• Celebration open to public at no charge
• E Street Band’s Stevie Van Zandt to give keynote address
• The Drifters, Jimmy Clanton, Little Anthony to sing, legendary rock songwriter of Stax Records David Porter to speak on Freed influence
• DJ/Historian (Mr. Music) Norm N. Nite to M.C.
CLEVELAND – April 20, 2016 – The life of famed Cleveland disc jockey, Alan Freed, who coined the term “Rock ‘n Roll” and held the nation’s first rock concert in 1952, will be celebrated by music industry stars, VIPs, and the public during an interment and memorial ceremony on May 7, 2016, 1:00 pm at Lake View Cemetery, 12316 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106.
Freed died in 1965 at the young age of 43, but not before he permanently turned the world of music around.
“My dad cared an awful lot about the artists and his fans of the up-and-coming bands of that formative era that was the 1950s, and he brought everyone together at his many concerts produced throughout the country,” said Lance Freed, Alan’s son. “The result was a new kind of popular music — from a river of many streams – the blues, R&B, jazz and country that seated itself not only in America but also throughout the world. The new music became a significant social movement.”
Stevie Van Zandt of the E Street Band will deliver the keynote address. The Drifters will sing a selection of songs, rock singer from the 1960s Jimmy Clanton will speak and sing, and former head of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Terry Stewart, and David Porter, who penned some of rock’s most notable songs at Stax Records, will also speak. Little Anthony is also expected to make an appearance at the celebration. National DJ and rock historian (Mr. Music) Norm N. Nite will M.C.
Freed Produced World’s First Rock Concert in 1952
Alan Freed’s career took off swiftly in the late 1940s and early 1950s, first at Akron’s WAKR, then at WJW in Cleveland. In 1952 he produced the first Moondog Coronation Ball at the Cleveland Arena. Even to this day, WMJI in Cleveland carries on an annual Moondog Coronation Ball tradition at Quicken Loans Arena and packs in 21,000 fans for the events.
At the Arena on March 21,1952, the hoped for sellout of 9,800 fans gathered, but to Freed’s astonishment another 20,000 also showed up without tickets creating the kind of rowdy ruckus that marked the era of the new music, Rock ‘n Roll. Many of them beat down the doors and entered the Arena, causing a riot and having the police cancel the rest of the concert. There were many arrests, and Alan Freed was fired from his job at WJW radio, although quickly reinstated later.
After his years in Cleveland, Freed moved on to WINS in New York where he became the nation’s leading disc jockey. In the mid 1950s, Freed held rock caravans to various cities promoting the performances of the early stars of rock ‘n roll, including the Drifters, the Platters, Bill Haley, Bo Didley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Little Anthony, Darlene Love, Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley. During that time Freed appeared in theatrical movies and on national television. His influence was ever present.
Freed’s Broadcasts from Cleveland Via Radio Luxembourg Were Major Inspiration to McCartney, Lennon and Starr
When Ringo Starr was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, he said: “I am so happy to be inducted in Cleveland.” In the first-ever series of international broadcasts of Rock ‘n Roll music, Alan Freed’s “Moondog Show” on Sunday afternoons from Cleveland via Radio Luxembourg in the 1950s inspired teenagers Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo and other music friends to take note of the entirely new sound. “It was the first time we had heard this music, and Alan Freed changed the way we thought about things. We learned everything about Rock ‘n Roll. Many years later we have always felt he was the cornerstone of the Rock Hall and the music.”
Rightly or wrongly, as with many other popular DJs of the late 1950s, Freed got caught up in the “Payola Scandal,” his radio and TV career in New York over. He eventually landed in Los Angeles at KDAY. He bounded with the usual Alan Freed energy on the air, but by then his legal and tax issues and declining health took their toll. He later died in Palm Springs of kidney failure and uremic poisoning.
Alan Freed was inducted into the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 23, 1986, alongside such other pioneers as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, James Brown, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. One of his inductors was (Mr. Music) Norm N. Nite.
For a time Freed’s ashes were interred in at Fernhill Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Later, Terry Stewart former CEO of the Rock Hall urged the Freed family to remove his cremated remains, and thus his urn was displayed at the Rock Hall for 12 years, when Lance Freed was asked to remove it.
Coming Home to Cleveland May 7, 2016; Public Can Visit for Generations to Come
“We decided that he should permanently come home to Cleveland, where it all began,” said Lance Freed. “We thought historic and beautiful Lake View Cemetery was the right place to go, the right location for his final resting place. Our desire was to create a small public area and compelling monument where he will rest for eternity and be available for generations to come — especially for the public for which he cared so much.”
The granite monument on one side has an etching of Alan Freed and an epitaph about his life, and on the other an etching of the popular Rock Ola Bubbler Juke Box on the other.
Katharine Goss, President and CEO of Lake View Cemetery Association, said, “We are proud and privileged to have Alan Freed’s memorial here for posterity.” “He joins many other famous people such as John D. Rockefeller, President James A. Garfield, Eliot Ness, Adella Prentiss Hughes, Garrett Morgan, members of President Lincoln’s cabinet, Marcus Hanna, Frances Payne Bolton, and Carl and Lou Stokes. Lake View Cemetery has always been nonsectarian, open to everyone, and among its 108,000 residents are many ordinary folks, just the kind of people that Alan Freed enjoyed being with and entertaining throughout his career.”
At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dinner in 1986, in the magazine-styled program given to guests, a profile of Alan Freed gave him the last word, written by him on one of his oldies albums: “I hope you’ll take my hand as we stroll together down our musical Memory Lane. The Big Beat in American Music was here a hundred years ago – it will be here a thousand years after we are all gone. SO – LET’S ROCK ‘N ROLL!”
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Contact: Ron Watt Sr., Watt + Company, 216-334-4446, rwattsr@watt-co.com or rwattwellcare@yahoo.com
