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The concert also featured "Beautiful Gospel Singer" Martha Carson making her Memphis debut, Ferlin Husky (who dropped the "e" in his last name a year later), the Browns, the Hushpuppies Doyle and Teddy, Floyd Tillman, and the Wilburn Brothers. Admission was $1.00 for general admission seats to $1.25 for the best seats.
On this date, between the two shows in Memphis, Elvis Presley and Scotty Moore went across the street to a meeting with Bob Neal and met for the first time with Colonel Tom Parker.'Last Train To Memphis' by Peter Garulnick wrote:The first show went fine. He sang his snew song, "Milkcow Blues Boogie" and "You're A Heartbreaker", as well as "That's All Right" and "Good Rockin' Tonight," and he told Ronnie Smith backstage how much fun he was having on the road. He was fascinated, too, with the performance of Martha Carson, a spectacular redhead who looked like a movie star and sang and moved like Sister Rosetta Tharpe when she performed her trademark hit, "Satisfied," and a host of traditional "colored" spirituals. She broke several strings, danced ecstatically at the end of a long guitar chord, and in general created the kind of smouldering intensity and infectious enthusiasm that he sought to achieve in his own performance. He asked Miss Carson afterwards if she knew a particular Statesmen number, and he made it clear that "he knew the words to every song that I had ever had out." He told her that he would like to record her song, "Satisfied," someday and he hoped they would be billed together again sometime soon. "He was very complimentary and very interested in what I did. I could feel this was sincere, it was from the heart - it wasn't just someone saying this, he just really idolized me, and I could feel it".
The meeting, which also included Sam Phillips, Bill Black, and the Colonel's two right-hand men, Tom Diskin and Oscar Davis, took place at Palumbo's cafe, across the street from the Auditorium.
The subject under discussion was Elvis' upcoming tour, a portion of which was being booked by Parker. The Colonel had been keeping an eye on Elvis' rising popularity for some time.
- Long since gone, the cafe where history was made
'Last Train To Memphis' by Peter Garulnick wrote:The meeting at Palumbo's did not get off to an auspicious start. The tension in the air was already marked when Elvis and Scotty walked in. Colonel Parker was sitting there with a big cigar, his jaw thrust out, and a pugnacious expression on his face, as Diskin, his young lieutenant, tried to explain to Mr. Philips that the Colonel didn't really mean anything against the Sun label in particular, that he was just trying to point out the shortcomings that would attach to any small record label, which necessarily lacked the kind of distribution that a major company like RCA, with which the Colonel had been associated for many years through both Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow, could offer. Oscar Davis, sharp as ever with a fresh flower in his buttonhole and his cigarette holder cocked elegantly, just so, was plainly unhappy with his crude associate. And Sam was seething. What did Tom Parker mean - he wasn't going to call that damn mountebank by some phoney title - by saying that Elvis was going to get nowhere on Sun? This was a helluva way to start a business conference. His own deep-set eyes bored in on the Colonel, but Parkers gaze never wavered, and both men sat locked in silent combat until finally Bob Neal broke the tension and suggested they discuss some of the specifics of the upcoming tour.
This could be a very fine opportunity for them all, Oscar Davis said with genuine feeling: it would give Sam a chance to get his records into new territories, it would offer young Elvis here an opportunity to expand his audience, and if things worked out it could cement a long-standing relationship - Davis undoubtedly hesitated on the word partnership - between Colonel Parker and our good friend Bob Neal and allow it to develop in exciting new directions. The Colonel only glowered, and Oscar was confounded as to just what he could be up to. As for Elvis, bob had explained to him the colonel's far-flung connections, not just in the world of country music, but in Hollywood as well. Mr. Philips had only reinforced what Bob had said. From what he understood, Sam declared before actually meeting him, there wasn't a better promoter in the business than tom Parker, and right now they could certainly use all the help they could get. But what, Elvis might well have been led to wonder at this point, was Colonel Parker's compelling attraction?
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