Louis Cantor

Louis Cantor developed his career as a historian in the United States whose work connected popular music, broadcasting, race, and the social history of Memphis. Dewey and Elvis examines radio personality Dewey Phillips, the host of Red, Hot and Blue, and his role in bringing rhythm and blues to a broad audience before becoming the first major disc jockey to play and interview Elvis Presley. Cantor treats Phillips not merely as a colourful broadcaster but as a figure within the changing cultural geography of postwar Memphis. The book draws on interviews and oral histories alongside documentary research, linking radio performance to Beale Street, Sun Records, segregation, and the emergence of rock and roll. Cantor taught history at Indiana University and also wrote Wheelin’ on Beale, a study of the city’s African American commercial district. Published in the Music in American Life series, Dewey and Elvis extends that work by tracing how one volatile radio career helped music cross established social and commercial boundaries.