Remembering Elvis’ ’56 Homecoming Concert

By: Helen Cook

Helen Cook

The Mississippi summer had been an especially hot one, but things had begun to cool off once September rolled around. My daddy was a sharecropper, so we often picked cotton to help him and make some extra money for ourselves. It wasn’t anything new to me, as I had been doing it for years. In that day, 100 lbs of cotton would earn you two or three dollars, which for me was about a day’s work. So, after a day of work I’d made enough to afford a ticket to see the concert at the fair.

The fair was in the middle of the week during those times, so instead of having class, the schools would load the students up on the buses and drive them to the fair for the day. It was always something we looked forward to every year. Normally, my friends and I would walk around the fair, eat cotton candy, and maybe ride a ride or two. We rarely ever went to the concerts.

But in 1956, my Aunt Louis and I wanted to go see Elvis at the fair. We listened to a lot of radio when we were growing up and about the only thing we ever heard was the WELO radio station, which played country music. All that changed when Elvis started coming onto the scene. They started playing Elvis and some rock n’ roll. So, we listened to a lot of Elvis on the radio and were familiar with his songs because of that.

The day was just like any other year when the school took us to the fair. We got on the school buses, got dropped off at the park, and walked around. I very specifically remember that year I went into Reed’s and bought a purse before we went to the fair. I’m not sure why that memory sticks out so much, but I know that in 1956, a sharecropper’s daughter didn't buy too much from Reed’s.

From Reed’s, Aunt Louis and I went to the fair and enjoyed some of the attractions before we went to the afternoon concert. There was a good size crowd there for an afternoon concert. Aunt Louis and I sat a few rows up on the bleachers, because we just wanted to be able to sit back and enjoy the show. A lot of the girls there were “Elvis crazy” so they were very excited to see him in person and having problems sitting still.

In this picture, you can faintly see Helen and her Aunt Louis sitting in the
stands of Elvis' 1956 Homecoming Concert. 

Then, there he was. Elvis walked on stage and it went into riot mode! It seemed like everyone rushed the stage and went crazy! I remember thinking “I really wish everyone would sit down so I could see the stage better!” I was little bit of an introvert when I was a teenager, so I just wanted to sit back and listen to the music. When he started singing and dancing, all the girls got even crazier! They started screaming and crying; they were so loud I could barely hear the music!

After the concert, we loaded back up on the buses and went home. I remember talking with my aunt about how we liked the songs he played and how much fun we had during the day at the fair.

The funny thing to me is, in 1956, when we went to the concert we were just going to see Elvis, because he wasn’t “ELVIS” yet, or at least, not to us. In our minds, he was just a boy from East Tupelo. I guess the closest thing to it today would be like going to see a local band that has a song on the radio.

To me, there was never a moment where I thought, “Wow, I just witnessed history.” It was a lot of fun, but the next day was just a normal day of going back to school. People talked about the concert the next day, but it never really set in what I had witnessed until 10 or 15 years later when he was “ELVIS,” a name in bright lights.

I would think about the concert from time to time after that, but I remember one afternoon I was in the grocery store doing a little shopping, and the song on the radio stopped. The DJ announced that he had stopped the song to inform everyone that Elvis Presley had passed away earlier that day. I remember stopping my cart and my mind drifted back to that day when I saw him at the fair. That’s when it hit me how big the event was in Tupelo, Mississippi, and what he meant to the world of music and pop culture.

Want to hear more stories about Elvis' triumphant homecoming return to Tupelo? Two Elvis fanatics, Barbara Mallory & Linda Hawkins, discuss what that day was like for them.