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Vacation Elvis Style - Part 12 / 13
MORE ON MISSISSIPPI
Oops!
Blame it on Elvis Week fatigue, but we forgot to include in last
week's Elvis Fact of the Week a family vacation that Elvis and his
parents took in Mississippi in the summer of 1956. Elvis along with
Red West, Gene and Junior Smith, and Arthur Hooton arrived at June
Juanico's house in Biloxi on 07/9/56. They stayed at first at the
Sun 'n' Sand Hotel Court. For more privacy, Elvis moved to the Gulf
Hills Dude Ranch resort and finally he rented a house for the rest
of the summer. They went horseback riding, swimming, skiing, skeet
shooting and deep-sea fishing. Elvis had so much fun that he called
his parents to come down and join them and they too went fishing.
Elvis and June also showed them around nearby New Orleans. Elvis and
his family enjoyed relaxing in Biloxi, Mississippi.
LOUISIANA
Elvis and his girlfriend June showed his parents around New Orleans in the
summer of 1956. Elvis also visited the Lake Ponchartrain Beach
Amusement Park, riding the rides and playing arcade games. He had
performed at the amusement park on 9/1/55. Elvis had also previously
performed in New Orleans on 1/4/55 at the Jesuit High School and
again at the Municipal Auditorium on 5/1/55 and 8/12/56. 1956 was a
U.S. election year and banners in New Orleans proclaimed "Elvis For
President." Elvis stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel which was later
named the Fairmount Hotel.
He would stay there again while filming his fourth movie "King
Creole" in 1958.
The exterior shots were filmed in and around the French Quarter on
Royal Street and at the Vieux Carre´nightclub.
Other locations were Jackson Square, a local high school and a stilt
house on Lake Pontchartrain.
Other
concert sites in Louisiana include Rapides Parish Coliseum in
Alexandria 3/29-30/77, South Side Elementary School in Bastrop
2/24/55, Baton Rouge High School 5/22/55 and Louisiana State
University on 6/17-18/74, 7/2/76 and 5/31/77. He performed at Lake
Charles Civic Center 5/4/75 and in Monroe he had a show at the West
Monroe High School on 2/18/55 and the Monroe Civic Center on
3/4,7-8/74 and 5/3/75.
Plaquemine's Casino Club was the site for a 7/1/55 show.
In
Shreveport, Louisiana Elvis gained early fame and the exposure he
needed to jump-start his career as a regular on the "Louisiana
Hayride" radio program. He debuted on the "Hayride" on 10/16/54 and
was soon signed to a contract that brought him racing back to
Shreveport each Saturday night until the spring of 1956. In a future
"Elvis Fact of the Week" will will focus on the "Louisiana Hayride"
and give it the spotlight it deserves in Elvis' career. For this
series we will mention the other places in Shreveport where Elvis
performed, which include the Lake Cliff Club where he would perform
in 1954, Hirsch Youth Center on 12/15/56 and Hirsch Coliseum on
6/7/75 and 7/1/76.
ARKANSAS
The floor sagged in the Bono High School gymnasium due to the
beyond-capacity audience crowded in to see Elvis on 9/6/55. In
Camden he performed at the Municipal Auditorium on 2/21/55, 8/4/55
and 11/16/55. The Eldorado High School Auditorium and the Memorial
Auditorium were sites of shows in Eldorado on 3/30/55 and 10/17/55
receptively. In Forrest City he performed at Smith Stadium on 9/5/55
as part of the Labor Day celebration and on 11/14/55 at the Forrest
City High School Auditorium to benefit the Crowley Ridge Shrine
Club. In Helena he performed at the Catholic Club Auditorium on
12/2/54, 1/13/55 and 3/8/55. In Hope, Arkansas, hometown of U.S.
President Bill Clinton, Elvis performed on 2/22/55 at the City Hall
Meeting Room, and on 6/5/55 he had a show at the Hope Fair Park
Coliseum. It was after this show that Elvis's first pink Cadillac, a
1954 model,
caught on fire and burned near Fulton, Arkansas.
In Jonesboro's Earl Bell Community Center on 1/4/56, Elvis performed to
benefit the Delta Beta Sigma Sorority. He did another benefit on
1/20/55 for the Leachville High School senior class at their school.
In Little Rock at Robinson High School Auditorium, Elvis performed
on 2/20/55, 8/3/55 and 5/16/56. On 4/17/72 Elvis gave a concert at
the T. H. Barton Coliseum. In Newport on 3/2/55 he performed at the
National Guard Armory and later in the evening at Porky's Rooftop
Club. On 7/21/55 and 10/24/55 he was at the Silver Moon Club and
again later at Porky's. In Pine Bluff he was at Watson Chapel High
School on 2/23/55 and the Pine Bluff Convention Center on 9/7-8/76.
It was at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas that Elvis went through the
induction process when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in March
1958. It was there on 3/25/58 that Elvis received his famous GI
haircut observed by a crowd of reporters and photographers.
The city of Texarkana straddles two states, Arkansas and Texas. It was
here at the Municipal Auditorium that Elvis performed at on several
dates in 1954 and 1955. (Details on exact dates vary from researcher
to researcher.) It was here that Elvis met a teenager who was
probably the first Elvis impersonator, Carl "Cheesie" Nelson.
Cheesie was known locally for imitating various performers and when
Elvis was late to a show one day, it was Cheesie's impression of
Elvis that stalled the audience. Elvis thought his performance was
great and he and Cheesie became good friends.
Originally this series was to be twelve weeks long. However, Elvis
performed in so many towns in Texas that we will devote an extra
week to just Texas.
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