airwaves By Samuel Prager That was the start of Elvis’ Memphis Mafia, a close assortment of Elvis’ hometown friends who accompanied him on worldwide tours. Klein even made a few cameos in such movies as Jailhouse Rock. “It was a dream come true,” Klein recalls. “Here I am a disc jockey from Memphis and my best friend is a superstar and I’m traveling the country with him.” Klein’s and Elvis’ paths had already crossed several times. The two had attended Humes High School together near downtown Memphis in the early 1950s. It was a time frame in which Klein had just been given his first radio job by another legendary disc jockey, Dewey Phillips. “Phillips was red hot and very popular with young people — rock ’n’ roll was just starting,” Klein says. “He needed someone to be a gopher.” Klein, though, knew he wanted to be on the air and thought the best path was attending then Memphis State. “I knew that I had to have a college degree to make it — you’d have a tough time without one even back then. I majored in marketing at Memphis State since they didn’t have a broadcast program. The next best thing for me to do was minor in speech and drama so I could learn how to project my voice and lose my Southern accent. But I knew I needed some practical radio experience.” In 1954 Klein got his first radio show just up the road in Osceola, Ark., where he learned all the basics at the small station. Just getting back and forth from the small farming community was an adventure. “I’d ride a bus to get there from Memphis every week, but when I was coming home on the weekend, I’d go stand on W W W. M E M P H I S . E D U
A young George Klein and Elv is Presley were men-about-tow n in Me mphis in the 1950s.
the highway where there was a traffic signal. I’d walk up to a stopped car and ask, ‘How about a ride to Memphis?’ and they’d let me in. Back in those days people would pick you up if you didn’t look weird or crazy.” It was one of those trips back to Memphis where the Klein/ Presley connection picked back up. Klein was visiting his old mentor, Dewey Phillips, who was about to put the young DJ on the map. “I had walked in to Dewey’s station and he said to me, ‘Hey GK, I want you to hear something.’ He put this record on the turntable and held his SP R I NG 2014
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