Fergie's Tech Blog

21 March 1952: Moondog Coronation Ball

The Moondog Coronation Ball was a concert held at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on March 21, 1952. It is generally accepted as the first major rock and roll concert.

The concert was organized by Alan Freed, a disc jockey and considered to have coined the term "Rock and Roll" at WJW-Radio, along with Lew Platt, a local concert promoter, and Freed's sponsors. More tickets were printed than the arena's actual capacity, in part due to counterfeiting. With an estimated 20,000 individuals trying to crowd into an arena that held slightly more than half that - and worries that a riot might break out as people tried to crowd in - the fire authorities shut down the concert after the first song by Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams ended.

posted by Fergie @ 3/20/2006 10:01:00 PM