Brad Jones
36065 HUMES
Since we work so far in advance, the editors of a monthly magazine rarely get the chance to shout “Stop the presses!” as you hear in almost any movie made about the newspaper business. But that is precisely what happened on August 16, 1977, when we — along with millions of other people around the globe — learned the stunning news of the death of Elvis Presley.
The news affected us in a special way. Our September issue was actually at the printer, and it dawned on us that to crank out a city magazine that made no mention of the demise of the King of Rock-and-Roll would make us look sadly out of touch with our city. So 40 years ago, we did something that we have never done since. We indeed stopped the presses, pulled the cover story planned for the September issue, and went into crisis mode.
We quickly recruited Jackson Baker, at the time a talented freelance contributor (and now senior editor of our sister publication, the Memphis Flyer) to craft a comprehensive overview of the life of Elvis. Titled “End of an Era,’ it is widely considered, then and now, one of the finest articles ever produced about Elvis Presley — an accomplishment even more remarkable considering we gave Baker a freelance writer’s most dreaded deadline — telling him, in effect, “We need it yesterday.”
To supplement the main story, back in those days before the internet and Google and Photoshop and, for that matter, even word processors, we cobbled together a special 16-page section that included classic images of the King from various photographers and illustrators.
In a matter of days we assembled all the pieces of the puzzle, and the September issue made it to newsstands and on schedule. Looking back on it, that issue still stands the test of time. For proof, we can look at the final paragraph of Baker’s eloquent essay:
“That, after all the splendor of his career, Elvis would die in his own home of natural causes like many another middle-aged American male before him is something that probably never crossed his mind. And perhaps it was this circumstance that gave his face the look of surprise which so many thought they observed as he lay in his casket. Many of his former hit songs were played on radio and television in the days after his death, but one of them received singular attention and sounded especially haunting. It was the ballad which began, ‘Are you lonesome tonight? / Do you miss me tonight?’ For much of the world at large, the answer was, and would continue to be, Yes.”
The September 1977 cover story (such a classic that it has been reprinted several times in this magazine since that first appearance) was just the beginning. Over the years, we have focused on just about everything Elvis — from his early beginnings to his enduring fame. As we near the 40th anniversary of Elvis’ death, we take a look back at some of the top stories in our years of covering the King of Rock-and-Roll.
