September 26th in Elvis History

It's September twenty-sixth, and on this day in 1956... Elvis Presley returned to his hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, for a triumphant homecoming concert at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show—the same stage where he had first performed as a ten-year-old boy. In honor of his return, the city declared it *Elvis Presley Day*. Elvis performed two shows that drew massive crowds and required over 100 National Guardsmen to maintain order. He wore a blue velvet shirt made by Natalie Wood’s dressmaker and performed hits like *Heartbreak Hotel*, *Don’t Be Cruel*, and *Hound Dog*. Fourteen-year-old Tammy Wynette watched from the front row, and the show was filmed by Fox Movietone News, making it one of the few professionally recorded performances of Elvis in the 1950s.