Moon Dog Tavern

Detail: "Moon Dog" is a term steeped in rock 'n' roll tradition. It's meaning goes back to the days when rock 'n' roll was born.

In 1951, Alan Freed was a disc jockey at WJW in Cleveland, Ohio, playing hot jazz pop records. He noticed that a large number of young people were buying rhythm and blues records, so he started playing these records on his show and his popularity soared. Due to the prejudices of the time, Fred began calling the music he played "Rock "N" Roll." Ironically, the term Fred was using to make rhythm and blues more acceptable to the white audience was slang for "sex" within the black community.

Freed often credited himself with coining the term " Rock "N" Roll," although the term was first heard in the Dominoes hit song " Sixty minute Man" in 1951. His genuine love for music combined with exuberant sense of self-promotion, culminated in his title as "King of Moondoggers."

Freed named his radio show Moondog's Rock 'n' Roll party. The success and popularity of the show led to Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland in March of 1952. Top rhythm and blues acts were booked for the show, the concert drew 25,000 fans to a hall that held 10,000. The show had to be cancelled, but it wasn't the sheer numbers that most upset the adults - it was the fact that the crowd was made up equally of black and whites. This event was so big that many consider it the birthday of "Rock 'n' Roll."