Posted on 01/12/2008 7:33:41 PM PST by blam
Buddy Holly's widow in fight to stop book
By Ben Martin
Last Updated: 2:48am GMT 13/01/2008
The widow of Buddy Holly, the late American rock and roll pioneer, is trying to prevent the woman made famous by her husband's hit song Peggy Sue from publishing a book about the music legend.
Maria Elena Holly has instructed lawyers to oppose the publication of Whatever Happened to Peggy Sue, an autobiography of Texan woman Peggy Sue Gerron, after whom the song was named.
Mrs Holly, 62, claims the book is unauthorised and will harm Holly's name, her own reputation and that of her company, Holly Properties, which collects royalties and governs use of the musician's image.
"It's very interesting that this woman makes up all these stories," Mrs Holly said from her home in Dallas, Texas. "He never, never considered Peggy Sue a friend."
But Mrs Gerron, 67, who insists that Holly was a close friend, claimed "every right to write my book - that's why we live in America". She says material for the 238-page memoir is taken from about 150 diary entries that she made during the time she spent with Holly.
Mrs Gerron defended her right to recount her relationship with Holly, saying: "I wanted to give him his voice. It's my book, my memoirs."
The relationship between the two women has long been strained. The fame that followed Holly's death in a plane crash in 1959 when he was 22, dominated both their lives.
Were it not for the collision of love and tragedy, Mrs Gerron might still be a little-known woman from the little-known town of Lubbock, Texas.
Peggy Sue, considered one of the iconic songs in rock history, was originally titled Cindy Lou, after Holly's young niece. But Jerry Allison, the drummer in Holly's band, the Crickets, asked Holly to change the song's lyrics to reprise the name of the young woman he was trying to woo at the time.
The plan was a success, both romantically and commercially: Allison married his lover in July 1958 and Peggy Sue shot to number three in the charts.
It also meant that Peggy Sue, the small town girl, was branded with a name that is instantly recognisable to millions of music fans.
In June 1958, Holly met the woman who was to become his wife: Maria Elena Santiago, then a budding dancer from Puerto Rico, working in New York. He invited her on a date and proposed to her within hours. Two months later, they were married.
Jerry and Peggy Sue Allison, best man and matron of honour, accompanied the newly-weds on their honeymoon to Mexico and - despite tensions between the women - the men remained friends.
The fairy tale ended on February 3 1959, when Holly and fellow rock stars Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson - known as The Big Bopper - died in a small plane crash, an event that became known as "the day the music died".
Stricken by the death of her husband, Mrs Holly went into mourning, emerging 20 years later having married again.She has since made a career of protecting her late husband's legacy. Mrs Holly said she would sue if manuscript excerpts, which she claimed were untrue, were included in Mrs Gerron's book: "I don't understand why people do that, especially when she knows that people know the truth."
Peggy Sue's own marriage collapsed, but the redoubtable blonde forged ahead. The song made her name synonymous with the quaint 1950s ideals of innocent beauty and unrequited teenage love.
If it was a burden to be Peggy Sue, Mrs Gerron has barely shown it, making a career out of her association with Holly. She conducts interviews, gives speeches and maintains a website which is testament to her self-promotion skills.
She uses the site to describe her relationship with Holly, who, she says, was well aware that the fame of being Peggy Sue was hard for a young girl to take. "He tried to help me laugh it off by giving me a nickname," she writes. "He called me Song."
Mrs Gerron also recounts a dance in her home state soon after Peggy Sue became a hit, when an enterprising young man sold "tickets" to dance with "the real Peggy Sue".
"It took me a while to find out what was going on," she writes. "Unfortunately, as has been the case for much of my life, it didn't occur to me to ask for a cut of the action."
Mr Blue, The Fleetwoods.
Sounds like a totally frivolous lawsuit.
Sounds like a 50 year old cat fight.
Thank you for the post.
In American law, you cannot defame the dead. Period. Not only is the lawsuit totally frivolous, but Peggy Sue can turn around and sue Mrs. Holly for all her expenses — and win....
I thought it was True Love Waits, is it Ways?
Just you know why
why you and I
will by and by
know true love ways
Sometimes we'll sigh
sometimes we'll cry
and we'll know why
just you and I
know true love ways
Throughout the days
our true love ways
will bring us joys to share
with those who really care
Sometimes we'll sigh
sometimes we'll cry
and we'll know why
just you and I
know true love ways
Throughout the days
our true love ways
will bring us joys to share
with those who really care
Sometimes we'll sigh
sometimes we'll cry
and we'll know why
just you and I
know true love ways
I agree. Anyone is allowed to write a book. Mrs. Holly might have something to fear or she is cranky.
If the book was going to print wild allegations smearing Holly, I could maybe understand Mrs. Holly being upset. But nothing in this article indicates that this is the case. Sounds to me like some pretty mundane diary notes by a chick who knew Holly for a brief period and had her 15 minutes of fame when a hit song was named after her.
I don’t recall all the details but a year or two ago some members of the Holly family (his brother, if I recall) got angry at the Dixie Chicks. They recorded a hateful song accusing Natalie Maines’ hometown of Lubbock of being bigoted. It included a reference to Holly, implying that the town hated him while he was alive but tried to make him an icon after he died. Lubbock, of course, was Holly’s hometown. Holly’s family and friends were furious, noting that it was totally untrue that Holly was ever disliked by the people of Lubbock.
Maines, of course, was whining because conservative Lubbock disowned her after she proved herself to be a left-wing nitwit.
Linda Ronstadt, It Doesn't Matter Anymore
Linda Ronstadt doing another Holly favorite, It's So Easy
Here’s an article on Natalie Maines’ big lie about Buddy Holly:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/03/entertainment/main1576180.shtml
POS Maines!
I must say, I can’t imagine the song be as successful as “Cindy Lou”. The alliteration of “pretty pretty pretty pretty Peggy Sue” sells the song much better than “Cindy Lou”. Of course, maybe it could have been “sexy sexy sexy sexy Cindy Lou”. But, then, the song might have been banned if he’d done that. LOL
Interesting too that the song was really about Buddy’s niece. That’s a little creepy, given some of the lyrics. Of course, there was a song in the 70s by Henry Gross called “Shannon” which many people don’t know was about a dog, not a woman. The lyrics make more sense once you know that tidbit.
Another day is at end Mama says she's tired again
No one can even begin to tell her
I hardly know what to say
But maybe it's better that way
Is papa were here?
I'm sure he'd tell her
Shannon is gone
I hope she's drifting out to sea
She always loved to swim away
Maybe she'll find an island
With a shady tree
Just like the one in our backyard
Mama tried hard to pretend
things would get better again It all inside her
But finally the tears fill our eyes
And I know that somewhere tonight
She knows how much we really miss her
(To see my dogs, click on my name)
I learn something new every day, sometimes I’m a few years late learning it!
Me too. I learned today that Shannon is a dog. See post #37.
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