Goofs for
The Buddy Holly Story (1978) More at IMDbPro »

• Errors in geography: There are no mountains in Lubbock, Texas.
  
  
• Factual errors: Buddy Holly's final concert was at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, not the Clear Lake Auditorium as depicted in the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: The billboard on the Clear Lake Auditorium (standing in for the Clear Lake Surf Ballroom) reads "Feb 3". Buddy Holly's final performance was Monday, Feb. 2, 1959.
  
  

• Anachronisms: The "Ludwig" logo on the drums was not adopted until the 1960's.
  
  
• Factual errors: Early in the movie the family's last name on the side of the truck is spelled "Holly". Their name was actually Holley, but Buddy's name was misprinted on a record label and he adopted the revised spelling.
  
  
• Continuity: The coffee pot in the Holly apartment leaps from the kitchen counter to the dining table between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Buddy plays his acoustic guitar for the two neighbor boys, it is in concert pitch. A moment after they leave, he picks up the guitar again. When he strums it this time, it is tuned a semitone below concert pitch.
  
  
• Anachronisms: At the roller rink, Buddy plays a Fender "Bronco" guitar. The Bronco was not manufactured by Fender until the early 1970s.
  
  
• Factual errors: Buddy Holly's front teeth were knocked out before a performance in the UK, not on US television as shown in the film.
  
  
• Factual errors: Buddy is shown writing out a score during a studio scene when in real life, Buddy Holly could not read nor write music.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Buddy sees his girlfriend off on the bus, the camera pans over to the bus station past a gas station that has a billboard with a Century 21 real estate sign over it. Century 21 started in 1971.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Telecaster that Buddy plays at the Apollo is a mid seventies CBS model. You can clearly read the large "Telecaster" logo which was introduced when CBS bought the company from Leo Fender in the late 1960s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the roller-rink scene, Cindy Lou is drinking from a quarter-inch-or-more-diameter straw. In the 1950s, straws were much narrower and came in 2s.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the roller-rink scene, Cindy Lou is drinking through a quarter-inch-or-more-diameter straw. In the 1950s, straws were much narrower and came in 2s.
  
  
• Factual errors: During his final concert, Buddy Holly is backed by a full orchestra. In reality, he toured with a small unnamed band consisting of Waylon Jennings on bass, Carl Bunch on drums and Tommy Allsup on lead guitar.
  
  
• Factual errors: As the disabled bus is towed into Clear Lake, Iowa, it is of the "Greyhound" cross-country type. In reality, The Winter Party '59 tour traveled in aged and unheated school buses.
  
  
• Factual errors: Buddy never toured with Sam Cooke.
  
  
• Factual errors: The Crickets real names were Jerry Allison and Joe B. Mauldin, not Jesse and Ray Bob as in the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: Buddy's parents were not against the music as the movie said. Mrs. Holley even helped Buddy write “Maybe Baby”.
  
  
• Factual errors: KDAV was a daytime-only radio station in the 1950s.
  
  
• Factual errors: Buddy Holly played the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In the movie, he plays a Telecaster.
  
  
• Factual errors: Buddy Holly's pastor did not oppose Buddy's musical projects. In fact, Buddy reputedly tithed regularly to his church. The Holley (correct family name) were Baptists.
  
  

• Anachronisms: SPOILER: During the final show, Buddy is playing a Fender Stratocaster guitar. The particular model that Buddy (Gary Busey) is playing is an early 1980's 'Dan Smith' era Fender Stratocaster as characterized by a small headstock and a large, bold "Fender" logo and large, bold, black "Stratocaster" text. This show was supposed to have taken place in 1959.
  
  
• Factual errors: SPOILER: The closing caption refers to "Clearlake" (one word), Iowa. The city is "Clear Lake" (two words), as seen at the city's official website, http://www.clearlakeiowa.com/. The same mistake is made in the name of the (erroneous) "Clearlake Auditorium".
  
  

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