More than 30 years after his death, Elvis Aron Presley continues to draw fans to his extensive music career.
Aaron Webster of Mulkeytown has taken the 45s and record sleeves to another level, culminating in an exhibition that opened in The Buzz located on the Benton Public Square.
“The 45 rpm’s are in acid-free Mylar bags and under glass in 8x16-inch frames,” he said. “My archives include promos, LPs and CDs, more than 30 hours of audio of Presley’s work in the studio and on stage, including 1976 concerts in Carbondale, Champaign and St. Louis, Mo.”
Webster said the verdict is still out on the selection of his first name.
“One of my parents says I was named for Elvis, but the other one says I was not,” he said. “I saw Elvis in concert when I was a kid. He was a superhero who was real. If Superman would have had a singing career, he could have been Elvis.”
Webster selected August to display part of his collection for a reason.
“Elvis died on Aug. 16, 1977, in his Memphis home, Graceland,” he said. “I didn’t want the month to go by without having his memory on display.”
Webster said approximately 40 items from his archives are on display in The Buzz.
“I have been collecting Elvis memorabilia for the past 30 years,” he said. “Inside The Buzz, Elvis Presley’s platters are from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and beyond and are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Mexico, South America, Japan and Australia. Most foreign-market sleeves were images of the Aloha concert or ’68 NBC, two events considered most iconic.”
Webster said most of the U.S. releases were manufactured in Indianapolis, Ind.
“Elvis visited the pressing plant in 1955 and in 1977,” he said.
“Seven thousand tons of albums of Elvis Presley’s music have been sold since 1954,” Webster said. “If they were played back to back, it would take 13,000 years to play them all.”
Webster’s research led to a book that took him three years to write.
“Elvis, the New Rage, A Radio History from 1945 to 1955,” was published in 2003, he said.
“Elvis took to the stage for the first time during the 38th annual Mississippi-Alabama State Fair held in Tupelo, Miss., on Oct. 3, 1945, during Children’s Day at the fair. WELO 580 was sponsoring an amateur talent contest,” Webster said. “Elvis’s fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Oleta Grimes, recommended he perform after hearing him sing ‘Old Shep’ during a morning prayer program at East Tupelo Consolidated School. He won fifth prize, earning him $5.
“Twelve weeks after the talent show, Presley received his first guitar as a birthday present on Jan. 8, 1946,” Webster said. “His mother, Gladys, did not want her son to have a rifle and could not afford a bicycle, so she selected a guitar for $7.91 with tax.”
Webster said Presley was introduced to his first radio personality shortly after receiving the guitar.
“A classmate of Elvis had an older brother named Carvel Lee Ausborn, who went by the name Mississippi Slim,” he said. “Ausborn worked as a guitarist with Goober P. Nutt (Gib Buchanan) and His Kentuckians, a band that originated on WDZ 1050 in Decatur. The group toured throughout Tennessee, Kentucky and Southern Illinois, playing $15 shows.
“According to Slim, he remembers the Presley boy singing on WELO on Saturday, May 15, 1944,” Webster said. “Elvis coerced the radio star to provide some guitar lessons.”
Webster said Presley launched his career as a radio personality.
“A radio program, Louisiana Hayride, was launched on April 3, 1948, in Shreveport, La.,” Webster said. “Elvis was invited to perform on Oct. 16, 1954. On Nov. 6, 1954, Elvis signed a one-year contract with KWKH Radio. The Louisiana Hayride program became the only country and western radio program to rival the Grand Ole Opry.
“He was on the top country music charts in 1955, with ‘I Forgot to Remember to Forget,’ which rose to number eight on the charts,” Webster said.
Webster said Presley was the first to receive awards from Billboard magazine.
“During a disc jockey convention in the 1950s, Elvis received three awards during the third annual Country Music Awards,” he said.
Webster said Presley was the first to earn accolades in gospel music.
“He was the first million album seller in the history of gospel music with ‘His Hand in Mine,’” he said.
Webster said he saw Presley in concert.
“I was a young boy when I saw Elvis Presley’s final St. Louis concert in March 1976,” Webster said.
“My father and I were on Elvis Presley Boulevard to witness the funeral procession for the entertainer in August 1977.”
He said other music legends were interested in Presley’s career.
“George Harrison, John Lennon and David Bowie were all in the audience at one time or another to listen to Elvis,” Webster said.
Also a musician, Webster said he is looking forward to the Oct. 4 George Harrison Beatle Festival.
“My brothers and I perform in a band called Fusion,” he said. “We are slated to perform at 3 p.m. My nephew, Garry Peffer Jr., 10, will make his performing debut during our portion of the day’s event. I am really excited about seeing Pete Best perform later that day. I hope to be able to interview him.”
Webster, a disc jockey, produced and hosted a 15-hour Presley radio documentary that received a Silver Microphone Award for Best Audio Program National Finalist in 2000.
“I work at the I-57 Dragstrip on weekends and award copies of my book as prizes for Elvis trivia,” Webster said.
“I have also donated autographed copies of my book and some Presley records I have matted to radio stations in Southern Illinois, Memphis, St. Louis, as well as Texas, Ohio and Virginia.”
The book is available at The Buzz, the I-57 Dragstrip and at www.Amazon.com, he said.
Benton, Ill. —
