Above video is sound only of Elvis' April 2,1955 Houston, Texas concert, two months before the fire incident. Photo is actual shot of Elvis' burnt car.
Elvis said: “When I was driving a truck, every time a big, shiny car drove by, it started me sort of daydreaming. I’d daydream about how it would be.
“The first car I ever bought was the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen. It was second-hand, but I parked it outside my hotel the day I got it and sat up all night just looking at it. And the next day … well … the thing caught fire and burned up on the road.”
June 5, 1955, 11 months after Elvis’ first recording, ‘That’s All Right Mama, was released, Elvis was driving his new pink and white Cadillac at night. He had a young woman sitting next to him. They were on their way to Texarkana, Texas, Elvis' next playdate. He planned to meet his band members Scotty Moore and Bill Black that night at a café.
He must have been distracted because he had inadvertently left the emergency brake on, causing the brake-fluid to catch fire, which spread to the car and gas tank.
A 21-year-old Texas boy, Ken Palmer said:
"I was driving behind Elvis, not knowing it was his car. The fire started in the trunk. Elvis pulled over, and I stopped to help. He got a young woman out of the car and kept yelling, ‘It's going to blow.’
“The trunk was full of equipment. We got his guitar out, the amps and the money box. I pulled out another amp from the back seat. Elvis tried to put the fire out with an extinguisher, but he couldn't get to where it was burning. He told me he had a $500 movie camera in the glove box, but we couldn’t get to it, so it burnt up.
"I remember Elvis sitting by the side of the road, looking desolate as he watched his car burn. I drove him and the young woman to a Texarkana café where his band was waiting. They had no idea about what had happened.
"Elvis offered me $5, ($53 today and probably all Elvis had on him), but I wouldn't take it. He offered to buy me coffee and I let him. We had fun talking a bit and then I took off.”
That very night, Elvis’ mother awoke from a sound sleep feeling something was wrong. She often said she could sense when bad things were about to happen to her son.
Elvis said: “I’ve got a lot of cars now, but none will ever take the place of that first one.”
****************************************
Please check out my award-winning movie Forbidden Power on Amazon.
It was interesting to see Slim Whitman on the marquee. I thought he was a British imitator of Hank Williams. Maybe he was touring the USA. Once met a 29-year-old lawyer, the son of a friend, in Thailand who knew every single one of Slim Whitman's songs. And, with his guitar, could belt them out just like Slim.
Makes me wish I'd been living here in Houston on April 2, 1955 and seeing those legs go spaghetti with the girls my age screaming their lungs out!
Ron