Elvis Ignited

  “He was jumping”: Corsair.

  “We were impressed”: ibid.

  “We just lost control”: Kirk.

  “The man should be ashamed”: author’s interview with Louise Sherouse, High’s daughter, February 12, 2014.

  “The fella who managed”: Kirk.

  “He was the damnedest”: ibid.

  “Muni-Aud”: an oft-used nickname for Orlando’s Municipal Auditorium.

  “I didn’t really know”: author’s correspondence with Larry Grimes, August 2013.

  “Could you teach me”: ibid.

  “He seemed to enjoy it”: ibid.

  “Awkward”: ibid.

  “To me, he was just”: ibid.

  “Janet and I stayed up”: ibid.

  “Could we get a picture”: ibid.

  “Sure, but you’re gonna”: ibid.

  “I never had the nerve”: ibid.

  “To be part of that audience”: Rowland Stiteler, “Gamble’s Winning Bet,” Orlando Sentinel, August 2, 1987.

  “What really stole the show”: Jean Yothers, “On the Town,” Orlando Sentinel-Star, May 14, 1955.

  “They ate it up”: ibid.

  “What Hillbilly music does”: ibid.

  “His clothes were a little freaky”: Mae Boren Axton, Country Singers as I Know ’Em (Self-Published, 1972), 245 (hereafter cited as Axton).

  “We felt Elvis was on the wrong show”: www.706unionavenue.nl (hereafter cited as Union Avenue).

  “I was just getting acquainted with life”: author’s interview with Ardys Bell, August 2013 (hereafter cited as Bell).

  “He was watching the entertainers”: Union Avenue.

  “The crowd came over”: ibid.

  “Thanks you ladies and gentlemen”: Axton.

  “It was like a sudden”: ibid.

  “Ripped to pieces”: ibid.

  “Well, he’s just a great big”: ibid.

  “When we saw him”: Bell.

  “Dollar marks”: Axton.

  Chapter 4. July 25–27: Fort Myers, Orlando

  “Elvis Presley continues to gather speed”: Cecil Holifield, Billboard, June 4, 1955.

  “A little cocky”: Union Avenue.

  “He’ll never make it”: ibid.

  “I only know seven songs”: ibid.

  “Where are you going?”: Nash, “Interview with June Juanico,” www.elvis.com.au, August 22, 2015.

  “Blue-eyed”: ibid.

  “The first thing I said”: ibid.

  “What do you mean”: ibid.

  “Moonglow with Martin”: Arjan Deelan, “Interview with Scotty Moore,” Scottymoore.net, March 28, 1998 (hereafter cited as Deelan).

  “Hi to you big doc”: www.old-time.com.

  “If you let Elvis drive”: Deelan.

  “Mom and Dad won a Jitterbug contest”: author’s interview with Diane Maddox, December 15, 2013 (hereafter cited as Maddox).

  “funny lookin’ little punkin”: Deacon Andy Griffith, What It Was Was Football (New York: Capitol Records, 1953).

  “And I know friends”: ibid.

  “The town was so small”: Maddox.

  “I don’t remember”: ibid.

  “Cmon’ they’re playing music”: ibid.

  “Come on let’s dance”: ibid.

  “He could have been”: ibid.

  “That Presley boy”: Jean Yothers, “On the Town,” Orlando Sentinel-Star, July 31, 1955.

  “The little mother’s club”: ibid.

  “Andy’s preacher act”: ibid.

  “I’ll give it to you”: ibid.

  “I’m still waiting”: ibid.

  “I fully realize”: ibid.

  “Now, it’s none of my business”: ibid.

  Chapter 5. July 28–29: Jacksonville

  “Don’t worry, work hard”: Marshall Rowland, Fertilizer ’Tween My Toes (IUniverse, 2013), 42 (hereafter cited as Rowland).

  “You’re more of a bebop artist”: Mae Axton, Presley radio interview, July 29, 1955, youtube.com.

  “Well I never have”: ibid.

  “We musn’t forget”: ibid.

  “They sure do”: ibid.

  “What I don’t understand”: ibid.

  “It just automatically”: ibid.

  “We were the only band in the world”: Moore, 97.

  “The damndest freak storm”: Bill Foley, Jacksonville.com, August 8, 1997.

  “I just stood there laughing”: ibid.

  “Elvis Presley was recently presented”: Cash Box magazine, August 1955.

  “Roses are red”: Moore, 98.

  “I was holding my breath”: Rowland, 45.

  “When we got to his room”: ibid. 45–46.

  “Inherent sense of rightness”: Axton, 248.

  “I’ll write your”: ibid., 252.

  Chapter 6. July 30–31: Daytona Beach, Tampa

  “I never looked at him as a son”: Nash, The Colonel, 337.

  “Parker is nothing short”: Fred Goodman, “Without You I’m Nothing” (review of Nash, The Colonel), New York Times, August 24, 2003.

  “Oh how proud they were”: Axton, 249.

  “Elvis was sold”: ibid.

  “His rise to fame”: Tampa Tribune, July 29, 1955.

  “This will be”: ibid.

  “Tonsil photo”: elvispresleymusic.com.

  “Elvis you have to stand up”: Moore, 93.

  Chapter 7. A New Place to Dwell

  “I walk a lonely street”: Durden video interview for Michigan Magazine, 1991 (hereafter cited as Durden).

  “That just struck me”: ibid.

  “There is something”: ibid.

  “It worries me”: ibid.

  “Think of the heartbreak”: William McKeen, Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2000), 247.

  “She sat down at the piano”: Durden.

  “I’ll be back in about thirty minutes”: Axton, 253.

  “Elvis was even breathing”: Durden.

  “Morbid mess”: Lydia Hutchinson, “The Story Behind Heartbreak Hotel,” www.performingsongwriter.com.

  “Hot darn Mae”: Axton, 253.

  “Sole and exclusive Advisor”: Nash, 115.

  “I’ll have about”: Union Avenue.

  “At the time I couldn’t”: Moore, 78.

  “As bad are things”: ibid, 94.

  “I thought hey”: Nash, 188.

  “I feel Elvis”: Robert Johnson, Memphis Press-Scimitar, November 21, 1955.

  “My biggest thrill”: Jerry Osborne, Elvis Word for Word: What He Said, Exactly As He Said It (New York: Harmony Publishers, 2000), 10 (hereafter cited as Osborne).

  “Semi-skilled”: Elvis Presley’s Employment History, www.elvispresley.com.au.

  “In January, 1956”: William McKeen, “What We Talk About, When We Talk About Elvis,” in Other Writing, www.williammckeen.com.

  Chapter 8. February 19–21: Tampa, West Palm Beach, Sarasota

  “The most talked about”: February 1956, Presley concert advertisement, www.elvisrecords.com.

  “Blue Moon Boys”: ibid.

  “We think tonight”: Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, 245.

  “When I’m back here”: author’s interview with Charlie Louvin, September 2009 (hereafter cited as Louvin).

  “We went by her house”: ibid.

  “That cost our catalogue”: ibid.

  “All we knew was drive”: Moore, 251.

  “Booking him in to all”: Nash, 136.

  “All the girls were hooting and hollering”: West Palm Beach Memories, www.elvis-collectors.com.

  “Where can someone get a beer?”: author’s interview with Jim Ponce (hereafter cited as Ponce), August 19, 2013.

  “Can I go with you”: ibid.

  “Don’t you know who this is?”: ibid.

  “He came on”: ibid.

  “Two block walk”: ibid.

  “I’m ninety-seven”: ibid.

  “I thought my God”: ibid.

  �
��When I turned that young man down”: ibid.

  “The biggest commotion Elvis created”: Mark D. Smith, “Elvis Barely Rocks Sarasota,” www.sarasostahistoryalive.com.

  “There are naturally an abundance”: editorial, Sarasota Journal, February 23, 1956.

  “If you give me”: Billy Cox, “Waffle Stops Queen Served the King,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, August 13, 2007.

  “Your skirt should be shorter”: ibid.

  “If you remember what I ordered”: ibid.

  “Queen of the Waffle Stop”: ibid.

  “I thought he was conceited”: ibid.

  Chapter 9. The Florida-Georgia Line, February 22–26: Waycross, Jacksonville, Pensacola

  “He prowled the stage like a big jungle cat”: Jim Dickinson, “The Search for Blind Lemon,” Oxford American Magazine, April 20, 2015.

  “I talked about the show for months”: ibid.

  “He was my first bass hero”: Norbert Putnam, “We Had It All,” Oxford American Magazine, December 8, 2013.

  “Scotty Moore was my icon”: Keith Richards and James Fox, Life (Boston: Back Bay Books, 2010), 72.

  “From that day on”: author’s correspondence with Billy Ray Herrin, March 23, 2014.

  “To say Gram Parsons was impressed”: author’s correspondence with Dave Griffin, March 26, 2014.

  “I always thought Elvis was a fad”: Louvin.

  Chapter 10. The Promoter and Deserter: February 26, 1956

  “Emotional instability”: Nash, image from Parker medical records dated August 19, 1933.

  “Heartbreak Hotel zoomed Elvis’ star”: Axton, 255.

  Chapter 11. A Tsunami Storms Ashore: August 3–4, Miami

  Photos in this chapter are from http://www.miamibeach411.com/news/index.php?/news/comments/elvis-presley/.

  “Who wasn’t aware of Elvis in 1956?”: Graham.

  “Just being alive, breathing”: ibid.

  “He’s already told me”: June Juanico, Elvis in the Twilight of Memory (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1997), 140 (hereafter cited as Juanico).

  “He’ll shit a brick if he sees you”: ibid.

  “I’m the first one to say”: Binder.

  “Bully is a good word”: ibid.

  “Miami bustles under a golden sun”: Jack Kofeod, Moon Over Miami excerpt, www.cuban-exile.com.

  “His kind of music is deplorable”: Alan Hanson, “Did Sinatra Really Bad Mouth Elvis and His Music in ’57?” www.elvis-history-blog.com.

  “Sinatra was on his way out”: author’s interview with Linda Moscato, August 30, 2013 (hereafter cited as Moscato).

  “Elvis was a breaking out”: ibid.

  “Every delinquent kid in town”: Herb Rau, quoted in Bill Cooke, “Elvis Presley’s Miami Connection,” www.miamibeach411.com.

  “To prevent the kind”: ibid.

  “The Pelvis is due to arrive in Miami”: ibid.

  “We’ve had the biggest advance sale of tickets”: Herb Rau, “Protection for the Pelvis,” Miami Herald, August 1, 1956.

  “Don’t expect him for a rehearsal”: www.randompixels.blogspot.com.

  “He’ll never last”: Moscato.

  “Just don’t end up in the newspaper”: ibid.

  “The Pelvis”: www.miamibeach411.com.

  “For one hell of a favor”: Ponce.

  “It was an exciting night”: Graham.

  “I don’t wear ’em”: www.miamibeach411.com.

  “Except for his gold and brown sideburns”: ibid.

  “He knew he was being heckled”: Gwen Harrison, “It’s the Same Old Hysteria,” www.brian56.dk.com.

  “Golly Presley doesn’t know anything about the news”: ibid.

  “Velvet curtains”: Moscato.

  “But it did add an element”: ibid.

  “Like a drunken Brando”: Denne Petitclerk, taken from www.scottymoore.net.

  “Believe me, I wasn’t ready”: Ponce.

  “I knew the effect it had on me”: Juanico, 167.

  “It’s imprinted on my mind”: Moscato.

  “His legs were like rubber”: ibid.

  “Had seen me on television”: Moore, 115.

  “I and other band members were not sharing”: ibid.

  “We went outside and the crowd was in a frenzy”: Moscato.

  “Lots of times if I’m in a crowd”: Osborne, 8.

  “Held my hand in a death grip”: Juanico, 168.

  “It was hot in Miami, Elvis was hot”: Graham.

  “I don’t know if I’m No. 1”: “June Juanico … The Day Elvis’s Girlfriend Talked Too Much,” www.elvis-history-blog.com.

  “In stormed the Colonel”: Juanico, 169.

  “Son we can’t have this kind of publicity”: ibid.

  “His relationship with his manager”: ibid., 140.

  “I’ve got about 25 girls”: Alan Hanson, “Parade of ‘Elvis Girls’ in the 50s Boosted Presley’s Sex Appeal,” www.elvis-history-blog.com.

  “When he’s in Biloxi”: Nash, “Interview with June Juanico,” www.elvis.com.au, August 22, 2015.

  “If only your mother hadn’t talked to that damn reporter”: Juanico, 169.

  “Idol of the infantile”: Damon Runyon Jr., “They Rock-n-Riot for Elvis,” Miami News, August 4, 1956.

  “His pelvis performance is clearly contrived”: ibid.

  “It was apparent the teen agers present”: Bob Posnak, “Letters to the Editor,” Miami News, August 1956.

  “Elvis can’t sing, can’t play guitar”: Alan Hanson, “Some Elvis Critics in the Fifties Urged Parents to React Violently,” www.elvis-history-blog-com.

  “A gift, A SOLID SLAP ACROSS THE MOUTH”: ibid.

  “It was a totally unforgettable experience”: Moscato.

  Chapter 12. Home Away from Home: August 5, Tampa

  “She’s not good for you son”: Juanico, 177.

  “And what do you think”: ibid.

  “He was a prisoner of his own career”: Red West Interview, May 2008, www.elvisinfo.net.

  “What’d you kids do, rob a bank?”: Juanico, 180.

  “Yes maam”: ibid.

  “That aint the only thing”: ibid.

  “Reputation”: Anne Rowe, “Broom-Sweeping Elvis a Regular Guy,” St. Petersburg Times, August 6, 1956.

  “The king of rock ‘n’ roll”: ibid.

  “One minute he’s out on the make”: Ger Rijff and Jan Van Gestle, Elvis the Cool King (Wilmington, DE: Atomium Books, 1990).

  “Like a regular guy”: Rowe, “Broom-Sweeping Elvis.”

  “It has the most meaning”: ibid.

  “All I thought about that suit”: ibid.

  “I’ll probably sit back”: ibid.

  “I won’t give up singing for acting”: ibid.

  “Those people have a job to do”: ibid.

  “Elvis displayed his terrific showmanship”: ibid.

  “America’s only male hootchy-kootch dancer”: Paul Wilder and Harry Roberts, “Shouting, Pushing Mass of Youngsters Stampedes Elvis Presley Show Here,” Tampa Tribune, August 6, 1956.

  “Ordinary, suburban-type”: ibid.

  “The weird pulsating rock and roll song”: ibid.

  “With a masculine version”: ibid.

  “Stupid”: ibid.

  “A mad rush of hundreds”: ibid.

  “Attractive”: ibid.

  “That drew stares”: ibid.

  “I can take him or leave him”: ibid.

  “A dozen jumping, frenzied teenagers”: ibid.

  “The negro section”: ibid.

  “Only twelve negroes attended”: ibid.

  Chapter 13. They’re Somebody’s Kids: August 6, Lakeland

  “Finally, Elvis and his entourage drove up”: Elvalee Donaldson, “Real Gone: Presley Is Really Gone but the Aroma of His Day Lingers,” Lakeland Ledger, August 7, 1956.

  “Honey, you’ll have to come inside”: ibid.

  “I’m a reporter for the Lakeland Ledger”: ibid.

  “Oh, I just thought”
: ibid.

  “His girlfriend of the moment”: ibid.

  “Four Cadillacs”: Elvalee Donaldson, “The Cool Cat in the Cadillac,” Lakeland Ledger, August 6, 1956.

  “We were parked”: ibid.

  “His latest is lamps”: ibid.

  “He aint nothin’ but an idiot”: Paul Wilder, interview of Elvis Presley, www.youtube.com, August 6, 1956.

  “Do you shake your pelvis”: ibid.

  “He should know”: ibid.

  “I just don’t see that he should call”: ibid.

  “My pelvis had nothing to do”: ibid.

  “There is also gossip”: Elvis Presley de-classified FBI File, www.fbi.gov.

  “Rivals for the attention”: ibid.

  “The bureau has no specific information”: ibid.

  “Elvis Presley, Memphis Tennessee”: ibid.

  “Crank”: ibid.

  “He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke”: Elvalee Donaldson, “How Different Is Elvis?” Lakeland Ledger, August 1, 1956 (hereafter cited as Donaldson).

  “Overly polite, extremely self-conscious”: ibid.

  “Actually this guy is just sorta different you know?”: ibid.

  “The first male burlesque dancer”: “Three Unbiased Males Give Views of Elvis,” Lakeland Ledger, August 7, 1956.

  “Well worth”: ibid.

  “As the tumult rages”: “Presley and the Frenzy,” Lakeland Ledger, August 6, 1956.

  “Presley is a fad”: ibid.

  “Not because he is an important figure”: ibid.

  “The thought of him”: “Elvis Played to Swooning Fans in Lakeland 40 Years Ago,” Lakeland Ledger, August 4, 1996.

  “He lumbered from behind the curtain”: Donaldson.

  “It was just absolutely fascinating”: Steve Turner, “The Day Elvis Played the Polk Theater,” Lakeland Ledger, February 21, 1982.

  “He was such an egotist”: ibid.

  “He went out with the mike”: ibid.

  “Is June just one of your 25 regulars?”: Donaldson.

  “She means more to me”: ibid.

  “Surely Elvis”: ibid.

  “Part of it is put on”: ibid.

  “I don’t know if they tore them apart”: ibid.

  “It’s hard to make a clear cut statement”: ibid.

  “Who never took a guitar lesson”: ibid.

  “To set a new all-time high”: ibid.

  “To Elvy, from Elvis the Pelvis”: Presley autograph information provided by Elvalee Donaldson family.

  “What’s it like being loved”: Juanico, 196.

  “It’s almost like”: ibid.

  “Point of no return”: Juanico, 197.

  Chapter 14. A Real Test: August 7, St. Petersburg