15th May 1956, Tuesday

[Graeme]

Day number 7799Site Date Map

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[silverwings]

Photographer ~ Robert W. Dye

[silverwings]

Elvis is kissed on the cheek by Maid of Cotton Patricia Cowden and Memphis Cotton Carnival Queen Clare Mallory just before he walked on stage before a packed Ellis Auditorium audience. Photo by Robert Williams.

Photo by Robert Williams, THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

Photo by Robert Dye.

Photo by Robert Williams.

The North Hall audience at Ellis Auditorium. Photo by Robert Dye.

Facing the North Hall. Both sides were opened and he had to turn back and forth to face each audience. Photo courtesy of Ger Rijff,

Photo by Robert Williams.

Photo by Robert Dye.

Photo by Robert Williams, THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL

On May 15, 1956, Bob Neal's Cotton Pickin' Jamboree at Ellis featured Elvis headlining over Hank Snow and the Jordanaires as part of the opening of the twenty-second annual Cotton Carnival. Before Elvis performed, Bob Neal announced that he would be playing another show in Memphis, on July 4, for the benefit of local charities. "A wild roar of approval was evidence that Elvis will have plenty of company" for that show, reports the Memphis Press-Scimitar, but that is nothing compared to the reception he gets when he appears onstage. He wears black pants, a white shirt, and a kelly-green jacket, sings Heartbreak Motel, and introduces Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" as a beautiful song "recorded by a friend of mine...I never met him, but here's the song."
Setlist:

• Heartbreak Hotel
  Long Tall Sally
  I Was the One
  Money Honey
  I've Got a Woman
  Blue Suede Shoes
  Only You (and You Alone)
  Hound Dog

The Cotton Carnival was started in Memphis in 1931 to help revive the Cotton distribution market and is a week long celebration where all the local stores and theaters displayed cotton and cotton products in their lobbies and store windows and sponsored newspaper ads and radio programs to tout Memphis' most important product. They had a King and Queen and a Royal court composed of young women mostly in their first year of college. On the final day they gathered at Ellis Auditorium for the parade, then swept down Main Street through the business district, crossed over to Second Avenue and returned to Ellis.

[Private Presley]

[Private Presley]