Rare pairing of original ticket stubs for an Elvis Presley concert at the Veterans Memorial Building in Columbus, Ohio, on May 26, 1956, both 1.25 x 1.75, issued for section 5, row D, and seats 47 and 49. Also includes: a glossy 5.5 x 3.5 RCA Victor promotional photo card of Elvis performing on stage, the reverse of which features a long list of Elvis singles and albums, and a rare glossy 8 x 10 RCA Victor publicity photo of Elvis in a handsome pensive pose, featuring a preprinted facsimile autograph to the lower right; for a limited time, the latter RCA Victor promo photo was available to customers who purchased Elvis albums from select record stores. In overall fine condition.
Elvis Presley, the hottest young sensation to play Columbus since Frank Sinatra a generation before, took the stage at the Veterans Memorial on May 26, 1956. The King wore a kelly green coat, navy blue trousers, and his trademark sneer as he ran through a repertoire of hits that included ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ before thousands of screaming teenagers and a sprinkling of parents.
‘The 160-pound, 6-footer from Tupelo, Miss., drew screams each time he gesticulated, or contorted his lanky body. His mouth was moving, but you couldn't tell he was singing above the near-hysterical din,’ The Dispatch reported the next day.
Presley played two shows that Saturday evening, in a Columbus stop that was wedged between Detroit and Dayton. ‘Long hair flying, he bumped and rolled through half a dozen numbers amidst piercing screams from a house three-quarters full,’ The Dispatch said. ‘A light wood guitar dangled from the loose-jointed 21-year-old's neck. He picked at it now and then, but relied largely on a raucous three-man combo to provide the beat.’
The Columbus Citizen called his motions ‘bump and grind.’ That paper reported: ‘This normally is practiced by young ladies of the burlesque but Mr. Presley had adapted it to the concert stage, with little sacrifice of its innate vulgarity.’ When Elvis appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show that September, he was famously shot from the waist up.
