- Taken on:
- 1961/02/25
- Source:
- Elvis Day by Day
- Photo:
- Elvis Day by Day
- Location:
- Ellis Auditorium, Memphis
- Info:
-
As our previous picture showed, February 25th 1961 was a special day for Elvis; Tennessee govenor Bulford Ellington and Memphis mayor Henry Loeb declared it ‘Elvis Presley Day!’and Elvis received a special gift from RCA to honor record sales of more than 75 million! But the evening was even more special, because Elvis made his first live performance since he came back from the army. Although Elvis did sing live during the ‘Welcome Home Elvis’ show with Frank Sinatra, this was his first ‘real’ live performance.
So we come to this week’s picture; It was made during the Memphis Charity Show of 1961, at the Ellis Auditorium, Memphis. In the back we can see a unique formation, not only D.J Fontana sits behind the drums but a second drummer has been added to play at this show, Buddy Harmon. The man that fell on his knees and made a bow before Elvis is comedian George Jessel, who was 62 at the time and died at the age of 83 in 1981.
One can say, that this picture shows us… not only women would have kissed the ground Elvis walked on!
OtisBlue22 wrote on
May 06, 2010
I wonder why they (RCA?) decided to record Elvis' Bloch Arena show and whether either of the Memphis shows were taped. Also, is that Hank Garland in the background?