18th April 1956, Wednesday

[Graeme]

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[Graeme]

      

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[Alan]

	Elvis on stage, I think from the latter show, but could easily be from the 7pm show
	Backstage Elvis meets radio KTUL DJ Don Wallace. Don would go on to raise a petition thousands of signatures requesting Elvis is back on TV as soon as possible. The scroll of signatures can be seen on the Steve Allen show when Elvis is dressed in a Tuxedo on July 1st 1956
	A couple of lucky fans...

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/histo ... years-ago/
      
If you were a teenage girl living in the Tulsa area on April 18, 1956, chances are you were screaming your head off at the fairgrounds Pavilion.

“Presley Leaves ‘Em Limp – 8,000 Squeal at 1st Show,” read the headline in the Tulsa World the next day. Elvis was a 21-year-old singer and former truck driver who performed two “frenetic” Tulsa shows, 60 years ago next month. Most of the tickets were $1 each.

Oddly, neither the World nor The Tulsa Tribune carried a full-body photo of Elvis performing. Both published pictures of the fans and the Trib included one small photo of his head.

The first fainting was recorded five minutes before the 7 p.m. show began, the World reported.

Concert-goers apparently were unhappy that they had to sit through performances by Leon McAuliffe and his western swing band, rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson and a duo called the Farmer Boys before Elvis took the stage.

‘I can’t stand it!’

“Why don’t they hurry? Why don’t they hurry? I can’t stand it!” wailed one girl.

When Elvis finally began to sing, World reporter David Wood was clearly bemused by the teens’ reaction.

“He hugged the microphone and complained rapidly and breathlessly that he was ‘sooo lone-a-ly.’ Many of the girls wept. Others just lifted up their eyes to the ceiling and screamed,” he wrote.

He described Elvis as “a slight young man with carefully combed hair, sideburns and a face more beautiful than handsome.”

“He danced with his hips during each number, doing a form of dance called ‘Bop’ and shaking himself as though there was an entire hive of bees inside his clothes. At each shake of the hip, a great collective shriek approved it. The girls screamed whenever he ran his hands up and down his hips,” Wood wrote.

Among the songs were “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Only You,” “I Gotta Woman” and his finale, “Blue Suede Shoes.”

He wore a black, gold-flecked sports jacket, a gold silk mandarin shirt, charcoal gray slacks, blue argyle socks and brown loafers.

“To the bobbysox set, he was Sinatra, Como and Caruso rolled into one. And he beat a savage rhythm on a leather-bound guitar and sang lonesome songs and heartbreak songs and frustrated songs that made every little girl in the audience his sweetheart or his wife or his fairy godmother,” wrote the Tribune’s Jim Downing, who took his 14-year-old daughter, Pamela, to the show.

Fears for audience safety

Between the two shows, Elvis relaxed backstage sipping a concession stand Coke from a paper cup as he spoke politely with reporters in his soft, Southern drawl.

“I get scared when the audience starts hurting each other,” he said in response to a question about his fans’ hysteria. “That’s why I stopped giving autographs. The bigger kids run over the smaller ones and I’m always afraid they’ll get hurt.”

Elvis was forced to tone down his gyrations in Oklahoma City the next night after officials there received complaints that the Tulsa show was “indecent” in places. Police Chief Roy Bergman assigned 40 police officers to keep order and sent word to Elvis that the show would be stopped “if he pulled anything.”

Interviewed by an Oklahoma City Times reporter, Elvis explained, “I wasn’t trying to be vulgar and sexy. I just get carried away with the music.”

One observer who was not carried away at the Oklahoma City show was Dr. Rupert Naney, a Baptist minister and chairman of the city's board of censors, who remarked, “He ought to calm down some of that shaking. In my point of view, the law of mental suggestion is the most difficult one we have to countermand. There were some suggestive actions done that I would be glad had they not been there.”

Two years later, Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. As his dark locks were shorn off, a World photographer scooped up a handful of his hair, which was given away in a reader contest.

Elvis performed four more concerts in Tulsa – June 20, 1972; March 1 and March 2, 1974, and July 4, 1976. He died at his Graceland mansion on Aug. 16, 1977. He was 42.

“The King of Rock & Roll” lives on in the memories of loyal fans.

And a new movie, “Elvis & Nixon” starring Michael Shannon as the singer and Kevin Spacey as the president, focuses on Presley’s mysterious 1970 visit to the White House. The comedy will be in theaters in April.

      

http://www.willrogersclassof1957.com/        Bob with photo & show ticket        Bob Taylor is in the middle

https://tulsaworld.com/scene/columnists ... 51291.html        Jimmie Tramel: There's a story behind this taken-in-Tulsa Elvis Presley photo Meeting 'the King' after 1956 show influenced Tulsan's life By Jimmie Tramel Bob Taylor will celebrate his 80th birthday when Aug. 16 arrives later this week. Aug. 16 is significant in Elvis Presley history. Presley, 42, died on that date in 1977. It’s just a coincidence that Taylor and Presley share an Aug. 16 connection. But there’s an added layer of interest because the men once connected in a way that influenced Taylor’s life. And the reminder is a framed photo hanging on a wall at Taylor’s home. This is the story behind the photo. In 1956, Presley was in Tulsa to perform two shows at the Fairgrounds Pavilion. A Will Rogers High School student at the time, Taylor attended the first of those shows. How was the concert? “You couldn’t hear,” Taylor said. “The screaming was so loud that it just drowned out everything.” Between shows, Taylor went looking for Elvis. Good luck, kid. Taylor walked outside the Pavilion to the north end of the venue because that’s where the backstage area was located. He spotted an open window, but it was so far off the ground that there was no way for him to sneak a peek inside the building, at least without friends. Thank goodness for friends. Thank goodness for a sturdy friend like Earl Secrist. Secrist, who accompanied Taylor to the fairgrounds, stood below the open window and served as a human ladder. Standing on Secrist’s shoulders, Taylor was “tall” enough to poke his head inside the window. Jackpot. “I saw Elvis across the room and called him over,” Taylor said. “I said ‘Hey Elvis’ or something like that. I was probably intimidated, but I was also determined to talk to him.” Maybe Elvis appreciated the kid’s determination and resourcefulness. Elvis walked over to the window. He and Taylor shook hands and talked, uninterrupted, for about five minutes. Did Taylor let his friend with the strong shoulders know what was going on? “I couldn’t,” he said. “I was busy chatting with Elvis.” Then came company. Taylor’s successful bid to lay eyes on Elvis sparked mimics. Other kids (Taylor said he didn’t know them) used similar tactics to gain access to the window. Taylor bailed out after company arrived. “It was time to go,” he said. “I knew my friend was probably getting tired of holding me on his shoulders, basically.” When Taylor turned to climb down, he saw “at least” 500 people gathered around him and Secrist, who would later become a wrestler at the University of Oklahoma and a deputy chief with the Tulsa Police Department. Secrist died in 2014. While Taylor and others were stationed at the window, a Tulsa Tribune photographer strolled through the backstage area and snapped a picture of them interacting with Presley. The photo appeared in the newspaper with this caption: “Yeeeeeee! Elvis Presley doesn’t usually hold autographing sessions because ‘somebody might get hurt.’ But Tulsa teens didn’t let that bother them Wednesday night, when the ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ man performed at the Fairgrounds Pavilion. After one intrepid explorer found that the basement window to Presley’s dressing room could be opened, the boys and girls swarmed up with their autograph books and pictures.” Taylor said his mother had the foresight to go to the newspaper office and purchase a copy of the photo. He also is still in possession of an 8-by-10-inch Elvis photo he purchased for $1 at that fairgrounds show in 1956. It was autographed at the Pavilion by Presley and bass player Bill Black. Years later, Taylor met someone who served in the military with D.J. Fontana, Elvis’ drummer. Fontana autographed the photo and got it autographed by Scotty Moore, Presley’s guitarist. What happened to Taylor after meeting the king? Seed planted, he went on to become a rocker. His entry in volume two of the “Oklahoma Guide to 45 RPM Records and Bands” begins with these words: “Bobby Taylor probably contributed more to early Tulsa music, relative to the time he spent in it, than any other musician then or since. He joined a Tulsa band in late 1956 and left music in 1958, but, during those years, his band was one of only three rock ’n’ roll bands that were playing to Tulsa-area teenage audiences.” The book called Taylor a founding father of the Tulsa music scene and someone who broke ground for musicians and bands that followed. In those days, there was magic in the city — and in the hallways of Rogers High School. Taylor’s schoolmates included Leon Russell, Anita Bryant and David Gates. Taylor’s stash of memorabilia includes photos of himself with Bryant and JJ Cale. “Johnny” Cale was the guitarist in Taylor’s first band. Taylor also spent time in McKinney, Texas, as a kid. Dallas-area radio stations were playing Presley’s Sun label music before stations in Tulsa. “They were still playing Perry Como,” Taylor said. Taylor, ahead of the Presley curve, learned Elvis songs and performed crowd-pleasers locally. Presley’s popularity here exploded after appearing on national TV for the first time in January 1956, according to Taylor. They met three months later. Taylor’s pursuit of a music career ended when he gave up being in a band to join a bigger group — the Air Force Reserve. He got married in 1959, became part of the work force and ultimately served as president of the Oklahoma Credit Union League. Retired from the credit union biz, Taylor hasn’t retired from singing. He performs retro tunes at senior centers and performed at his 50-year high school reunion, where he was honored by classmates. While Taylor was on stage at the reunion, this was said about him during a presentation: “The world had Elvis. Rogers had Bobby Taylor.” Taylor said he could probably send that 1956 photo of him and Elvis to an auction company and make some money. But he’ll never do it. “It means too much to me.”

[Alan]

From the best book on Elvis in 1956, Brian Petersens,The Atomic Powered Singer :-
      
On Wednesday, April 18,Elvis arrived in Tulsa, Ok, in time for the first of his two appearances at the Fairground Pavilion. A crowd of more than 8,000 attended each of the shows and the Tulsa World used about 1,500 words to review the performances. After the first show Elvis disappeared into the dressing room beneath the seats where, sitting on a table, drinking concession stand pop from a paper cup, he talked with the reporters when all of a sudden a member of the band walked by and asked him what he was drinking. "Dope," Elvis said. "You know I'm a pusher," then he turned to talk of a painful subject. "People ask me if I take something to make me do what I do out there. I don't even drink alcohol. At first I tried to deny that I took anything but that just didn't seem to help. I switched to wisecracking. "Oh, just a mixture of my own - heroin, benzadrine, cocaine" I don't guess anything can be done about it. They're just going to talk." Then he observed that while it didn't bother him,"It makes my mother mad. People have even phoned the house in Memphis to ask what I take." Elvis sipped his pop and shrugged, talked about the movie contract he has signed, then he relaxed and waited for the next show to start.
      
Elvis stayed in Tulsa overnight...

[Alan]

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