The King Of Rock 'N' Roll Performs in Columbia Tonight
The State
February 18, 1977

Put on your blue suede shoes and get your hound dog ready because the King of Rock 'n' Roll will be singing his songs at the Carolina Coliseum tonight.

But if you haven't already gotten a ticket, you better have plenty of cash handy for the scalpers outside the show trying to make those last minute sales.

The ever-popular Elvis Presley will start his concert at 8:30 p.m. to a sold-out Coliseum crowd estimated at 12,000. He will be going to North Carolina Saturday from Columbia for two concerts in that state.

Elvis fans spent the night in the below freezing cold a month ago to buy tickets for the concert. By noon that day, all the tickets had been sold.

Scalpers bought up large blocks of the tickets at the box office for $15 each and are reselling them to the public at inflated costs. These scalpers came out of the woodwork, running classified ads and openly trying to sell the over-priced tickets, after the S.C. Attorney General's office said ticket scalping laws cover only athletic contests and sporting events.

The 42-year-old Elvis hadn't performed in Columbia in 20 years. A Coliseum spokesman said the lowering of the entertainment tax from seven per cent to four per cent had much to do with drawing the master here.

Elvis has sold more than 400 million records and made 31 films when he went into semi-retirement in the mid-60s. In 1972, he returned to the concert circuit to find his fans and their teen-age children still faithful.

Courtesy of Francesc Lopez