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24-470: It was adapted by Robert Gittler from Buddy Holly: His Life and Music , the 1975 biography of Holly by John Goldrosen, and was directed by Steve Rash . In 1956, Buddy Holly and his friends, drummer Jesse Charles and bass player Ray Bob Simmons, regularly performed at a local roller rink in Lubbock, Texas , as The Crickets . A local radio station broadcasts the show. Holly plays a country song, then switches to

48-571: A double (standup) bass, then switched to a Fender Precision Bass guitar. After several years with the Crickets, he became a recording engineer at Gold Star Studios , the Los Angeles studio which became the "hit factory" for Phil Spector , Brian Wilson , and other major 1960s rock performers. Mauldin was born in Lubbock, Texas . When he was four, his parents divorced. During his time at Lubbock Junior High, he learned piano, trumpet and steel guitar. He

72-451: A rock and roll song, exciting the teens much to the annoyance of the radio station's sponsor. Station manager Riley tells Holly that Coral Records vice president wants the band to make a recording in Nashville, Tennessee . At the recording studio, Holly walks out when his rock-and-roll vision clashes with the producers, who want The Crickets to play country music. Later, Riley says he sent

96-476: A special premiere in nine different Texas and Oklahoma cities on May 18, 1978, including Holly's hometown of Lubbock and Busey's hometown of Tulsa , before opening in Los Angeles on June 14. The film earned $ 14.3 million on a $ 1.2 million budget. Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four and praised Busey's "remarkable performance as Buddy Holly. If you're a fan of Holly and his music, you'll be quietly amazed at how completely Busey gets into

120-456: A tape of the Cricket's roller rink performance to New York City music producer Ross Turner. Believing the demo tape is a master copy, Turner releases it without realizing the band has no contract. The record is a hit and Holly can now pursue music full time. In New York City, the Crickets meet with Turner; after initial resistance, he agrees that Holly can make music how he wants. Sol Gittler books

144-523: Is frustrated professionally and urges him to go on tour. On February 2, 1959, preparing for a concert at Clear Lake, Iowa , Holly charters a private plane to fly to Moorhead, Minnesota for the next concert after the tour bus has broken down. The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens join him on the flight. The Crickets, feeling nostalgic and wanting to revive the band, plan to join Holly at his next tour stop. After playing his final song, " Not Fade Away ", Holly bids

168-503: Is necessary to remain in New York to stay popular. After appearing on CBS TV on The Ed Sullivan Show , Jesse and Ray Bob return to Lubbock with the agreement that they will retain the Crickets name. Though saddened by their departure, Holly carries on writing. He initially fears performing without them despite his manager emphasizing that touring is necessary to chart success. Holly is delighted when Maria becomes pregnant, though she sees he

192-464: Is no lip-synching to someone else's voice, no feigning with the fingers to somebody else's strumming. Busey does it all himself, and it is one of those rare and stunning performances in which the person of the actor himself is totally lost to sight in his creation of someone else." Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote, "Gary Busey invests the title role with a personal charm so original and an emotional dedication so exhilarating that he seems to lift

216-514: The Academy Award for Best Adaptation Score by Joe Renzetti . Busey was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and Tex Rudloff , Joel Fein , Curly Thirlwell and Willie D. Burton for Best Sound . Robert Gittler Robert Gittler was an American writer best known for writing the screenplay for The Buddy Holly Story , an Oscar -winning (for its music ) motion picture. Gittler committed suicide in 1978, two days before

240-596: The Apollo. After an uncomfortable start, Holly's music soon wins over the audience and the Crickets are a hit. Turner's secretary, Maria Elena Santiago , catches Holly's eye but their budding romance is nearly ended when her strict aunt refuses to allow them to date. Holly convinces her to change her mind and on their first date, Holly proposes to Maria. She accepts and they are soon married. After two years of success, Ray Bob and Jesse, feeling overshadowed by Holly and wanting to return to Texas, decide to quit while Holly believes it

264-512: The Crickets for the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem , assuming they are a black band. He is stunned when three white Texans show up and he refuses to let them perform, fearing the audience's reaction. Holly points out that Gittler's telegram specifies that they only have to be in New York City for a week to be paid $ 1,000, so Gittler nervously allows them to perform, the first white act to perform at

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288-688: The Crickets, he became a recording engineer at Gold Star Studios , the Los Angeles studio which became the "hit factory" for Phil Spector , Brian Wilson , and other major 1960s rock performers. Mauldin was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame in Lubbock and the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, as an original Cricket. In 2012, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as

312-456: 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. While the story follows Buddy Holly from age 20 to 22 (1956 to February 1959), Busey was 33 when he played the role. Charles Martin Smith auditioned for the role of Buddy, but since Busey already had been cast,

336-457: The character." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "There are a lot of actors in 'The Buddy Holly Story' — some of them very nice — but the movie is really a one-man show. It's Gary Busey's galvanizing solo performance that gives meaning to an otherwise shapeless and bland feature-length film about the American rock-and-roll star who was killed in a plane crash in 1959." Gene Siskel gave

360-458: The crowd farewell. A caption reveals that Holly, Valens and the Bopper died in a plane crash that night "... and the rest is Rock 'n Roll". The actors did their own singing and played their own instruments, with guitarist Jerry Zaremba overdubbing the guitar parts. Busey, in particular, was noted for recording the soundtrack music live and for losing a considerable amount of weight in order to portray

384-401: The film either. Being interviewed and involved in the production of director Richard Spence's documentary 'The Real Story of Buddy Holly', McCartney decided after seeing the film to make a more accurate account of what happened. In a Rolling Stone interview, executive producer Ed Cohen, director Steve Rash and producer Freddy Bauer defended inaccuracies in the movie, pointing out the budget of

408-540: The film four stars out of four and wrote, "In a year in which we are inundated with films featuring rock music, 'The Buddy Holly Story' probably will turn out to be the best. That is because of Busey's galvanizing performance." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The heart and soul and power of 'The Buddy Holly Story' is the uncanny, marrow-deep, robust, exhilarating, likable, superlative, overwhelmingly convincing portrayal by Gary Busey ... For once there

432-432: The material off its somewhat pedestrian feet." The Buddy Holly Story holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.3/10. The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list. Peggy Sue Gerrow Allison Rackham, to whom the song "Peggy Sue" was written, called the film "typical Hollywood, gobbledygook fantasy". Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney wasn't positive about

456-400: The movie was only two million dollars. "Whatever we put up there on the screen will be the truth", commented Bauer. "Ask moviegoers who invented the telephone. They'll tell you that Don Ameche did." According to Rolling Stone , the three major complaints concerned the portrayal of Holly's family, the treatment of the Crickets and the omission of Norman Petty , Holly's producer. The film won

480-417: The producers cast Smith to play Ray Bob Simmons because they liked his audition. Simmons and Jesse Charles were character names used in place of Joe B. Mauldin and Jerry Allison , two of the actual Crickets (1956 to early 1958 Cricket Niki Sullivan , performing on 27 of the 32 songs Holly recorded, is not shown). The incident in which a Buffalo disc jockey locked himself in a studio and repeatedly played

504-552: The same song over and over was loosely based on real-life stunts orchestrated by disc jockey Tom Clay (and repeated a few years later by Danny Neaverth ), who held up Buffalo's Shelton Square by playing Bill Haley & His Comets ' " Rock Around the Clock " repeatedly from the top of a billboard, and by Joey Reynolds , who locked himself in a studio playing " Sherry " by The Four Seasons for several hours; those incidents, however, had no relation to Buddy Holly or his music. The film had

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528-474: The skinny Holly. According to Busey's biography, he lost 32 pounds to look more like Holly, who weighed 146 pounds at the time of his death. The actor's 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

552-479: The theatrical release of The Buddy Holly Story . This article about an American screenwriter is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Joe B. Mauldin Joseph Benson Mauldin, Jr. (July 8, 1940 – February 7, 2015) was an American bassist, songwriter, and audio engineer who was best known as the bassist for the early rock and roll group the Crickets . Mauldin initially played

576-741: Was one of the founding members of the Crickets , the others being Buddy Holly , drummer Jerry Allison , and guitarist Niki Sullivan . The first rock band he played in, starting in 1955, was a Lubbock group named the Four Teens. He appears to have recorded with this band (which included recording artist Terry Noland) in Dallas, prior to his recording with Buddy Holly in Clovis, New Mexico . After Holly's death in 1959, Mauldin played on and off as an original Cricket with J.I. Allison, Sonny Curtis , Glen D. Hardin , and occasionally Niki Sullivan. After several years with

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