Address:
4601 Bosque Blvd, Waco, TX 76710 ➤
The Heart O’ Texas Coliseum was first opened on April 11, 1953. At the time, the coliseum was the single largest indoor arena in the state and the second largest coliseum of any kind in Texas boasting a seating capacity of 7,638. And for big-ticket events like the rodeo it wasn’t uncommon for the venue to fill to capacity. Before its opening, The coliseum and the fair held there got their name from a contest won by a local Texan, Mrs. Cousins. In addition to having her winning name chosen for the fairgrounds and venue, Mrs. Cousins won an additional cash prize of $100.
On May 11th, exactly one month after its grand opening, an F5 tornado hit downtown Waco. The tornado devastated the area, killing 114 people and injuring over 600 more. With hundreds of homes and businesses completely destroyed, the nearby H.O.T. Coliseum quickly became a distribution center for clothes and supplies, solidifying it’s importance to the local community.
Coliseum exterior and interior with full attendance during rodeo (7,638 seats) c. 1953
Today, the coliseum still stands and is still actively being used. Over the decades the grounds have seen various renovations, upgrades, extensions and a name change in 2010 to “Extraco Events Center” as it is known today. The venue’s biggest event is still the yearly Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo held every October attracting over 200,000 visitors per season.
Performances
Elvis at The Heart O’ Texas Coliseum Waco, TX
➤ April 23rd 1955
➤ April 17th 1956
➤ October 12th 1956
Elvis played in Waco only three times in his lifetime, and all of those shows were at the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum. Though he returned in later years and through his basic training, Elvis never performed in the city after his big breakout year of 1956. Of the three shows, the first was a remote event that The Louisiana Hayride held. This put Elvis on a stage shared among many familiar faces; however, Elvis’ star was rising quickly and by his second Waco H.O.T. visit it was his own show to headline. By the end of El’s big year, in October of 1956 Elvis was beyond modest local fame and had now become a national music, TV, and movie star. His filming schedule was starting to interfere with his touring schedule causing his third Waco visit to be rescheduled to accommodate for the star’s new Hollywood priority.
➤ April 23rd 1955 at 8pm
Directly following a performance the night before in Texarkana, Elvis, Scotty, and Bill drove nearly 300 miles west across half of Texas to their next show. At Waco’s Heart O’ Texas Coliseum, The Louisiana Hayride was holding a remote broadcast of their performances. This was the boys’ first time playing in Waco and the coliseum was no small gig. In fact the venue drew in more than 5,000 attendees making it one of the largest of the Louisiana Hayride.
The Saturday night show began at 8:30pm with doors opening at 8pm, and for the next three hours a staggering 40 performers entertained central Texas. The performers included Slim Whitman, Jim Reeves, and of course the young show-stopper growing in local fame and making his way up the setlist, Elvis! For just $1.00 adult (or 50¢ for children) tickets could be pre-purchased at a local coffee shop in town. (ironically the same corner is once again home to a local coffee shop, I wonder if we can buy Elvis tickets there still!)
Scotty, Elvis, and Bill onstage (via scottymore.net and elvisconcerts.com courtesy ColonelSnow/theelvisforum.org fool/FECC, and Barry Olman)
For the show Elvis wore a dark suit jacket, dark pants, and a black shirt with a solid textured tie. And among his songs, Blue Moon of Kentucky and That’s All Right (mama) are confirmed to have been sung during the show. Following the performance the boys were headed right back east again, this time to Houston for two same-day shows on the 24th which would be immediately followed by another two same-day shows on the 25th, but this time across two different cities: Wichita Falls, TX and Seymour, TX. The gigs were not slowing down as Elvis and The Blue Moon Boys continued to grind with show after show through 1955.
➤ April 17th 1956 at 8pm
“Elvis Presley
Due April 17″
“Elvis Presley, a new singing sensation who has skyrocketed to the top virtually overnight, will appear in person headlining a show Tuesday, April 17, in the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum.
A little over two years ago when Presley was only 19, he stopped in a recording studio in his home town of Memphis, Tenn., to make a demonstration record of his voice to play for his relatives and friends. Six months later the recording manager called him to ask if he would make some records for sale to the public, and that’s how it started.
Each succeeding record release has outsold the previous on of the “hottest” thing in show business, and is one of the few artists to have his records played by country, pop and blues disk jockeys.
Advance tickets are on sale at the Disc Record Shop.”
Following an eventful performance in South Texas’ coastal Memorial Coliseum in Corpus Christi the day before, Elvis and the boys headed north to Waco for their show at the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum. Splitting up, the band traveled both by car and by plane with Elvis flying into Waco with cousin Gene Smith. It was just of a week shy of being exactly one year from Elvis’ first Waco performance in 1955. By spring of 1956 though Elvis had now become a national rising star with six TV appearances under his belt. And Elvis’ band, The Blue Moon Boys, had now also grown to include DJ Fontana on the drums along side Scotty and Bill. This gave Elvis’ sound a more robust presence on stage. Adding on the fact that the setlists got longer, the hits got bigger, the fans got wilder, and the venues got larger; the star power that was “Elvis Presley” just continued to grow! Not long after this would Elvis even be heading on to Vegas for his first residency.
Unlike the Waco show the year before, the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum was now headlining Elvis for his own show. However, he was not the only act for the night, other performers like Hank Locklin and Wanda Jackson also preformed the show. This meant that before Elvis took to the stage about 45 minutes of “opening acts” preceded him in which the eager crowd waited not-so-patiently for their young idol to appear. “Opening for Elvis had become the most thankless job in show business” according to author Lee Cotten in his 1995 book Did Elvis Sing in Your Hometown, Too? had become a pretty standard and universal notion for those around the same circuit.
“Opening for Elvis had become the most thankless job in show business”
In addition to the bigger shows, Elvis was better learning his craft by improving his legendary sense of showmanship. Part of this was cultivating a sense of drama. So while artist after artist went on stage before him, Elvis was hidden away in a Cadillac near the venue’s entrance. Quiet, with a nervous energy, he sat watching the crowd until the cue was received at which point the Cadillac raced him straight to the stage!
Elvis jumped right into his set, starting with his hit “Heartbreak Hotel”. The crowd was so ecstatic he could hardly be heard over the screams, but he continued on through his hits with “I Got A Woman”, “Baby Let’s Play House”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Money Honey”, and an unreleased song “Only You”. Then at the end of his performance, in what was potentially one of the first times to do so (yet what would become common practice to avoid mobbing) Elvis jumped back into the Cadillac and was gone just as quickly as he came!
Backstage Elvis also met for the first time Eddie Fadal, a Dallas-based DJ for KRLD radio station. Yet as a Waco native, Fadal and his family would go on to become close friends with Elvis. Especially so during his training at Fort Hood when the Fadal family would open their home to him, even going on to build an extra room for Elvis to visit and stay.
One of the most unique things about this April show that sets it apart from the other information we have on shows of Elvis’ early years is actually not the show itself, but the interview that took place beforehand. Usually, Elvis would allot time before a show to any city reporters requesting interviews; but many of these interviews fair about the same with the similar types of questions asked and similar surface-level insights into Elvis’ life or career.
However, at this show the interview for local newspaper, The Waco News Tribune, went a little different. For one thing, instead of interviewing back-stage with the singer, young Bea Ramirez was sat next to Elvis in the seat of his famed Cadillac as they waited for the cue to race Elvis to the stage! Bea interviewed Elvis in a setting more intimate than a crowded backstage area, and where he was arguably more comfortable and unguarded. Yet, at the same time we can tell from her detailed observations that this was also an Elvis still unsteady and nervous with all he was facing; early in his career, moving maybe a little too quickly.
“Elvis Gives Out With
Crazy Cool Interview” by Bea Ramirez
“Shortly before he was to go on stage at the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum, Elvis Presley, the 21-year-old king of the nation’s rock ’n’ roll set, sat in a darkened Cadillac limousine for an interview—well hidden from the sight of nearly 4,000 screaming, squealing teen-agers who were on hand to welcome him Tuesday night.
All the hep cats were there and not enough fuzz (cops). Out in the stands and on the floor, his audience of idolizing teen-agers did all but hiss and boo to rid the stage of a group of other hillbilly entertainers and bring Presley out behind the microphone that he handles more like a limp blonde than a mechanical gadget.
Still Elvis made them wait . . . and he stared out at them, half scared and half unbelieving. Then with some sort of spasmodic movement, he turned to talk about himself.
E: “What do you want to know about me, honey?”
B: “Elvis, have you any idea at all about just what it was that started the girls going crazy over you?”
E: “No, I don’t. I guess it’s just something God gave me. I believe that, you know. Know what I mean, honey? And I am grateful. Only I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll go out like a light, just like I came on. Know what I mean, honey?”
Presley has a way with that “honey” business. When he talks, he looks straight ahead, or sort of dreamy like in no direction at all. Then he turns with that “know what I mean, honey?” His face is close, real close. Right in your face—almost.
B: “When do you start making your first movie, Elvis?” (Everybody calls him Elvis.)
E: “Oh, early in June, I think, because . . .”
At this point he stopped talking and stared ahead into the crowd. He squinted his eyes, jerked up a pencil (which had no lead) and began scribbling on the dash of the car. Then he turned and said:
E: “Huh, did you say something?”
B: “Elvis, when you start acting, will you keep the sideburns?” (The sideburns come down below his ears.)
E: “Oh, I don’t know, it depends on what type part they put me in. You know, I’m supposed to do ‘Billy the Kid’ pretty soon.”
B: “But Elvis, ‘Billy the Kid’ has been done to the ground.”
E: “Yeah, I know, but this time it will be different.” The way he says “different” it really will be.
B: “Elvis, will you sing in your first movie?”
E: “No, honey, sure won’t. Going to be in it with Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, and I won’t sing. I don’t want to, I want to be an actor.”
Then he turns and stares into the crowd again, listens to one of the other entertainers singing and grins slowly.
B: “But Elvis, have you thought how unhappy all these girls are going to be if you stop singing?”
E: “Huh, what was that? Oh, I’ll never stop singing, honey, never.”
He was beginning to make me wonder if I knew what I was talking about, so I changed the subject:
B: “Elvis, I hear you walk in your sleep.”
E: “Well, I have nightmares.”
B: “What kind?”
E: “I dream I’m about to fight somebody or about to be in a car wreck or that I’m breaking things. Know what I mean, honey?” (I don’t have any idea what he means.)
B: “Where are you from?”
E: “From Memphis, Tenn.”
B: “Oh, yes, that’s where all the hill-billy singers come from, isn’t it?”
E: “Maybe so, but I’m no hill-billy singer.”
B: “Well, have you typed yourself . . . I mean your type of singing?”
E: “No, I don’t dare.”
B: “Why?”
E: “Cause I’m scared, know what I mean, honey? Real scared.”
B: “What of?”
E: “I don’t know . . . I don’t know. Know what I mean, honey?”
At this point I thanked him for his time and started to make a beeline for the door. He grabbed my hand, sat there looking sleepy-eyed into my face and fanned his long lashes while he said:
E: “Write me up good, will you honey?”
And he drove out to meet the hysterical adoration of young girls and boys whose emotions he has found are easy to stir up with a song.”
In her additional article reviewing the performance, Bea writes in the Waco Herald Times about the moments directly following her exit from the backseat of Elvis’ Cadillac. They had sat together in the dark car, talking about his new clothes; a red shirt and black jacket that he nervously buttoned and unbuttoned every few minutes. She watched as he watched the crowd, and eventually it was show time!
“Shrieks, Squeals, Moans
Meet New ‘Cat’ King Here” by Bea Ramirez
“All of a sudden the intermission was over, the Cadillac zoomed Presley to the side of the stage and he leaped out, took a stranglehold on his guitar and went right into his famous “Heartbreak Hotel,” as thousands of teenagers seated on the floor and in the stands moaned, groaned and attempted to push their way nearer the stage.
From that moment on confusion reigned. Presley could barely be heard above the noise of chairs moving, falling, girls “ohhing” and “eeeeyeeeing . . . One hypnotized teen-age girl repeatedly walked up in front of the stage to take flash pictures. After taking several, she aimed once more, pushed the button and the camera burst into flame. A teenage boy explained it: “Gosh, he’s so hot even the cameras are burning up!”
Presley sang a series of hot and heavy songs, which included “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Money Honey,” and “Only You” and interrupted his “singing” several times to tell a few off -color jokes, then after two encores, he leaped into the waiting Cadillac and was gone before the crowd knew what was happening.”
➤ October 12th 1956 at 8pm
For one third and final time Elvis was back at the H.O.T. Coliseum in Waco. This time Elvis was coming right off the flames of a huge record-breaking performance in Dallas just the night before. Over 26,000 people filled the Cotton Bowl Stadium for the 1956 annual Texas State Fair to see the “Atomic Powered Singer.” It was the largest crowd the Cotton Bowl had seen for a performer since it had opened in 1930!
After such a massive show, Elvis then headed two-hours south to Waco for his headlining performance at the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum. Unlike previous years in Waco Elvis was no-longer just a local or even regional star; by this time he had become a fully-fledged national name with numerous TV appearances and even his first movie, Love Me Tender, due for release just the following month. In fact, Elvis’ schedule had become so packed that the October 12th show had actually originally been planned for the 5th of October. But due to scheduling conflicts with the movie’s production it was pushed back a week to the 12th.
On August 15th 1956, two months before the scheduled Heart O’ Texas Coliseum performance, Elvis’ manager Col. Tom Parker sent notice to the coliseum’s manager, Othel M. Neely. The Colonel stated that “The Elvis Presley Show” would need to be postponed due to the motion picture commitments that had just been confirmed by2 0th Century Fox that day. However; even up until September 11th there were still seemingly plans by the Coliseum to purchase ticket stubs to sell for the original October 5th date. (Since it took until September 3rd for the telegram to be received it seems to me that the H.O.T. was hoping to have Elvis as their closer to the 4th annual fair that year, as Friday October 5th was the fair’s final closing day.) It wasn’t until October 8th that filming for “Love Me Tender” officially wrapped in California, and therefore Elvis’ third and final show at The Heart O’ Texas Coliseum was pushed back a week to the following Friday, on October 12th 1956.
In a new “Personal Appearance Contract,” The Colonel set the terms for Waco’s coliseum to host Elvis on this new date. The contract details the date and time, and the requests made of the sponsoring venue including specifics on ticket costs, restrictions on any advertisements and endorsements, rules on merchandise sales, and notably a request for “at least one hundred radio spots” and “not less than thirty inches of newspaper advertising.” It’s clear that Elvis’ infamous manager indeed had promotion forefront in his approach. The contract also gave express right to The Colonel or Elvis to cancel the new agreement “due to motion picture contracts” also making it clear that the needs of Hollywood now came first to the Presley camp.
The day had finally arrived for Wacoeans! The nation’s #1 Rock ‘n’ Roll star was set to light up the town tonight! And many, like young 17 year-old Kay Wheeler were making sure Waco was ready for the flash of lightning that was about to hit them. As president of the very first National Elvis Presley Fan Club, Kay had been busy working out of her home base in Dallas advertising to her correspondents and booking charter busses to bring fans from all over the state to the central Texas town for Elvis’ headlining show.
And local record store owner, Leonard Mixon had been pre-selling tickets for weeks prior. His store, “The Disc Record Shop” located at 1207 North Twenty-Fifth Street was the usual local distributor for the H.O.T.’s concerts. But Waco residents weren’t the only ones expecting to see Elvis as his tickets were selling across the area in cities like Temple, Mexia, Austin, Tyler, and Walnut Springs specifically.
Another local Wacoean was surely feeling like the luckiest girl in town when she found out she would be attending ‘The Elvis Presley Show’ as a backstage guest of Elvis’! Thanks to the Temple-Killeen area radio station KTEM, young Janice Melendy was the single lucky winner of their contest. Tonight she would be allowed backstage and have her chance at meeting Elvis Presley! (spoiler: She absolutely did! Check out her backstage pass shown here!)
Meanwhile Othel Neely, the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum’s general manager, was making sure the “teen-age rage” was not a problem in their city. Though he told press at the Waco News-Tribune that he wasn’t expecting any issues, “he was expecting a sizable crowd” based both on the ticket sales thus far, and the knowledge of Miss Kay Wheeler’s fan-club charter busses. In preparation, Neely hired “14 off-duty policemen and two deputy sheriffs” in addition to likely more security and police personnel already expected for the event. Waco was ready!
For Elvis himself, the morning of the show actually began in Dallas since he had rocked The Cotton Bowl for the 1956 Texas State Fair just the night before. Running some quick errands in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood, Elvis enjoyed a bowl of chili, shopping, and an impromptu photo shoot while waiting to have his new pants tailored and pressed for the night’s show. Then it was finally off to Waco with friend Nick Adams in Elvis’ white 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II. Following on the road behind them was disk-jockey Eddie Fadal and Elvis’ cousin Gene Smith.
As showtime got closer Elvis got dressed for his third and what would be his final Waco performance. In dressing room #6 Elvis perfected his hair and dawned his outfit for that night: white shirt, green jacket, matching green tie, black pants, cummerbund, and those famous Blue Suede Shoes! Before the show and backstage there seemed the usual many interviews and goings-on. With Elvis as ever-patient and eager to provide what he could, be it a pose for a photo, an autograph or an interview he always did so with a genuine care. Lucky for us local Waco photographer Jimmie Willis was there backstage and shooting during Elvis’ performance, giving us some of the best stage shots of Elvis’ big ’56 and a plethora of backstage shots before the show too.
