Customer Reviews

Elvis In Texas: The Undiscovered King 1954-1958

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Scotty Moore, Elvis' original guitar player and manager, recently said he thought he had seen every photo from that era until he saw this book. That's why I bought it. The photos, mostly performance snapshots, are great. Unfortunately the text is not. At best the writing gets in the way, and at worst it is just plain wrong (which Scotty warned me about). Still, this rare glimpse of one of the greatest American bands merits its recommendation.

A friend sent me this book when I was researching a music project about Wilma Burgess. The book is laughably written and there are so many factual errors I couldn't finish it. For instance, on pages 62 and 63 they spend two pages on an Elvis Concert that never happened!
The supposed concert was March 19, 1955 at "G. Rolle White Coliseum". They misspell Rollie, They misspell Little Jimmy Dickens and not only get the name of his song, "May The Bird of Paradise...," wrong, the song wouldn't be released for another ten years. They mention, correctly, that Elvis was doing a well-documented show in Houston, Texas later that night, but then say "College Station lay northeast of Houston about one hour's drive for normal people. Elvis, Scotty, and Bill could do it in thirty-five minutes after the farmer's relinquished the two-lane roads to the speed-aholics for the evening." The distance in 1955,(pre-freeway) was just over 100 miles. Wow! 100 miles in half an hour!
Worst of all, and why my friend sent me the book, is a poster advertising the March 19, 1955 show that lists Wilma Burgess as one of the seven acts. In 1955, Wilma Burgess was 15 years old and had never been near a stage or recording studio. The poster is fake, and is actually an altered/forged poster for an 11 years later, March 19, 1966, G.Rollie White show which had six of the listed artists but "Nat Stuckey" instead of Elvis. I guess Nat Stuckey posters aren't worth as much on the collector's circuit. For the record, Elvis didn't play Texas A&M until Oct. 3, 1955.
There are a few photos I'd never seen but the print quality is not very good.
All in all, a useless book.

This a very nice book. There are some great pictures in here. I own a lot of Elvis books and there are some pictures in here I haven't seen before. The text is a bit gossipy but okay. It's not an in depth study of the King but good coffee table fodder. According to this, he really did sow his wild oats in Texas - I wonder how many little Elvi are going about?

It's interesting to see Elvis the boy at the beginning, looking full of life and looking to the future and then look at pictures of him toward the end. Was all the success worth it? Perhaps not.

The next tumbleweed you see in East Texas will be the first. The East Texas that Elvis and company traversed in the 1950's was (and mostly still is) marked by piny woods and red dirt roads - not too dissimilar from the rural areas of Louisiana, Tennessee and other southern states where Elvis kicked off his career.

The fact that the book description references tumbleweeds and rattlesnakes sends up a red flag for camp journalism.

Having said that, if you ever do make it far enough into West Texas, New Mexico or Arizona to actually see tumbleweeds, don't bother swerving your vehicle to dodge them; they're pretty harmless.

This is a really neat book for anyone who is crazy about Elvis and wants to know his roots. Also, for anyone living in East Texas where these events took place.

What a fun look at the early Elvis. This book full of wonderful pictures is saved from becoming a boring bit of "tour listing" and teen memoirs by the sparkling text of author Lori Torrance. We are reminded here of just how powerful the man and his music were in those early days. Having this book is a must for every Elvis fan.

Lori Torrance has a flare for writing. She has a great sense of humor and can really capture the attention of everyone, even non-Elvis fans. The pictures were nice, too.

Great Book... The chapter on "Devil In A Pink Dress" was really good.. A 'must have' for any true Elvis fan..

An extremely fascinating and witty gathering of Elvis history unknown (at least to myself!) until now. The authors style of writing keeps the reader both enthralled and highly amused. I found it immensely enjoyable, and highly recommend it to everyone who knows who the 'real' King is!

I picked up a copy of Elvis in Texas in November 2001, at the Annual Literacy Book Festival, where I had the pleasure of meeting author, Lori Torrance, as well as researcher, Stanley Oberst. Upon meeting Ms. Torrance, I found her charming demeanor to be an asset to the book's personality, and ultimately, it's readability. I'm certain many readers, as well as I, were unaware of Elvis' extensive road trip through Texas in gaining stardom and can admire the lengthy inquiry into the past. Together with the chronicle of information on Elvis and Texas, the pages are bursting with tons of pictures and aside-shots of trivia, which literally draws the reader right back in the '50s, as if they were reliving the past. And if you didn't live in the day, the book provides a rich portal through the generation gap in time, so younger audiences can relate to and appreciate the ambience. My children and I found the book to be a real treat! I welcome the "Happy Days" nostalgia, and am absolutely delighted with this book!