the Ottawa concerts

Just read through all the threads that mentioned Ottawa, so please don't boo me, but I still am not sure what Elvis wore at the two Ottawa concerts...or even what time they took place.

If he wore the same thing at both concerts, is there some way to distinguish at which concert each photo was taken? I have copies of about 30 photos from Ottawa, all showing the gold lame jacket and black slacks, black shirt, big gold medallion around his neck Surely they aren't all from the same concert?

Anybody?

Thanks!

Good question. All those live photos i think was taken at the matinee show, but maibe some are from evening performance, i can't be sure.
Here's two great pages about Ottawa shows, you can find here anything about that day:

http://www.scottymoore.net/ottawa.html

http://www.elvis-collectors.com/candid- ... tawa1.html

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Hiton, thanks a million! You're a prince. The answer doesn't appear either on Scotty's page or on Candid Central. There was quite a discussion on this forum about what Elvis wore for each concert -- and for other prior and successive concerts -- but by the time the thread ended, I couldn't figure out what combination had been worn where, nor exactly what time the two concerts ere given, since three different times were mentioned on the thread.

The attached photo is why I asked what he wore. It's labeled as Ottawa, 3 April 1957, but I think the shirt in the photo is white, not black. So, where was that one taken?

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Last edited by latebloomer on Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:49 am, edited 2 times in total.

There also was quite a lot of discussion about when Elvis received the big gold medallion he wore in Ottawa. When I went back to Scotty's page on Ottawa just now, to double-check whether the costume for the two concerts ever was described, I noticed, near the bottom, a backstage photo dated 3 April 1957 of Elvis with Ottawa Journal writer Helen Parmeler, in which he has is on the gold jacket and black shirt, but a much smaller pendant hanging from what looks like a finer chain than (but of the same length as) the one he used for the bigger medallion. Would that photo help to cement the concensus on when he actually received the medallion? Might Ms. Parmeler be the person who gave it to him?

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I believe he got the medallion the night before in Toronto. He wears it in the evening show there
http://www.scottymoore.net/toronto.html
He has it in Ottawa before the show pictured with Arnie May. In between shows he's wearing none when he's shirtless and weairing his red jacket. That is a smaller medallion in the photo with Helen, it may be one he put on just prior to the second show. I only remember a lengthy thread about what was worn in Toronto not Ottawa. I beleive you are right though, the medallion is the key to distinguish which show is which and he apparantly wore the same clothes for each.
Jim

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Last edited by JamesVRoy on Tue Dec 04, 2012 6:40 am, edited 2 times in total.

Thanks JamesVRoy. Never seen that last photo before, either.

I´m not sure where the confusion comes from but the photo of Elvis and "Helen Parmeler" was taken in Toronto on April 2, 1957 and shows Elvis with Yugoslavia born ballerina Mia Slavenska as can be seen in this April 3, 1957 newspaper clipping from the Toronto Telegram.

570403-Toronto-Telegram-bripet56.jpg

In an April 5, 1957 Philadelphia interview Elvis mentions that he got the medallion "last Thursday night in Ottawa" and that it was a gift from a fan. However, Elvis played Ottawa on a Wednesday and he wore the medallion when he arrived in Ottawa in the morning of April 3 so he most likely got the medallion in Toronto on April 2.

Sincerely
Brian
http://www.brian56.dk

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bripet56 is pretty much spot-on.

I love that the newspaper clipping uses a third image of Elvis with Croatian-born ballerina Mia Slavenska, and it's the best shot of her and the worst one of him!

Slavenska was world-renowned for her artistry, and would continue dancing until 45, retiring from the stage on July 17, 1961 at the end of the American Dance Festival at the Metropolitan Arts Center. She passed away about ten years ago:

Russian ballet History
http://www.russianballethistory.com/danilovafranklinmia.htm

Mia Slavenska, Croatian-American Ballerina Dies
http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/6532/1/E-Mia-Slavenska-Croatian-American-Ballerina-Dies.html

400000_Ballerina Mia Slavenska.jpg

Mia led an amazing life:

Mia Čorak Slavenska
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mia_%C4%8Corak_Slavenska

Here are some lovely tribute videos I found on YouTube, including rare film of her dancing:

Mia Slavenska - A Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo Prima Ballerina

Mia-A Dancers Odyssey 5 min Trailer


It's fascinating to discover the many other great artists who crossed paths with our hero.

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I´m not sure where the confusion comes from but the photo of Elvis and "Helen Parmeler" was taken in Toronto on April 2, 1957 and shows Elvis with Yugoslavia born ballerina Mia Slavenska as can be seen in this April 3, 1957 newspaper clipping from the Toronto Telegram.

570403-Toronto-Telegram-bripet56.jpg

In an April 5, 1957 Philadelphia interview Elvis mentions that he got the medallion "last Thursday night in Ottawa" and that it was a gift from a fan. However, Elvis played Ottawa on a Wednesday and he wore the medallion when he arrived in Ottawa in the morning of April 3 so he most likely got the medallion in Toronto on April 2.

Sincerely
Brian
http://www.brian56.dk

Interesting. I'll have to do some rewrites now. I'll have to check but I think the original confusion may be from Long Lonely Highway (or Jim Curtin). I think the photo I have up is captioned as Helen. May have propagated from there.
The medallion though does show up onstage in the second show in Toronto. He must've got it before going onstage and after the pix with Mia were taken.


A younger Mia

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There does not appear to be any "Helen Parmeler" who wrote for the Ottawa Citizen or Ottawa Journal. Check the links in my posts for a great deal of information on Croatian dancer Mia Slavenska.

I love that the newspaper clipping uses a third image of Elvis with Croatian-born ballerina Mia Slavenska, and it's the best shot of her and the worst one of him!

I also thought it was a third photo at first glimpse but it´s actually the same photo that James posted only the newspaper whitened the background.

Sincerely
Brian
www.brian56.dk

OK, I may have started or at least contributed to the confusion. Ger has those photos plus another in Long Lonely Highway alongside a transcription of the Helen Parmeler article from the Ottaw Journal with it. I probably assumed that was her and Ottawa and captioned it as such when I did the original page.

Thanks for the corrections Brian, and to the OP for bringing it up.

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I love that the newspaper clipping uses a third image of Elvis with Croatian-born ballerina Mia Slavenska, and it's the best shot of her and the worst one of him!

I also thought it was a third photo at first glimpse but it´s actually the same photo that James posted only the newspaper whitened the background.

Yeah, if you blow them up, side-by-side, they must be the same. It's weird how they changed the eyes. Elvis still looks half-asleep!

OK, I may have started or at least contributed to the confusion. Ger has those photos plus another in Long Lonely Highway alongside a transcription of the Helen Parmeler article from the Ottaw Journal with it. I probably assumed that was her and Ottawa and captioned it as such when I did the original page.

Thanks for the corrections Brian, and to the OP for bringing it up.

Thanks for posting the scan from the book. Except for your page, there is nothing on that journalist. Perhaps because the Ottawa Journal shut down in 1980, there's little archival material to be had.

OK, I may have started or at least contributed to the confusion. Ger has those photos plus another in Long Lonely Highway alongside a transcription of the Helen Parmeler article from the Ottaw Journal with it. I probably assumed that was her and Ottawa and captioned it as such when I did the original page.

Thanks for the corrections Brian, and to the OP for bringing it up.

Thanks for posting the scan from the book. Except for your page, there is nothing on that journalist. Perhaps because the Ottawa Journal shut down in 1980, there's little archival material to be had.

Maybe Paul Sweeney can find a copy of the piece sometime from the Library there. Is he in Ottawa?

OK, I may have started or at least contributed to the confusion. Ger has those photos plus another in Long Lonely Highway alongside a transcription of the Helen Parmeler article from the Ottaw Journal with it. I probably assumed that was her and Ottawa and captioned it as such when I did the original page.

Thanks for the corrections Brian, and to the OP for bringing it up.

Thanks for posting the scan from the book. Except for your page, there is nothing on that journalist. Perhaps because the Ottawa Journal shut down in 1980, there's little archival material to be had.

Maybe Paul Sweeney can find a copy of the piece sometime from the Library there. Is he in Ottawa?

I am and I have clippings from both papers. I will see what I have.

Her name was Helen Parmelee who wrote the Ottawa Journal articles. As Doc noted, the Journal ceased publishing in 1980.

Last edited by paulsweeney on Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:22 am, edited 2 times in total.

Her name was Helen Parmelee who wrote the Ottawa Journal articles. As Doc noted, the Journal ceased publishing in 1980.

Much obliged.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/01/07/bes ... s-birthday

Happy Elvis Presley birthday everyone -- the King was born on this day in 1935. What would our look back at Earl McRae's work be without one of Earl's columns on the King? Elvis was, after all, a founding member of the Elvis Sighting Society. This Earl gem originally ran on Jan. 12, 2001.

------------

"Shame, Earl," e-mails Gail Collins from Orillia. "Elvis' birthday was Monday and you didn't even write about it."

True, true -- and I apologize to Elvis in Tweed.

Stricken with guilt, I will make up for it.

I will go to the building downtown where the old Beacon Arms Hotel once stood and touch the wall. I will go to the building that used to be Union Station and touch the wall. I will go to the YM-YWCA building where the Auditorium once stood and touch the wall.

At each touching, I will say: "Elvis, it was 44 revolutions around the sun ago that you, the greatest musical icon of the 20th century, graced this spot with your presence."

If Ottawa City Council had one iota of tourism intelligence, it'd have plaques on these walls saying: "Elvis Presley, then 22, the greatest and most electrifying rock 'n' roll singer the world has ever known, graced this location on Wednesday, April 3, 1957 when it was the (Beacon Arms Hotel, or Union Station, or Auditorium). Ottawa was one of only three cities The King performed in outside the United States Of America during his entire career, all of them in Canada."

Elvis Presley in, of all places, Ottawa. A woebegotten burg back in '57 that you didn't aspire to live in, you aspired to get the hell out of. And yet, Elvis Aron Presley, at the peak of his fame, came to Ottawa, arriving on the overnight train from Toronto where he'd played the night before.

Presley and entourage got off the train at 8 a.m. He was wearing a black suit, burgundy velvet open-necked shirt, a rose-coloured raincoat, and white bucks. His face was pale and drawn. His pompadour and ducktail glistened. Under one arm: A yellow and brown stuffed teddy bear.

Scores of girls screamed when they saw him coming across the station floor. He gave them his sly, lopsided smile, signed two quick autographs, and was escorted by police to a waiting taxi which took him to the Beacon Arms Hotel where he rested for his two shows at the Auditorium; one at 4:30 p.m., the other at 8:30 p.m., tickets $3.50 each, both shows sold out.

Two of Presley's Cadillacs -- one pink, one yellow -- had been driven to Ottawa by a couple of his buddies, and Ottawa teenager Ron Sparling was chased away by security guards in the hotel's parking garage after they caught him trying to steal one of the licence plates.

For Presley's evening concert, only 37 of the 259 MPs showed up for the night session in the House of Commons. The rest had gone to see him perform. Eight girls from Notre Dame Convent were suspended for having attended the show of the "depraved, sex-crazed, devil incarnate."

Both shows were 40 minutes, and his singing couldn't be heard for the non-stop screaming; one of the screamers a teenager named Jackie Holzman who'd one day become mayor of Ottawa.

More than 100 policemen were kept busy throwing fans back into their seats after assaults on the stage. Whenever Presley, in his gold lame jacket, black shirt, black pants, and black shoes, would flash his smile, shake his leg, pivot on his toes, snap his hip, cock his thumb -- it was mass hysteria. Girls were being dragged off the floor where they'd fainted.

When Ottawa Journal reporter Helen Parmelee spotted a foreign embassy dignitary that she knew, he told her sheepishly he was "on assignment to study Canadian culture."

CFRA disc jockey Gord Atkinson, the concert MC, took some female Presley contest winners backstage afterwards. One said she'd never wash her arm again after Elvis kissed it. Patricia Thomas, of 43 Delaware Ave., couldn't stop crying after he signed her arm.

When asked about the school suspensions, he said: "I'd like to invite the principal to my show. Jumpin' and shakin' and dancin' ain't indecent -- it don't incite kids to rob banks or buy a gun."

Hundreds of boisterous teens marched en masse through the downtown streets, screaming Elvis' name, singing his songs. Arrested and later released for trying to crash the back door of the Aud were Andy Zebchuk, 16, and George Barney, 18; and for setting off celebratory firecrackers on Sparks St. and in the lobby of the Chateau Laurier hotel: Michael Ethier, 18; James Robertson, 17; Gerry Brule, 16; Robert Montfort, 16; and Bruce Langelle, 18.

Elvis' cut of the $45,000 gate for both shows? $20,000. The take after taxes for The King Of Rock 'N' Roll, the greatest of them all who changed the world? $3,000.

Last edited by paulsweeney on Wed Dec 05, 2012 3:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

Her name was Helen Parmelee who wrote the Ottawa Journal articles. As Doc noted, the Journal ceased publishing in 1980.

After all these years we learn the transcribed name in Ger's book was wrong. Wow!

I found this on Helen, who also worked at the Toronto Telegram:

Peter Worthington married in 1957 to Helen Parmelee, a fellow reporter at the Toronto Telegram. They had one son, Casey Vickers Worthington, born in 1964, but divorced in 1967. He married another fellow reporter at the Tely, Yvonne Crittenden, in 1970. She had two children, Guy and Danielle, from a previous marriage. Danielle Crittenden is also a journalist and is married to journalist and author David Frum.

http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=4105200&back_url=%28%29

Her name was Helen Parmelee who wrote the Ottawa Journal articles. As Doc noted, the Journal ceased publishing in 1980.

After all these years we learn the transcribed name in Ger's book was wrong. Wow!

I found this on Helen, who also worked at the Toronto Telegram:

Peter Worthington married in 1957 to Helen Parmelee, a fellow reporter at the Toronto Telegram. They had one son, Casey Vickers Worthington, born in 1964, but divorced in 1967. He married another fellow reporter at the Tely, Yvonne Crittenden, in 1970. She had two children, Guy and Danielle, from a previous marriage. Danielle Crittenden is also a journalist and is married to journalist and author David Frum.

http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=4105200&back_url=%28%29

Shame on Ger

This is interesting (well, for me it is) as Peter Worthington now writes for the Sun newspaper chain in Canada. He's 85.

Peter Worthington is one of three co-founders of the Toronto Sun and was its editor-in-chief for 12 years and is now a columnist. Prior to that, for 15 years at the Toronto Telegram he covered mostly international crises, wars and revolutions, and opened the first Canadian newspaper bureau in Moscow. In WWII he was an air gunner with the Fleet Air Arm, and in the Korean war a platoon commander with the Princess Patricias. He has a B.A. from UBC, a journalism degree from Carleton University, and four National Newspaper Awards and one Citation. He is married, has three kids and six grandchildren and usually prefers animals to people.

In fairness Ger probably had a poor xerox copy or mimeograph of an article with quite possibly an illegible 'e' in the name. Technology then wasn't as good as it is now. I myself have had difficultes discerning some the text I've gotten from a lot of the pieces I've transcribed, and English is my first language (or what passes for it around here).

Can you hear my attempt at a wolf-whistle? Doc, thank you for that gorgeous photo of Mia Slavenska in mid-air, and for the videos. (Ballet is another of my special interests, and that photo is a prize. And thank you all -- Brian and James and Doc and Paul -- for putting your heads together to figure out both that Helen Parmenter wrote about Elvis and Mia -- and that the big medallion must have been given to Elvis in the middle of his Toronto engagements. Well done, all!

Now, can anyone tell me where that very poor photo that started all of this was taken? Anyone have a better copy?

Finally, I haven't heard anything more from David Neale in the last few days, has anyone else? Friday was a bad day, he said, but he had hoped to be released today to go home to finish recuperating.

Thanks, everyone!

In fairness Ger probably had a poor xerox copy or mimeograph of an article with quite possibly an illegible 'e' in the name. Technology then wasn't as good as it is now. I myself have had difficultes discerning some the text I've gotten from a lot of the pieces I've transcribed, and English is my first language (or what passes for it around here).

I was joking. My copy is from microfiche I got from the library in the 80's and it is tough to read for sure.

Now, can anyone tell me where that very poor photo that started all of this was taken? Anyone have a better copy?

This one? Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto

Curtin2.jpg

OK, scratch the theory about a small medallion for the second show in Ottawa, at leasin regards to that pic I posted. Looking at a higher res version its the same large medallion but partially obscured by the shirt.

bb03.jpg

from Paul's page

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