The January 13th Booneville Banner gave Elvis' upcoming "hillbilly" show on the 17th a column and photo, billing him as "the fastest-rising country music star in the nation". According to the Banner, Elvis performs "in his own top-notch manner" and the Louisiana Hayride "audience often just won't let him leave the stage". Interestingly, the article also describes Elvis as "a good-looking single lad"; I wonder how Dixie Locke felt if she read that. The article is identical to one that ran on the 12th in Alabama for a show on the 19th in Sheffield, which leads me to believe it was written by either Sam Phillips or Bob Neal and sent out for publication.
Northeast Mississippi Junior College opened in 1948 and changed names slightly to Northeast Mississippi Community College in 1987. Much of the campus has been expanded or redeveloped, but fortunately the original auditorium is still present. It is now called the Seth Pounds Auditorium, visible in the top half of the aerial photo shown here:
Shown here; the only side of the building that is visible using google maps:
Compared to the 1955 yearbook photo shown at the top of this entry, I believe the pictures are of two different entrances. The architectural elements are the same, but the widths seem different and one has stairs. It could be that the yearbook photo shows the entrance on the McCoy Hall side of the building (refer to the aerial) but I currently have no way to confirm this. I have not yet obtained interior photos either from the 1950s or present day, so I don't know how the stage arrangement compares to when Elvis played in Booneville.
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