July 21st in Elvis History

It's July twenty-first, and on this day in 1955, Elvis performed at the Silver Moon Club in Newport, Arkansas. Fast forward to 1960, Elvis earned his first-degree black belt in karate, marking the beginning of his serious commitment to martial arts. In 1971, Elvis opened his first engagement at the High Sierra Room in the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in Stateline, Nevada. The shows, held twice nightly at 8 PM and midnight, featured a then-extravagant \$15 minimum cover charge, breaking all previous attendance records for the venue with 3,400 patrons across the first two shows. The opener for the show was comedian Nipsey Russell. Fans attending the opening night received a special tote bag with Elvis’s *C’mon Everybody* album, a hat, scarf, button, photo album, and a teddy bear. In 1972, Elvis returned to Memphis after a stay in Los Angeles. The following year, July 21, 1973, saw Elvis arrive at Stax Studio in the middle of the night, where musicians were shocked by his appearance, noting it was the first time they saw him not in good shape. Later in 1975, Elvis performed at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.