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Messick High School
Messick High School in Memphis was originally built in 1908 at the corner of Spottswood Avenue and South Greer Street at a cost of $30,000 and the first classes were held in 1909. It was said to be the first consolidated school in Shelby County, comprised of the elementary schools of Buntyn, Fleece Station and Avalon and located in what was originally Buntyn, Tennessee, a rural area of Shelby county east of Memphis.1 It was named for Elizabeth Messick, the then Superintendent and self proclaimed first student of the University of Chicago. She later married Elmer E. Houck, city editor for the Commercial Appeal (any relationship to the Houck's of the O.K. Houck piano company in Memphis is unclear).2
Several more buildings were added in the '20s and by 1930 Buntyn was annexed to the city of Memphis. The school's status then changed from a county to city High School, at which time it became the city's oldest school.2 At that time the campus featured several buildings which included the High School, Junior High school, Auditorium and Gymnasium and comprised half of the block surrounded by Spottswood and Carnes Avenues west of South Greer Street.
Alumni of Messick High School include Memphis natives Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Don Nix, originally of the Mar-Key's but better known later from Booker T and the MG's, key figures in the Memphis Soul sound and Stax Records. Other's would later include Jimi Jamison of the band Survivor and Andrew Stevens, son of actress Stella Stevens who co-starred with Elvis in Girls! Girls Girls! 3
In mid January of 1955 at least Elvis, Scotty and Bill made the first of two appearances at the High School. It preceded the time they were back in Memphis recording new songs which resulted in their fourth record at Sun, Arthur Gunter's "Baby Let's Play House," which when released that April would become Elvis' first record to chart nationally. Oddly, in it he substituted the lyric, "You may have a Pink Cadillac," months before he actually owned one. The flip side featured "I'm Left, You're Right, She's Gone," written by Stan Kesler.
According to Peter Guralnick, Bob Neal, who had officially signed on as Elvis' manager the first of the year, had enlisted their aid in support of his son Sonny, a student at Messick campaigning for student council, possibly class president. Peter though, implied the appearances may have been in the spring:
An article in the Commercial appeal on January 15th told about the election and mentioned the boys appearance there, one at least:
The appearances were said to be for the High School and Junior High and while one appearance on January 13th was held in the Auditorium, the other was held in the Gymnasium likely the same week if not the same day.
According to David Garret who operates the Class of 1969 website, the old auditorium (the one of Elvis' performances) was not entered from the outside but was directly connected to the old Senior High building built in 1908. There were two ramps on either side of a long trophy case on the 2nd floor of that building which led you up half a story into the auditorium. It was one & a half stories high - occupied the top half of the second floor and the entire third floor. many students from that era remember the performances quite well, and it seems there were a number of them. Communicating with earlier alum groups he added, most memories are of performances in the auditorium rather than the gym.
Steve Cropper though said he had no recollection or knowledge of their appearances at Messick, but understandably so, he was still a student at Sherwood Junior High at the time. On February 5th the Memphis Press-Scimitar published an article about them with pictures of the three of them and Sam Phillips at Sun. The following day in between shows at Ellis Auditorium they would all meet with the Colonel and Tom Diskin officially for the first time at which time the Colonel would agree to help out booking shows for them.
A new 1400 seat auditorium and gymnasium were built in the late 1950s and operational by 1958. The new auditorium building was designed to look like the older gymnasium building. Messick's new gymnasium was built at a cost of $300,000 and became the "girls" gym while the "boys" gym remained in use until the school closed. By 1969 the school was almost overpopulated but by the 1970s, however, the neighborhood's population was on the decline and so was enrollment.2 The buildings decayed and the school district changed and school board voted to close the school. The last class graduated in 1981 and the following year the original main building was one of the first to be demolished.5
What remains of the campus today is operated by the Memphis school system as the Messick Adult Center at 706 South Greer. The buildings where the boys performed are no longer there. The auditorium itself was converted into science labs when a new auditorium was built and demolished in the '80s with several of the original structures.
page added August 20, 2012 Special Thanks to Steve Cropper and David Garret for their input on this page and to Brian Petersen and other members of the FECC for their ongoing interest, help and support. 1 according to the 1948 Messick High
School Annual, courtesy Messick
HS Class of 1951-52 website
Donald "Duck" Dunn, sadly, passed away earlier this year. Born in Memphis on November 24, 1941, Dunn was given his nickname by his father as the two watched a Donald Duck cartoon on TV. He began playing the bass guitar when he was 16. Steve Cropper made the announcement when he wrote: Today I lost my best friend, the world has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live. Duck Dunn died in his sleep Sunday morning May 13 in Tokyo Japan after finishing 2 shows at the Blue Note Night Club. Only a month earlier Steve had noted: What a disastrous few days for Duck Dunn and myself and music fans all around the world. 1st Andrew Love tenor for the Memphis and STAX horns who played on so many recordings and the famous STAX / VOLT tour in ’67 with Otis Redding, will be laid to rest Saturday in Memphis, then Dick Clark who gave our High School band The Mar-Keys our first big break with “Last Night” on American Bandstand in ’61, then Levon Helm drummer singer with the “BAND” who Duck and I played and toured with on two separate albums when Levon went solo. Gail Alsup (Biggs) was in the 9th grade at Messick H.S. in January of 1955 when Elvis, Scotty and Bill played there in support their manager Bob Neal’s son Sonny, a student running for a class office. She had this to say recently:
section added February 27, 2018
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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. |
