Comments for Elvis Project

Apr 15, 2009

Elvis in El Dorado, Ar 1955
by: Don R

I'm a 68 yr old man who grew up in El Dorado, AR having to listen to 40's and 50's music. People like Doris Day, Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, etc. At night, on the radio, we started hearing this guy, Elvis Presley, from Memphis singing what we called "Bop" music. We actually thought he was a black musician for a while. Then, Elvis got a gig with the Louisiana Hayride and scheduled a concert in El Dorado in the fall of 1955. My buddy Bill and I snuck into the football stadium that night and went down on the track next to the grandstand. Elvis was there in a pink cadillac waiting for his turn on stage. We started talking to him like we were old friends. He was 20 yrs old at the time and we were 14. I couldn't believe how friendly he was. He goofed around with us, kidding us about our girl friends, shadowboxing with us, just killing time to go on. Then a bunch of girls came down out of the stands to get autographs. Elvis asked us if we'd like to sell these 8 1/2 x 11 glossy photos out of the back of his cadillic. We sold lots of pics that night at 25 cents each. I have to admit we pocketed some of the quarters but most went into the box. We were so pumped up after meeting Elvis we went out the next day and got our hair dyed jet black. When we showed up at school the principle took us into his office and shaved our heads and we had to wear beanies until it grew back.
Interesting aside: my parents still wouldn't allow me to listen to rock music, thinking it was sent from the devil.