Thirty-four years gone today.

'Before Elvis, there was nothing' - John Lennon

Elvis' death mourned by New Orleanians in August 1977
Published: Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 10:18 AM
By The Times-Picayune NOLA.com

The New Orleans nightclub owner who turned away a young phenomenon named Elvis in 1953 "because he wasn't well-known enough" choked off a sob Tuesday (August 17, 1977) as she recalled memories of Presley and the Cadillac Club.


"In 1954 Keith Rush booked Elvis for $150 a night at my place, the Cadillac Club on St. Claude Avenue," said Mrs. Lois Brown. "Keith said 'he's a real hot number.' Well, we didn’t take him -- and I still regret it -- but since then we became very good friends. We hired the Everly Brothers instead."

Mrs. Brown wasn't the only New Orleanian mourning the death of that ageless teen idol Tuesday. Thousands recall Presley's visits here, dating back to a Summer day in 1956 when as a rising young star he bowled over the milk bottles on the midway at Pontchartrain Beach before an hysterical throng of squealing fans, most of them females.

New Orleanian Walter Taney was one who did not turn Elvis away. He arranged booking for two Presley concerts in Municipal Auditorium on the night of Aug. 12, 1956. Ticket prices back then, minus tax, were $1.05, $1.26 and $1.47, Taney said.

By then, Elvis was well on the way to super-stardom, Taney said. He didn't pay much attention to Presley's performances, but he recalls the idol as "one of the nicest young men you'd ever want to meet. It was 'Yes, Ma'm' and 'Yes sir,' " to older people, Taney recalled.

Newspaper accounts of Presley's surprise visit described "Evils the Pelvis (wearing) a shirt so cool last night at the beach that it practically froze Lake Pontchartrain to Mandeville."

Elvis' New Orleans following had increased tenfold when he appeared for two Municipal Auditorium engagements before more than 13,000 fans.


Elvis in King Creole

"Whether he'll be around as long as the Davy Crockett hat remains to be seen," wrote a skeptical reviewer. "He flings his limbs about and quivers in such a way as to make one think he might have a trick knee, possible from an old war injury. But this is not the case."

Elvis was back in the Crescent city two years later to film "King Creole" in the French Quarter. Frantic mobs of teenagers swarmed around the periphery of the movie set while one shopkeeper dangled a picture of a pelvis in his storefront window.

Weeks away from a date with the U.S. Army, Elvis confessed a yearning to play "straight" roles in upcoming films before being spirited out of the city by a squad of security men which grew as fast as his fame.

After that, New Orleans saw very little of the real Elvis, except in theaters and on television.

But a little known fact about Presley is that he loved New Orleans, its culture and its people, and returned numerous times to visit personal friends like Lois Brown.

"We'd see him at least once a year -- every time he came here," recalled Mrs. Brown. "He was one of the sweetest guys this side of heaven."

This story was written by The Times-Picayune's Bill Grady in 1977.

PHOTO GALLERY HERE:  http://photos.nola.com/4500/gallery/elvis_presley_dies/index.html

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2011/08/elivs_death_mourned_by_orleani.html

EFFIN CHRIST!!! I thought you were talking about Elvis Costello!!

RIP King Of Rock n Roll!!

Paranoid Android wrote on Aug 16^th, 2011 at 5:39pm:

 

in honor of elvis, this rant is priceless:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCeaG06Am2Y&feature=related

Ladies and gentlemen:
Elvis has just left the building

Elvis has just left the building --
Those are his footprints, right there
Elvis has just left the building --
To climb up that heavenly stair

He gave away Cadillacs once in a while;
Had sex in his underpants,
Yes, he had style!
Bell-bottom jump-suits?
That's them in a pile,
But he don't need'em now,
'Cause he's makin' Jesus smile!

Elvis has just left the building --
Those are his footprints, right there
Elvis has just left the building --
To climb up that heavenly stair

The Angels all love him,
He brings them relief
With droplets of moisture
From his handkerchief!
Cher'bim 'n ser'phim
Whizz over his head --
Jesus, let him come back!
We don't want Elvis dead

Elvis has just left the building --
Those are his footprints, right there
Elvis has just left the building --
To climb up that heavenly stair

So what if he looks like a wart-hog in heat?
He knows we all love him --
We'll just watch him eat,
So take down the foil
From his hotel retreat,
And bring back The King
For the man in the street!

Elvis has just left the building --
Those are his footprints, right there
Elvis has just left the building --
To climb up that heavenly stair
He's up there with Jesus, in a big purple chair

elvis - 31 movies, & 23 studio albums.

steel driving hammer wrote on Aug 17^th, 2011 at 9:46am:


Thanks.  I just won a bet.  Next time think about crediting your source and save yourself the embarrassment.  Your crown remains intact.

www.hoyhoy.com/dawn_of_rock.htm  

I think Lennon was looking at the broader picture when he made the comment about there being 'nothing' before Elvis. I think he was looking at the broader picture. Elvis was certainly the first phenomenon of popular music and his impact and importance, both musically and culturally, is undeniable. I think Lennon's quote was quite on the mark, personally.

steel driving hammer wrote on Aug 17^th, 2011 at 9:46am:


What an utterly clueless, jaundiced tit you are.

You're aware, I take it, that almost all of those movies (there were 33, actually) also had soundtrack albums?

The total of studio albums in 21 years from 1956 to 1977 comes to well over 40. Usually there were two or three a year.

But hey, rely on a carefully cherrypicked number straight off wikipedia without actually examining the evidence....why not?

Dismissing Elvis' importance and  on account of a few shite movies in the 60s would be like writing off Mick Jagger's entire career based on only having heard what music he did in the 80s, and throwing in his movie appearances in 'The Nightingale', 'Bent' and 'Freejack' for good measure.

Lennon's comment was obviously way over your head. Unless you reckon that list of obscurities you looked up to prove whatever silly point you're trying to make had a serious national and worldwide cultural impact and made rock 'n' roll the phenomenon that it became.


The level of musical snobbery directed at any act whose music is a) popular to the masses and b) not exclusively derived from African-American influences is laughably pathetic.  And somewhat hypocritical as we all follow a band who have not only fused several styles of music but who have barely paid lip service to blues music for the last decade or more.

Gazza wrote on Aug 17^th, 2011 at 1:48pm:

hey guys that stuff about Muddy, Howlin and Johnson eats at me too.........no disrespect to Elvis because he is an icon with mega hits and appeal but I'll take Chuck Berry's contribution anyday. IMHO

gimmekeef wrote on Aug 17^th, 2011 at 3:00pm:


You could look at it another way.

A lot of these guys would not have had their work popularised unless the likes of the Stones and the Beatles had recorded their songs. Thats how the world (and the music industry at the time) was.  In many cases unfortunately, it came too late for them to reap the financial rewards that their greatness merited and many of them died in obscurity and poverty.

We can debate all day which is better - its all down to personal taste of course - but rock 'n' roll as we know it would not have made the impact it did had it not had crossover appeal. And it also did so because its a fusion of music  from across racial boundaries. Its not the exclusive preserve of one or the other, and a lot of the acts youre referring to were too generic to have sustained mass appeal.