25th March 1955, Friday

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Graeme
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25th March 1955, Friday

Post by Graeme » Sat Nov 21, 2015 7:56 pm

Day number 7382Site Date Map
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Coley's Truck Stop - Dermott, Arkansas

http://lonniestrange.blogspot.co.uk/200 ... ansas.html

This may seem odd, but I’ve never taken a real spring break. I've never been to Cancun or Panama City Beach (though I'd like to one day!!). My family and I go to small towns, battlefields, state and national parks, and out-of-the-way museums. This spring break, we spent 4 days going to some of the places we’ve always wanted to go. One of the places we've all wanted to track down for a while was Coley's Truck Stop in Dermott, Arkansas. Here's why...

In 1955, my grandfather, Kenneth McKee (I called him Gengan), was an Arkansas State Trooper stationed in Dumas. A local man named O.T. Coley and his wife ran a truck stop and restaurant in Dermott called the Twin City Diner. It was a place to sit, visit, and drink coffee with local people, which is something my grandfather did very well. He was 27 years old when he made the acquaintance of three young men on a journey to make their marks on the world. They were on their way to be on the Louisiana Hayride, a radio show based out of Shreveport, Louisiana. My grandfather visited with them on a fairly regular basis, and on this particular day, a picture was taken of them drinking coffee. My grandfather, dressed in his state trooper uniform, had his picture made with Bill Black, Scotty Moore, and Elvis Presley, who was holding my grandfather’s revolver. Gengan was always very proud of this picture, and he could say that he knew Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys before they were really famous. We‘ve had the picture hanging in our house for years. I asked about it when I was a little girl, and he said, “Yes, Elvis did have blue suede shoes on.”

My parents and I have always wanted to see the old truck stop where my grandfather befriended Elvis Presley, so on Friday, March 20, we did just that! The only remains of the old truck stop and restaurant on U.S. Highway 65 are the bases of the old gas pumps and the metals poles of what may have been the entrance to the diner. Another building has been built around it, but no businesses are there now. If anyone has any pictures of the old Coley’s Truck Stop (or Twin City Diner), I would love to see them![/quote]

I copied this from a website years and years ago, I couldn't even tell you the name of the site and I doubt it even exists still. Its a fragment of a Bulletin Board conversation with the son of local DJ Bill Moore who interviewed Elvis on his show on this day...
I am going to say it was Wednesday March 25, 1955 because of the ticket I have seen for that concert. I don’t know of any other day when Elvis would have been in that studio based on what Dad always said in relation to it being before Elvis was famous....and of course, by 1955 he had experienced regional success....so maybe Dad was referring to the explosion in 1956....It could have been any time around 1954 and 1955 if they would have travelled through there, coming or going to the Louisiana Hayride. But Mom says it was before the concert. Side note: A friend of Moms is rumored to have had a date with Elvis after the show. Mom and her friend would have been 21 in 1955.......Dad was known as Bill Moore on the air.......The radio station was KVSA, 1220 on the AM band, in Dermott, Arkansas

Just curious IM. With your father being in the close knit community of radio back in the good ol’ days and with radio playing such an important part of the industry, or the side of the industry that Sam was in, did he know your father ? Also gotta tell ya, you mentioned about having a dig around if you ever got the chance at some old tapes. Whatever you do - don’t try and play them, you’ll most likely ruin them. They might need to be baked first at a certain temperature, but seek advice at the time as to the procedure.

No my Dad never met Sam Phillips.....he met tons of old country & western stars as they made their rounds to the small radio stations in the 50s, but he didn’t really know any of the record producers. Fast forward to 1999. Dad had moved to California back in 1975 and hadn’t been back this way very often. He came to spend Thanksgiving, and I took him to Sun Records.....he was very aware of the technology that existed in radio stations and recording studios in the 50s, and he knew all about the Sun stars because he would spin their records back in the day......but he said he that Phillips talent was that he had a good ear for a certain sound, more so than music (Dad to his dying day never gave rock n roll a bit of credibility, he was a big band drummer, and loved classical music). I wanted to take him on the tour at Graceland, but he only wanted to drive by and walk up to the gates, he didn’t care anything about going on the tour. On the other hand my grandmother, in her 80s at the time, made me take her to Graceland three times one week, in fact it was the last time she visited us before she passed away. She was an Elvis freak, played his gospel music all the time when she was in the mood. She came from a very humble background, and Graceland, and all the things that Elvis had earned and been awarded (trophy room) blew her away. She thought that was the biggest house she had ever seen, and what really impressed her was the barn......Ha, I don’t know why, but she would talk about that big old house had its own barn with horses.. ..and for some strange reason, the planes didn’t even register with her, I don’t think she realized that Elvis actually owned those planes....And thanks for the info on the tapes......glad you told me that.....they are all old reel to reel, and I’m about 90% sure that most of that stuff has been thrown away or if they are still there, probably have been recorded over....I will probably make that trip around the second weekend in June, I have to do some work to a house we own down there....I did locate the date of that interview, it was March 25, 1955....It is amazing the amount of driving those guys did back in those days....I bet Elvis could find his way anywhere in a car for years after those early touring days.....probably knew every major and secondary road in the south....I talked to the only remaining family member of that radio station ownership group this morning, they are getting ready to do a 50 year anniversary show, so they will be going thru old tapes, photos etc.....Might make it easy to locate since they would have only been on the air a couple of years when the interview took place. She told me that they found a photo of Elvis having coffee at the truck stop that was across the highway from the radio station and they think my Dad took the photo, with the mayor, the owner of the truck stop and Elvis. She remembers the interview, remembers meeting Elvis at the station and going to the concert. She also told me that Graceland had called a few years ago wanting to know the date that Elvis performed in Dermott because they had found a ticket but it didn’t have a date on it. She confirmed the date with me, Mar 25, 1955 and that is what she told Graceland. She also told me that in that time frame, 1955, that they got 30 to 40 calls per day requesting Elvis songs.....and they didn’t even have a request line!! She said that the kids listened to WHBQ out of Memphis until about dark when you couldn’t pick up the signal anymore. So they were exposed to Elvis music from day one. And of course on other radio stations they picked up the Louisiana Hayride out of Shreveport. So Elvis was already a bigger deal by then that I thought..... And of course she asked me how my Momma is doing 8)
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The site of the Coley
Truck stop in more
recent times
The ticket is owned by Graceland and at the time they first got it it was the earliest known copy of a ticket to a show with Elvis performing that had his name on it.

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