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An executive of a production company said her efforts in stopping the demolition of the old Stax recording studio is not only a fight to preserve history, but an attempt to to uphold the legacy of Black music in Memphis as well.
Judy McEwen, president of RU? Productions, a talent/management agency, had been negotiating for the past two months for the rights to use the old Stax building as a recording studio for local talent.
However, after discovering a loophole in the deed, the current owner of the building decided to tear it down.
Workers began dismanteling the historic studio August 3, but had to stop after they ruptured a natural gas line. The work stoppage gave Ms. McEwen time to get a Chancery Court order to temporarily halt demolition.
"We want to preserve the Stax building and restore it back to a functional studio. Then we can help young artists who don't have the money to afford these big studios get their careers started, just as Stax did when it was known as 'Soulsville, U.S.A.,'" Judy McEwen told the Tri-State Defender.
Stax Records, at McLemore and College, made the "Memphis Sound" and 'Soul Music' famous with scores of smash hits in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Stax signed talented entertainers such as Isaac Hayes, Johnny Taylor, David Porter and Rufus Thomas, who all went on to gain international fame.