Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error. Holly and his band, the Crickets, had just scored a No. 1 hit with “That’ll Be the Day.” After mechanical difficulties with the tour bus, Holly had chartered a plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance Party Tour.

Dion didn’t want to pay, but Waylon Jennings was keen to fly with Buddy, but exchanged his seat with J.P. Richardson because he had a cold. Tommy Allsup was included in the group, but Ritchie Valens offered to flip him for the seat since he was ill.

The plane crash took the lives of the pilot, Roger Peterson, and three musicians: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, 22; Ritchie Valens (originally Valenzuela), 17; and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, 28.

With him in the crash were fellow musicians 17-year old Richie Valens (“LaBamba”) and 29-year old The Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson, (“Chantilly Lace”) and pilot Roger Peterson.

4. The mid-air plane collision at the beginning of the film occurred in real-life on January 31, 1957. The debris crashed into the schoolyard of Pacoima Junior High School, which ultimately killed 8 people, and injured 75 others. Most of the victims were school children.

Donna Ludwig now resides in sacrameto, ca and is still alive. Yes she is still alive. She was She died of cancer. If you mean the actress playing her, Donna Douglas, she is still alive, at Donna is still alive!

“I think you can safely say that Ritchie Valens did not die a virgin,” says Mandheim, who spent 10 years researching his life for her book “Ritchie Valens: The First Latino Rocker,” to be released this month by Bilingual Press at Arizona State University.

María Elena Hollym. 1958–1959

3. Ritchie had a dream of a mid-air collision between two planes. This actually happened as well as two planes collided over the yard of his school, killing many children as the debris fell to the ground. Ritchie wasn’t there that day as he was attending his grandfather’s funeral.

Buddy Holly

It was meticulously restored by John Page, who called the project one of the most meaningful experiences of his career. He discovered a white pick wedged underneath the pickguard, likely untouched since that fateful night in February 1959. The guitar is now on display at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock.

According to Friedman, Fox shut the project down because the script mainly concerned itself with a bus tour the Crickets did with black groups (historically, that’s accurate: bookers thought Holly and the Crickets were black). The script was called fiction but it’s very close to fact.

During his final concert, Buddy Holly is backed by a full orchestra. Buddy Holly’s front teeth were knocked out before a performance in the UK, not on US television as shown in the film.

The Buddy Holly Story is a 1978 American biographical film which tells the life story of rock musician Buddy Holly….