I played Buddy Holly in Great Balls of Fire! (1989)
I was filming my big scene at the beautiful Memphis Orpheum Theater, watching Gomer (the big DQ) burn the piana down, meant to recreate the Brooklyn Paramount, Allan Freed apocryphal myth, in a Disney-bowdlerized, epithetless bastardization.(this is a characterization of the dialogue)
JLL to Chuck Berry (real quote): "Follow that, n*****!" JLL (movie dialogue - might as well be): "Listen here, my good man of darkened complexion - why don't you attempt to perform your sidepiece subsequent to my great pyrotechnic display?"
On Set with the Killer:
Jerry Lee shows up on set to watch.
He exits his limo in flip-flops while carrying a Sherlock Holmes pipe, while "Chuck Berry" and I (Buddy Holly) are having our pictures made with movie extras.
Producer, Adam Fields starts to introduce me to the Killer, and Jerry Lee looks at this rock 'n' roll, phony-type cat, and commences to gettin' on with it:
JLL: "Oh,Killer, I know Killer!"
Adam replies:
"He's playing Buddy Holly."
Whereupon, Jerry Lee gives me the once-over twice, pops the meerschaum out of his suck-hole, and in a dilaudid-meets-Ferriday accent, slurs in my direction:
JLL: "Killer, Buddy Holly was my best friend in the world..."
Then back to Adam:
JLL: "If you had enough sense to hire Killer here to play Buddy, you got more sense than i thought you had..."
Then to me again:
JLL: "Son, you look more like Buddy Holly than Buddy Holly ever did!"
Story how Jerry Lee Lewis set piano on fire and played it until burned down to upstage Chuck Berry
The story goes like this.Jerry Lee Lewis in his twenties worldwide popular, parents' worst nightmare perfectly realized: a long, blonde-haired Southerner who played the piano and sang with uncontrolled fury and abandon, had in 1957 engaged in an Alan Freed package tour. One night Chuck berry was supposed to close the show. Jerry lee wanted to upstage him, so he had a bottle of Coca-Cola mixed with gasoline and matches prepared. While he was finishing Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On he poured the liquid in the piano and threw a match in it. Piano spectacularly caught fire, but that wasn't the end jerry played it until it burned down. Chuck berry than refused to close the show knowing after such incredible performance he wouldn't stand no chance. Don't believe it? There is him saying that. No wonder he is called the Killer. It must have looked something like depicted in Great Balls of Fire movie following. Just image being on that show. Thanks for watching. Share, like, subscribe.
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Writers: Myra Lewis, Murray Silver Jr.Stars: Dennis Quaid, Winona RyderGoofs: When Jerry burns the piano, he stops playing clearly before the piano sound is gone. It keeps on a few more seconds, then it stops.
Myra Lewis was born on July 11, 1944 as Myra Gale Brown. She is a writer, known for Great Balls of Fire! (1989).Myra Lewis was born on July 11, 1944 in the USA as Myra Gale Brown. She is a writer, known for Great Balls of Fire! (1989)
Was married to her cousin, rock star Jerry Lee Lewis.
Is portrayed by Winona Ryder in Great Balls of Fire! (1989)