Elvis Presley at the Cleveland Arena, Ohio - November 23, 1956
On November 23 1956, a young amateur photographer who worked for his high school newspaper, was invited to photograph Elvis Presley at the Cleveland Arena, Ohio. A labour strike at the three major newspapers in Cleveland that day meant that the then 17 year-old Lew Allen was the only photographer at the show.
'I was standing in the hallway and one of the managers came up to Elvis and told him there was a girl on the telephone who was in the hospital', Allen explains of this shot of Elvis on the phone. 'She had tickets for the show and couldn't come as she had a serious illness. Elvis said, 'I want to talk to her'. And he marched in to a room and held up the entire show for fifteen minutes to talk to that girl. He had a long conversation with her and asked her several questions, with warmth and interest. I remember he said, 'No, honey I don't have a blue Cadillac. I've got a pink one, a black one, a white one - oh yeah, I do have a blue one'. He was a gentleman and I respected that immensely'.
Stop, look and listen baby that's our philosophy .... First thing in the morning, last thing at night ... look, stare everywhere and see everything inside .... Stop, look and listen!
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