Greg1995 wrote: ↑Sun May 30, 2021 12:29 am
As for the March 27, 1953 talent show I've been informed by a lady who had attended it and has the program for it that Elvis won the contest and did an encore. Here source is crucial so drop me a PM and I will give you the name of the lady. Elvis have sang "Old Shep" at this show (two sources).
All of this is already confirmed, have you not read the previous pages of this topic?
Page 1 establishes the fact of two shows, what kind of shows they were, and the songs Elvis likely sang at both.
The March event was a talent show and carnival, with tickets sold to pay for school supplies and the whole thing was produced by Humes High teacher
Mildred Scrivener. The April date was an "Annual Minstrel" organized by the Humes High School Band, and they performed the majority of the songs.
March 27, 1953 (Fri) - Humes High School Carnival Presents The Variety Show
"Old Shep" (Red Foley with Roy Ross and His Ramblers)
April 9, 1953 (Thu) - Humes High Band Presents Its Annual Minstrel
"Till I Waltz Again With You" (Teresa Brewer)
"Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Of Me" (Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys)
A few pages later,
John Heath's son contributed some memories from
Margaret Garland, who was in possession of the March program and ticket. She is who you are referring to, I assume.
Margaret attended the show because she was the girlfriend of Humes High Senior
Carl Bethea, and he was one of the performers that evening. She may have possibly graduated from Humes in the class of 1952.
This is her Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/margaret.garland.3/
KingOfTheJungle wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2019 3:26 am
She remembered Elvis as wearing a red shirt and propping his foot up on a chair to balance his guitar on his leg because he was too poor to afford a guitar strap. She vividly recalled that as Elvis began to sing -- "Old Shep" -- that a hush fell over the crowd. She said it became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I asked her why that was and I distinctly remember her reaction because it left an impression on me. She started to say "because he was so good", and then she stopped herself and grew reflective. "There was just something about him -- an earnestness that you couldn't help but be moved by." (You really couldn't describe Elvis better, could you?). She said that after he finished the auditorium just erupted in applause -- it was like nothing she'd seen at the high school before. She remembered Elvis won the talent show and was brought back at the end to sing another song (which she didn't know the title of and didn't remember much about other than to describe it as a pop type song), and she also remembered how the other kids at Humes -- including some of her friends -- made an effort to stop Elvis in the hall and tell them how much they had enjoyed his singing.
I also asked Mrs. Garland about the Minstrel Show, since it had always been assumed that
that show was the storied talent show with Old Shep. She said that she didn't go to the minstrel show that year (1953), and that other than being aware of the show (and confirming that some of the students who appeared in that show had worn blackface in previous years) she couldn't tell me anything about it.
He also added very interesting information about the 1956 Humes performance, and mentioned the photo you posted today.
KingOfTheJungle wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:54 pm
Doc mentioned earlier in the thread that Humes had an event that was a "Male Beauty Pageant" that featured the Humes boys dressing in drag -- but did you know that Elvis's performance at Humes on Jan 13, 1956 was actually in the middle of one of those pageants? That year it was called "Musical Hats -- An All Male Beauty Pageant". We found a program for this from another Humes alum who had been there, and Elvis was listed as performing twice - once at intermission, and again at the end of the show. BUT, from the account of the person we got the program from Elvis only played the intermission spot, and was asked by the principal to leave because he told an off-color joke (something about hoping the lights didn't go out because someone might try to milk a bull), so he never performed the second spot. The person we got it from also claimed that Elvis played there solo, with just his guitar, even though he was a national name at the time, but we later found out that was a faulty memory because a photo surfaced from the show -- you can clearly see the "Musical Hats" backdrop on the stage, and D.J. and Bill Black are visible in the picture along with Elvis!
There's all sorts of other research on the previous pages, please check it out.
