Subj : Re: Today in History - 1952
To   : Dave Drum
From : Denis Mosko
Date : Tue Mar 21 2023 17:10:39

 DD> 21 March 1953 - FIRST ROCK AND ROLL CONCERT: DJ Alan Freed's Moondog
 DD> Coronation Ball, in Cleveland, Ohio, notably features racially mixed
 DD> performers and fans. Considered history's first big rock concert, some
 DD> 20,000 screaming teens try to crowd into a venue that can hold just
 DD> half that number. Police will halt the show after just one song is
 DD> performed.
 DD> Loe Mintz and Freed decided to do something that had never been done:
 DD> hold a live dance event featuring some of the artists whose records
 DD> were appearing on Freed's show. Dubbed “The Moondog Coronation Ball,”
 DD> the event was to feature headliners Paul Williams and his Hucklebuckers
 DD> and Tiny Grimes and the Rocking Highlanders (a black instrumental group
What is                                           ^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^?

 DD> that performed in Scottish kilts). In the end, however, the incredible
 DD> popular demand for tickets proved to be the event's undoing.
 DD> Helped along by massive ticket counterfeiting and possibly by overbooking
 DD> on the part of the event's sponsors, an estimated 20,000-25,000 fans
 DD> turned out for an event being held in an arena with a capacity of only
 DD> 10,000. Less than an hour into the show, the massive overflow crowd
 DD> broke through the gates that were keeping them outside, and police
 DD> quickly moved in to stop the show almost as soon as it began. On the
 DD> radio the very next evening, Alan Freed offered an apology to listeners
 DD> who had tried to attend the canceled event. By way of explanation, Freed
 DD> said: "If anyone…had told us that some 20 or 25,000 people would try to
 DD> get into a dance—I suppose you would have been just like me. You would
 DD> have laughed and said they were crazy."
Is this cach as COVID-19?


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