“America has solely three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Eachthe place else is Cleveland.” That observation tends to be attributed to Tennessee Williams, although it’s change into somewhat indifferent from its supply, so deeply does it resonate with a certain experience of life within the United States. However consider this: can each American metropolis declare to be the place rock and roll started — or no less than the positioning of the very first rock and roll concert? Cleveland can, due to Alan Freed, a well-known radio announcer of the 9teen-forties and fifties. The Moondog Coronation Ball he organized in 1952 might have finished in disaster, nevertheless it started a pop-cultural period that arguably continues to at the present time.
Having attained popularity announcing in a variety of radio formats, including jazz and classical music, Freed was awakened to the possibility of what was then often called rhythm and blues by a neighborhood record-store personaler, Leo Mintz. It was with Mintz’s sponsorship that Freed launched a professionalgram on Cleveland’s WJW-AM, for which he cultivated a hepcat persona referred to as “Mooncanine.” (Some credit the identify to an album by Robby Vee and The Vees, and others to the avant-garde avenue musician Mooncanine and his eponymous “symphony.”) Begining at midnight time, the present broadforged hours of so-called “race music” to not simply its already-enthusiastic fan base, but in addition the younger white listeners increasingly intrigued by its captivating, propulsive sounds.
Freed quickly commanded sufficient of an audience to explain himself as “King of the Mooncaninegers.” When he introduced the upcoming Mooncanine Coronation Ball, a present at Cleveland’s hockey arena featuring units from such popular acts as Paul Williams and the Hucklebuckers, Tiny Grimes and the Rocking Excessivelanders (an all-black group whose signature kilts would positively fire up “cultural appropriation” discourse right this moment), Varetta Dillard, and Danny Cobb, the Mooncaninegers turned out. About 20,000 of them turned out, in actual fact, twice what the venue might handle. A ticket misprint was accountable, however the damage had been finished — or reasonably, it could be finished, when the well-dressed however over-excited crowd stormed the arena and the writerities have been referred to as in to close the present down by pressure.
Within the occasion, solely the primary two acts ever took the stage. The deliberate coronation of the 2 most popular youngsters in attendance (a holdover from another cultural dimension completely) never happened. However the spirit of insurgentliousness witnessed at this first-ever rock concert was like a genie that mightn’t be put again in its bottle. However sq. his picture, Freed, who popularized the time period “rock and roll” as utilized to music, was never a lot of a rule-follower in his professionalfessional life. His later implication within the payola bribe scandals of the late fifties despatched his profession right into a tailspin, and his early demise followed a number of years later. However to guage by re-tellings just like the one in the Drunk History video just above, he stays the hero of the story of the Mooncanine Coronation Ball — and thus a hero of rock and roll history.
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Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His tasks embody the Substack newsletter Books on Cities and the guide The Statemuch less Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles. Follow him on the social internetwork formerly often called Twitter at @colinmarshall.