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Superb letter archive from the estate of Joe B. Mauldin, original bass player for The Crickets, which contains a total of 19 ALSs from Mauldin, signed “Joe B.” or “Joby,” dated from the road while on tour with Buddy Holly between July 1957 and March 1958, with one letter dated to late May 1959, roughly four months after Holly’s tragic death. The collection comprises 12 handwritten letters (25 total pages) and seven handwritten postcards, all of which are addressed to Mauldin’s family from various tour stops around America and England, destinations reflected on the various letterhead and postcard imagery. In these down-to-earth letters, the 17-year-old Mauldin offers a vivid glimpse into life on the road—sharing stories of grueling show schedules, chart-topping success, stolen guitars, rowdy crowds, homesickness, and the whirlwind of fame as the group rose to rock ’n’ roll stardom. The highlights are two letters with direct mentions of his iconic bandmate, Buddy Holly:
August 5, 1957, addressed from the Ambassador Hotel in Washington, D.C.: “We have been working like Trojans and Niki’s guitar was stolen last night. Buddy had an awful sore throat and couldn’t sing so Niki sang in his place. The kids seemed to like us just as much though. Last night Buddy finished singing the last song and the kids like to have torn the theatre apart before we got back out on the stage for another song. You know we are playing before a Negro audience and they like us better than Clyde McPhatter or any of the other acts and we are the only white act on the show.”
March 27, 1958, sent from the Hotel Edison in New York City: “I received your letter…when I got here to New York…I felt very content after receiving a letter from you. Jerry and Buddy got letters quite often while in England and therefore the time passed much faster for them I am sure…At the present I have no plans for marriage although I do have a few girlfriends around the world. I didn’t meet many girls in England because we were always so busy doing something or the other….Guess I’ll close for now and I’ll get Buddy & Jerry up so we can make it to rehearsal.”
Samples from other letters are as follows:
July 30, 1957 (Hotel Edison, NY): “We have been running around like a bunch of headless chickens since we got here. We were at General Artists, Inc. all day today signing contracts, and we also went to Southern Music and the Decca building. At the present time we have about $17,000 worth of bookings and will be working until some time after Christmas. Up here everyone treats us like we were already on top and we love it. Murray told us today that our record had already sold over 125,000 and they were getting more orders every day…Jerry and I got us a new shirt each yesterday and they are bright red.”
August 2, 1957 (Ambassador Hotel): “We are having a ball and seeing a lot of cities…We are in Washington, D.C. and will open at the Howard Theatre in the morning. We will do five shows each day, six days a week…I don’t know about the television shows yet but I will let you know later.”
August 10, 1957 (Southern Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland): “We just finished our last show for today and we are getting to bed a little early. The midnight show was last night and we didn’t get to bed until about 4 o’clock this morning. We only have to do three numbers, but with the crowd we have to please, we have to put a lot into it. Last night we stole the show again and the kids here are treating us like people now.”
August 23, 1957 (Hotel Forrest, NY): “We finished our shows at the Apollo Theatre tonight and boy am I glad. Baby, those audiences were dead and it was very boring work. The crowds were mostly grown people and they seemed to like the tap dancers the best.”
August 26, 1957 (Hotel Forrest): “We have a few days off so we are getting some rest before the Brooklyn Paramount. We will go to Philadelphia in the morning for a T.V. show and I hope they don’t have a bunch of things for us to do. Seems like everywhere we go there are a million people to meet and a jillion unnecessary things to do, but we have to do everything to please the people…I found out the other day that the tour we are going on won’t come through Lubbock because they couldn’t get the Coliseum on the day they wanted it…Niki is in bed sleeping and Jerry is out running around. I guess I’ll get in bed.”
October 21, 1957 (Hotel California, Oakland),: “I am having a lot of fun and I can have a lot more things I couldn’t afford at home but it is also very boring and I get homesick a lot, but like I said before I just decide that if I were home I would want to be here so I just forget it and carry on. I don’t think we will get to come home until the middle of December.”
March 7, 1958 (Danum Hotel in Doncaster, England): “It was quite a change coming from Florida to here, thus we all have had bad colds. We all got a penicillin shot about a week ago, and that pretty well cured us up.”
March 9, 1958 (Alexandra Hotel in Bradford, England): “Today, Vi and I took time out between shows to go see Nottingham Castle, where Robin Hood had many battles…Almost everything is old and run-down. We have to put coins in the heaters all night to keep the hotel rooms warm. The English cigarettes taste awful, but American ones are hard to find and they are very expensive…We had a very warm reception…Tonight the stage was rushed by some kids and I broke the bass fiddle, dad gum it.” Each letter includes its original hand-addressed mailing envelope. In overall very good to fine condition, with glue and tape stains to many of the clippings in the early scrapbook.
Accompanying the letters are two scrapbooks from the Mauldin family estate, one of which includes sundry newspaper and magazine clippings related to Mauldin and the Crickets’ rise to stardom, and the other, gilt-stamped “Joe B. Mauldin, July 8, 1990” on the front cover, containing various photographs, clippings, and souvenirs related to both Mauldin’s family life and his career as a musician, which includes an early sheet music booklet for ‘That’ll Be the Day,’ an original ticket for a Crickets concert at the Albuquerque Civic Auditorium on October 9, 1957, two original Wisconsin-area handbills for Crickets concerts at the Rothschild Pavilion (July 12, 1958) and the Crystal Rock Ballroom (July 13, 1958), a group photo featuring Waylon Jennings, and several photographs of Mauldin with Paul McCartney, whom collaborated on Crickets-related music projects over the years.
