A week after his last gig at the Bon Air Club, Elvis moved on up to the Eagle's Nest, announced here in an August 7, 1954 ad from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Elvis' first Sun Records 45, featuring That's All Right and Blue Moon of Kentucky, had only been released a couple of weeks prior, but it was already making plenty of waves in Memphis.
Sleepy Eyed John Lepley was a country DJ on Memphis station WHHM who had taken his nickname from the title of a 1940s Tex Atchinson song. He also handled weekend bookings for the Eagle's Nest, a dance hall at the Clearpool swimming pool complex on Lamar Avenue, where he hosted a house band with Tiny Dixon.
The Eagle's Nest house band, circa 1954-56, featured Jim Stewart, Howard 'Speedy' McNatt, Joe Bracciante, 'Sleepy Eyed' John Lepley, Ed Morgan, Tiny Dixon, Dan McHugh, Hugh Jeffreys, Ted Enlow, and Ginnie Ford. The photo belongs to Hugh Jeffreys, from Soulsville, USA by Rob Bowman, via scottymoore.net According to Scotty Moore's website, Sleepy Eyed John was not a fan of young Elvis or Sun Records in general, and he would only play Elvis' B-side Blue Moon of Kentucky on his show. Apparently, he only even played that song grudgingly, because he would add negative commentary that angered Elvis' dad Vernon to the point that Vernon wanted to "take care of him". Sleepy Eyed John wasn't a complete fool though; the Eagle's Nest could hold about 350 people and Elvis's local record sales combined with his show at the Overton Shell had shown the potential to draw a crowd.
The photo above was taken at the Eagle's Nest by Elvis' Aunt Clettes Presley. It is from Elvis' August 27th, 1954 performance but I couldn't find any confirmed photos from the August 7th Eagle's Nest debut gig, so it's as close as I've gotten. The woman dancing has been speculated to be Gladys Tipler, though this remains unverified. James and Gladys Tipler owned Crown Electric and had recently hired Elvis as a delivery driver bringing materials to jobsites around Memphis, reportedly for $1 an hour, which was decent money for a teenager and more than the 75 cents minimum wage of the time.
In this aerial photo of the Clearpool complex you can see the Eagle's nest overlooking the far side of the swimming pool. Below, a late 50s or early 60s postcard of the Eagle's Nest and pool. Unfortunately, the venue burned down sometime in the late 1960s.
Pinning down the exact location has proven slightly difficult, as the area has been completely redeveloped, but it was likely somewhere in or around the highlighted area between Winchester Road and Clearpool Circle Road, which is a throwback to the venue and pool that have now been erased from the landscape.
On the same day as his first show at the Eagle's Nest, Elvis also got his first Billboard magazine review. In the August 7, 1954 issue, Billboard reviewed Sun 209, the 45 featuring That's All Right and Blue Moon of Kentucky, as follows:
That's alright mama indeed for a guy with one regional disc that had just dropped the month prior.
Sources:Soulsville, USA: The Story of Stax Records by Rob Bowman
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