Who Is That Cool Cat?

After finishing my book “DJ Diaries; Radio’s Remarkable Listeners,” we looked back and realized I’d told a lot of stories about other DJ’s and their relationships with their listeners, and very, very little was about me.

So what about myself?  That is how this blog or…the ‘sort-of-unauthorized-unconfirmed-autobiographical-behind-the-scenes-stories’ of my nearly sixty years as a ‘happy-go-lucky-babble-in-a-box’ came about.

So, as I used to say on the radio: “Believe it or don’t!”   I’ll climb into the piles and piles of dusty memories in my cob-web-covered mind and try and sort out what I can remember. Like….

In person, Elvis Presley passed through my life more than once.

 

 

Remembering hanging out backstage at the Louisiana Hayride in 1955 at age 15 was the first time.  Elvis had just been introduced and brought onto the stage by KWKH radio announcer Frank Page.   Frank didn’t have to urge the audience at the live radio show to cheer and applaud as Elvis came on stage.  At the word, “Elvis,” a huge explosion of sound assaulted my ears.  That night the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium was packed to the ceiling with an audience of nearly 2,000 people.  I peeped

around the curtain and was shocked to see for the first time some of the wildest, wide-eyed, rowdy, foot stomping, clapping, and screaming teenage girls I’d ever seen.  Some standing on their seats were waving their arms so enthusiastically that they were nearly toppling over on more pubescent girls hysterically screaming and jumping up and down in front of them.

Then my ears were assaulted with the loudest sounds I’d ever heard.  Shocked, I watched Page coming off the stage in our direction watching the audience’s reaction in stunned disbelief.  He had an odd grin on his face as he got to the side stage where announcer friends Nat Stuckey, Jim Reeves and I were standing.  He cupped his hands to the sides of his mouth and shouted something.  No one could hear him.  I glanced at the sound engineers and they were shaking their heads from side to side, sort of dumb struck as what to do next.  On stage, Elvis said something, we couldn’t understand what, but the audience volume screeched up another few notches.  Then Elvis began to sing.  At least we thought so.  Standing side stage we still couldn’t hear anything.  I wondered what the radio listeners were hearing.  It was the first time the hair stood up on the back of my neck, but not the last. 

I think Elvis did two songs, I can’t be sure.  I heard a word or two come out of his mouth every so often--then the screaming would start all over again.

After it was all over, Frank Page simply said, “I don’t know what the kid has, but he’s got it.”

Nat Stuckey turned to Jim Reeves and I and said, “Now there’s the next cool cat, even if he dresses a little strange and wiggles a little too much.”

We all laughed.

Odd as it may sound now at this moment, I would not even remember meeting Jim Reeves until I got to know his widow in the 70’s.  But that’s another story down the line someday.  There are lots of names floating in the murky depths of my mind right now and as I pull them up I’ll try attaching stories to them.  That’s what this is all about!

NEXT: The Name Game.

Dave Donahue is a Hall of Fame Disc Jockey and Author. He currently writes from his offices in East  Texas, just miles from the swamps where he spent his early childhood. Follow Dave at facebook.com/djdavedonahue or at www.DJDaveDonahue.com (new site coming very soon).