THIS NEWS FEATURE BROUGHT YOU BY CENTURY 21
Two North Carolina men are planning a movie about Buddy Holly and they hope to start filming early next year — partly in Iowa. February 3rd, 2019 will be the 60th anniversary of the Iowa plane crash that killed the singer and three others. Patrick French says they’re calling their film “Clear Lake” because Holly’s last performance was at “The Surf” ballroom.
“There will certainly be some filming in the Clear Lake area, without question. I don’t think you can tell the story without doing it and while Hollywood is magic — you can make a lot of places look like a lot of places — we’re not going to do that,” French says. “In terms of the percentage, hard to say.” French and his production partner will focus on Holly’s role in one of the first racially integrated musical tours.
“A lot of these artists came together on ‘The Biggest Show of Stars’ tour which started in the fall of 1958…where you had white, black and brown all on the same bill, which was fairly unheard of during that time,” French says. “We thought it was important to kind of explore how that tour came together, how the artists interacted with one another and supported one another, how unlikely friendships were formed — you know, kind of tell a little bit of that backstory.” According to a news release, the movie will focus on Holly, who was white, and Clarence Collins, the founder of Little Anthony and the Imperials, who was black. Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and “The Big Bopper” J-R Richardson died in the plane crash near Clear Lake after performing at The Surf Ballroom. Buddy Holly’s widow and the company that is the custodian of Holly’s musical catalog are part of the production team for “Clear Lake” — the movie.
