FROM OUR ARCHIVES : (24) HOW I MET THE FAMOUS YOUNG ELVIS PRESLEY & WINK MARTINDALE

(24) HOW I MET THE FAMOUS YOUNG ELVIS PRESLEY and WINK MARTINDALE
 from September 11, 2007

United Artists had me touring around the country, playing live on television, radio, and at record hops on a promotional tour for my launch with "Lonesome Love," and "Tiny Spaceman." On my first tour of the Mid South in 1957, I went to Memphis, Tennessee to perform on a couple shows.

One of them was Wink Martindale's version of a dance party show.

At this point I was beginning to become used to the adoration of my fans. I was a teen idol. My name was mentioned in the columns and pictures of me and magazine articles about me were out there. The girls chased me around and even tried to tear my clothes off. Wink had the kids in the audience ready to give me a hearty welcome, but as I sang, I realized I had never caused so much commotion before... HA!

Elvis Presley and his early entourage had burst into the station to see me!

That's what all the commotion was about! Even Elvis wanted to see what "The Next James Dean" really looked like. I was so excited that Mr. Elvis Presley was out there in the audience. Elvis Presley had achieved stardom and had become a millionaire. I was a fan of his and he was an inspiration! But I never dreamed Elvis would be coming round to see me!

After my performance, Elvis asked me to come back to Graceland TM with him to meet his parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley. He had just purchased his own stretch limo and, after I piled in with the guys, Elvis drove us home in it himself. His family was much like mine because of our southern upbringing, and his father Vernon and especially his mother Gladys were welcoming. Gladys had the table spread with food and asked about my family. She said they had relatives in the Smokey Mountains.

That night I met Elvis's best friend from Humes High School in Memphis, George Klein, and funny-man ex-DJ, and recording artist Cliff Gleaves too.

That evening was the beginning of a friendship with Elvis Presley that lasted the 20 years until his death.

RARE FOOTAGE OF ELVIS' DEATH in 1977

THERE WERE SO MANY VIDEOS TO CHOOSE FROM but we decided on this one... George Klein was friends with Elvis since high-school and very loyal.

(108) CLIFF GLEAVES, ELVIS, and THE EARLY ENTOURAGE

JAMES V. ROY's PHOTOS... linked above!

Photographer James V. Roy captured some of Elvis' early entourage including Cliff Gleaves, in these black and white photos taken around the filming of Elvis' film "Jail House Rock." The names you see listed here under photographs are important to the Elvis story. Some of them you've read about in Wes Bryan - My Life In Music, and others we haven't mentioned yet.

UPDATE: AUGUST 2008 We note that this particular photo gallery is not offered on James V. Roy's web site. However photos from an Elvis 2002 celebration are... still worth seeing!

UPDATE: MARCH 2011 And they are still linked!

(48) WAITING and WONDERING WHAT'S NEXT

So, I waited for Elvis' return.

DJ - friends George Klein and Dewey Phillips waited.

His friends in Memphis and around the world waited.

His fans waited.

What would Elvis really be like after a stint in the U.S. Army? Would he still be Elvis the Pelvis? His career remained hot, thanks to his manager Colonel Parker, but would he remain true to himself?

We were not the only ones who waited and wondered.

There were a few people left behind who needed answers.

Anita Wood, the girlfriend who had been faithful, was one of them.

The once upon a time Blue Moon Boys, Scotty Moore, "The Guitar that Changed the World," Bill Black, who played stand up base, and D.J. Fontana, his drummer, wondered too. Bill, and Scotty had been the Blue Moon Boys and toured with Elvis and originally they were called the HILLBILLY CAT and THE BLUE MOON BOYS! (Fontana had been added a bit later than 1954 and featured in television performances by 1956.)

Before Elvis left, Colonel Tom Parker had taken on Elvis - and only Elvis - as his star. Colonel was his agent, manager, his everything. He did not take on the Blue Moon Boys, and they were left wondering if they had any employment with the famous Elvis or not. Would they play with him live on tour, on television, or in the studio? Hourly wages? Salary? What about a percentage of the royalties?

Heartbreak Hotel - 1956 - Elvis Presley with the Blue Moon Boys backing him. This You-Tube video presentation has Scotty Moore stepping forward to do a bit of a solo.

VIDEO REMOVED APRIL 2012

There are a few books out including one on Scotty Moore that we've read, and a newer one about the Blue Moon Boys and Elvis that we haven't.We've decided not to give any thumbs up or thumbs down on books. We understand that there are numerous perspectives when it comes to Elvis Presley, and the people who surrounded him, and we will allow that each has the right to his own experience and the telling of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The next blog will focus on one of the Blue Moon Boys, Scotty Moore.

As a music producer I, and many others like me, have told a studio guitarist

"Sound like Scotty Moore."

(46) DEWEY PHILLIPS : THE DJ WHO PLAYED BLACK AND WHITE MUSIC on RED HOT and BLUE !

So, George Klein sent me the money for the ticket and I flew to Memphis before Elvis was due to return. There I was greeted by George Klein and introduced to another person who had been very important to Elvis' early success, yet another DJ (That's 3 in Elvis' personal collection of friends at the time - Cliff Gleaves, George Klein, and Dewey Phillips.) Dewey was the first DJ to ever play an Elvis Presley record, and when I say played it, I mean over and over again without another record in between. It was a copy of the song Elvis had recorded over at Sun Records with Sam Phillips (no relation to Dewey) "That's All Right, Mama."

Dewey Phillips, like Cliff Gleaves, was one of the Personality DJ's of the era, and shortly, when radio stations stripped Dj's of much of their power to discover talent and play whatever they wanted to, Dewey would find himself trying to hold on to his style and ultimately find himself out of work. But Elvis appreciated him and he was an informal member of the group of friends Elvis surrounded himself in those early years, and into his early years in Hollywood. (Since this is going to come up sooner or later, the term "Memphis Mafia" which is now a TM, never referred to Dewey, or me, or people who were friends of Elvis' rather than employees!)

After sleeping on the sofa at George Klein's for a while, Dewey Phillips invited me to stay at his house with his wife and children. During this time before Elvis returned from the Army I went to the radio station to hear George Klein on the air and went around quite a bit with Dewey. I liked him a lot, and I felt privileged to have been accepted by so many of the "insiders," who surrounded Elvis.

I also began to realize that it wasn't just Elvis friends' idea that I be there to meet the train. Those parting words the night I met him in the fall of 1957 "See you on the coast!" really had meant something.

Here is Jim Dickenson speaking on Dewey at a terrific Internet site, the Experience Music Project... Jim says Dewey's impact on Memphis Tennessee was incredible and I have to agree. Red, Hot and Blue was a program on which both Black and White artists' music was played - an integrated program at a time when Segregation was still the law in the South. (Jim was the last artist to release a single on Sun Records, the label Elvis first recorded on, then owned by Sam Phillips - no relation to Dewey. His song was "Cadillac Man."

Be sure to hear the audio of Dewey Broadcasting at the Cruisin the 50's link here and remember, this is the personality, the voice, that launched the great Elvis Presley!

http://www.empsfm.org/programs/index.asp?articleID=895

And to get to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame presentation on Dewey Phillips click on the title above!

(44) GEORGE KLEIN - ELVIS PRESLEY'S BEST HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND - INVITES ME BACK TO MEMPHIS

One day in New York I got a phone call from DJ George Klein. I had met George when I played on his radio program during my tour of the mid-south, the same tour in which I had met Elvis Presley for the first time in 1957.

George was Elvis' best friend in high school in Memphis and he and his family had been very generous to Elvis and the Presley family in those days when Elvis was still wearing hand-me-downs from George. I was staying in New York with Theresa Brandies, the President of the James Dean National Fan Club, at her big flat in New York where many of the rock and rollers and a good number of young actors were always welcome. I was on a respite from the Buddy Knox tour. George said "You should be here when Elvis gets home."

We are all awaiting the day when Elvis Presley would be released from his tour of duty with the United States Army, where he was stationed in Germany.

Now the whole while that Elvis was out of the United States, Colonel Parker, his one and only manager, made sure that records by Elvis were released periodically and that he stayed in the news - the fan magazines as well as the newspapers.

There was speculation that Elvis' career might never the less be damaged by his time away, despite the success of those records and his ongoing presence in the press. Elvis himself was worried about being outdone by Fabian, among other stars. Most of all, there was a concern that Elvis had been tamed by his time in the army, that he would never quite be the "Elvis the Pelvis," we all knew and loved.

Now when I told George I didn't have the funds to travel to Memphis to be there when Elvis came back home, he told me to go over to Western Union. I went over and found that he had provided the funds to buy a first class plane ticket to Memphis. George told me I could stay with him and his mom!

To get to the information on George's book, which came out for the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death, click on the title above!

George has also established a college scholarship for Broadcasting! This is typical of his generosity!

http://www.memphis.edu/newsarchive/jan04/klein.html

Finally, here is a You-Tube presentation of Elvis and George in 1956.

(24) HOW I MET THE FAMOUS YOUNG ELVIS PRESLEY & WINK MARTINDALE

United Artists had me touring around the country, playing live on television, radio, and at record hops on a promotional tour for my launch with "Lonesome Love," and "Tiny Spaceman." On my first tour of the Mid South in 1957, I went to Memphis, Tennessee to perform on a couple shows.

One of them was Wink Martindale's version of a dance party show.

At this point I was beginning to become used to the adoration of my fans. I was a teen idol. My name was mentioned in the columns and pictures of me and magazine articles about me were out there. The girls chased me around and even tried to tear my clothes off. Wink had the kids in the audience ready to give me a hearty welcome, but as I sang, I realized I had never caused so much commotion before... HA!

Elvis Presley and his early entourage had burst into the station to see me!

That's what all the commotion was about! Even Elvis wanted to see what The Next James Dean really looked like. I was so excited that Mr. Elvis Presley was out there in the audience. Elvis Presley had achieved stardom and had become a millionaire. I was a fan of his and he was an inspiration! But I never dreamed Elvis would be coming round to see me!

After my performance, Elvis asked me to come back to Graceland TM with him to meet his parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley. He had just purchased his own stretch limo and, after I piled in with the guys, Elvis drove us home in it himself. His family was much like mine because of our southern upbringing, and his father Vernon and especially his mother Gladys were welcoming. Gladys had the table spread with food and asked about my family. She said they had relatives in the Smokey Mountains.

That night I met Elvis's best friend from Humes High School in Memphis, George Klein, and funny-man ex-DJ, and recording artist Cliff Gleaves too.

That evening was the beginning of a friendship with Elvis Presley that lasted the 20 years until his death.

Link to WINK MARTINDALE'S OFFICIAL SITE above!