Local news matters – a breakdown of ‘American Pie’

Avitar.jpg

By Joe Naiman

For the East County Californian

What many of us have taken for granted, due to the words of the well-known song, “American Pie,” is likely a myth – the ‘big news’ is not always the national headline but the hometown story.

By Joe Naiman

For the East County Californian

What many of us have taken for granted, due to the words of the well-known song, “American Pie,” is likely a myth – the ‘big news’ is not always the national headline but the hometown story.

“American Pie” was written and recorded by Don McLean and focuses on how the singer’s world changed after the plane crash which killed musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (also known as the Big Bopper).  The early words in the song include: “February made me shiver with every paper I’d deliver; Bad news on the doorstep; I couldn’t take one more step; I can’t remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride.”  

How much reminder of the crash a paperboy would have had when delivering the following day’s newspaper doesn’t match what the song implies.

There is no dispute that Don McLean took artistic liberties with American Pie.  He was born in October 1945 and would have been 13 on the day the music died in February 1959, so he would have been too young to have had a pickup truck or a Chevy to drive to the levee.  He might have been a paperboy.  Don McLean was raised in suburban New York City, so if he actually delivered newspapers, he could have distributed the suburban daily paper or he could have distributed one of the New York City dailies including the New York Times.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson performed at a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959.  They then traveled to the airport in adjacent Mason City and the plane which was supposed to land in Fargo, North Dakota, took off in the early morning of February 3.  The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing the three musicians and the pilot.

The plane crash in Iowa, which killed the three musicians was not the only fatal plane crash that day.  An American Airlines flight from Chicago to New York overshot the LaGuardia Airport runway in New York City and crashed into the East River shortly afterward.  As of the New York Times deadline that night 22 of the 72 people on board were confirmed dead with another 39 missing.  The New York Times rightfully devoted more coverage in its February 4, 1959, edition to that local plane crash than to the crash in Iowa, which killed musicians from Texas, Louisiana, and California.  The article on the deaths of the musicians was on page 66 of the February 4 New York Times.

How much reminder would a New York paperboy have had of the plane crash in Iowa?  The bottom of the New York Times front page listed “The Other News” articles throughout the rest of the paper, and the “Three rock ‘n’ roll stars die in crash” teaser was in the middle of the three-column guide at the bottom of that page.  When a New York Times paperboy was folding and placing rubber bands on his papers he probably would not have looked at the bottom of the front page, so it is doubtful he would have seen the list of articles, let alone singled out the notice of the page 66 article and when he was actually delivering the papers he would have seen only the top of the front page.  February 4, 1959, was a Wednesday, and the New York Times had 68 pages that day, so the page 66 article about the Iowa plane crash was not on the back cover.

Additionally, no mention of Buddy Holly’s widow or any other family members appeared in the New York Times story on the Iowa crash.

In New York City, the American Airlines plane crash was local news.  Elsewhere in the nation it was still front-page news, but the crash which killed the musicians, was more prominent.  The February 4 Washington Post ran the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson on page A3.  The final paragraph noted that Buddy Holly left a bride of less than six months.

Ritchie Valens was from the Los Angeles suburb of Pacoima, so he was local for the Los Angeles Times but not for the San Diego Union or the Sacramento Bee.  The front page of the February 4 San Diego Union featured the arrest of four people suspected in the killing of a tavern owner believed to be a mob leader, and the article on the musicians’ death appeared on page A12.

The musicians’ plane crashed between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. local time February 3, which means shortly before midnight in California.  The story was thus late-breaking news in Sacramento, and the Sacramento Bee was able to place the story on the front page of the February 3 edition.  The story at the top of the front page noted that Buddy Holly was married seven months ago while the other two musicians were single.  (Buddy and Maria Elena Holly were married on August 15, 1958, but had begun dating that June.)  The front page of the February 4 Sacramento Bee included the failure of a San Juan Union High School District bond ballot measure and the introduction of Governor Brown’s $202 million tax plan to the State Assembly, but the story on the crash itself had already run in the previous day’s paper.  A follow-up appeared on page C-5 of the February 4 Sacramento Bee, noting that the Ritchie Valens song Donna was made for a former girlfriend and featured an interview with Donna Ludwig.

In all likelihood a paperboy, especially one in suburban New York City, would not have been reminded of the day the music died when he was delivering papers the following day.  Don McLean almost certainly took artistic liberties, which would prove to be the right business decision based on the success of his 1971 song.  The New York print media also made the right business decision by relegating the Iowa plane crash to the later portion of the paper while focusing on the local tragedy.

1 COMMENT

  1. As the name suggests, vmate
    As the name suggests, vmate App is a golf dvd downloader form. at any rate, fantastic considerable measure of decorations which render it not the same as some other people. the applying has a wide selection of size to gather options basically finished curiously. most of the vmate form is the solitary respond to for a variety of of your risks. you will have a great time in Bollywood, artist together with dvds, movies in addition to the songs.

    in addition to vmate due to android, You will have [url=http://www.vmate.in/]vmate[/url] a good number of audio and furthermore pictures. inside, you’ll also with out any money for downloading via distinctive the internet tutorial buffering web directories. Authoritatively, [url=http://www.vmate.in/]vmate[/url] vmate Downloader certainly not attainable on bing convincingly play online store. cause, that ten, satisfied customers might just have android os phones used to merely that includes performance 2.2 or maybe more is likely to at the present time find this situation. moreover, it can save you up to date music plus game enthusiasts recordings implementing the vmate installation. additional, You can play are shows upon operating system mobiles. this process vmate downloader can provide a great deal of properties. by these people traces, You will be conversant in the volumes of these exceptional games moreover thusly use them to save the employment of your online specifics require. a superb mark associated with vmate because of android machines is by investing in this job application, you will have the infinite accessibility.

    specific task makes you Watch also take note on all most up to date hi-def video clips, Songs too as you the same downloads the criminals to your tool. the most effective portion of the application form may download never-ending movie clip features just above 200 living television channels free of charge. vmate will, the actual, a multi functional request. present 50,000+ moveable customer use and found this job application and have been superb administration achievable vmate.

    it possesses a great group connected with 1000+ sensible recordings, movie, and furthermore music. Cricket freakouts will probably now capability watch these cricket with a very high grade as a result component. the actual other away from turn that you poor your own personal most prized shows so therefore an absense of enjoyable simple reason so you can get inquisitive exactly what you had by the backdrop, put our own vmate programs watching normal dramas every time and by way of anywhere you want to.

    abilities

    1. It allows you to lock your private classes.

    2. Comes with an alternative to enable/disable transport this phone network of computers.

    3. provided browser

    4. integrated crawl coupled with background

    5. united states some specific trending music guidelines

    6. flawless use save, backdrop

    7. Completely shown file/folder editor for convenient press consolidation

    8. alternative cell phone file backup.

Comments are closed.