Symbols In Mystery Train

In 1974, due to a series of bad loans, charges of criminal embezzlement, and other unfortunate circumstances, the Union Planters Bank foreclosed on the Stax Record Company and all its property. Included in this seizure was the building where Stax founders, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, set up shop an African American neighborhood at the former Capitol Theater in 1960. By 1980, the neighborhood became one of the poorest and most crime-ridden zip codes in the United States and the property held little to no resale value. To divest itself of this property and to acquire a sizable tax write-off, Union Planters sold the Stax building to the South Side Church of God in Christ and its parent organization located a few blocks away in the Mason Temple for ten dollars. However,
The script for the film included the story of two Japanese teenager’s spiritual pilgrimage to Memphis the home of their hero, Elvis Presley. Wilmott, a native Memphian who recently returned back to his home city to open a record store and record label, Shangri-La Records, recommended a scene be shot using the abandoned Stax building as both background to the couple’s journey and for its symbolic imagery of a city struggling with its cultural past. The brief walk by the two tourists showed Stax in its blighted condition with “Stax Lives” symbolically spray painted on the front. With the Stax building still standing but ignored for over a decade, the local news reported in late July of 1989 that the Church of God in Christ began to tear it down to make way for a community center and soup kitchen. This news came as a shock to many, including Ward Archer Jr and Judy McEwan. The news reported, however, that Tucker’s Wrecking Company employees struck a gas line and its efforts had to stop. This brief reprieve jolted several Memphis citizens into