ELVIS LIVES

The last day of an extremely busy 1955 found Elvis back at the old faithful Shreveport Municipal Auditorium for the last Hayride show of the year. He'd skipped the previous Saturday to be at home over the Christmas holidays, which likely featured more lavish gifts than the year prior, as Elvis' 1955 tax return reported his total income at $25,240.15, or somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000 adjusted for inflation. Not bad at all for a guy who'd been driving a truck for a dollar an hour in 1954. Ads run in the December 31 Shreveport Times and Shreveport Journal show Elvis as the headliner, and also feature Johnny Cash, who first saw Elvis performing from the bed of a truck in a Memphis parking lot back in September of 1954.   You can find more information about  the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium and Elvis' first show on the Hayride by clicking here,  and you can find all of his previous Hayride performances by clicking the dropdown menu at the top right corner of ...

  Elvis' first show after Christmas and last of 1954 was a long way from Memphis at Cook's Hoedown Club in Houston, advertised in the Houston Post as a 'Yuletide Hillbilly Jamboree'. The December 25th Houston Press even included a portrait of Elvis (That's All Right) Presley for the show, which at $1.25 was more than a ticket to the Louisiana Hayride, but it would go toward raising money for the fire department. Adjusted for inflation, the ticket would set you back about $15 nowadays. Although the venue reportedly held around 2,000 people, I have not found any contemporary exterior photos, but this photo of Johnny Ragsdale and his Sundowners, circa 1954, shows the stage as it appeared when Elvis, Scotty, and Bill were there: According to  one source,  only 150 people attended the December 28th show, but I'm not sure where this information originated or how accurate it is.  The fate of Cook's Hoedown Club seems to be largely absent from the historic record. ...

Elvis' celebrated his first Christmas as a professional musician back home in Memphis at his parents' apartment on Alabama Avenue. This photo, taken outside the home likely in the latter half of 1953, shows Elvis and his trusty Lincoln Zephyr, an 18th birthday present purchased by his father Vernon for the princely sum of $50. Some claim it was a 1941, some a 1942, but the consensus is that, while unreliable, Elvis was certainly proud of his first automobile. Our typical focus on this site is the venues where Elvis played, but I've included the Alabama Avenue duplex because Scotty Moore's timeline lists a Louisiana Hayride performance in Shreveport on the 25th. Usually I go with Scotty since he would know where they were better than most, but I believe the December 25th Hayride date to be a mistake. I do think there's a pretty good chance some Christmas carols were sung at the Presley house that evening though, so we'll give it a pass as a venue. Alabama Avenue...

On December 20th, Elvis played a show at the Hawkins High School Gymnasium (shown here circa 1949/1950) in the provincial hamlet of Hawkins, TX, whose census population at the time was a robust 493. Hawkins has grown a bit over the years, and now boasts as many as 1,274 residents. With that growth came a new high school campus and the destruction of old Hawkins High. In a historic stroke of luck however, he gymnasium still stands, though it is now private property and showing signs of age and neglect. The google maps images above are dated September 2013, so google hasn't been out that way in over a decade, but the 2025 aerial shows that the building is still around. The historical record of Elvis' earliest performances is incomplete at best, and the 1954 Hawkins High show was somewhat of a mystery until Elvis historian Francesc Lopez found this snippet in the December 21, 1954 Gladewater Daily Mirror, which confirms the location of the show and the December 20th date. Interes...

Another Saturday night, another Louisiana Hayride for Elvis, Scotty, and Bill,  and that meant Elvis would have $18 in his pocket, at least for a little while. If you've been following along with the 1954 gigs, you'll know that Elvis and the boys were perpetually broke at this stage of their careers, at one point "marooned in Shreveport" as Scotty put it, without even gas money to get back home to Memphis. According to a concessions worker at  the Catholic Club in Helena, AR on December 2nd,  Elvis didn't even have enough money for a Coke. The Hayride ad above ran in the December 18th, 1954 Shreveport Journal , but doesn't give too many particulars about that night's show. You can find more information about  the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium and Elvis' first show on the Hayride by clicking here,  and you can find all of his previous Hayride performances by clicking the dropdown at the top right corner of this page and looking in the October, Novembe...

At some point, tentatively identified as between December 14th to 17th 1954, Elvis made an appearance at the Mint Club in Gladewater, Texas. There are conflicting accounts of exactly when Elvis first came to Gladewater, but some photos found in Gladys Presley's papers were marked 'December 1954', and in the one shown here, a 'Mint Club' flyer is visible in the background. I was unable to find any exterior photos of the venue from that time period, but the building is apparently still around, though in a slightly different location and much sadder shape than it was in 1954. According to Scotty Moore's excellent website, scottymoore.net, the defunct Mint Club building was purchased by a preacher at some point in the late 1990s and for reasons I am not fully aware, moved across the street. The church failed to gain traction, and the building is currently abandoned and considerably deteriorated. In the aerial above, the arrow at the top shows the original Mint Club...

Another Saturday night, another Louisiana Hayride for Elvis, Scotty, and Bill,  and that meant Elvis would have $18 in his pocket. If you've been following along with the 1954 gigs, you'll know that Elvis and the boys were perpetually broke at this stage of their careers, at one point "marooned in Shreveport" as Scotty put it, without even gas money to get home to Memphis. According to a concessions worker at the Catholic Club in Helena, AR on December 2nd, Elvis didn't even have enough money for a Coke. The Hayride ad above ran in the December 11th, 1954 Shreveport Times , but doesn't give too many particulars about that night's show. You can find more information about  the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium and Elvis' first show on the Hayride by clicking here,  and you can find all of his previous Hayride performances by clicking the dropdown at the top right corner of this page and looking in the October, November, and December categories. Sources: ...

Although the December 10th Press-Scimitar advertised this as Elvis Presley's "last time in Memphis this year", it would in fact be Elvis' last ever time at the old faithful Eagle's Nest. If you've followed along with Elvis' earlier appearances at the Eagle's Nest, you'll note that the tone of the advertisements has changed by this point, and Elvis is now the main attraction.  You can  read more about the Eagle's Nest venue by clicking here,  and you can  see some famous Eagle's Nest photos taken by Elvis' aunt Clettes by clicking here.  For information on every Elvis date at the Eagle's Nest and more information on Sleepy Eyed John, Tiny Dixon, the Eagles, and the regular cast of Eagle's Nest characters, click the dropdown menu on the top right of this page and look in August, September, October, and November. Sources: Elvis Presley - Live 1954 Tour Dates - The Elvis years

On December 8th, Elvis played a "Christmas Jamboree" at a used-car lot in West Memphis called P and G's, but this has been one of the more elusive venues to nail down. The ad shown here ran in both the December 7th Memphis Press-Scimitar and the December 8th Memphis Commercial Appeal and lists the address as 1403 Broadway. If the street has not been renumbered, the 1403 Broadway location would be the red marker across from the Meadowbrook Country Club: My first impression was that this was probably the wrong place because there's not much out there. All the current businesses are to the right of Rich Road on the map, but out where the P and G's should be, it's all either houses or empty fields. Although it is only a vast expanse of dirt today (and I'm relying on google maps because I don't live anywhere near Arkansas) something caught my eye that lends credence to this actually being the P and G's location. In the photo above, and highlighted on t...

December 4th marked Elvis, Scotty, and Bill's sixth appearance on the Louisiana Hayride, hosted out of the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, and that meant Elvis would be $18 richer. If you've been following along with the previous gigs, you'll know that Elvis and the boys were perpetually broke at this stage of their careers, at one point "marooned in Shreveport" as Scotty put it, without even gas money to get home to Memphis. The Hayride ad above ran in the December 4th, 1954 Shreveport Journal , but doesn't give too many particulars about that night's show. You can find more information about  the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium and Elvis' first show on the Hayride by clicking here,  and you can find all of his previous Hayride performances by clicking the dropdown at the top right corner of this page and looking in the October and November categories. Sources: Elvis Presley In Concert Tour Dates - The Elvis years Shreveport Municipal Memorial Audito...

Hot off the heels of a show the night before at the Helena Catholic Club , Elvis, Scotty, and Bill were back in Texarkana. You can click here for information on the venue, Arkansas Municipal Auditorium, and the boys' first appearance there on November 24th. As you can see above, although 70 years have passed, the auditorium hasn't changed a whole lot since Elvis graced the stage. *Note: this date is contested, as some sources do not include a December 3, 1954 show at all on the Elvis timeline, some claim a December 3rd show at the American Legion Hall in Mount Pleasant, Texas, and others a show at the Arkansas Municipal Auditorium profiled here. Since Scotty Moore's website claims the trio was in Texarkana, that's the one we're going with until definitive proof otherwise. Sources: Tour Dates - The Elvis years https://www.elvisconcerts.com/real/roadtexas201703.htm https://collections.oldstatehouse.com/objects/8709/postcard-texarkana-municipal-building-fire-station-...

On December 2nd, Elvis and gang rolled into Helena, Arkansas for a gig at St. Mary's Catholic Club. Advertisements for the show were running in the Helena World as early as November 24 (shown above) and this time Scotty and Bill got some credit as well. Elvis was billed ahead of fellow Louisiana Hayride act The Browns, who would eventually wind up with a Grammy nomination and land in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The ad below ran on the 28th and indicates there was probably a sizable crowd expected at the show, considering there were only "a few advance tickets left" of the original 500. If all 500 sold at 75 cents each, the take for the entire show would be about $4,400, adjusted for inflation. The 'Catholic Club' was officially known the St. Mary's Parish Center building, which opened next to St. Mary's church at 123 Columbia Street in 1949.   The Catholic Club building included a gymnasium and stage, and in addition to the usual religious or communit...