"The King" sings for the last time...
It was a Monday night in June, the 26th, when a sold-out crowd of 16,000 Elvis worshippers streamed into Market Square Arena in Indianapolis to witness what no one knew at the time was Elvis Presley's final concert. Todd Slaughter, president of the Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain, some 20,000 members strong in 1977, remembers getting a trophy from Elvis backstage for Todd's loyalty to 'The King'. Slaughter said Presley was ashen, shaking and off-balance but still delivered "a remarkably emotional performance that night". He went on to add "it was like he was singing for the last time, which of course he was". Zach Dunkin of the Indianapolis News panned the concert, calling Presley's performance "sluggish and rambling" and got hate mail for months. "My own dad gave me a hard time about it". Kay Lipps, a veteran fan of 27 Elvis concerts was already dreaming of the next time she'd see the King. There was "no next time"...
Fifty-one days after the show in Indianapolis, Elvis was dead...
The Market Square Arena is gone and so is Elvis but some songs 'The King' sang at that venue are available with other 1977 concert material he performed on that tour in the album "Elvis in Concert [LIVE]" which is available on amazon.com for a ridiculously low $9.97. Why don't they just give it away ? Anyway, if you want to hear Elvis, live, on his last tour, this is the album to get. Believe me, this is not a commercial for amazon. I'm sure you can get it at any good, well-stocked record store...
More June 26 Memories...
1819] The bicycle was patented by W.K. Clarkson, Jr. of New York City (so how come we didn't have the "Carkson Flyer" ?)...
1870] The 1st section of the boardwalk in Atlantic City (NJ) opens to the public (WMID was one of the stations I jocked at in the 60's. What a special place ! Talk to Bill Todd a.k.a. Johnny Williams or Mike McCann sometime about how special that place was. Also my daughter Lynn was born there. Love AC)...
1916] In a game against the White Sox, the Cleveland Indians appear on the field with numbers on their sleeves. It marked the1st time players were identified by numbers corresponding to the scorecard...
1919] The New York Daily News is published for the 1st time (and it's still going strong)...
1948] The Berlin Airlift begins as the U.S., Britain and France begin ferrying supplies to the isolated western sector of Berlin after the Russians shut it down...
1959] Ingemar Johansson of Sweden knocks down heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson 7 times in the 3rd round to win the title on a TKO (one year later Patterson becomes the 1st heavyweight to regain the title when he beats Johansson)...
1959] The legendary Edward R. Murrow interviews Lee Remick on "Person to Person". It's his 500th and final guest on the CBS-TV show...
1961] Gary U.S. Bonds is #1 with "Quarter To Three"...
1962] Earl Wilson of the Red Sox pitches a 2-0 no-hitter against the Los Angeles Angels at Fenway Park (Wilson also homers in the game)...
1963] JFK visits Berlin and makes his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech...
1964] John Lennon says the Beatles are bigger than Berlin as they release their "A Hard Day's Night" LP...
1965] The Bob Dylan song, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is #1 for the Byrds...
1967] The Association is #1 with "Windy"...
1974] Richard Burton becomes divorce victim #5 for Liz Taylor...
1975] Must be something in the water...Cher divorces Sonny Bono...
1977] Elvis Presley performs his last live concert, at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis (feature story)...
1981] "For Your Eyes Only" premieres starring Roger Moore as James Bond (Sheena Easton has a hit with the theme song)...
1987] "Dragnet" premieres starring Dan Aykroyd as Sgt. Friday in this parody. Christopher Plummer, Dabney Coleman, Henry Morgan and Tom Hanks also star...
1989] Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson marry for the 2nd time (they didn't learn anything after the 1st time ?)...
1990] President George H.W. Bush who pledged "no new taxes" in that "read my lips" speech, concedes that tax increases would have to be included in any deficit-reduction package (sure, nowwww you tell us)...
1993] Julia Roberts and country singer Lyle Lovett do-si-do and allemande left down the aisle...
2000] Rival scientific teams complete the 1st rough map of the human genetic code and it turns out we're all descendants of aardvarks...
2002] WorldCom Inc. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection...
2003] Strom Thurmond, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, dies at age 100...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
"Happy Birthday, happy birthday"...
1922] Eleanor Parker...
1940] Billy (5th Dimension) Davis, Jr...
1943] Georgie Fame...
1955] Former member of The Clash - Mick Jones...
1956] Chris Isaak...
1957] Patty Smyth...
1961] Terri (Berlin] Nunn...
1974] Gretchen Wilson...
1974] Derek Jeter...
[Today is the 177th day of 2006 with 188 days remaining in the year and 8 days until July 4th]
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