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El Dorado High School Auditorium &
Memorial Stadium El Dorado, Arkansas is the county seat of Union County and is located at the southern end of the state about 80 miles northeast of Shreveport, Louisiana. Though it had its beginning in 1843, it has a rich history as an oil "boom-town" of the 1920s. Also a stop on the Rock Island line, after oil was discovered at El Dorado in 1921 the Rock Island transported ninety percent of the barrels of oil produced that first year.1
Designed by noted architect, Charles Thompson, the El Dorado High School was originally built at 300 W. Avenue in 1905 as a single three story structure. By 1928 new facilities to the west and rear of the current building were built and the original building became home to El Dorado Junior College, a public junior college established as a preparatory school by the El Dorado School District for students hoping to enter universities.1
Included in the new facilities was the auditorium building at the corner of Summit Ave. and W. Block street. In 1940 a gymnasium was added with WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds. The high school and junior college often shared equipment, instructors, laboratories, the gymnasium, and other facilities, but the two institutions remained separate in many respects.1 In particular, the high school mostly used the newer auditorium building for lectures, while the college mostly used the adjacent classroom building. By August 1942, World War II all but depleted enrollment in the college and all the equipment used by the college had been returned to the high school.1 With a balcony and large stage, the auditorium was bigger than the typical movie theater of the day. Until the 1830 seat Municipal Auditorium was built in 1959 the High School's was one of the few auditoriums and stages in the city that could be used for theatrical events. By 1948 a new 6,000 seat football stadium was built several blocks north of the High School along North West Avenue north of West 5th St. It is home for the High School's Wildcats team and was dedicated "Memorial Stadium" in honor of Union county's WWII servicemen. The 1948 yearbook cites it as:
On March 30, 1955, Elvis, Scotty and Bill made the first of at least two appearances in El Dorado with a show in the High School's Auditorium.
Arkansas Daily News - March 27, 1955 courtesy Barton Library The show was sponsored by local radio station KDMS and because of El Dorado's proximity to Shreveport, the weekly Hayride broadcasts came in loud and clear and Elvis was no stranger to the listeners there. As early as February Billboard reported that "Mike Michael(s), who hangs his hat at KDMS, El Dorado, Ark., says: "This guy Elvis Presley is just about the hottest thing around these parts. His style really pleases the teen-agers." In March they reported that Elvis Presley's "You're a Heartbreaker" and "Milk Cow Blues Boogie" going strong in Michaels' area, he says.2
In addition to the boys, the show featured T. Tommy Cutrer, Betty Amos and Onie Wheeler. Betty and Onie they had shared several dates with before. T. Tommy Cutrer recorded for Mercury and deejayed on KCIJ in Shreveport. In the 1940s, he worked with Sam Phillips at WREC in Memphis. Cutrer was one of the first deejays called upon by Phillips to promote Elvis' records.3 Guralnick described him as a highly astute, charming and capable man who kept a little band of his own at the time and went on to become a Tennessee state senator and a top Teamsters official.4 There were no formal reviews of the show but in May Billboard reported that with the help of Bob Neal, the jamboree staged by Michaels at the High School Auditorium drew a full house.2
It was around that time that Elvis bought his first Cadillac, a 1954 pink and white one, to replace his Lincoln that Bill had wrecked up in an accident. By early June though, while en route to Texarkana, it caught on fire and burned.5 Their next appearance in El Dorado was held in Memorial Stadium, and by several conflicting recollections of some of the locals, they were thought to have performed there twice. Bill E. Burk even wrote of a date on June 16th billed as a Louisiana Hayride road show that included Jimmy Lee and Rusty and Doug Kershaw as headliners.6 No advertisements in the local paper though that week or the week prior could be found to support that. Conveniently though, El Dorado is situated almost half way between Belden, MS where they performed on June 15th and Stamford, TX where they performed on June 17th. The Cadillac however, appears prominent in the recollections but that June date would make that unlikely. The one confirmed date though was in October. By then Billboard had reported that T. Tommy Cutrer had left KCIJ in Shreveport and moved to Nashville to join the staff of WSM. In the same issue they announced that the Elvis Presley Jamboree, featuring Jimmy Newman, Jean Shepard, Bobby Lord, Johnny Cash, and the Elvis Presley unit is set for Abilene, Tex on the 11th, Midland the 12th, Amarillo the 13th, Odessa on the 14th, and Lubbock the 15th. On October 17, Presley plays El Dorado, Ark., en route to Cleveland, where he opens the Roy Acuff show at the Circle Theater October 19. Same unit is set for St. Louis October 21-23.2 Like the show in March, this show was also booked by Bob Neal and sponsored by Mike Michaels of KDMS.
As the ad stated, the show included a talent contest with at least fourteen local acts. The seating for the show was in the west side bleachers only, "for the best sound & visibility," which would have had a capacity of about 3,000. Entrance was free to anyone with a "lucky folder" that could be obtained at any of the local filling stations which also made one "eligible for the many attendance prizes." Joe Dempsey was a senior at EHS (El Dorado High School) in 1955 when Elvis performed. That September he was a high school deejay and, with Mike Michaels' help, worked for KDMS spinning records afternoons after school and on weekends in addition to broadcasting the high school games at the stadium along with other events there. They had him in the press box as the booth announcer when Elvis performed. He said the stage was set up across the track on the field at about the 50 yard line, facing the audience in the west bleachers.
One of the opening acts was a local band called the Chitlin Switch Road Runners. They were a band formed in the late '40s and early '50s by the Bird and Davis cousins in a small farming community in South Arkansas called "Chitlin Switch" and had performed across Southern Arkansas and Northern Louisiana. Mike Michaels had been a big supporter of the boys and instrumental in getting them their own radio program on KDMS every Saturday morning for 4 1/2 years as early as 1952. The band consisted of the three Bird brothers: Bobby, Dwight and Gary, and their cousins Mickey and Lavon Davis. In addition to opening for Elvis, Michaels helped them get on some of the early Hayride and WSM road shows fronting for others like Johnny Horton, David Houston, Jim Ed & the Browns, Jimmy Newman, Worley Fairburn, Jumpin Bill Carlyle, and many others.7
Recollections of the show by some of the locals in attendance seem to differ as much as the dates Elvis was believed to have performed. Some rumors persisted that he arrived late, was drunk and had to be sobered up before he could perform.8 Though possibly late, the rest of the rumor is unfounded, out of character and inconsistent with recollections of those involved with the show. According to Joe Dempsey, the oval track surrounding the field had an entrance from the street and when Elvis arrived he drove in from the street up the track to the stage in his Cadillac. Joe announced his entrance and when he took the stage the screams were pandemonium like. Joe said, he had that kind of appeal and effect in parts of the south well before the rest of the country caught wind. He bantered with the crowd a bit and then told a joke, "When he was in school they told him to use Rotterdam in a sentence. He said if aunt Susie don't change her socks she's going to Rotterdam feet off.
Quoting Bobby Bird, Bill E. Burk wrote, before the show, Elvis asked me if I would tune his guitar. He sat there in his car signing autographs while I tuned it. It was that Martin with the unborn calfskin with ‘Elvis Presley’ dyed in pink on it. After awhile, Elvis asked, ‘You got my guitar tuned?' I said, ‘Yeah.’ He took it and went on stage. Before he went on, Scotty and Bill were doing most of the talking. Bill was doing most of the talking. But when Elvis took the stage, it was his show! He stole the show. It was the greatest performance I had ever seen. He went up there on that stage wearing violet pants, a black shirt, orange jacket and white bucks. That is All Right, Mama was the only song of his we knew at the time. He sang maybe a half-dozen songs during his part of the program. The stadium seated just under five thousand. It was almost full. While Elvis was singing and dancing about, the fans were hollerin’ and shooting firecrackers. Girls were falling out of the bleachers, fainting. It (Elvis’ performance) was like being hit by a hammer. Some boys got mad because of the effect Elvis was having on the girls. They let the air out of the tires of his Cadillac. They had to bring in a tow truck with an air tank to re-inflate those tires. It didn’t seem to bother Elvis at all. He just sat there patiently in his car signing autographs. He was very polite. You could tell even then he was on his way.6 Sometime around July Elvis had bought another Cadillac to replace the one that had burned. It was a 1955 Fleetwood Sixty Special, pink (originally blue) with a black roof, and was the car at the stadium in October in everyone's recollections. Don Reese of Phoenix, evidently confused performers from different shows in addition to other details like Elvis' hair color when he wrote, I was in the 8th grade and went to that concert at the football stadium in El Dorado. A buddy of mine, Bill Girard and I went down on the track and met Elvis before the concert. As I recall, he was billed third or fourth behind some Louisiana Hayride acts (T. Texas Tyler, etc). Elvis asked us if we wanted to sell some 8 1/2 by 11 glossies from the back of his Cadillac for him. The Caddy was pink and parked down on the cinder track in front of the stage. We sold lots of pictures for 25 cents each. We pocketed some of the money for ourselves. I remember Elvis as being really cool, young and thin, a nice guy. He horsed around with us, shadow boxed, stuff like that. We went out the next week and got our hair died jet black. Went to the Jr. High School the next day and the principal made us shave our heads and wear a beanie. I remember one other visit by Elvis to the football stadium and one to the high school auditorium. On the second visit to the stadium Elvis showed up drunk and the concert was delayed for about an hour for him to drink coffee and sober up. I heard a rumor later that Elvis had met this high school girl from El Dorado and bought her a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria.8
The boys would make one more visit to El Dorado the following year, or near it rather. In between performances in Amarillo and San Antonio, Texas, they chartered a plane in the middle of the night to Nashville for a recording session at RCA's McGavock Street studio on April 14th. The pilot got lost just before dawn and they landed at an airstrip outside of El Dorado to refuel. It would most likely have been Goodwin Field, as opposed to the one downtown. Guralnick wrote, It was chilly, and the musicians huddled together in the little coffee shop, yawning and making desultory conversation. It was just light when they took off again. Scotty was sitting beside the pilot, who asked him to hold the wheel for a minute while he studied the map. just as Scotty took the wheel, the engine coughed and died and the plane starred to lose altitude. There was a good deal of confusion, and Bill pulled his coat over his head and cursed the day he had ever let himself be persuaded to go up in this rickety machine, before the pilot discovered that when they refueled they hadn’t switched over to the full tank and the airstrip attendant hadn’t bothered to refill the empty one. When they finally got to Nashville, Elvis announced half-jokingly, "Man, I don't know if I’ll ever fly again." 4 Joe Dempsey graduated High School and went on to college. He became a photographer, art director and ultimately a digital artist and graphic and web designer. In 1958, while a sophomore in college, he returned to the High School auditorium to photograph famed pianist Van Cliburn in a concert in the building. The following year the city of El Dorado finally got a Municipal Auditorium which replaced the High School's for such uses. It was constructed on the property just north of Memorial Stadium. All but one of the early members of the Chitlin Switch Road Runners continued to play music after the band disbanded. Two of the Bird brothers went in the Air Force after high school bringing their guitar and banjo along performing on base and at the "Boots & Saddle Club" in Amarillo and San Antonio, TX. The younger of the Bird brothers, Gary, went in the Army Reserves. Dwight Bird became a Missionary Baptist Minister but continued to play his banjo. Mickey Davis went on to study classical music, received a Masters degree in music later joining Malaco Records in Jackson, Mississippi, as a session fiddler and there founded the Jackson Strings.7
Bobby and Gary along with other cousins and occasionally joined by Mickey later regrouped and returned to performing as Bluegrass Kun-Tree. They were awarded by Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for their impact on music and in 1993 received an invitation to the 53rd U. S. Presidential Inauguration of the 42nd President, William "Bill" Jefferson Clinton. The group was nominated for the "National Heritage Fellowship Award in the folk/traditional arts of National Endowment of the Arts." They continue performing today under the name of Union Kun-Tree.7
T. Tommy Cutrer went on to WSM and would later host, announce and emcee several television shows, including Porter Wagoner's and Johnny Cash's. In 1978 he ran for the Tennessee state Senate and won but lost his bid for re-election in 1982. He died in 1998 at home from a heart attack at the age of 74.
In 1964 a new High School in El Dorado was built at 501 N. Timberlane Dr. and the old school became Rogers Junior High School until the mid 1970s. In 1976, the El Dorado Branch of Southern State College moved to the site using the 1905 building for both administrative offices and classrooms and is now South Arkansas Community College. The original building at 300 S West. Avenue was added the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. All of the 1928 additions, including the Auditorium are now gone but the 1940 WPA Gymnasium in addition to several new buildings are still in use by the college.1
Today, Memorial Stadium is a fully-equipped 6,000 seat football stadium and track, and still home of the El Dorado Wildcats. The stadium hosts sports events year round, most notably the "Boomtown Classic", an annual college football match between Southern Arkansas University and the University of Arkansas- Monticello. It received a major field and stadium renovation in 2010 which included synthetic turf and a video scoreboard. 2010 was the first year the Wildcats won consecutive Arkansas State Football Championships.
In January 2007, Murphy Oil Corporation made a $50 million promise to the students of El Dorado public schools and the community. Known as the El Dorado Promise, this scholarship program provides students who graduate from the El Dorado School District with a scholarship to be used at any accredited two- or four-year educational institution in the United States.
In the fall of 2011 a new El Dorado High School opened for over 1400 students. The drive and determination that built the town during the oil boom of the early 20th century is still alive and well today and is evident around the community.9
Elvis had later painted the roof of his pink 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special white and it was the car that he eventually gave to his mother. She never drove it and he never sold it. It has since become the inspiration of songs and symbols in rock 'n roll lore and legend and today remains on display at Graceland.
page added September 5, 2011 Special thanks to Dorathy Boulden of the Barton Library in El Dorado and to Joe Dempsey of Pine Bluff for their assistance with this page.
1 according to
The Encyclopedia
of Arkansas History and Culture Mr. Worth Camp wrote to us yesterday, April 2, 2012, after viewing this page we have up on Elvis and Scotty's appearances in El Dorado and we thought we would share this with everyone: section added April 3, 2012
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All photos on this site (that we didn't borrow) unless otherwise indicated are the property of either Scotty Moore or James V. Roy and unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited. |
Presley Program Slated Wednesday
Elvis
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