Elvis performing at Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, TN – February 25, 1961.
Elvis appears in Memphis at a luncheon in his honour, and numerous recent awards Elvis has received are shown to the press and others attending. Every year after this (and before) Elvis donates money to a list of Memphis-area charities, eventually reaching fifty or more, usually around Christmas time.
Within a few years, to show their appreciation, the city gives him a massive plaque listing fifty charities.
Elvis performed one afternoon show and one evening show at Ellis Auditorium.
The concerts benefit around thirty-eight Memphis-area charities. Other than the Frank Sinatra television show, this show and the Honolulu Pearl Harbor Benefit concert had been Elvis' only live performances since his army discharge.
I've heard this story before where Elvis got arrested in '56 for getting into a brawl at a gas station. All I knew was that the charges were dismissed, and we got that sexy footage of him in the courtroom, lol.
But I didn't know he begged the station owner to let the guy who started the fight keep his job. I feel like that tells you so much about him.
Can you imagine being a teenager/young-adult in the 50s and seeing Jailhouse Rock over and over and over again until it isn’t in theaters anymore and you just have to live with the fact that you’ll never be able to hear Elvis say “it’s just the beast in me” ever again???? I would be a wreck. I would wail and sob. I might set fire to my local theatre.