Thursday, May 6, 2021

Throwback Thursday: Rock & Religion

 or when Elvis and Billy Graham came to town. 

Once upon a time, both Elvis and Billy Graham visited Jackson in May 1975.  

The clippings below are from the May 6, 1975 edition of the Clarion-Ledger.  Enjoy.


To keep the alliteration going, we can expand it to Rock, Religion, and Reagan. Perfection indeed. 


What would a Throwback Thursday be without a look at Jackson nightlife in 1975? 



Ok, I give up.  What was "The Palace"? 


22 comments:

Mark said...

I miss Pasquales. Made many of trips there and loved seeing the Shoney's Big Boy not far from there too.

Anonymous said...

I can’t even imagine how you boomers lived this way. It was literally the dark ages.

Anonymous said...

Haha. I don't know anything about the Palace, but I do know Shot McDaniel. Grew up with his son and daughter in Byram. That guy can/could sing.

Anonymous said...

Dy-No-Mite! Those are some groovy cats, dig?!

Anonymous said...

My Mom saw that Elvis concert. All she talked about was how bad and overweight he was. Used to listen to the Bob and AL show. Bob was later known as Chopper Bob. Al Simmons son Scott does news for WAPT. Those old newspapers are always fun to look at.

Anonymous said...

Also an added bonus: a political cartoon from the late, great Jeff MacNelly! Greatest conservative cartoonist ever.

Anonymous said...

Tommy at the Capri. Wow. That would've been awesome. Alas, I was only six years old at the time.

John in Brandon said...

Sometimes I feel really old when I see throwback Thursday. My wife and I were lucky enough to see Elvis that night. He still put on a great show but you could tell his lifestyle was starting to catch up with him. Too many peanut butter and banana sandwiches and drugs.

As a side note, the ticket demand was so great he could have sold out the stadium in an hour. I still miss the great shows we saw back then, especially
Buffet.

Anonymous said...

@3:14
Maybe that's why he didn't charge anything-

Anonymous said...

I loved looking at few pages from a 1975 Clarion Ledger.

I remember attending that Billy Graham Crusade. He was very impressive !
He had his entire crew with him, along with all of his television staff taping the event.
(His Jackson crusade aired on national broadcasts later that year).

Couple of factoids about the Clarion Ledger pages KF shared:

1. At the bottom of the WLBT ad, one will notice a baby Marsh Thompson.
( she had been at WLBT about four years in 1975 ) but she was still a twenty something reporter.

2. The movie theaters that advertised "call for titles".
( That was 1970's code for soft porn) .

Great memories from a long time ago ... in a galaxy , far far away.







Anonymous said...

They ate a LOT of steak in 70's. Seems like every club had a special.

Anonymous said...

Love the old papers. Keep it up. The old days are never as good as the new days generally although easy to look back with nostalgia. Wish we had good entertainment like back in the day. It’s crazy that circa 1975-1995 were really good times for jackson and MS in terms of industry and nightlife. But never had the good ethnic food we have now (Indian sushi Vietnamese authentic Mexican etc.) Also interested to see the comment that call For title meant adult movies. I wondered what that meant. I wouldn’t go back if I could but there were some good aspects.

Anonymous said...

I saw the Towering Inferno at Ellis Isle Cinema. We stayed in then unincorporated South Madison County and had to take 55 to 20 to get there. It was behind the warehouse grocery store which was neat in and of itself (in a time before Costco and Sam’s). As others have said, thanks for the great memories KF!

Anonymous said...

Man, a ribeye for $5. Hard to believe. Remember going to the Western Sizzlin after little league games. Always got the Maverick. Never knew that about call for title. Guess I should have figured that out when it said "All Cars with Linda Lovelace bumper sticker admitted free" on Monday night.

Anonymous said...

Elvis returned to his home state in 1975 specifically to raise money for the tornado victims in McComb.

(Weather sucked that year).
Deadly tornados touched down all over the Magnolia Sate during the Spring of 1975 !
McComb was devastated by one of these that year.

The next time one stops at the last exit in McComb on the way to New Orleans
( to pick up more beer or whatever ... ) technically it's US Hwy 98, but was renamed Presley Blvd years ago.

All because of the money Elvis raised for McComb during that special 1975 concert.

Only another factoid for those that may be interested.








Anonymous said...

There were a few dinner clubs along McDowell and Gallatin back in the day. I remember Boots Hat and Cane was just down the road from the Palace. Seems like there was a strip club at that address before the lot was cleared and the UPS distribution center took it over for parking.

Anonymous said...

I am a millennial and I saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie at Ellis Isle Cinema as a very young kid in the lat 1980s. I also remember tasting Chinese food for the first time at a restaurant ok the corner of Ellis and Hwy 80.

Old enough to remember Service Merchandise and Metrocenter in the late 80s and 1990s

Anonymous said...

My boyfriend (now husband), a friend, and I drove up from Southern Miss to hear Billy Graham and Johnny Cash in Jackson. We sat in the pouring rain and did not regret it. Not long after that, my boyfriend bought my engagement ring at Service Merchandise, 8:13. We were poor college students, but he used the money he earned that summer working at the old Coca Cola factory on Highway 80 to buy the ring.

Bad Moon Risin' said...

Anybody who paid money to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is no doubt still wearing madras slacks and horn-rim glasses. Love that NAPA pocket protector. And you are one of the goobers making fun of boomers?

Anonymous said...

My parents took my grandmother to that concert to see the King, and I remember hearing that my grandmother watched through her binoculars the entire time, and once when my dad asked if she was having a good time, she shushed him.

Anonymous said...

I was at the Billy Graham service with Johnny Cash. Our youth dept took us from Church. No luck on Elvis. Seems like yesterday, Boy that paper makes me miss the good old days of the paper.

Anonymous said...

KF, this is all interesting, and like some others, I enjoy looking at the old CL pages. The ads are interesting. Seeing the old places that no longer exist. Looking at the movie titles. Checking out the prices of steaks. Yes, that's all fun.

But what the hell does a NJ article about Ronald Reagan raising money for a defeated republican candidate for governor of NJ, with a two paragraph --insignificant as to fact, relationship, or anything else -- have to do with Elvis and Billy Graham.

Yes, we know you had a love affair with the egotistic Billy Mounger who saw everything through the lens of his eyes only, but still ------ that doesn't justify pulling this worthless (and factually wrong) article into this TBT.

Where the hell did this come from in your thinking?


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