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Market Square Arena

June 26, 2001 | Other
The Indianapolis Star has a article on Elvis in Market Square Arena.

Elvis fans mark anniversary as a shrine prepares to fall
By David Mannweiler (Indianapolis Star)
June 26, 2001

It's Kermit without the swamp. Parisians without the Eiffel Tower. Elvis Presley fans without Market Square Arena.

Elvis fans tried to get the city to save MSA because -- do they really have to explain this? -- he gave his last concert there 24 years ago today, less than two months before his death. We're talking historic site here. Would you pave Gettsyburg? Fill in the Grand Canyon? The plea didn't work. Like it or not, MSA will be imploded into rubble next month. So today is the last anniversary of Elvis' final concert before the building comes down.

For years, Presley fans gathered on this day at a sixth-floor glass display case at MSA that commemorated that June 26, 1977, show. Tonight, they'll gather at One Liners Comedy Club in Greenwood, where two Elvis impersonators -- oops, Elvis Tribute Artists -- will entertain at 7 o'clock.

"They're good," said Paul Lipps, 58, the retired Carmel land developer and builder who started the Presley display case at MSA. He and his wife, Kay, saw 26 Presley concerts. He once shook Elvis' hand, and Kay once got a kiss from the singer. They'll be at One Liners to see Elvis Tribute Artists Irv Cass and Quentin Flagg perform. So will Linda Welch and Shirley Lyday. They were all in MSA for Presley's concert. "The thing that blows my mind is Quentin Flagg is so young," said Lyday, who works for AXA Advisers, a financial planning firm. "He's still in high school, so he's really had to study the videos."

Lyday has 10 costumed Elvis dolls in her living room and dining room, a bookcase of Elvis memorabilia and a car crammed with Elvis CDs. Welch keeps the stub from her $15 third-row MSA ticket in a photo album of pictures she took that night. She was accompanied by her 13-year-old son, Vince, attending his first concert. She hedges on whether her son, now WIBC's sports director, was named for a character in a Presley movie.

Lipps also took photographs that night. Hundreds of them, with a borrowed camera and a telephoto lens. One of them became the centerpiece in the MSA display case. "I took them for my wife, but people saw them and wanted them. In 1978, I was making $350 a week selling Elvis pictures. That wasn't my intention at all." Larry Taylor didn't take photos that night in MSA. He took tickets, as MSA's box office and business manager. He's now vice president of Pacers Sports and Entertainment. "My recollection is Elvis was probably somewhat overweight at that time. As I recall, it was a fairly good concert." Zach Dunkin didn't take tickets or photos that night. He took grief the next day.

The rock music critic of The Indianapolis News, Dunkin criticized Presley's lethargic performance and the constant hawking of Presley souvenirs. "When you pay $15 to see Elvis, you should see Elvis for three hours instead of 1 hour, 20 minutes," wrote Dunkin, now the arts and entertainment editor at The Star. And this: "It's time ardent Presley fans quit protecting their idol and start demanding more. They know 'the King' can do better." "I received hate mail for months," Dunkin said. "Even (from) my own dad."
Source:Indianapolis Star