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‘Not Fade Away: Immersive Surf Ballroom Experience’ opens in Clear Lake
Museum honors the legacy of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as the Surf Ballroom’s history
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CLEAR LAKE — The Surf Ballroom & Museum has opened a new permanent exhibit honoring the legacy of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson at the Clear Lake Music Experience Center.
“Not Fade Away: The Immersive Surf Ballroom Experience” is an interactive, evolving exhibit located on the lower floor of the Music Experience Center, 468 N. Shore Dr., Clear Lake.
Brian Luallen, CEO of the Surf Ballroom and Museum, said the exhibit was meant to honor the cultural impact of Holly, Valens and Richardson, educate visitors about the history of rock 'n' roll and the roots of the Surf, and spark wonder and a desire to create music in young people.
Holly, Valens and Richardson were killed in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959, near Clear Lake, after playing a show at the Surf Ballroom as part of the Winter Dance Party Tour.
“These guys left things that continue to influence art and music and American culture decades later, but there are fewer and fewer people around every day that remember that night, that remember what it was like to wake up the next morning and hear the tragic news,” Luallen said.
Kirsten Holmes is principal owner and the creative director at Trivium Interactive, the woman-owned, Boston-based design firm that created “Not Fade Away.“ She said the exhibit includes cutting edge interactive features, including portions of the floor.
Trivium Interactive had not created an exhibit like this before, and Holmes said she was excited by the challenge. “Not Fade Away” has more than 130 “portals,” each offering different facts and an immersive storytelling experience. Holmes said it is impossible to experience the entire exhibit in just one trip.
“There's nothing like it,” she said. “We added a lot of rich content, so people who live here could come again and again. ... The content will always stay fresh and new for folks.”
The interactive portion of the exhibit has three main facets: the history of rock 'n' roll, the Winter Dance Party, and the Surf itself. The content is projected onto an enormous back wall in a dimly lit room, literally surrounding attendees with the story.
“We really wanted to use the back walls as this magical tapestry that comes to life during the interactive (portion), so you get these portals into the different genres of rock 'n' roll,” Holmes said.
Luallen is excited about the immersive aspect of "Not Fade Away" and hopes it conveys the relevancy to locals who might not know the Surf's full history.
"We're able to create this incredible, immersive experience that gives you a context for appreciating what is just across the street," Luallen said. "It's connecting you to these people in these powerful, emotional, and intimate ways."
The exhibit also features a variety of rare and valuable guitars and other Les Paul artifacts.
One of only two existing prototypes for the solid body electric guitar called “The Log,” hand built by Les Paul in approximately 1937, will be there, along with Les Paul's original handwritten plans for the first 8-track tape recording device, Les Paul's original 8-track console, 1970 custom Gibson guitar owned and played by Les Paul, and one of Les Paul's signature groundbreaking “Paulverizers," a multitrack looping device of which only three remain.
A Les Paul guitar owned and played by Slash, former lead guitarist of Guns 'n’ Roses, a Les Paul guitar owned and played by Warren Haynes, formerly of the Allman Brothers, and a variety of guitars signed by musicians, including Buddy Guy, BB King, Willie Nelson, and Don McLean, have also found a new home at "Not Fade Away."
"Not Fade Away" also will have a collection of memorabilia associated with Holly, Valens, and Richardson.
A guitar signed by Buddy Holly while on the 1959 Winter Dance Party Tour will be displayed, along with a microphone used by Buddy Holly at his last performance at The Surf Ballroom, as well as a red corduroy jacket Holly wore during his last performance in San Antonio, Texas, and the original camera used to take the Pulitzer-nominated photos of the fatal plane crash Feb. 3, 1959. There also will be personal artifacts recovered from the plane crash on display, including Ritchie Valens' wallet.
Luallen said he is honored "Not Fade Away" provides a space for such personal artifacts.
"It's (Valens' wallet) one of the few things we have, or anyone has, that are autographed by him. ... His mother carried that for the rest of her days," Luallen said. "And the Valens family, when she left us, really wanted that here so that his fans could feel like they had that kind of personal connection."
Holmes was thrilled to see her team's concepts realized in the finished exhibit.
"You go through that process of like, bringing the imaginary to real, and that's just an incredible process," she said.
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