In 2018, Wes Dooley, my old boss at AEA Microphones, messaged me from Memphis.
“My friend Joe and I visited the original Sun Studios this morning. It was great fun to take the studio tour. On the tour, we discovered the first person to record Elvis was Marion, Sam’s only employee. Sam eventually left his radio station job to found Sun Records. But at this time, he was still working there too, so his secretary and assistant, Marion Keisker, was the one who greeted and recorded Elvis in 1953 when he first walked in the door. She used the same Ampex model 350 mono recorder that I first used.”
I was stunned. Who was this woman and why had I never heard of her? I needed to know more.
The Search for Marion Keisker
I dove into everything I could find on Marion. In retrospect, I was lucky that she was my first real “case study” on women in the audio industry. Marion’s name an appeared in books, articles, and even discussions on Elvis fan sites. However, I often found the same folklore:
Elvis walks into Sun Studios in 1953. Marion asks him, “Who do you sound like?” Elvis replies, “I don’t sound like nobody.”
It’s a great anecdote, but it flattened her role into a single moment. It was a reminder of how history is often reduced to memorable but one-dimensional stories.
Information on Marion came from unexpected places. One of my best leads was Billy “The Spa Guy” Stallings, a Memphis-based historian-by-hobby whose Elvis videos I found on YouTube. Billy helped me fill in details about Marion’s career and personal life in Memphis, even mapping out the layout of her home.
That was my first real lesson in researching overlooked history: the best sources aren’t always in books. Sometimes, they’re people who care enough to document it themselves.
Beyond Marion: Uncovering Hidden Figures
Marion Keisker was just the beginning. I found many other women who had shaped the recording industry but whose legacies remained in the shadows. One of them was Ethel Gabriel. Like Marion, Ethel crossed paths with Elvis—this time at RCA, where he was signed to the label in 1955. Both women played behind-the-scenes roles, quietly complementing the work of the men they stood beside—Marion with Sam Phillips at Sun Studios, Ethel with Steve Sholes at RCA.
Another Hidden Figure I found fascinating was Betty Cantor-Jackson, a recording engineer who captured hundreds of Grateful Dead shows in the 1970s. Financial struggles led to Betty losing possession of her recordings in the 1980s when her storage unit was auctioned off. The reels ended up with private collectors, who later restored and circulated the recordings, turning them into some of the most famous live tapes among Deadheads. Many of these “Betty Board” recordings were eventually officially released—but without Betty’s involvement or financial benefit.
This story could have been a footnote similar to Marion’s. But part of uncovering history is not just finding the names and dates. It’s about finding the bigger stories behind the footnotes — their character, personality, technical skills, and relationships to the artists they worked with.
These things don’t appear in a Google search — you find them in the stories that surface over time. For example, even as Elvis’ career skyrocketed, he would drop in to visit Marion when he was in town. Alana Nash’s Baby Let’s Play House shares a story of Elvis taking Marion to a fair, where he jokingly told a group of girls Marion was his wife. Elvis won her three teddy bears—only for them to be stolen by fans. It’s a fun story, but what’s interesting is Marion decided not to be seen publicly with Elvis after that. It gives depth to the relationship they had before Elvis’ fame erupted and the turning point.
These layers of research—academic, professional, and amateur—help piece together the fuller picture of history. This ensures that figures like Marion, Ethel, and Betty don’t disappear into footnotes. Documenting these stories isn’t just about research—it’s about preservation. The 20th century left behind scraps of their legacies, and if no one pieces them together, they risk being forgotten entirely.
Further Reading
- First to Record Elvis — Marion Keisker (Biography written for SoundGirls)
- Did Marion Keisker record Elvis?