ELVIS Tupelo Homecoming

Roy Turner - Elvis Presley Birthplace Executive Director - explains..

Elvis was scheduled for two shows, one in the afternoon and the second in the evening. 
Scotty Moore recalled, "He was always nervous before a show." DJ Fontana added, "He always wanted to do good, but especially In his home town. I don't know why it is, but entertainers never do good in their hometown. It's like everybody is mad. Mad that you got out of town and made something. He was worried." Scotty summed it up, "He just wanted to do extra good for the home folks".

Nothing took his breath away as much as the sight of the crowd. He had played large crowds for sure, but this crowd, his hometown crowd, was overwhelming. 
To look out into the audience and see Vernon and Gladys sitting straight and proud was his special gift to them.

The Mayor came onto the stage and presented him the key to the city. Not just a key to the city, but a guitar shaped key. 

Special attention had been paid to every detail. Attention that assured Elvis, Tupelo was proud of their son.

Then the Governor got into the act and read a proclamation proclaiming the day Elvis Presley Day for the entire State of Mississippi. 

At that moment, seeing the look on his parents' face, hearing the roar of the Tupelo crowd, he felt it could never be better than this. He was home.

The Afternoon Show kicked off with 'Heartbreak Hotel' followed by 'Long Tall Sally' with the crowd screaming out for their home-town hero. Elvis would sing a fabulous 'I Want You, I Need You, I Love You' as well as 'Ready Teddy'. During the performance he showed his fine humour joking about his success and teased the audience. He joked about the sensational ‘I Was The One’ "It’s plum pitiful the way we do it."!  

With each new set, Elvis sang and gyrated all over the stage. Ernest Bowen remembered, "This guy. He could work a crowd like nobody I had ever seen. He would get right down near the edge of the stage and stretch his hand out so just his fingers would touch the fingers of the girls. And they went crazy."

For the evening concert, the Mississippi National Guard was called in to help hold order. Nightfall had set in and the mood of the crowd was more relaxed with the heat of the day behind them. But the cool night calm was soon overtaken by the steaming performance Elvis delivered on stage. 

The evening performance was the wilder show with Elvis in his resplendent red velvet shirt.

Elvis added the fabulous ‘Baby, Let’s Play House’ to the set-list and a rockin' ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ with the comment that the song is "getting kinda' old now." Looking back this is a cute little comment as, of course, Elvis would keep performing ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ until his last concerts in 1977! 

I find the Evening show well worth a repeat play with Elvis begging "Would you please sit down" and the emergency announcements asking everyone to calm down, all adding to the great excitement. The bump and grind of the extended final 'Hound Dog' is fabulous.

During the evening performance, Elvis asked the crowd to please quiet down and stop pushing and shoving. Almost begging he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, little kids are getting crushed down front and people can't hear the songs." 

The emergency announcements actually increased the excitement with the bump and grind of the extended final 'Hound Dog' that all his fans were begging for.

He promised to sing all their favourite songs and go into the crowd later in the show. He never did venture into the crowd. Instead he held them spellbound till the last note was sung. 

At the end of the last song, the Mayor handed Elvis a cheque which he promptly endorsed and returned with the announcement that he wanted the city to purchase his birthplace and the surrounding land to create a park for the children of East Tupelo. The seed was planted for the future Elvis Presley Park. 

Elvis Rocks Home Town Rolling 20,000 Fans Into Fairgrounds At Tupelo
... Snake-hipping too close to platform edge, he lost a few buttons

'Tupelo teen-agers scream, cry as Elvis slurs and swivels'

Bob Moulder in the East Mississippi press reported.. 

The return of rock and roll prophet, Elvis Presley, to his home town caused more hysteria than the devastating 1936 tornado that completely leveled the town.
Standing before approximately 5000 screaming and crying loyal subjects yesterday afternoon at the Miss - Ala Fair and Dairy Show, Elvis slurred and swiveled his way through many of his more current rock and roll tunes.

But while Presley sang, hundreds of teenage girls pushed and shoved their way to the stage in hopes of being able to touch "our Elvis."
Presley's appearance to Tupelo was made possible by the officials of the Miss-Alabama Fair Assn. who have been working for months to prepare the City of Tupelo for its "most famous" famous hometown boy.
The streets of the city were resplendent in their multi-colored flags and signs that all depicted a welcome home for Elvis.

Tupelo opened its "Elvis Presley Day" with a gigantic parade down the main street of town. Bands and floats from each of the neighboring towns did their part to welcome Elvis home.
It was estimated by James M. Savery, president and manager of the fair association, that over 25,000 people jammed into the city for the day and nights activities.

As Gov. Coleman's Cadillac was escorted through the entrance the mob surged to the rope separating them from the stage.
Gov. Coleman said "it is the biggest ovation I have ever had. I'm surprised they didn't boo when they found out I was not Elvis."

Upon arrival at the stage, Elvis was pounced on by the approximately 30 newspaper, magazine and newsreel photographers . . . each popping flashbulb after flashbulb at the polite and appreciative Presley.
Accompanied by his mother and father, Elvis answered questions, posed for photographers and was officially greeted by Gov. Coleman. 

The Houston Press reported... 

'Troops Quell Rioters In Elvis' Hometown'

Screaming teenagers overran 100 police and National Guardsmen last night in a frenzy touched off by a homecoming appearance of rock ’n' roll singer Elvis Presley.

Pandemonium swept over teenagers forming about half a crowd of 12,500 that overflowed, specially built bleachers to see Tupelo's most famous former resident.
The youngsters stampeded from the bleachers, forced a cordon of officers back against the bandstand and literally literally crawled over the uniformed men to reach their idol.

Elvis Bags Fans
"I can’t sing with this going on," Presley wailed into his microphone while the stage teemed with intruders making lunges for his clothing and with officers pulling them away as fast as they arrived. 

Presley halted his singing to beg his young fans to return to their seats and they obeyed. Soon the audience was relatively quiet and Presley finished his show unscathed.

But during a matinee a few hours earlier a teenaged girl grabbed several buttons off his blue velvet shirt when Presley snake-hipped too close to the edge of the stage.

Nothing Like It
"I’ve never seen anything like this and I've been with the patrol since it was organized," Highway Patrol Inspector W. L Ellard said. That was nearly 20 years ago.
Officials had prepared for a lively demonstration, bringing in National Guardsmen, highway patrolmen and other officers from throughout the state before Presley arrived from nearby Memphis. Tenn., in a gleaming white limousine.

Kids Climb on Stage
The stage had been built five feet high but during the afternoon show teenagers made their first charge, and retreating newsmen and photographers climbed, up to get out of their way. The youngsters followed.
For the night performance the stage guard was more than doubled with a cordon consisting of 57 state highway patrolmen, 35 National Guardsmen and about 30 local police and deputies from nearby towns.
"It's all great—these people are great," Presley, who left Tupelo at 13, said of the townspeople and visitors.

Governor on Hand
Gov. J. P. Coleman was on hand to present the 21-year-old star with a scroll. Coleman told Presley that Mississippi is "proud" of him."
Coleman arrived from Jackson before Presley rode into town. When Coleman’s black Cadillac reached the fairgrounds where the show was held, thousands of teenagers cheered and then groaned when they realized it was "only the governor."

A year later on September 27 1957 Elvis would return again to the Tupelo fair, this time as a benefit performance for the 'Elvis Presley Youth Centre'. He would wear his gold lame jacket and the news footage of him dancing across the stage would become iconic.