Elvis Presley was in Vancouver 60 years ago today, and Red Robinson remembers it well.
The local radio DJ met “The King” at old Empire Stadium, once located on the PNE grounds.
“Vancouver was one of only three cities Elvis played outside the United States, and the show was the last performance he ever gave outside the U.S.,” Robinson says in a Facebook post.
“Vancouver’s first rock-and-roll show had taken place barely a year before, when Bill Haley and the Comets drew 6,000 people to the Kerrisdale Arena.
“Now Elvis had drawn a crowd over four times larger. This was the first celebrity to ever rent stadiums and he could do it because he was a giant, even then.”
Last Sunday (Aug. 27), Robinson said goodbye to the radio biz during a special four-hour show on the CISL 650 “oldies” station that has employed him in recent years.
The station will switch to an all-sports format next week, prompting Robinson’s departure from the radio business.
Although Robinson is quitting the radio biz, he promises to continue to entertain at redrobinson.com and other online channels.