Ads were running in the Florence Times for Elvis' January 19th appearance a week ahead of the show to drum up plenty of spectators. The ad shown here ran on the 12th and features what the now-famous promo photo of Elvis, Scotty, and Bill. Scotty and Bill are wearing their Starlite Wranglers shirts, which you can read more about by clicking here. Also on the 12th, the Florence Times published the article below, which is identical to the one from the January 13th Booneville, Mississippi Banner promoting Elvis' show there on the 17th, leading me to believe the article was probably written by either Sam Phillips or Bob Neal and sent to the papers for publication.
The venue was somewhat hard to pin down because there is currently no "Sheffield Community Center" and the newspaper ads/article don't provide an address. There is a Sheffield Recreation Center and a Sheffield Senior Citizens Center but neither of those date back to the 1950s. However, I found a facebook post (linked below) that included some information, like the undated newspaper clipping that follows, but no address. The building in the background is the original Sheffield Community Center; all that remained was to determine where it was and if it still exists.
I don't live anywhere near enough to Sheffield to investigate in person, but I did wander around town via google maps and found the location, surprisingly quickly, at the corner of 5th and Nashville. The building is part of the First Presbyterian Church complex and appears largely unchanged externally.
I do not have access to the interior to determine if any 1950s elements remain, so if you're in Sheffield and can offer any insight, please get in touch.
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