Dewey and Elvis: The Life and Times of a Rock 'n' Roll Deejay

Notes

Notes Introduction 1. ThereisnoprecisedefinitionoftheMid-South.InMemphisthetermisgenerallyusedtode finewestTennessee,easternArkansas,andnorthernMississippi.The city’s leading newspaper, for example, theMemphis Commercial Appeal—advertisingitself ashaving“thelargestdistributionintheMid-South”—circulatesinthese areas as well as in small portions of Alabama and the Bootheel of Missouri. 2. Barlow, Voice Over, 157–92. 3. Freed did not leave Cleveland to join WINS in New York until 1954; not until 1958 did he go on the network outlet station there, WABC. Freed, “I Told You So,” 44; New York Times, May 20, 1960, 1, 62; Jackson, Big Beat Heat, 65–69. 4. Clements, “‘Phillips Sent Me,’” 12. 5. Interview with Jim Dickinson. Unless otherwise noted, all interviews are by the author. 6. Sid Selvidge, cited in Van Wyngarden, “Redefining the Memphis Sound,” 43. 7. Marion Keisker on “Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll.” 8. Halberstam, The Fifties, 460. Chapter 1: Programmed Chaos: Dewey Phillips on the Air 1. Burke, “Dewey Phillips Set for Shiloh Honor”; interview with Charles Raiteri; interview with Sam Phillips. Unless otherwise noted, all interviews are by the author. 2. Haspel, “Tell ’Em Philips Sencha,” 134–42. 3. Johnson, “TV News and Views,” Aug. 22, 1956, 24. 4. Interview with Fred Cook. 5. Interview with Bob Lewis; interview with Sam Phillips; Raiteri interview with John Fry. 18.NOTES.235-264_Cant.indd฀฀฀235 2/8/05฀฀฀1:59:39฀PM 236 6. Raiteri interview with Laddy Hutchinson. 7. Raiteri interview with Stanley Booth. 8. Interview with Bob Lewis. 9. Jack Parnell in Rock ’n’ Roll Invaders. 10. Clippings from Dorothy Phillips collection. 11. Interview with Sam Phillips. 12. Raiteri interview with Stanley Booth. In fact, Wexler was well aware of (and fascinatedby)mostofDewey’sscamsandrecordedasmuchinhisautobiography. Wexler and Ritz, Rhythm and the Blues, 124–25. 13. Interview with Billy Britt Mills; interview with Louis Harris. 14. Interview with Charles Raiteri. 15. Johnson, “TV News and Views,” Aug. 22, 1956, 24. 16. Interview with Jim Dickinson. 17. Interview with Betty Jo Carruthers, May 28, 1996; Raiteri interview with Sam Phillips; Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis, 98. 18. Dewey is quoted on Red, Hot and Blue. 19. Raiteri interview with Billy Lee Riley. 20. Gordon Lawhead in Daddy-O-Dewey. 21. Clements, “‘Phillips Sent Me,’” 12. 22. There is no evidence to indicate that such a song was ever written. “The People’s Choice,” Radio-TV Mirror (n.d.), Dorothy Phillips Collection, Crump, Tenn.; Dewitt, Elvis, the Sun Years, 136; Clements, “‘Phillips Sent Me,’” 12. 23. Clements, “‘Phillips Sent Me,’” 12. 24. Haspel, “Tell ’Em Philips Sencha,” 137. 25. Clements, “‘Phillips Sent Me,’” 12. 26. Phillips in Daddy-O-Dewey; Nager, “Dewey Took Giant Steps,” C1. 27. Raiteri interview with Dorothy Phillips; interview with Bill Kirby. 28. Raiteri interview with Charles Caughlin (quotation); Raiteri interview with Don Nix. Nix was an original member of a Memphis group, the Mar-Keys. 29. Interview with Dorothy Phillips, June 11, 1993. 30. Interview with Bob Lewis. 31. “Dewey was already anticipating ‘Señor Wences’ on the Ed Sullivan Show,” Jim Dickinson says. “Remember, how he’d go, ‘’S ok? ’S a’ right’?” Interview with Jim Dickinson. 32. George Klein in Daddy-O-Dewey. 33. Ibid.; Raiteri interview with Welton M. Roy; George Klein on “Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll.” 34. Whisenhunt, “Weary Engineers Move WHBQ Overnight,” 7. 35. Interview with Jack Parnell. 36. Clipping (n.d.), Alex Ward Collection, Memphis; interview with George Klein, June 7, 1989; interview with Bob Lewis; interview with Irvin Schatz. 37. Interview with Alex Ward. 38. Gordon Lawhead in Daddy-O-Dewey. 39.Raiteri interview with Welton M. Roy. Notes to Pages 10–20 18.NOTES.235-264_Cant.indd฀฀฀236 2/8/05฀฀฀1:59:39฀PM 237 40. Interview with Durrell Durham. 41. Interview with Dorothy Phillips, June 11, 1993. 42. Interview with Durrell Durham; interview with George Klein, May 28, 1996. 43. Pond is cited in Gordon, It Came from Memphis, 19. 44. Interview with John Fry. 45. Russell’s remarks are taken from Raiteri interview with John King. 46. Interview with Bill Kirby, May 28, 1996. 47. Interview with Louis Harris. 48. Interview with Harv Stegman. 49. Interview with Billy Britt Mills. 50. Interview with Fred Cook. 51. Nager, “Dewey Took Giant Steps,” C1; interview with Sam Phillips; Raiteri interview with Sam Phillips. Official ratings of Dewey’s show were conducted by the Hooper polling organization, but unfortunately there are no extant records of these...