Don't Know Much About History
    The Truth about "The History of Rock and Roll"

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Ellen Pelissero (pictured in 1965) was employed at KHJ and she worked on the first and original version of "The History of Rock and Roll" that was broadcast on KHJ in 1969.



Here, in her own words, is the truth about "The History of Rock and Roll" that clears away many decades of doubt over who did what, when and where.

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While Bill Mouzis and I busted 'okole on the syndicated version of “The History of Rock and Roll” (HRR) – for which he received $500 and I was offered a $5 a week raise – the origination of the idea for HRR came from a KHJ sales presentation film (which became an RKO radio sales film) that I wrote and produced (in its entirety) as a sort of "mini history of rock and roll" with the purpose of acquainting then middle-aged women media buyers with the vitality of the AM rock 'n' roll radio station market. It was called "The Beat Goes On".

With me on that project were Bill Mouzis engineering and directing and Bob Morgan lending his incredible voice and talent to the mix. (My main "extra" in the film -- the man in the couple enjoying this KHJ music -- was, incidentally my then next door neighbor, Don Imus.)

With a guy in the sales staff (whose name escapes me now, but he was blond) and Ed DelaPeña from engineering, I flew up to San Francisco for the KHJ/RKO sales presentation. Bill Drake was at that sales presentation and actually spoke to me about it; complimenting me on the work. As I said, from there it went on to be the RKO Radio chain's sales presentation (I still have the audio track but not the film itself (I think Bill Mouzis has a copy).

Now clearly our work wasn't the entire kernel for HRR, but it was certainly a part of it, because shortly after that sales film Ron hired me out of the traffic/sales department to work with him, Pete Johnson, Bill Mouzis and Bob Morgan and Sandy (Mandelbaum) Gibson on the project. And in the 13 or so weeks of production, the ONLY other persons at KHJ,RKO or Drake/Chenault that had anything whatsoever to do with the production were our music director and Shelley (Gordon) Morgan who spent a lot of time holding us together -- especially in the last weeks of production when we weren't even stopping to eat. And our leader and coach and push-meister and inspiration and through every second of that production was the incredibly talented -- albeit sometimes rough to be around -- Ron Jacobs. And no one deserves the ultimate credit for HRR besides Ron. So anybody else attempting to lay claim to the actual creation or doing of HRR is a liar, a fool or attempting to reflect in some sort of celebrity from someone else's work. What it was, was then. And it was very good. But why any of this is the subject of diatribe and debate 40 years after the fact is beyond me. It's not 1969 any more. It's 2009. It was Ron's baby. And like it or not, like him or not, get over it. --Ellen Pelissero

Did You Know?? Morse Code that spells out the letters "RKO" was embedded into "The History of Rock and Roll" at the request of RKO Radio. This security measure has been verified by Bill Mouzis, who learned Morse Code while serving in the United States Navy in World War II.

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Pete Johnson was a writer for The Los Angeles Times newspaper. Click on the image on the right so you can read his commentary (published on March 24, 1969) that explains how he wrote the first and original version of "The History of Rock and Roll" and worked with specific people at KHJ on this historic production:

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Click on the images below so you can read the January 28, 1969 press release from KHJ that spans three typewritten pages. This important document provides a behind-the-scenes look at those who worked on the first and original edition of "The History of Rock and Roll":

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back to "The History of The History of Rock and Roll"

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