{"id":568,"date":"2024-08-16T11:46:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T15:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/?p=568"},"modified":"2024-08-17T01:48:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T05:48:25","slug":"how-elvis-helped-my-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/2024\/08\/16\/how-elvis-helped-my-career\/","title":{"rendered":"How Elvis helped my career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UPDATE: Jeez, I typed the year wrong. I have corrected that…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1977, I was attending college and working part-time at the local newspaper. Besides writing a weekly music column, I used their typewriters for my class assignments (hey, I’m old<\/em>) and took care of stuff no one else wanted to do (“Club Calendar,” calling the local theaters to compile the movie times).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this day in 1977, I had taken a break to join my mom for dinner at Morrisons Cafeteria. When we got back to the car, we heard the news on the radio: Elvis Presley was dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I headed back to the newspaper. Still had some homework to finish. Plus, I liked hanging out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I called a friend who worked at a local record store. He told me people were swarming the store to buy Elvis records. Not something that had happened in, oh, a few decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I grabbed a notebook and pen (hey, I’m old<\/em>) and headed to that store. And a few others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I returned to the paper, I wrote up a story about local reaction to Elvis having left the building. I left it with the copy desk, but warned them I hadn’t previously gotten authorization to do that story (the management at the paper was, ummm, a bit strange at times).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next morning, there it was: My first front-page byline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I headed for the paper (when did I ever show up in class? Not much, as my grades often reflected), thinking I’d be in trouble for doing the story without permission. Instead, I got praise and an extra 20 bucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story wasn’t great. But it provided local readers with a bit of what Elvis fans in the area felt about the news. So it worked on that level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, I guess, it also marked what turned out to be a key feature of my whole 40-year career: Rather than wait for opportunities, I came up with ideas and did my best to make them happen. That pissed off some of the bosses I’ve had. But the others \u2013 the good<\/em> ones \u2013 encouraged me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks, Elvis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Jeez, I typed the year wrong. I have corrected that… In 1977, I was attending college and working part-time at the local newspaper. Besides writing a weekly music column, I used their typewriters for my class assignments (hey, I’m old) and took care of stuff no one else wanted to do (“Club Calendar,” calling…<\/p>\n Read More<\/span> How Elvis helped my career<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"2c-l","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,45,1],"tags":[32],"class_list":["entry","author-admin","post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music","category-newspaper","category-uncategorized","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mirrer.com\/MirrerView\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}