The Night Elvis Came to Kingsport - 1955

Billie Mae Smith in 1955, when she dated Elvis - and the photo he gave her. 

When Col. Tom Parker announced in the spring of 1976 that Elvis was coming to play three consecutive nights at Johnson City's Freedom Hall, I was editor of the Kingsport Times News' Saturday magazine, Weekender. When a big act came to town coverage usually fell to me. I had written a full page story about Alice Cooper, another full page story about Bruce Springsteen, even a full page story about Chubby Checker. 

Elvis wasn't doing interviews - he hadn't done an interview in years - so I needed an angle. The angle fell in my lap when my colleague Lyndia Frazier asked if I knew about Elvis' previous show in town, at the Civic Auditorium. I'd never heard of it. Elvis in Kingsport? She didn't remember the date or even the year but she was sure Elvis had played the Civic Auditorium. 

I started digging around, a detail here, a name there. Eventually I talked to almost everybody involved in the story, from WKIN station manager Dia Bahakel, who had promoted the show, to Billie Mae Smith, who had gone on a date with Elvis after the performance, to Wayne "Booge" Allen, her boyfriend, who was not happy about his girlfriend going out with Elvis. 

Over the years since 1976 I have talked to some30 people who were at the show, filling in details on Elvis' one night in Kingsport. 

To celebrate Elvis' 85th birthday, here is the story of that night 65 years ago. 

Wayne "Booge" Allen in 1955

Wayne “Booge” Allen never saw it coming.

He knew his girlfriend Billie Mae Smith and her friends were going to a show at the Civic Auditorium.

He had no problem with that. After all he was planning to spend the evening hanging out with his buddies.

He and his pals were in his green and white Chevy Bel Air, heading downtown to cruise Broad. They were stopped at the light at the corner of Center and Wilcox when Booge looked over at the pink Cadillac convertible to his left. And what did he see but his girlfriend, Billie Mae Smith, sitting next to some greasy haired dude.

Booge would recall, “She leaned over and rolled down the window and told me to come down to her house later, there was someone she wanted me to meet.” Allen remembered thinking he didn’t want to meet the guy with her.

The guy with her was Elvis.

It was Sept 22, 1955 and Elvis was in town for his first, last and only Kingsport date. He was traveling with a couple of country acts, Cowboy Copas and the Louvin Brothers, and Elvis was the middle act on the bill. This was a couple of months before he signed with RCA and four months before his breakout hit “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Billie Mae didn’t have any idea who Elvis was before the show. “I was 20 years old then and I managed Huddle’s Record Shop. Back then they let you play the records before you bought them. A salesman came in with records that Elvis had recorded. I had never heard of Elvis but after hearing the recording I ordered some to sell. The salesman said, ‘Here are some tickets to an Elvis show that will be at your Civic Auditorium in September.’”

The Kingsport show was promoted by WKIN-AM deejay Chuck Foster and WKIN station manager Dia Bahakel. They had rented the Civic Auditorium and advertised the show on their station. 

Admission was $1.25 and in 1976 Bahakel told the Kingsport Times that a grand total of 270 people were in attendance.

Elvis opened his set with a joke - “Where is Kingsport, Tennessee anyway?”-  before launching into his first song, “Rock Around the Clock.” He played for half an hour, closing with the ballad “I Love You Because.”

That’s when the real story begins. During intermission Elvis and his band, the Blue Moon Boys, set up in the hall outside the stage door and signed autographs and sold photos for fifty cents. Darla Hodge recalled in ’76 that he pointed to her and said, “Hey Liz, hey Liz Taylor, come up here.” She did and he gave her a photo autographed “I love you, Liz - Elvis.”

After signing a few autographs, he led a group of admiring girls outside to show off his pink Cadillac.

Billie Mae Smith and her two girlfriends came up. When one was too shy to ask Elvis for any autograph, Billie Mae spoke up.

“I went up and I said, ‘When you get through showing off your car, my friend would like your autograph.’ He said, ‘What’s the matter? Don’t you want it?’”

Billie Mae said she replied, “’Not particularly.’ I was playing hard to get.”

He asked her name, she told him and he invited her to come back stage after the show was over.

“I told him I might.”

After the show, the three musical acts gathered round while Bahakel counted the money. After taking her cut, she divvied up the proceeds. She paid Elvis and his band $37 and change for their show.

Enter Billie Mae Smith, no longer as standoffish. She joined Elvis in his Caddy. He was hungry so she steered him to the local hangout, Jimmy’s Steak House at 3101 Memorial Boulevard at the Upper Circle where they had club sandwiches.

But first Billie Mae told Elvis she wanted to cruise Broad.

Billie Mae said, “I remember I kept looking at his hair because he had a permanent in it so that when he shook his head a curl would fall in his eyes.”

Billie Mae and Elvis were stopped at the red light at Center and Wilcox when Booge pulled up. And Billie Mae told Booge to come over later.

Once back at her house, she invited Elvis in for a cup of coffee. They were sitting at the kitchen table, talking and sipping coffee, when she heard a commotion outside. Booge had reappeared.

One of Elvis’ bandmates met Booge and told him, “You’re not wanted here.”

Wayne didn’t take this too well. “I said, ‘The hell with you; two can play this game.’” He raced down to the Texas Steer Drive-In - it was on Center just before you got to Kingsport Press - picked up two of his friends, and returned to Billie Mae’s.

“I told the guy outside that if he wanted trouble there was more than one of us now.”

Elvis and Billie Mae heard the noise and came out. Billie Mae introduced Booge and Elvis. But they didn’t shake hands.

Allen remembered, “Elvis said, ‘I’m breaking this guy’s heart. Maybe I’d better leave.’”

Billie Mae took Booge aside, told him everything would be all right and sent him home.

Elvis didn’t stay much longer. It was the last night of the tour and he was anxious to be back to Memphis. Just one thing before he left,

“When we went outside to leave, he reached out and pulled me up close to him and kissed me. My knees went weak. He had the softest lips I have ever kissed.”

It was a goodnight kiss for all time. “It was very thrilling.”

Booge came back later and circled the block but Elvis had gone.