce and promote an entire concert of the new music. It would be called "The Moondog Coronation Ball," and Freed was sure it could sell out the 10,000-seat Cleveland Arena.

The lead act was Paul Williams. Not to be confused with other musical personalities with that name -- including one of the original Temptations and the diminutive singer-songwriter of the 1970s -- he was a saxophonist whose playing style presaged that of many who went on to use the instrument in rock and roll, including Rudy Pompilli of Bill Haley's Comets, and King Curtis, best known for his work on The Coasters' records.

In 1949, Williams hit Number 1 on the R&B chart with "The Huckle-Buck," a dance tune that would later be recorded by Kay Starr (her version is the one Jackie Gleason and Art Carney danced to on The Honeymooners) and Chubby Checker. The song was so successful, for the rest of his life -- though possibly also to avoid confusion with the other Paul Williamses -- he was billed as "Paul 'Hucklebuck' Williams." (At some point, "Hucklebuck" became one word.) He also had a hit with "The Twister," a precursor to "The Twist" by Hank Ballard and Checker.

Another act on the bill was Billy Ward and his Dominoes. In 1951, they had a Number 1 R&B hit with "Sixty Minute Man," which some have called "the first rock and roll record." That group had Clyde McPhatter, before he formed The Drifters. After Clyde left, he was replaced by a man who would go on to even bigger solo success, Jackie Wilson.

Also on the Moondog bill were Tiny Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders (black men who sang in Scottish-style kilts), male soloist Danny Cobb, and female soloist Varetta Dillard.

$1.75 in 1952 would be about $18.74 today.

History, relatively cheap.

But there was a problem: More tickets were printed than the Arena held seats. And they were sold. At 10:00 PM, Williams and his band went on, and played their set. Contrary to legend, the show was not stopped after their set, much less after their first song.

Valena Williams (no relation to Paul) covered the show for the Cleveland Call and Post, a black newspaper, still in business although published only weekly. She confirmed that the Hucklebuckers played their entire set, and that Tiny Grimes and the Highlanders did begin playing.

They could hardly be heard, because there was a noise outside the Arena that had worked its way inside: Fans with extra tickets got in, perhaps 6,000 of them. Valena Williams wrote that 99 percent of the attendees were black, so if Freed was hoping for an integrated audience, his hopes were not met. The Police shut the show down at 10:30, for fear that there might be a riot. There wasn't one: Although some doors were broken down, there was no fighting, and no damage inside the Arena.

The next day, on the air, Freed delivered an apology. Cleveland's self-appointed moral arbiters tried to frame the event as a "riot," but there was no riot. The Cleveland Police Department arrested no one. No injuries were reported. The 1st backlash against rock and roll turned out to be a lie, although, to this day, there are those who say the Ball ended in a riot.

Nevertheless, Freed's popularity, and that of the music, soared. He continued to play rock and roll, and began to call himself "The King of the Rock-and-Rollers." With a particularly beaty song, he would pound his fist on a telephone book, making the sound even beatier.

In 1954, he was brought to New York by WINS, 1010 AM, and took the Big Apple by storm. But his role in the 1960 "payola" scandal and his heavy drinking brought him down. Rock and roll has never really died, but Alan Freed did, in 1965, only 45 years old.

Mintz expanded his record store into a chain, and was still running it when he died in 1976, at age 65.

The Cleveland Arena stood at 3717 Euclid Avenue, about 2 miles east of Public Square. It opened in 1937, and was the home of the American Hockey League's Cleveland Barons from then until 1974. In the NBA's 1st season of 1946-47, the Cleveland Rebels played there. The Cleveland Cavaliers moved in for the 1970-71 season, and the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association did so in 1972.

In 1988, the film Heartbreak Hotel premiered, taking place in 1972, and featured a concert by Elvis Presley at the Arena. Elvis did once sing at the Arena, but early in his career, on November 23, 1956. He gave only one concert in Ohio in 1972, and that was in Dayton.

The Arena was replaced by The Coliseum, in the suburb of Richfield, Ohio, in 1974, and was torn down in 1977. The Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross now occupies the site.

In 1986, because of its status as the location of the 1st rock and roll concert, Cleveland was selected as the location of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, although it took until 1995 for the actual museum to open. In voting taken by the Hall's board, Memphis was a distant 2nd.

Since 1992, a Moondog Coronation Ball, featuring early rock and roll acts, has been held in Cleveland ever year; since 1994, at the arena now named the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. By now, the acts are tribute performers, since the original rock and rollers are now either dead or elderly.

Since 2001, Cleveland's 850 AM has hosted all-sports radio station WKNR.

On July 4, 1954, Varetta Dillard, who didn't get to take the stage at the Moondog Coronation Ball, was among the acts at the 1st rock and roll concert in New Jersey, at Patrylow's Grove Park in Kenilworth, Union County. Among the other acts were Roy Hamilton, Sonny Til & The Orioles, and Nappy Brown. Dillard lived until 1993.

Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams lived until 2002, and may have been the last survivor of the principals of the Moondog Coronation Ball.

*

March 21, 1952 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. And no games were scheduled in either the NBA or the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.