Elvis Presley: The Birth of a Legend at Overton Park Shell
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The episode takes listeners back to July 30th, 1954, in Memphis, Tennessee, where a young and nervous Elvis Presley takes the stage at Overton Park Shell for the first time. Hosts Scott and Jen Bennie dive into the history of this iconic night that marked the beginning of Elvis's meteoric rise to fame. They discuss his early life, his unique fashion choices, and the overwhelming reaction from the audience.
The podcast also explores the cultural significance of Overton Park Shell, its historical importance, and how it has hosted various iconic musicians over the decades. As locals in Memphis, Scott and Jen share personal anecdotes and insights about Elvis's enduring legacy and his connection to the city.
00:00 Overton Park Shell
00:13 The Night That Changed Music Forever
01:54 Introduction to Talk With History
02:21 Elvis's Birthday Celebrations at Graceland
08:48 The Overton Park Shell: A Historic Venue
11:32 Elvis's First Performance at Overton Park Shell
16:42 The Legacy of Overton Park Shell
20:28 Conclusion: The American Spirit of Innovation
📍 Google Maps to Overton Park Shell
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Transcript
Imagine it's July 30th, 1954.
Speaker:It's a thick, humid Friday night in Memphis, Tennessee.
Speaker:The air at Overton Park is heavy, the kind of southern heat that sticks to
Speaker:your skin, but there's a buzzing energy coming from the 4,000 people packed
Speaker:into the grass in front of the shell.
Speaker:They've come to see a local variety show, but there's a name on the
Speaker:poster that looks a little unfamiliar.
Speaker:It says Ellis Presley.
Speaker:Backstage, 19-year-old truck driver is pacing.
Speaker:He's not wearing the conservative suits of the crooners of the era.
Speaker:He's draped in head to toe, bright pink, pink pants, a pink shirt,
Speaker:and a long narrow tie provided by the Lansky brothers on Beal Street.
Speaker:He's absolutely terrified.
Speaker:Three weeks ago, he recorded a song called, that's All Right, mama.
Speaker:It is been playing on the radio, but he's never done this, not like this,
Speaker:not in front of a crowd this size.
Speaker:He walks out onto that stage, the wood echoing under his boots.
Speaker:He looks out at the sea of faces, grips his guitar, and the music starts.
Speaker:But then something happens.
Speaker:His legs starts to shake.
Speaker:He's so nervous.
Speaker:His knees are knocking together and he begins to jiggle just
Speaker:to keep from falling over.
Speaker:Suddenly a sound rises from the front row that hasn't been
Speaker:heard in American music before.
Speaker:It's a piercing collective scream from the women in the audience.
Speaker:Elvis stops.
Speaker:He goes backstage after his two songs confused.
Speaker:He asked his manager, did I do something wrong?
Speaker:Why are they hollering at me?
Speaker:The answer was simple.
Speaker:They weren't hollering because he's made a mistake.
Speaker:They were hollering because they were witnessing the birth of a revolution.
Speaker:Welcome to Talk With History.
Speaker:I'm your host Scott here with my wife and historian Jen.
Speaker:Hello.
Speaker:On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels
Speaker:YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations
Speaker:with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.
Speaker:Alright, Jen, so we are, this is an audio exclusive episode today.
Speaker:So for our podcast listeners, this is for you now.
Speaker:Elvis, obviously being us here in Memphis is a very, very
Speaker:popular topic on our channel.
Speaker:Seems to always do very well.
Speaker:So we've been wanting to do some more Elvis history this year.
Speaker:Yeah, it's the 20 50th birthday of America.
Speaker:And I, Elvis is popular because I think he's that American Dream story.
Speaker:We live here in Memphis, so there's a lot of Elvis history here.
Speaker:A lot of people who know the Elvis history here 'cause he never really
Speaker:left his hometown after 13 years old.
Speaker:He moves here 13, but his birthday is the beginning of the year.
Speaker:His birthday is January 8th, 1935.
Speaker:And so.
Speaker:They usually do something at Graceland.
Speaker:They usually have a birthday cake and a birthday proclamation
Speaker:and, but it's usually very cold.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like it could be snowing and it could be rainy, and it's miserable
Speaker:and it's early in the morning and.
Speaker:I never go because of that.
Speaker:And you get your diehard fans that are out there.
Speaker:And actually, Lisa Marie, that was one of her last appearances before
Speaker:she passed, uh, three years ago.
Speaker:Oh, I didn't know that.
Speaker:She went to her dad's birthday celebration on January 8th
Speaker:and she passes January 12th.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:So it was the last time people really saw her.
Speaker:So it was very, it's very interesting how close.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and I remember when she passed away 'cause we were literally podcasting in
Speaker:our living room in Norfolk, Virginia.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When we, we were wrapping up an episode.
Speaker:And either you, you or I,
Speaker:the news broke,
Speaker:but the news broke.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so we ended the episode, we jumped on, we just kind of started a live
Speaker:stream and just started talking about it and it look, and unfortunately
Speaker:we were on like our other channel.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Our talk with history audio channel, and it took off, you know, and we had
Speaker:tens of thousands of people because we were kind of one of the first to jump
Speaker:on a live stream and talk about it.
Speaker:It was like a reaction because.
Speaker:We had, again, I had just seen her at the birthday celebration.
Speaker:We had lived in Norfolk at that time, but she had just been to the Golden Globes.
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:Because Elvis had just been in the, the movie Gold Globes.
Speaker:The movie.
Speaker:Yeah, the movie.
Speaker:So she was just making a public appearance.
Speaker:So it was just very raw.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That, that feeling.
Speaker:So, but this year, for his birthday, January 8th, it.
Speaker:60 degrees.
Speaker:It was
Speaker:perfect weather.
Speaker:It was no rain.
Speaker:I could get over there very easily.
Speaker:So I, I took the kids to school, got in the car, drove, parked, and walked up as
Speaker:they are doing the birthday proclamation.
Speaker:There might have been maybe a hundred people there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was like, this is fantastic.
Speaker:Now, no family members had come this year, but they had sent flowers.
Speaker:So he definitely, you know, he has Priscilla, his ex-wife, but, uh, he has
Speaker:three granddaughters and, uh, they now own Graceland, but none of them were there.
Speaker:And so he had a, an old friend Jerry Schilling, he
Speaker:was there and he was talking.
Speaker:So, um, I was able to walk over to the grave site.
Speaker:When no one was there because they were all at the birthday of Proclamation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you had, but you basically had it all to yourself.
Speaker:You walked up and kind of filmed a short little video.
Speaker:It was amazing because if you know anything about birthday, anything
Speaker:about Elvis' birthday or the week of his death, August 16th, a lot
Speaker:of his fan clubs will send Res
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And very specific res to his birthday and, and so I got to film all of those.
Speaker:I got to film his site.
Speaker:I got to film Lisa Marie before somebody came over and said.
Speaker:No one's allowed to be here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I got very lucky.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, and, and just so people know, it's not like she, she snuck
Speaker:up there because every day from, what is it, like seven to eight?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:They let, they let the public just walk up to, to his grave site.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's open every
Speaker:day for, for free.
Speaker:For free.
Speaker:You can walk up there.
Speaker:You can't go inside Graceland without a ticket, but you can walk up and
Speaker:visit his actual grave site where he is buried next to his parents.
Speaker:Uh, some of his family for, for free every day.
Speaker:So that's what you walked up there, just kind of assuming that was still the case.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And knowing that, I mean, I, I'm a local.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:right.
Speaker:So I was just gonna go up and, and take some video and then
Speaker:they said, you can't be here.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:I was like, that's fine.
Speaker:So I walk over just as they're singing Happy Birthday.
Speaker:So I sing Happy Birthday, and then I get to take pictures of the cake.
Speaker:Now know that the cake is styrofoam.
Speaker:And they put like, just
Speaker:a little piece.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:I couldn't tell from the, uh, from the video
Speaker:because it's beautiful.
Speaker:And then they have free cake for everybody That's
Speaker:cool.
Speaker:Across the street and everybody can get, have a piece of cake
Speaker:and celebrate Elvis's birthday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It, it's one of those things that as a local, it's fun for us to, to go,
Speaker:to go do, to go to these kind of.
Speaker:You know, yearly events at Graceland because you get all sorts of interesting
Speaker:characters out there, hardcore Elvis fans, people who were alive and remember, you
Speaker:know, hearing the news when you pass.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So it's, it's always fun for us to kind of go over there because he's,
Speaker:El Elvis is one of those rare, just global phenomenon that is known
Speaker:literally throughout the entire world and has had an impact on probably
Speaker:every single person on this planet.
Speaker:So it's always.
Speaker:It's always a big thing because there, there are people who were very, very
Speaker:emotional about Elvis and who care deeply about kind of what he left
Speaker:behind, and so it was cool for us to, to do another video on, on this topic
Speaker:and I. I respect that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:So I even in the line, I am one of those people I engage with the, with the public.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because I'm a historian, so I met these four women in the line.
Speaker:If they're listening to it, they, I gave 'em all my card, but
Speaker:they're part of an Elvis Peasley fan club and have been for years.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they're from all around the world and they've met each other and now
Speaker:they always get together, the four of them, once a year in Graceland.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they're, it, it was just amazing to hear their stories, where they were when
Speaker:they heard Elvis died, what Elvis meant to them, how much they've come to the, the
Speaker:candlelight vigils for his birth, for the, his passing, his birthday celebrations.
Speaker:Like they're very much inundated in doing this as a group.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it, what's very neat to hear from all different, I'm from
Speaker:Europe, like, it was just amazing.
Speaker:And so it was great to, to engage with them and then have the birthday cake.
Speaker:And if you know anything about Elvis Presley as well, uh, he.
Speaker:Would leave his Christmas decorations up until after his birthday.
Speaker:Yeah, that was like a, that was a thing.
Speaker:Everybody said, oh, you gotta leave him up at least until January 8th.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So I show you some of the Christmas decorations as well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause he has a great huge nativity set and stuff like that.
Speaker:So it, it was neat.
Speaker:I never had gotten to do that before and I never.
Speaker:Because of the weather.
Speaker:I wasn't gonna, and I, we've, we've done his death week and we've
Speaker:done, they call it Elvis week here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they're kinda like vigil.
Speaker:But to do this was super cool.
Speaker:So it got me thinking about the 250 birthday of America, the nineties, first
Speaker:birthday of the King of rock and roll.
Speaker:And it got me thinking to more of firsts of Elvis Presley because Elvis Presley
Speaker:really was that groundbreaking first in so many ways when it came to music.
Speaker:And because we're celebrating America two 50.
Speaker:What else first could we really do, and we've always talked
Speaker:about doing Overton Park, shell.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We have been in the location when we did Memphis Bell.
Speaker:It's kind of a central park here in Memphis.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like a downtown, like you said.
Speaker:Like what?
Speaker:Like what?
Speaker:New York has their.
Speaker:Central Park, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:This is the, the park area in central Memphis?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We have a, a, an art museum there.
Speaker:The zoo is there and this, this Overton Park shell, which was a, a music venue.
Speaker:They used to do operas and musicals there, and it was built.
Speaker:The 1930s during the depression era, it was one of those works
Speaker:projects administration from president Roosevelt's New Deal.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Where they gave jobs to people to protect the culture of America.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Building up the infrastructure as well as some cultural stuff.
Speaker:But it's now, it's one of the only.
Speaker:Only depression era.
Speaker:Bandshell is still active.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:so it's super neat.
Speaker:It think of, um, the Hollywood Bowl.
Speaker:It looks like a bowl kind of set low and then it kind of
Speaker:gradually goes up in elevation.
Speaker:So when the people sit.
Speaker:The shell is a little bit further down, but the acoustics will reach out at you.
Speaker:So it's really neat how it's set up because it's really, it, it really
Speaker:lends itself to hearing good music.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, and that's why, and we'll talk about a little bit, there were so
Speaker:many famous musicians, not just Elvis, that performed there over the years.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So when we went there.
Speaker:And again, it's Memphis, it's, you have such great access to things.
Speaker:If you're gonna do like an Elvis Presley kind of tour of Memphis, like we've
Speaker:done the mausoleum where Elvis was first buried, you can go to where he lived.
Speaker:You can go to his original house before Gracely, and this Overton Park
Speaker:shell is just available to you to go walk on the stage and take pictures.
Speaker:And, and so we were there and we actually met, someone who runs the tour behind it.
Speaker:We didn't even know there was a tour.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Behind it,
Speaker:there's like a, there's like a backstage area if you go and watch, we're not
Speaker:doing a video version of this podcast, but if you go and watch our video
Speaker:from Overton Park, shell, and I'll, I'll link that in the show notes.
Speaker:If you look at the Shell itself, and you'll see like in the center of the
Speaker:Shell as kind of like the backdrop of the narrowest point, is this what looks
Speaker:like a blue record and it's probably.
Speaker:Eight, nine feet tall.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Behind that, there's actually a door that goes behind the Overton Park.
Speaker:Shell think like that's where a green room would be for artists that are performing.
Speaker:There's a restroom back there and they've kind of turned it into this
Speaker:little kind of mini backstage tour type thing that you can do, like museum.
Speaker:It was really cool.
Speaker:It was really neat.
Speaker:They had a lot of the flyers.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the photographs and it, it really told the story of Overton Park shell, so.
Speaker:Again, this was built in the 1930s named for the Park, Overton Park,
Speaker:and what happens is they start doing a lot of like concerts.
Speaker:And so what happens with Elvis Presley is he has just performed.
Speaker:That's all right, mama At Sun Studio on July 5th, 1954.
Speaker:Sam Phillips has taken that record over to the local dj, Dewey Phillips, no relation.
Speaker:And Dewey Phillips plays this record and people start calling.
Speaker:They say, Hey, play it again.
Speaker:Play it, play it again.
Speaker:It's been on repeat for days.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And so then they, they go and find Elvis Presley to interview him on
Speaker:the show because everyone thinks he.
Speaker:He's African American.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So they make sure he says what high school he goes to.
Speaker:'cause think this is 1954.
Speaker:This is still segregation.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So when he says what high school they go to, they're like, this is a white boy.
Speaker:So it's very interesting.
Speaker:He's starting to, to do this bridging of culture and.
Speaker:The, the song is getting played a lot.
Speaker:And so what is the next concert coming up in Memphis where he can
Speaker:be a part of the opening acts?
Speaker:And so three weeks later there's a concert at Overton Park Shell, and the headliner
Speaker:is this country singer Slim Whitman.
Speaker:So they put Elvis on the, the mar on the poster.
Speaker:But they don't even spell his name right?
Speaker:Yeah, because they don't even know who he is.
Speaker:They
Speaker:spell it Ellis, E-L-L-I-S.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So if you can see the original poster, it's really
Speaker:funny.
Speaker:Yeah, it's awesome.
Speaker:I show it in the video.
Speaker:And so he, if again, if you're a fan of the channel, you know, he
Speaker:goes to Lansky Brothers, which is a clothing store right on Beal Street.
Speaker:So Beal Street is the African American Streets location.
Speaker:If you saw the movie Elvis, it's where he's getting a lot
Speaker:of this inspiration of sound.
Speaker:And, uh, so the Dr the clothing is more colorful and he.
Speaker:Picks out a pink outfit, pink pants, and a pink shirt with a long tie, which
Speaker:they lend to it in the movie Elvis.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:They, they do show that, although I don't think they're, it's not the same.
Speaker:What?
Speaker:He's wearing it, it's not the same location.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're, they're not making it look like he's at the Overton Park shell,
Speaker:but they're doing this moment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So again, it's, if you know anything about living in the south in the
Speaker:summer, this is July 30th, Ugh, 8:00 PM
Speaker:It's so hot.
Speaker:It's a hot evening.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Like you said, it's muggy.
Speaker:At least the sun has gone down.
Speaker:But people are sitting here and if you look at the shelf,
Speaker:the shelf sits further down.
Speaker:So when he gets out on stage, his.
Speaker:His pelvis or his His
Speaker:waist.
Speaker:His waist is eye level.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To these 4,000 people.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And again, he's nervous.
Speaker:He's never performed in public.
Speaker:His song is big, so it's the only song he really knows and he starts to shake his
Speaker:leg with the music and the nervousness.
Speaker:It's kind of a twofold thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He's kind of moving his leg with the music and he's nervous and
Speaker:he's wearing these big pleated.
Speaker:Pink pants.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:They're not cuffed at the bottom, and so they shake.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:The fabric is very loose and so it's moving.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The, the movie, if you guys haven't watched the Elvis movie, who
Speaker:is the director of Baz Luhrman.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:If you haven't watched the Elvis movie, they do a great job of showing
Speaker:that scene and how the women just start going crazy for Elvis and
Speaker:that that really happened.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so, 'cause people had just never.
Speaker:Seen that before.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And uh, we, we've reviewed that movie too, if you wanna watch that,
Speaker:because again, you can't live in Memphis without knowing Elvis history.
Speaker:And so he plays That's all right, mama and Blue Moon of Kentucky.
Speaker:The two songs he knows people are screaming.
Speaker:He doesn't really know what that reaction is.
Speaker:As you would if you've never seen a beatlemania, if you've never seen someone.
Speaker:He's the beginning of this
Speaker:thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause that, that wasn't a thing.
Speaker:Well, and one thing that, that our, our tour guide Cole mentioned to us was
Speaker:the, the sound, not only projects from the stage, but it also is gonna kind
Speaker:of, focus at the people on the stage.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So all these women screaming.
Speaker:It.
Speaker:You know, he said that there were musicians that would say,
Speaker:it sounded like a train when they're up on stage sometimes.
Speaker:'cause it's so loud.
Speaker:And so he, it was, he just kind of had this reaction when he got off.
Speaker:He's like, did I do something wrong?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So he didn't know if it was good or bad.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If they didn't like his music and they were.
Speaker:It wasn't booze exactly, but he didn't know what that reaction was.
Speaker:And the manager there said, no, they love it.
Speaker:Get out there and do it again and again.
Speaker:He doesn't know any other songs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So he goes out and does, that's all right, mama and Blue Moon, Kentucky
Speaker:again now, because he's starting to get this reaction and he's starting to
Speaker:feel, I think, you know, optimistic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And probably confident in his performance.
Speaker:'cause it don't, you have to know this kid.
Speaker:He's never performed before.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He keeps doing the shake.
Speaker:He keeps doing the shake.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:He just kind of part makes it as part of his routine now.
Speaker:Because again, think about Elvis Presley.
Speaker:He's stumbled into this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so this is his first time with showmanship.
Speaker:Now we think of Elvis Presley at Vegas and how he can really
Speaker:work an audience and all of them.
Speaker:Well, this is the beginning of all of that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was such a, like a lightning in a bottle type moment.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:You capture this moment and you know, luckily for us, you know, looking back
Speaker:on it, you know, 50 plus years later, we got to see at least, you know, what the,
Speaker:uh, some of the printout posters were and hear some of the stories after the fact.
Speaker:Like there's really no photos.
Speaker:I think there, there's a couple photos that I put in the video, but I don't
Speaker:know if they're exactly from that night because he actually performs
Speaker:again like a week or two later.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And so I think that time they actually get some more cameras out there.
Speaker:And so some of the pictures I show, I think are actually from August 7th.
Speaker:This was July 30th.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, because I think news got around like, hey.
Speaker:We have something here.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:No one's expecting this.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And through the years, Elvis will come back to Overton Park
Speaker:Shell and perform some more.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he, again, it gets to the point where he is a huge draw and it's gonna
Speaker:be too much where he's gonna have to go to other places that have bigger
Speaker:venues because he's such a huge draw.
Speaker:But there's a picture of him and Carl Perkins signing each other's autographs.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Kind
Speaker:of just like in jest.
Speaker:In jest.
Speaker:And so he really is.
Speaker:Again, appreciates where he comes from and he, he remembers Overton Park
Speaker:Shell and now it's gonna become a venue for like Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins.
Speaker:Isaac Hayes, the Allman Brothers gonna perform there.
Speaker:You have a picture of that in the video?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They have a couple really good pictures.
Speaker:There's some big names that played there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Ro Orbison, Lisa Marie will perform there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Bonnie Rai.
Speaker:You know, I grew up, my parents love Bonnie Rai.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And so they, the history of Overton Park, shell, they go through again.
Speaker:Anything else, they're culturally, they get into the sixties.
Speaker:There's a lot of those kind of rockers black Sabbath and things like that.
Speaker:It's easy top.
Speaker:And then they wanna stay away from that kind of lifestyle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause they feel like they're bringing on some of the riffraff.
Speaker:So they go into like Yacht Rockies.
Speaker:Easy listening.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Survivor.
Speaker:Uh, and then that kind of loses steam and so then the shell loses steam.
Speaker:And there's two times that people try to.
Speaker:Tear it down.
Speaker:Basically, they tried to make a, a interstate through there and they tried
Speaker:to make a theater for the art museum.
Speaker:And both times it's saved by grassroots movements.
Speaker:People who are like, no, let's save the shell.
Speaker:It means so much to American history.
Speaker:It means so much to our city.
Speaker:And at one point, it's saved by the Levitt Foundation and from, so from
Speaker:2005 to 2022, it's named Levitt Shell.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you might see that.
Speaker:So that's, that's actually how we first knew it, because we lived
Speaker:here during that, that initial time.
Speaker:And so they replaced the Overton Park with Levitt Shell, and
Speaker:they did like 600 free concerts.
Speaker:150,000 people came to see those concerts as they really did revitalize it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But in 2022, they went back to their original name, Overton Park.
Speaker:Shell.
Speaker:Now they're celebrating their 90th anniversary.
Speaker:Yeah, they're gonna be doing free concerts again.
Speaker:And if you're an Elvis fan, I definitely make it out there.
Speaker:Do that tour behind, uh, in the back area because it was so neat.
Speaker:You're standing there in the green room where Elvis Presley stood.
Speaker:Oh
Speaker:yeah.
Speaker:And all these famous musicians.
Speaker:It's super neat to stand there and to be there and to learn the history of this.
Speaker:It, it was a great surprise and I was really happy we did it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:One of the things that again, our, our tour guide, we kind of unexpectedly
Speaker:came upon him and he, he gave us a tour.
Speaker:Was he mentioned they believe that it's likely that Elvis' father
Speaker:probably helped build the shell Yes.
Speaker:In the, in the thirties because it was a WPA project and Elvis'
Speaker:father actually worked in some of those projects in the Memphis area.
Speaker:So it's, there was a good chance that his father actually kind of
Speaker:helped build this, this bandstand.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That launched, that launched his son's, you know, global stardom.
Speaker:It's just so amazing and it's so amazing to stand on that stage
Speaker:and kind of move your hips.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And like be like, I'm here where this all happened.
Speaker:Like it was super neat to do that and to be there.
Speaker:I had read something.
Speaker:This Overton Park Show is part of like a music trail you can do through
Speaker:Tennessee, and they say that more songs and songwriters and music come out of
Speaker:Tennessee than anywhere else in the world.
Speaker:Yeah, I believe that.
Speaker:And that is super neat to be a part of that and to stand there and do that.
Speaker:So if you get a chance, this is a part of American history, part of Elvis history.
Speaker:America two 50, that American Dream story, and again, one of the only depression
Speaker:Arab ban shells that still exists.
Speaker:So get out there and, and to, and see it and be a part of American history.
Speaker:It's easy to look back at the night in 1954 and see the legend.
Speaker:We know now the gold suits, the flashing lights of Vegas, the global icon.
Speaker:But when you stand on the boards of the Overton Park shell, you realize
Speaker:that history isn't just about the person, it's about the place.
Speaker:There's a beautiful, quiet irony in the dust of that stage.
Speaker:Nearly two decades before Elvis stepped into those pink pants, his
Speaker:father Vernon was likely out there in the Memphis heat swinging a hammer
Speaker:or hauling stone as part of the WPA.
Speaker:Think about that for a second.
Speaker:The father helps build the foundation during the Great Depression at a time of
Speaker:struggle and rebuilding for the nation.
Speaker:Then 18 years later, his son stands on that very foundation and
Speaker:launches a cultural explosion that would define the American century.
Speaker:The shell wasn't just a backdrop, it was an instrument.
Speaker:Its perfect Acoustics carried those first nervous notes of Blue Moon of
Speaker:Kentucky across the park and straight into the future from the New Deal
Speaker:laborers who poured the concrete to the rock legends like Johnny Cash and Black
Speaker:Sabbath, who followed in footsteps.
Speaker:The stage has always been about the American spirit of starting something new.
Speaker:Elvis left the building that night, but he left something behind in Memphis that
Speaker:still vibrates in the air at Overton Park today, it reminds us that sometimes
Speaker:things you're most nervous about that jiggle in your step or that tremor
Speaker:in your voice is actually the spark that's going to light up the world.
Speaker:Thanks for walking through history with us today.
Speaker:If you enjoyed this trip to Memphis, make sure to head it over to our
Speaker:YouTube channel, walk With History, to see the shelf for yourself and stand
Speaker:where the king first shook the world.
Speaker:We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:This has been a Walk with History, production Talk with History is
Speaker:created and hosted by me, Scott Bennie episode Researched by Jennifer Bennie.
Speaker:Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.
Speaker:Talk With History is supported by our community at TheHistoryRoadTrip.com
Speaker:Our eternal thanks.
Speaker:Go out to our lifetime members to help keep us going.
Speaker:Thank you to Doug McLiverty, Larry Myers, Patrick Bennie, Gail Cooper,
Speaker:Christie Khotz, Calvin Gifford, Courtney Senini, Jean Noah, Larry Mitchell, Tommy
Speaker:Anderson, Susan Soulas, Bruce Lynch,
Speaker:Dino Garner, Mark Barrett, Don Kennedy and John Simpson.
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Speaker:and we'll talk to you next time.
