Elvis Presley Show Fails To Sell All Fresno Tickets
Fresno Bee
April 13, 1973

Whatever the rumors, there are still tickets available for the twin Elvis Presley concerts April 24 in Selland Arena - yes, even the evening concert which was once sold-out.

How come? The Convention Center box office says it's all because RCA Tours elected to take advantage of the first rush for tickets for the 8 p.m. performance by immediately adding a matinee.

Fans who had mailed requests for tickets to the evening show were given an option to switch their order to the matinee, they did so by the hundreds, creating a real tangle for clerks and making many seats wich had been sold suddenly available again for the evening show.

They still are, in the $5 bracket, anyway. Better choices are at the matinee for which tickets are still being sold at $7:50 as well as $5.

Theorically the addition of the matinee benefited mainly those who had ordered $10 seats.

"Everybody wants to be up front center," explained Mrs. June Lewis, manager of the Convention Center box office. "We had hundreds more orders for $10 seats than we could possibly fill with one show."

Thus with the addition of a second performance a lot of $10 seat-holders will be a lot closer to the stage than they might have been.

But one reason for both shows are not sold out is tha tmany ticket buyers requested their checks be returned if they could not be given those "up front center seats".

Box office officials believe another reason there are still tickets available is tha tmany potential patrons were turned offby the original sold-out announcement.

Courtesy of Archie Bald