Rock and Roll is in my blood – literally. My great-grandfather, Leo Mintz, coined the term “rock n’ roll,” helping produce the first rock concert ever, The Moondog Coronation Ball, over 50 years ago. Unfortunately, “Papa Leo” gets shorthanded when rock n’ roll’s story gets told, which is a blow to my entire family. The credit often goes to Alan Freed, the puppet to my grandfather puppeteer. Now, of course, I am biased in thinking that my great-grandfather deserves the credit, but still, I feel compelled to share the lesser known version of this story and hopefully after hearing the story you will too.
The first time I ever told someone my great grandfather “created” rock n’ roll was when I was in fourth grade. My friends responded, “No he didn’t, Elvis did.” Looking back, maybe I should have phrased it better. I’m not the only one in my family who has faced skepticism when telling the story of Leo Mintz. When my uncle was 10 years old, he delivered a school presentation in Cleveland, the capital of rock n’ roll. He proudly announced his grandfather’s story, but the teacher responded, “Alan Freed coined the phrase rock n’ roll, not your grandfather.”
My great-grandfather was a legend in Cleveland, opening Record Rendezvous in 1939. In fact, “The Vous” was the store that first allowed customers to listen to music before purchasing it. At the time, other music stores kept the records in the back of the store behind a counter. Can you imagine not being able to peruse the albums or listening to a song before buying it? Mintz was a revolutionary, convincing WJW disk jockey, Alan Freed, to play rhythm and blues records, who initially wanted nothing to do with playing “race records.” After successfully convincing Freed to give it a shot, as predicted, the music became a hit and Freed nicknamed himself Moondog.
In 1952, Mintz conceived the Moondog Coronation Ball and subsequently sold 7,500 tickets at lightning speed at Record Rendezvous. Deciding to have a second night, a second batch of tickets were printed and sold, unfortunately, with the same date on them as the first set. With 15,000 people showing up, the arena could not accommodate that many people. Legend has it, Mintz, the producer of the show, was in Florida when he got the call. He jumped on a plane, landed in Cleveland and drove straight to the arena. When he witnessed the chaos at the scene, he told the driver to take him back to the airport. Since Freed was the man people heard on the radio, he is the one that receives credit in rock culture, history books, but only partially in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame located in Cleveland, Ohio. In fact, Rock n’ Roll scholars predict were it not for my great-grandfather, rock n’ roll would have a very different history and the museum would most likely be in New York.
Finally, in 2010, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dedicated an entire gallery to my great-grandfather labeling it the Leo M. Mintz Gallery. It honors my grandfather by giving him the credit he deserves from the very beginning. Not only was he acknowledged for coining the phrase, but for paving the future of Rock n’ Roll in Cleveland.
Stories about Papa Leo are widely circulated in my family. Some say that cops would often let him off the hook for speeding, others report he was an avid scotch drinker. But one fact remains, he inspired a deep appreciation and love among all my uncles and my dad for rock and roll, eventually passing that love down to me.
