If Kansas City remains a too-little-known gem among American cities, the same may be true of its organ and church-music scenes.

Without KC Fringe, the local theater scene would not be what it is. The Fringe, which will present its 14th annual potpourri of performances, film, visual arts and youth activities spanning 10 days in July, got off to an unwieldy start in its inaugural year— mainly because nobody had attempted a fringe festival in Kansas City before. KC Fringe, like other fringe fests around the country, took its cue from the Mother Ship: The Edinburgh Fringe, which began in 1947 in Scotland.

Sixty-five years ago, an assembler at the machine shop M.B. Parker Co. walked into Memphis Recording Service and paid $3.98 to play guitar and sing two songs that were recorded onto a lacquer disc. That assembler was 18-year-old Elvis Presley, and this self-financed session on July 16, 1953 (more than $37 in today’s dollars), eventually led to his signing to Memphis Recording Service’s record label, Sun Records.