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January 5, 1955 - San Angelo City Auditorium, San Angelo TX

According to the San Angelo Standard Times, one 'Alvis Presley' would be playing on the 5th, continuing the early trend of venues and publications misspelling Elvis' name. The ad ran in identical form in the January 2nd, 4th, and 5th editions, drumming up spectators to fill the massive City Auditorium. Keith Flynn's website lists this as a 'fake ad', but Francesc Lopez' site has scans from all three Standard Times dates, so I believe it to be credible. Also misspelled on the ad, Hayride compatriots Jimmy and Johnny, here billed as Jimmy E. Johnny. I have a theory that perhaps someone at the paper spoke Spanish, because Jimmy and Johnny would be Jimmy y Johnny in Spanish (which is pronounced Jimmy E Johnny) and there was some sort of oral miscommunication when typesetting the ad. Jimmy and Johnny previously played a show with Elvis at the Eagle's Nest in Memphis on November 17, 1954. According to Peter Guralnick in Elvis Day by Day, "hundreds of teenaged girls rushed the stage for autographs", an indication that Elvis fever was beginning to take off.

San Angelo is roughly 709 miles from Memphis, so to my knowledge this was as far as Elvis had ever been from home. The auditorium was part of the San Angelo City Hall building, shown in these postcards circa 1930-1950. Erected in 1928, the auditorium held anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 spectators at a time when San Angelo's population was only around 25,000. By the time Elvis arrived in 1955, San Angelo had doubled to over 50,000 residents.

The auditorium, now named the Elta Joyce Murphey Performance Hall, has been well-maintained and aside from modern technical updates is largely unchanged from when Elvis played there in 1955. 

Sources:
Elvis Day by Day by Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen
Elvis Presley In Concert

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