September 15, 1955

That fall of 1955, gas ran $0.29 a gallon and Eisenhower was in the White House — though the Middle East was pushing toward open conflict, with Israel and Egypt locked in a standoff over arms shipments and Arab-Israeli tensions drawing urgent calls from world leaders for negotiation. On movie screens, Audie Murphy was drawing crowds to "To Hell and Back," his autobiographical World War II film, while on television, "The $64,000 Question" had become the most-watched show in the country. The Brooklyn Dodgers gave their city its first World Series championship by defeating the New York Yankees, and in a New Orleans studio that September, Little Richard recorded "Tutti Frutti," a session that would help define the sound of rock and roll for the decade ahead.