(rock and roll music)
- My father heard about this station in New York,
WINS with a disc jockey named Alan Freed.
Alan Freed is the man who coined the word rock and roll,
actually invented the word.
♪ So then you rockin' and rockin' around ♪
♪ Roll, roll, roll, roll, everybody ♪
He did rock and roll shows and he did movies
and he played all the great records that independents made
that could never get on the air.
But we took payola to play records.
If you made a record, you paid the disc jockey to play it.
It was legal.
And it was the only way we could compete
with the big corporations.
It was a very primitive time for the record business.
- Business and art don't really coincide
for the actual artists themselves.
You know, artists just want to create,
and the business side of it is people who know
how to exploit the creation.
- The record label would offer cash or a songwriting credit
in order that the DJ would play the song.
- My father makes a deal.
The deal was is that Alan became the writer on "Maybelline"
in order to play it.
- The more Alan Freed played it,
the more interest there would be in it,
the more records would be sold,
the more he would get money back in royalties.
- And he knew that these African American people
didn't know what to do when there came to royalties.
- Leonard Chess would give you money,
but you never would see what record sold.
You never knew anything about that part.
If I wanted something, I would tell him,
and he would just say, "There you go, Sugar Pie.
Give it to me off the cuff."
You know, but I was so glad to play.
I'd take the little 50 cents or whatever, you know.
I remember my first time, I made $3.50 for one week.
- It used to bother me,
and I had conversations with my father about that.
And he'd say, "All that money we pay off
to get the record played,
that's part of the artist expense."
- Chuck realized, wait a minute, I wrote the song,
but they got the publishing
and they have the song writing share,
and I'm not getting that revenue.
- He called it theft.
- He had a very strong feeling
that he was worth more than he was getting.
Chuck figured out he could never make as much
on record royalties as he could playing live.
He knew that if it was on the radio and he had a hit,
he could tour.
- Chuck left St. Louis after "Maybelline" became a hit
and performed in front of rabid teenage crowds.
(crowd cheering)
- The lay folks didn't like it.
What's he doing with these white childrens,
dancing with these other Negroes.
- They just didn't want black and white folks
to get together.
And they knew that at a Chuck Berry show,
you can't stop kids from partying,
you can't stop kids from dancing
and when you got that music and they want to hear it,
they don't care who they're standing next to dancing.
And the authorities and the powers that be didn't like that.
And that may Chuck even more powerful, I think.
- They knew that he was entertaining white audiences.
They didn't like that. They knew that he was making money.
They didn't like that.
But he knew he had to work, so he continued with his career.
The racism, the inequities,
Chuck tried to break through that,
but that was the way of the times.
- He went on the road and he told me on the bus,
you might have Jackie Wilson, Bo Diddley
and Bill Haley and the Comets.
And he said, they'd come to these southern towns
and Bill Haley and the Comets would get off the bus
and go into the hotel.
White hotels and white restaurants back then,
they didn't allow black people there.
- To be turned down city after city after city,
that's crazy.
He was sleeping in his car many, many times.
- Entertain me, but don't get close to me.