The Buddy Holly Story
January 23, 2026 & January 25, 2026
Starring Gary Busey, Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith
The story of the life and career of the early rock and roll singer, from his meteoric rise to stardom, to his marriage and untimely death.
Many of the actors did their own singing and played their own instruments live during the filming of the production numbers. This included the film’s main players Gary Busey, Don Stroud and Charles Martin Smith.
Paul McCartney, who is a huge fan of Buddy Holly, used to hold an annual “Buddy Holly Birthday Party” in New York, and would always showcase this film during the party. The Beatles were named in tribute to The Crickets, the band Holly performed with. McCartney bought the copyrights to Holly’s published songs in 1977.
Universal Studios tried three times to obtain film rights to Buddy Holly’s life. The studio even commissioned a screenplay and submitted it to Holly’s widow, Maria Elena Holly, who turned it down. 20th Century-Fox actually completed two weeks of filming, even though they also had failed to acquire film rights. They halted production and wrote off the experience as a loss. Maria Elena felt Buddy would be more accurately captured by a smaller, independent, company which had much to gain or lose by doing justice to the project.
The Buddy Holly Story
Friday, January 23, 7:30PM
Sunday, January 25, 2:00PM
1978 | PG | 1Hr 54Min