AlanFreed

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ALAN FREED

THE FATHER OF ROCK N ROLL

Albert James Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965), generally known as Alan Freed and also as "Moondog", was an American disc-jockey who became internationally known for promoting African-American rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll. His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.

Freed was born to a Jewish father, Charles S. Freed, and Welsh mother, Maude Palmer, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In 1933, Freed's family moved to Salem, Ohio where Freed attended Salem High School, graduating in 1940. While Freed was in high school, he formed a band called the Sultans of Swing in which he played the trombone. Freed's initial ambition was to be a bandleader; however, an ear infection put an end to this dream. While in college, Freed became interested in radio. Freed served in the Army during World War II and worked as a DJ on Armed Forces Radio. Soon after World War II, Freed landed broadcasting jobs at smaller radio stations, including WKST (New Castle, PA); WKBN (Youngstown, OH); and WAKR (Akron, OH), where, in 1945, he became a local favorite for playing hot jazz and pop recordings. ^[1]

While Freed called himself the "father of rock and roll", he was not the first to play it on the airwaves; however, he is credited with popularizing the term "rock and roll" to describe the style of music. While it had been in use in musical circles to describe a style of music (dating back to at least 1938 with Rock it for Me, written by Kay and Sue Werner and performed by Chick Webb with Ella Fitzgerald and Mildred Bailey), Freed introduced it to a much larger audience. Many of the top African-American performers of the 1950s have given public credit to Freed for pioneering racial integration among the youth of America at a time when adults were still promoting racial strife. Little Richard has given the credit to Freed that others have denied him. An example of Freed's non-racist attitude is preserved in the motion pictures starring many of the leading African-American acts of the day in which he played a part as himself. For example, in the 1956 film Rock, Rock, Rock, Freed, as himself, tells the audience that "rock and roll" is a river of music that has absorbed many streams: rhythm and blues, jazz, rag time, cowboy songs, country songs, folk songs. All have contributed to the big beat."

Alan Freed made it possible for white audiences to hear African-American music stylings. He arranged live concerts and played "black" music on his radio station.

In the late 1940s, while working at WAKR in Akron, Ohio, Freed met Leo Mintz, the owner of the Record Rendezvous, one of Cleveland's largest record stores, who had begun selling rhythm and blues records. Mintz told Freed that he had noticed increased interest in the records at his store, and encouraged him to play them on the radio.^[2] In 1949, Freed moved to Cleveland and, in April 1950, he joined WXEL-TV (Channel 9) as the afternoon movie show host.^[3] The next year, he got a job playing classical music on Cleveland radio station WJW.^[4]

Mintz proposed to buy airtime on WJW, to be devoted entirely to R&B recordings, with Freed as host.^[2] On July 11, 1951, Freed started playing rhythm and blues records on WJW.^[5] Freed called his show "The Moondog House" and billed himself as "The King of the Moondoggers". He had been inspired by an offbeat instrumental called "Moondog Symphony" that had been recorded by New York street musician Louis T. Hardin, aka "Moondog". Freed adopted the record as his show's theme music. His on-air manner was energetic and faintly smarmy. He addressed his listeners as if they were all part of a make-believe kingdom of hipsters, united in their love for "black" music.^[5]

Later that year, Freed promoted dances and concerts featuring the music he was playing on the radio. ^[6] He was one of the organizers of a five-act show called "The Moondog Coronation Ball" on March 21, 1952 at the Cleveland Arena. This event is known as the first rock and roll concert. Crowds attended in numbers far beyond the arena's capacity, and the concert was shut down early due to overcrowding and a near-riot. ^[6] Freed gained a priceless notoriety from the incident. WJW immediately increased the airtime allotted to Freed's program, and his popularity soared.^[5]

In those days, Cleveland was considered by the music industry to be a "breakout" city, where national trends first appeared in a regional market. Freed's popularity made the pop music business sit up and take notice. Soon, tapes of Freed's program began to air in the New York City area.^[5]

Although Freed made use of the "Moondog Symphony," he failed to obtain the composer's permission to use the piece, nor did he pay any royalties. As a result he was sued by Hardin for infringement in 1952; Hardin also argued prior claim to the name "Moondog," under which he had been composing since 1947. Freed lost the suit, and had to give up both use of the piece and the Moondog name.^[7]

^{MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Freed}

The year 1954 was certainly a watershed year in the history of American popular music. This was the year when the sound of Rhythm & Blues moved into the country's mainstream and White teenagers across the land began to listen and dance to the "big beat'. The prime mover in this conversion was disc jockey Alan Freed. The Ohio based "Moondog" had been getting much attention because of his growing popularity in crossing racial and cultural lines in providing the sounds that would displace the ballad singing crooners and the big band leftovers as the nation's favorites.

1954 for Freed started out the year fresh from a very successful Christmas night show in Akron Ohio that featured the Dominos. His radio show based at Cleveland's WJW and was also heard via tape on Newark New Jersey's WNJR. His many dances and in person shows in the northern Ohio area continue to attract record breaking crowds, and it is widely reported that at least one third of the audience at these shows are White teenagers proving the crossover appeal of the performers and their music. In the spring Freed announces his first show to be held in the east. The so called "Coronation Ball" will be held in Newark, N.J. and feature The Clovers, Harptones, and Charles Brown. Another R & B show in Akron is a big draw. The stars were The Moonglows and Charles Brown. Two half hour segments of the show were broadcast live on WJW radio. (Do any airchecks of these broadcasts exist ?).

Moondog made good and presented his first live show in the east on May 1 in Newark's Sussex Avenue Armory. The show starred Buddy Johnson's orchestra and previously announced vocal groups. Over ten thousand people showed, the majority being teenagers, and about one fifth of the crowd was White. Once again this breakdown in crowd demographics foretold the wave of the future. Later on in May, it was announced that executives of New York radio station WINS were holding talks with Freed hoping to lure him from his base in Cleveland. On Memorial Day, it was announced that Freed planned to hold a Jubilee Under the Stars in Ebbets Field, the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The stadium would be able to handle crowds in excess of thirty thousand, and the talent lineup would include The Clovers, Dominos, and Orioles, along with the bands of Count Basie and Buddy Johnson.

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In1954 Freed moved his show to WINS radio in NY. Within months the show was #1. Freed began staging revues at Brooklyn Paramount where he often could be found on stage gyrating. Freed appeared in a number of rock and roll movies such as Don't Knock The Rock, Rock Around The Clock, and Rock, Rock, Rock. It was no surprise that these movies broadened the acceptance of rock and roll. The real surprise was Alan Freed in the flesh. In his mid-thirties Freed looked at least ten years older. Klutzy with little stage presence Freed looked completely out of place. To many teens Freed looked like the ultimate adult.

In 1957 ABC-TV gave Freed his own nationally-televised rock & roll show, but an episode on which Frankie Lymon danced with a white girl enraged ABC's Southern affiliates and the show was cancelled.

Freed's first real problems began when he put on a show at the Boston Arena (1958) that resulted in his being charged with incitement to riot. Though the charges were later dismissed, but WINS failed to renew Freed's contract. This incident forced him into into bankruptcy and would just be the beginning of Freed's legal problems.

MORE: http://www.1960sailors.net/05a_freed.htm

Freed moved to WABC radio, and also hosted a locally televised dance show.

In 1959 the U.S. House Oversight Committee, at the urging of ASCAP, began to look into deejays who took gifts from record companies in return for playing their records on their shows. Though a number of deejays and program directors were caught in the scandal, the committee decide to focus on Freed. Freed's broadcasts alliances quickly deserted him. In 1959, WABC in New York asked him to sign a statement confirming that he had never accepted payola. Freed refused "on principle" to sign and was fired.

MORE:http://www.history-of-rock.com/freed.htm

TIME MAGAZINE DEDEMBER 7, 1959