September,1959 My first stage appearance as "Clay Cole," I was introduced by Alan Freed as “the next big television star” at his 1959 Labor Day Show at Brooklyn's Fabian Fox theatre. (Ironically, we both got our start in broadcasting in the early 40s/50s, at WKBN radio in Youngstown, Ohio.)
He invited me to the stage, gave me a good send-off, and I took a bow to a very friendly reception, with Alan reminding his fans to “watch for Clay Cole on Rate the Records.” This was a very generous gesture by a very powerful man. Alan Freed had mined gold in his holiday shows, assembling a mix of pop and R&B artists with a killer orchestra featuring Sam “The Man” Taylor, Earl Warren, Earl Bostic, King Curtis, “Big Al” Sears, all-star studio musicians. With the power of his radio and television shows, and his ability to program – and break – new record releases, Freed held the upper hand when purchasing acts for his stage shows.
Alan Freed also offered me one of his three Manhattan apartments, “until I get settled,” so I moved into a plush avocado-green and blue penthouse at Number Two Fifth Avenue, overlooking Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. My manager at the time was Monte Bruce, who's wife Toni was Alan Freed’s step-daughter from a previous marriage. Alan was currently married to wife number three, Inga, a statuesque blonde, would-be singer.
November 1959 Everyone saw it coming, except the invincible Alan Freed himself. Ever since the quiz show scandals, Congress was not about to be caught with their pants down on further corruption over the nation’s airwaves; a payola investigation targeting disc jockeys had been an ongoing front-page story. It became more an indictment of rock ‘n’ roll than the lynching of Alan Freed.
Payola, the old-timers agreed, that’s what the trouble was: “Slip a disc jockey a few bucks and you had a hit record.” Eliminating payola, they thought, would “effectively finish-off this decadent teenage music once and for all.”
Alan Freed had already lost his nighttime radio show, and on Friday, November 27, 1959 “the pied-piper of rock ‘n’ roll” signed-off his
Big Beat television show. According to Freed biographer, John A. Jackson, “Freed planned to squeeze the last drop of emotion from his final “Big Beat” telecast that Friday evening. Freed remained in his dressing room until seconds before the show begun, at which time, clad in his familiar gold-buttoned plaid sport jacket, he made a dramatic entrance. Head bowed, Freed walked on camera to chants of “We want Alan! We want Alan!” Many of his teenage fans in the studio audience wept openly, as Freed moved among them, visibly sobbing told his studio audience to keep calm and to shed no tears.”
My friend Charlie Massi, once my cameraman, sent me an audiotape of that last broadcast, as Freed says: “Thank you all for your loyalty. I’m not going anywhere, I’ll be back.” A half-hour later, the hallways of my Time Square studios of were jammed with Alan’s studio audience, clamoring for tickets to our show. In the time it had taken to wipe away the tears and dash from Alan Freed’s East 67th Street studios to West 42nd Street, their allegiance to Alan Freed was forgotten.
Alan Freed claimed that he was paid as a “record consultant” to the music business, but in truth, he was simply capitalizing on a long-stand industry tradition of disc-jockey pay-offs. There was no federal charge against payola until 1960, so technically payoffs weren’t illegal.
But, he did conduct his business surrounded by a rough crowd.
“He was a flawed man who claimed songwriting credits that weren't his, paid performers very little and associated with questionable individuals.”
Alan, Bo Diddley on Ch-5 Big Beat TV Show
Alan Freed died in 1965, a broken man. He was 43.
Living in Palm Springs, California, Freed was unemployed and suffering from uremia, a toxic kidney condition. Alan Freed was inducted in to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. -- Clay Cole
Alan Freed's Official Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Biography
Induction Year: 1986
Induction Category: Non-Performer
"Disk jockey Alan Freed is widely credited with coining the term “rock and roll” to describe the uptempo black R&B records he played as early as 1951 on Cleveland radio station WJW. Freed called himself “the Moondog” and billed his show as the “Moondog Rock ‘n’ Roll Party.”
A tireless and enthusiastic advocate of the music he played, Freed kept time to his favorite records by beating his hands on a phone book. He called it rock and roll because “it seemed to suggest the rolling, surging beat of the music.” The Freed-sponsored 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland is believed to be the nation’s first rock and roll concert.
After conquering Cleveland, he took his show to WINS New York. There, he further spread the gospel of rock and roll via TV, movies and the celebrated all-star shows he promoted at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater. Those stage shows remain the essential rock and roll revues of the era.
Later, the tangled favors of this period would come back to haunt him in the payola scandals of the late Fifties. Amid the atmosphere of a witch hunt, Freed steadfastly maintained that he never played a record he didn’t like. Nonetheless, he was blackballed within the business and died a broken man in 1965.
The Definitive Biographies:
“Big Beat Heat, Alan Freed and the Early Years of Rock and Roll” (Schirmer Books) is meticulously researched and written by a Long Island high school teacher
John A. Jackson.
The newly-released paperback book, "Big Beat Heat" has been retitled
"The Alan Freed Story" and is available now at Oldies.com discounted at just $6.95. (save $8.05)
Alan Freed Films
Rock Around the Clock
Columbia Pictures, 1956. Directed by Fred F. Sears, starring Alan Freed, Johnny Johnston, John Archer, Alix Talton, Bill Haley and His Comets, the Platters, Freddie Bell and Tony Martinez.
Rock Rock Rock
Distributor Corp of America, 1956. Directed by Wil Price, starring Alan Freed, Tuesday Weld (screen debut) Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon, Johnny Burnette Trio
Don't Knock The Rock
Columbia Pictures, 1956. Directed by Fred F. Sears, starring Alan Freed, Alan Dale and Patricia Hardy, Bill Haley and His Comets,
Little Richard.
Mr. Rock And Roll
Paramount Pictures, 1957. Directed by Charles Dubin, starring Alan Freed, Rocky Graziano, Lois O'Brien, Lionel Hampton's Band, Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker, Little Richard.
Go, Johnny, Go!
Hal Roach Studios, 1958. Directed by Paul Landres, starring Alan Freed, Sandy Stewart, Jimmy Clanton, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, the Cadillacs, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens.
Ch 13, Rate the Records:
Jackie Wilson, Jimmy Clanton, Alan Freed, Johnny Carlton, Cashbox Editor Ira Howard
The Official Alan Freed Website
Clay Cole remembres the pioneer disc jockey
“American Bandstand, Making of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Empire”
(Oxford University Press), also written by John A. Jackson
