The Biggest Rock n Roll Show of 1956 Performed at Maple Leaf Gardens Toronto

In 2019 I was Djing at a vintage Rock n Roll night and during 1 of my 2 sets I played a special group of songs around a particular Rock N Roll Show that happened on April 30th, 1956 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. This tour is going to be the subject of my blog post today.

It was a 45 date tour and labelled the “Biggest Rock N Roll Show of ‘1956” featuring:

• Bill Haley & Comets (Headliner)
• Platters
• Bo Diddley
• Drifters
• LaVern Baker
• Clyde McPhatter
• Big Joe Turner
• Red Prysock
• Shirley & Lee
• Roy Hamilton
• Five Keys
• The Turbans
• Frankie Lymon & Teenagers

Source: WorthPoint

What was different from other shows like this? It was the ONLY one that featured all African American acts with the exception of the headliner Bill Haley.

However…..the blog, ‘A Rock n’ Roll Historian‘ shares: “As racial tensions are peaking throughout the country, the potential for trouble exists at every tour stop.  Several shows are cancelled because of racial troubles including bomb threats, protests, pickets, and violence.”

AND add in parents and religious leaders across the country who were up and arms over this new “craze”sending their kids into hysteria.

“1 have met a lot of young people, and older people too. who have learned the three Rs—Rock. Roll and Regret . . . Have you ever felt that way after a session of rock ‘n roll? When you tried to get to sleep, you couldn’t because deep down in your heart you felt that the whole business of pleasure-seeking and self-indulgence was a mockery and a sham . . . Sorry, young reader. I can’t promise you that there is any easy way out of this situation.”

– Jane Scott, a Toronto Telegram religious columnist-

But among all of this, the tour is a resounding SUCCESS! and winds up with two dates being added, making it a 47-date tour.

Source-Shorpy: Performance by Bill Haley and the Comets and LaVern Baker at the Sports Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania.” From photos by Ed Feingersh for the Look magazine article “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Controversy

The tours rolls into Cincinnati, OH. “By the third quarter of the show, they were in the aisles, all over the floor and unaware of anything but the music.” -Cincinnati Post 5/10/1956

Source: Bill Haley Official

THE TOUR COMES TO TORONTO AT MAPLE LEAF GARDENS

A record setting crowd of 13,000 for a single show.  The press and TV are pressing Haley about whether rock and roll is dangerous (Source).

Bill Haley and the Comets perform at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto

Clyde McPhatter, on stage.

(Note: this image at the Toronto Archives says it’s from 1960 at the Rock n Roll Show but I don’t think this is right unless the show came back. Anyone know?)

Canada’s Maclean’s Magazine (Barbara Moon to be exact), attended the concert in Toronto and went on to write a review of what she saw in the below article entitled “What you don’t need to know about Rock n Roll“.

Source: Maclean’s Magazine

It is an EXTREMELY interesting read (this woman is very very against the music) and I recommend taking the time to do so. Here are some “snippets” of what was printed:

NOT LONG AGO a Toronto eighteen-year old was fined fifty dollars for riding his motorcycle with his hands in the air. “A car radio was playing a real gone rock ‘n roll song,” he defended himself, ‘i just had to keep time to that sound.”

“That sound” is the latest teen-age craze. And in the two years since it became epidemic rock ‘n roll has been responsible for more than mere careless driving. It has, for example:

–Packed the biggest available arenas in the biggest cities of the continent for some ol the biggest gross revenues in entertainment history.

–Pitchforked a raucous-voiced hillbilly named Elvis Presley into overnight stardom.

-Stimulated snake dances, cop-baiting and outbursts of vandalism and mayhem in many centres. (Teen-agers in Brooklyn tore up a subway car after a rock ‘n roll jamboree; in Minneapolis they pelted police with empty beer tins.)

–Caused Variety to call it “the most explosive show biz phenomenon of the decade.” I he trade journal of the entertainment world added ponderously, “It may be getting too hot to handle.”

–Induced amnesia in many adults: their alarm is such that they forget all inconvenient earlier parallels for the fad.

-Saturated the continent with songs whose hit parade ratings vary according to their decibel ratings. One deafening litany, called Blue Suede Shoes, invites the hearer to knock the singer down, step in his face, slander his name, burn his house, steal his car and drink his liquor as long as he, the hearer, stays off his, the singer’s, blue suede shoes. Ten thousand copies of Shoes were sold in one month in Ontario alone.

For such reasons as these I was assigned recently to investigate the phenomenon for Maclean’s. “What is it and why is it?” the editors wanted to know……..

Source-Vancouver Sun. Fans watch Bill Haley and the Comets in concert at Vancouver’s Kerrisdale Arena on June 27, 1956.

“There were twelve acts, twenty extra policemen on duty and 12.764 young people in attendance. They seemed to be a cross-section, everything from blackleather windbreakers to Harris tweeds and from tight jeans to tulle frocks. Proceedings began at 8.30 and took two and a half hours with a truce at halftime to remove the wounded. The smattering of adults included a skinny grey-mustached man sitting beside me with a young girl.”

-Barbara Moon-

Source-Vancouver Sun. Young people dancing — despite police efforts to stop them — at Bill Haley and the Comets’ concert at Vancouver’s Kerrisdale Arena on June 27, 1956.

Curious on what would of been played at the concert that caused all this hysteria? Here are some of the songs that you would of heard.

Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers-Why Do Fools Fall in Love

The Platters – You’ve got the magic touch

LaVern Baker – Jim Dandy

The Five Keys – She’s The Most I LOVE THIS SONG!

SO GOOD!!!!!!

Friends, I hope you enjoyed a look back at this outstanding and historic musical tour of 1956. If any of my readers happened to of attended this concert, whether in Toronto or somewhere else please share in the comments below! And even if you were not, who would you have been excited to have seen at the show?

FURTHER READING:

• The (Non Hockey) History of Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens-Pre 1970s
• Vintage Toronto Blog Posts Archive

Liz