BUT SERIOUSLY, FOLKS!

A roller coaster legal battle
By Bill Haltom

It was Elvis’ favorite amusement park ride. Now it’s part of a roller coaster legal battle involving the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame and the Mid-South Fair. At issue in this up’n’down affair is the Zippin Pippin, a classic wooden roller coaster that was originally built in 1912 and located in the old East End Amusement Park in Memphis.

In 1923, the coaster was dismantled and relocated adjacent to a horse track (yes, Tennessee once had a horse track) in a mid-town Memphis park now known as the Mid-South Fairgrounds.

For over 80 years, the Zippin Pippin was the centerpiece for the Mid-South Fairgrounds Amusement Park which in the 1970s became “Libertyland,” a rather pathetic attempt by my hometown of Memphis to compete with Disneyland. (True story. In 1996, when the University of Memphis Tigers scored their only football victory over my beloved Tennessee Volunteers, the Tigers players were celebrating on the Liberty Bowl field at the conclusion of the game. A local sports broadcaster shoved a microphone in the face of one of the players and said, “You’ve just beaten the Tennessee Volunteers! What are you going to do now?” Without hesitation, the Tiger responded, “I’m going to Libertyland!”)

The Zippin Pippin had thousands of fans. But its biggest fan was the King himself, Elvis Aaron Presley. Elvis would often rent out the entire amusement park from midnight to 7 a.m. and then would spend hours riding the Zippin Pippin non-stop. The King was all shook up by this hunka, hunka burnin’ roller coaster. But alas, the King is dead and so is the Zippin Pippin.

In October of 2005, Libertyland closed its gates for good, which no doubt came as a relief to Mickey Mouse and his bidness partners at Disney World.

Last June, the Zippin Pippin and other Libertyland rides were put up for sale at auction. I was hoping that Elvis might make one of his frequent appearances at Libertyland on the day of the auction, buy the Zippin Pippin, and move it to Graceland. But despite numerous Elvis sightings over the last several years, it appears that Elvis really has left the building (or at least the amusement park) for good. He didn’t show up for the auction. But Stephen Shutts did. Mr. Shutts is the owner of something called the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame and Rock’n’Roll Road Show, which is based in Nashville. At the auction, Shutts purchased the Zippin Pippin for the enormous sum of $2,500. Heck, if I’d known Elvis’ favorite roller coaster could be purchased for far less than a used car, I would have bought it. It would look fabulous in my backyard, and the Haltom kids would really enjoy riding it.

But despite the apparent sale, the Zippin Pippin still sits in the now-abandoned Libertyland. And while Shutts still claims to be the rightful owner of the Zippin Pippin, he is now in a legal battle with the Mid-South Fair. According to officials of the fair, the sale of the coaster was contingent on Mr. Shutts removing the Zippin Pippin from Libertyland within 30 days. It’s apparently not easy to pick up a roller coaster and move it to Nashville, so Shutts now takes the position that all he was really interested in buying was the Zippin Pippin’s first car, the one Elvis liked to ride, since as you can imagine, the King always wanted to be in the front seat, alongside Priscilla or Lisa Marie. (Dr. Nick and Uncle Vester sat in the second car, right behind them.) Shutts says he is more than happy to pick up the first car and transport it to Nashville where it will be the main attraction of the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame. He says he sold the rest of the Zippin Pippin to Carolina Crossroads, a North Carolina tourist attraction, which is apparently also trying to put Disney World out of bidness. But Carolina Crossroads has also not moved the Pippin, and Mid-South Fair Operating Officer Jim Rout now says that if Shutts doesn’t come pick up the Zippin Pippin, it’s going to be declared “abandoned property.” As the King would say, “Return to Sender!”

Well, as a life-long Memphian, I spent many happy hours on the Zippin Pippin myself. I never rode with the King, but during my high school years, I often rode the Pippin with Sharon McEwen, a gorgeous girl whom I couldn’t help falling in love with again and again and again. I never got to first base with Sharon, but while she never loved me tender, we did have some real thrills on the Zippin Pippin.

Given such fond memories, I think it’s time for Mid-South Fair officials to tell Stephen Shutts and the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame that the deal is off. You said you was high class, Shutts, but that was just a lie.

For a life-long Memphian like me, it’s bad enough that Nashville has Memphis’ NFL franchise, the Tennessee-Houston-Memphis-Oilers-Honky Tonk-Titans. But if the folks in Music City think they are going to steal Elvis’ Zippin Pippin for $2,500, they got another think coming! I say it’s time for Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton to have the lawyers in Baker Donelson’s Memphis office send a letter to the lawyers in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office, telling them to advise the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame that since Shutts didn’t move the coaster to Goo Goo Cluster City within 30 days after the sale, the Zippin Pippin is staying right where the King would want it.

Then, at long last, my hometown of Memphis can do something right. We can take care of business by re-opening Libertyland under the magnificent new name, Six Flags Over Elvis, with the Zippin Pippin as the main attraction!

Mickey and those poor folks down in Orlando will never know what hit them.

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Bill Haltom is a partner with the Memphis firm of Thomason, Hendrix, Harvey, Johnson & Mitchell. He is past president of the Tennessee Bar Association and is a past president of the Memphis Bar Association.