Comments On: The Whirlaway Club by Vance Lauderdale

Re: The Whirlaway Club

e-cat — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:28:05 -0500

Could one of the girls in the '72 ad be Kathleen Selph (she was photographed with Elvis riding on a bike on East Parkway in 1972 and she died shortly after), see article below from the Commercial Appeal

"Woman with Elvis No Longer a Mystery"

Original Publication Date: January 8, 2000

By Michael Lollar

For 27 years, the mother says she has remained silent, watching over and over as her daughter showed up in photographs on a motorcycle with Elvis Presley.

Each time, the daughter has been referred to as "an unidentified woman." "I just didn't want her to go on as an unidentified woman," says the mother, Peggy Selph Cannon of Bartlett, after the photograph appeared in The Commercial Appeal's special Turn of the Century section on Jan. 1.

Cannon says her daughter, Kathleen "Kathy" Selph, then 20, was being driven home by Elvis when the picture was shot by a photographer for The Commercial Appeal in June 1972. A neighbor showed her the photograph in the newspaper that week, and Cannon says she "reprimanded" her daughter for dating a married man. That's when she learned that Elvis and Priscilla Presley had separated.

The daughter, who had moved out of her parents' home, had been working as a dancer and singer at the old Whirlaway Club, where a member of Elvis' Memphis Mafia noticed she resembled Priscilla Presley, says Selph's brother, Steve. His sister and Elvis were introduced and dated for a while, he says.

It ended less than a month after the photograph was taken when Selph died in an automobile accident. "There was a real nice spray of flowers at her funeral from the Presley family. And there was a huge orchid at the funeral. I always felt it came from Elvis," says Cannon, who remarried after the death of her husband, former deputy fire chief E. B. Selph.

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Yes, the dancer in the white bikini was indeed Kathy Selph, the girl on the back of Elvis' motorcycle. - Vance

Posted by E-Cat

Re: The Whirlaway Club

mikehill1957 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:31:07 -0500

Vance, do you rememeber the Guilloteens from the 60's, see below........
http://www.break-a-way.de/pages/gteens/sto…

This caption appears below one of the photo's on this webpage:
A ROYAL MEMPHIS welcome was tendered as Memphis� own Guilloteens when Mayer Ingram presented keys to the city to the new famed rock n� roll trio. Getting the keys are, left to right: Louis Paul, Laddie Hutchinson and Joe Davis, billed as the �world�s fastest drummer.� The threesome, managed by Memphis� Jerry Williams, will be featured on the coast-tocoast Shindig show at 7:30 tonight on Channel 13.

Posted by mikehill1957

Re: The Whirlaway Club

Scarlett1 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:12:13 -0500

My husband is long-time Memphis musician Mike Plunk and he's pretty sure of some of the IDs. Bass player in the top photo is Ben Wages, now deceased. In the botton photo, the bass player is Ronnie Moore, also deceased, and the guitar player is Tony O'Teri who also played with Eddie Floyd (Knock on Wood).

Mike played some at the Whirlaway and remembers that ties were required. If a guy showed up without one, they'd rent him a tie. Legend has it that the Righteous Brothers showed up at the Whirlaway, had no ties, refused to rent ties -- and were turned away.

BTW -- we wanted to point out that it was not unusual for bands to be integrated in that era, and there was one integrated club in Memphis -- The Riviera -- although black guests sat on one side of the dance floor and whites on the other.
Posted by Scarlett1

Re: The Whirlaway Club

Jeff — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:14:01 -0500

Whatever happened to that place? Was it shut down by an eager young Bill Gibbons as he prepared to run for Senior Class President?
Posted by Jeff

Re: The Whirlaway Club

joespake — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:24:51 -0500

Randy Haspel will know who those guys are.
Posted by joespake