On October 13, 1951, the touring package billed as “The Biggest Show of ’51” played Buffalo Memorial Auditorium with three headliners on a single Saturday-night bill: Duke Ellington and his World Famous Orchestra, Nat “King” Cole and the Trio, and Sarah Vaughan. Presented by the Gale Agency, the 9 p.m. show sold tickets at $1.25, $1.75 and $2.50 and filled out the evening with Timmie Rogers, Peg Leg Bates, Stump and Stumpy, Patterson & Jackson and the Marie Bryant Dancers. Billboard reported the Buffalo date netted about $13,500, one of the stronger nights of the package’s first five weeks, before the troupe moved on to Syracuse’s new Onondaga County War Memorial the following evening. Seventy-five years later, it remains a remarkable snapshot of jazz royalty sharing one Buffalo stage.
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