NEWPORT —Signs along a major artery in the northeast Arkansas Delta tell motorists they are driving "Rock 'n' Roll Highway 67." Those bare postings come nostalgically to life in Newport at a museum packed with musical memorabilia.
The Arkansas Rock 'n' Roll Highway 67 Museum, created a decade ago by enthusiast Henry Boyce, is tucked away on the second floor of a downtown office building in the Jackson County seat.
On exhibit is a cornucopia of artifacts from what could more accurately be labeled the "rockabilly" heyday of the late 1940s to early '60s. The trove includes musical instruments, vinyl 45's and LP records, photographs and posters.
When the Arkansas General Assembly gave a 110-mile stretch of U.S. 67 its official title in 2009, several music historians favored the name "Rockabilly Highway." But civic boosters evidently feared that "rockabilly" would bring to mind the supposedly pejorative term "hillbilly." So "rock 'n' roll" became the name.
Whatever the highway's designation, the museum revives memories of that era's performers — Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash the most famous among them — along with the nightclubs, jukebox joints and roadhouses where they played. A cardboard silhouette of the King of Rock 'n' Roll stands near a sign from the former Bob King's King of Clubs, where Presley is said to have first sung "Heartbreak Hotel" in December 1955.
Exhibits, in a building also housing Newport Economic Development Commission and Newport Area Chamber of Commerce, concentrate on the 35 miles of U.S. 67 that run through Jackson County. A map marks 19 clubs and other sites from the rockabilly period.
The map locates the era's three most prominent venues, which sometimes offered illicit gambling as well as music: King of Clubs, Porky's Rooftop and the Silver Moon Club. Other spots range from American Legion and VFW halls to Newport Armory and Swifton High's gymnasium. The listing for the Sunset Inn cites it as "home of the beer-drinking bear" — a curiosity for which, alas, no details are provided.
Porky's Rooftop "was an open-air nightclub started on the roof of Porky Sellers' existing BBQ restaurant with no rails, no walls, just music and dancing. Eventually walls and a roof were added."
Presley played Porky's on March 2, 1955. After his performance, "Sellers is reported to have commented to the soon-to-be superstar, 'Son, you've got a great voice, but if you're gonna make it in the music business, you better clean up your act.'"
Virtually all the musicians who played Jackson County's rockabilly venues were white, a segregated fact of life in Jim Crow times. A museum exhibit focuses on one exception, a concert at the 800-seat Silver Moon Club in the early 1950s by Louis Armstrong, accompanied by his vocalist, Thelma Middlebrook.
"Several news outlets were in attendance," a sign informs visitors. "At the end of the evening, no hotel in Newport would house the performers. Mr. Armstrong was taken to Teddy and Thelma Burton's club, a black nightclub, where the Burtons fed and housed Mr. Armstrong. His performance fee for the evening was $3,000, according to local legend."
Arkansas Rock 'n' Roll Highway 67 Museum, 201 N. Hazel St., Newport, is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission is free; donations are welcome. Visit arkansasrocknrollhighway67museum.com or call (870) 523-3618.
Weekend on 02/21/2019