During coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial service on Fox News, Shepard Smith recounted one of the reasons why he got into broadcast journalism — he was captivated by Elvis Presley’s funeral while watching it as a young boy growing up near Memphis.
“It was a hot August day in Memphis, I think it was August 16 of 1977 when Elvis died at 42 years old. And, live television events were relatively new to the nation; and, completely new to Memphis,” said Smith around 1:20 this afternoon. “That was the first, to my recollection…it was the first live mini cam that a local television station had ever used in this way. And, it was a fascinating thing to see.”
It’s a story Smith recounted in a recent Esquire profile: “I was watching Elvis’s funeral on Channel 5 in Memphis. I was fascinated as a 13-year-old by the fact that they could do live broadcasts from Memphis that I could see at the same time they were happening — in my house.”