Sexhibitionist Elvis Presley 1957?

[TCB4ELVIS]

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...is-update.html

VERY STRANGE STORY FROM 1957.

Oct. 29, 1957
Los Angeles

You may remember my post on Elvis Presley's concerts at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, based on contemporary reviews by those two keen observers of popular culture: Wally George and Hedda Hopper.

I'm sorry to say I did a very poor job of capturing what actually happened and I've been too pressed for time until now to set the record straight.

In fact, Presley put on a graphic, controversial show. The performance was so raunchy that the LAPD vice squad filmed Presley's second concert for possible legal action. I'll never be able to look at the RCA dog in the same way after reading what Presley did with a statue of the company's emblem. Poor Nipper!

Here's Dick Williams' review from the Mirror, which touched off an incredible controversy and caused Presley to curb his performance. "That's the worst he's ever been," socialite Judy Spreckles sobbed after his more conservative show.


1957_1029_elvis_williams

Sexhibitionist Elvis Presley has come at last in person to a visibly palpitating, adolescent female Los Angeles to give all the little girls' libidos the jolt of their lives.

1957_1030_elvis_mirror_2 Six thousand kids, predominantly feminine by a ratio of 10 to 1, jammed Pan-Pacific Auditorium to the rafters last night. They screamed their lungs out without letup as Elvis shook, bumped and did the grinds from one end of the stage to the other until he was a quivering heap on the floor 35 minutes later.

With anyone else, the police would have closed the show 10 minutes after it started. But not Elvis, our new national teenage hero.

If any further proof were needed that what Elvis offers is not basically music but a sex show, it was provided last night. Pandemonium took over from the time he swaggered triumphantly on stage like some ancient Caesar, resplendent in gold lame tux jacket with rhinestone lapels, until he weaved off at the end of his stint.

It was almost impossible to hear the music despite a turned-up public address system. A cloud of thumping drums, whining guitars and Elvis' hoarse shouts rose like some lascivious steaming brew from the bare stage (except for a banner plugging his next picture, "Jailhouse Rock") and filled the auditorium.

The only way I knew what Elvis was singing was by asking the youths sitting next to me. They somehow recognized every number. It started with "Heartbreak Hotel" and wound its way through all his popular record hits from "Hound Dog" to "Don't Be Cruel." There is but scant difference in any of them. Only the wild abandon varies.

Hundreds of little girls brought their flash cameras although what they expected to get sitting far back in this vast barn of a place I don't know. Constantly, amidst the high, sustained screaming, the thumping, clapping and wild shouts, innumerable flashes kept going off so that the darkness was intermittently lit as if by lightning.

The whole panorama, from the frenzy on stage to the far reaches of the jammed bleachers which seemed a mile back at the rear, looked like one of those screeching, uninhibited party rallies which the Nazis used to hold for Hitler.

1957_1029_elvis_ad Scores of police circled the auditorium and at the slightest hint of trouble plunged in ominous pairs up the aisles toward the offenders. There have been too many Elvis "concerts" which ended in riots in the past to risk any trouble.

Elvis worked with two guitarists, a drummer and a pianist plus the Jordinaires, a quartet of young harmonists who were lost in the hubbub.

He attempted almost no talking after his initial muttered, "Friends, I want to introduce yuh to the members of muh gang." Most of the time he was weaving over the stage like a horse with the blind staggers.

He wiggled, bounced, shook and ground in the style which stripteasers of the opposite sex have been using at stag shows since grandpa was a boy.

He used frequent contrived sensual gestures such as constantly hitching up his pants, fooling with his belt buckle and yanking down his coat to elicit further wild screams from his audience.

He played up to the mike stand like it was a girl in a gesture which is expressly forbidden by the police department in every burlesque show in Los Angeles County.

The wilder Elvis got in his pelvic gyrations, the more frenzied his audience became. Inevitably, he announced midway, sweat pouring down his face, that he was "all shook up."

The madness reached its peak at the finish with "Hound Dog." Elvis writhed in complete abandon, hair hanging down over his face. He got down on the floor with a huge replica of the RCA singing dog and made love to it as if it were a girl. Slowly, he rolled over and over on the floor.

The little brunette of maybe 15 sitting in front of me bent her head and covered her eyes, whether with embarrassment, fright, sickness or excitement, I know not.

I do know this is corruption of the innocent on a scale such as I have never witnessed before. For these are children to whom Elvis appeals, preconditioned, curious adolescents, who are artificially and unhealthfully stimulated. Their reactions would shock many a parent if he or she could see this display. They are not adults who can take his crudities and laugh or shrug them off.

The boy next to me, bent forward on his seat taking it all in, turned briefly to me between numbers. "He's great," he enthused. "He's simply great, isn't he?"

The same lesson in pornography will be repeated tonight, barring an interruption by the Police Department, which is unlikely, in view of the fact that they might have a riot on their hands.

[Pacerstar]

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thed...is-update.html

VERY STRANGE STORY FROM 1957.

Oct. 29, 1957
Los Angeles

You may remember my post on Elvis Presley's concerts at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, based on contemporary reviews by those two keen observers of popular culture: Wally George and Hedda Hopper.

I'm sorry to say I did a very poor job of capturing what actually happened and I've been too pressed for time until now to set the record straight.

In fact, Presley put on a graphic, controversial show. The performance was so raunchy that the LAPD vice squad filmed Presley's second concert for possible legal action. I'll never be able to look at the RCA dog in the same way after reading what Presley did with a statue of the company's emblem. Poor Nipper!

Here's Dick Williams' review from the Mirror, which touched off an incredible controversy and caused Presley to curb his performance. "That's the worst he's ever been," socialite Judy Spreckles sobbed after his more conservative show.


1957_1029_elvis_williams

Sexhibitionist Elvis Presley has come at last in person to a visibly palpitating, adolescent female Los Angeles to give all the little girls' libidos the jolt of their lives.

1957_1030_elvis_mirror_2 Six thousand kids, predominantly feminine by a ratio of 10 to 1, jammed Pan-Pacific Auditorium to the rafters last night. They screamed their lungs out without letup as Elvis shook, bumped and did the grinds from one end of the stage to the other until he was a quivering heap on the floor 35 minutes later.

With anyone else, the police would have closed the show 10 minutes after it started. But not Elvis, our new national teenage hero.

If any further proof were needed that what Elvis offers is not basically music but a sex show, it was provided last night. Pandemonium took over from the time he swaggered triumphantly on stage like some ancient Caesar, resplendent in gold lame tux jacket with rhinestone lapels, until he weaved off at the end of his stint.

It was almost impossible to hear the music despite a turned-up public address system. A cloud of thumping drums, whining guitars and Elvis' hoarse shouts rose like some lascivious steaming brew from the bare stage (except for a banner plugging his next picture, "Jailhouse Rock") and filled the auditorium.

The only way I knew what Elvis was singing was by asking the youths sitting next to me. They somehow recognized every number. It started with "Heartbreak Hotel" and wound its way through all his popular record hits from "Hound Dog" to "Don't Be Cruel." There is but scant difference in any of them. Only the wild abandon varies.

Hundreds of little girls brought their flash cameras although what they expected to get sitting far back in this vast barn of a place I don't know. Constantly, amidst the high, sustained screaming, the thumping, clapping and wild shouts, innumerable flashes kept going off so that the darkness was intermittently lit as if by lightning.

The whole panorama, from the frenzy on stage to the far reaches of the jammed bleachers which seemed a mile back at the rear, looked like one of those screeching, uninhibited party rallies which the Nazis used to hold for Hitler.

1957_1029_elvis_ad Scores of police circled the auditorium and at the slightest hint of trouble plunged in ominous pairs up the aisles toward the offenders. There have been too many Elvis "concerts" which ended in riots in the past to risk any trouble.

Elvis worked with two guitarists, a drummer and a pianist plus the Jordinaires, a quartet of young harmonists who were lost in the hubbub.

He attempted almost no talking after his initial muttered, "Friends, I want to introduce yuh to the members of muh gang." Most of the time he was weaving over the stage like a horse with the blind staggers.

He wiggled, bounced, shook and ground in the style which stripteasers of the opposite sex have been using at stag shows since grandpa was a boy.

He used frequent contrived sensual gestures such as constantly hitching up his pants, fooling with his belt buckle and yanking down his coat to elicit further wild screams from his audience.

He played up to the mike stand like it was a girl in a gesture which is expressly forbidden by the police department in every burlesque show in Los Angeles County.

The wilder Elvis got in his pelvic gyrations, the more frenzied his audience became. Inevitably, he announced midway, sweat pouring down his face, that he was "all shook up."

The madness reached its peak at the finish with "Hound Dog." Elvis writhed in complete abandon, hair hanging down over his face. He got down on the floor with a huge replica of the RCA singing dog and made love to it as if it were a girl. Slowly, he rolled over and over on the floor.

The little brunette of maybe 15 sitting in front of me bent her head and covered her eyes, whether with embarrassment, fright, sickness or excitement, I know not.

I do know this is corruption of the innocent on a scale such as I have never witnessed before. For these are children to whom Elvis appeals, preconditioned, curious adolescents, who are artificially and unhealthfully stimulated. Their reactions would shock many a parent if he or she could see this display. They are not adults who can take his crudities and laugh or shrug them off.

The boy next to me, bent forward on his seat taking it all in, turned briefly to me between numbers. "He's great," he enthused. "He's simply great, isn't he?"

The same lesson in pornography will be repeated tonight, barring an interruption by the Police Department, which is unlikely, in view of the fact that they might have a riot on their hands.

Reading that review now, it is almost laughable. I get the feeling that all
the lewdness was in that reporter's own mind! It was fun to read though.
Thanks for posting it.

[Getlo]

The performance was so raunchy that the LAPD vice squad filmed Presley's second concert for possible legal action.

A few minutes of a concert in Florida was filmed, not LA.

And the story of Elvis humping the RCA mascot Nipper is a complete myth. He wouldn't have been that directly vulgar or obscene.

[Pacerstar]

A few minutes of a concert in Florida was filmed, not LA.

And the story of Elvis humping the RCA mascot Nipper is a complete myth. He wouldn't have been that directly vulgar or obscene.

I believe that, Getlo. Elvis said in interviews that he would not do anything
vulgar or that would upset his mother.

[Getlo]

Yes, he certainly played around with Nipper, but he did not directly pretend to hump the dog.

If he'd have actually done that - epsecially in '57 - he'd have been arrested.

[LISY]

Thanks for posting this review, he was certainly treading new ground at that time wasn't he?....sounds like the reviewer was a tad overcome, LOL

[Tommy]

This is garbage!

[Lisarose]

Yes, he certainly played around with Nipper, but he did not directly pretend to hump the dog.

If he'd have actually done that - epsecially in '57 - he'd have been arrested.

Exactly! That's one story I never believed, just too preposterous! Now had it been today. . . .oh wait, that has been done on stage.

[Diane]

Exactly! That's one story I never believed, just too preposterous! Now had it been today. . . .oh wait, that has been done on stage.

As I've said before, the media has always been after Elvis from the beginning with gross exaggerations and some downright lies. Compared to a lot of artists today, he was a altar boy.

Diane

[beckelvis]

As I've said before, the media has always been after Elvis from the beginning with gross exaggerations and some downright lies. Compared to a lot of artists today, he was a altar boy.

Diane

Very well above mentioned I not to have said it better or so clear.

[Diane]

Very well above mentioned I not to have said it better or so clear.

Thank you Becky...you know his real worth

Diane

[monk37]

not only would Elvis have been arrested - but there would have been photos

there was press at these shows and fans had cameras


why would he have humped Nipper at one show and not others?

this is a myth that was just a scare tactic to make Elvis appear degenerate

sort of like the 2 stories from the 50's about Elvis being racist towards Blacks and Mexicans, when neither story was at all true

[Raised on Rock]

Those type of articles where common thing during Elvis early days, and yes, most of them where merely exaggerations, while others where plain bashing to put down Elvis, but why was that?

We know, Elvis never humped on Nipper as if he was having sex with a dog, gezzz, neither any of his stage mannerisms where intended to be vulgar or offensive to anyone, but what was he doing? he was doing rock and roll.

The true also is, and we must not forget this, those where the early days of rock and roll music, and lots of people hated it, not just because a matter of taste, but because of moralistic issues. Sure for the fans, for the young people, rock and roll just meant having fun, having a ball, be yourself, express yourself, (sure, for many teenagers, female and male, rock and roll music, ELVIS: it might even meant to discover sex, and nothing wrong with that,) but in the moral climate of the 50's, for many grown ups, that was synonymous of indecency, of bad bad behavior one step away from delinquency, to be a sinner lasciviously dancing to the so called devils music, needles to recall the racist connotations implicit in rock and roll music detractors back then. So you might not like to see your son on sideburns and leather jacker, needles to say to see your daughter going nuts on that, right?

So no matter who much of a clean decent boy Elvis was, (and how much a of a clean almost naive show a Presley concert may look today), back then, Elvis Presley was the embodiment of rock and roll, not just musically, but of all the social-cultural connotations that came with that music, to see ELVIS PRESLEY LIVE, DOING HIS THING ON STAGE, DO WAS A TOTAL CULTURAL SHOCK!!! one that you might experience, paraphrasing Bob Dylan words: as busting out of a jail. A whole generation loved that experience and did changed their lives, obviously some others, what they saw in that, was something TO be condemned.

So sure, this article its nothing but garbage, but in its historical context, it does tell me: Elvis Presley in the 50's! definitively something was going on there!

For us the pics below show us good old El, good old rock and roll, back then, Presley falling on his knees in front of Nipper singing and grinding You Ain't Nothingt But a Hound Dog... well I don't know what some people had on their minds. But certainly, Elvis Presley , in his naivety, in sawing nothing wrong with that, nothing that will upset his own mother, did threw away, certain tabus that needed, pleaded to be broken by the younger generation, (ones that had anything to do with having sex with a dog).

[debtdbruno]

BOY, does he look hot in those photos.............WOW

[beckelvis]

The one who was this dog, the truth seems to my me of sexy more, everything this one in the imginacion of each one, and since they it wanted to interpret

[SleepyJack]

Those type of articles where common thing during Elvis early days, and yes, most of them where merely exaggerations, while others where plain bashing to put down Elvis, but why was that?

We know, Elvis never humped on Nipper as if he was having sex with a dog, gezzz, neither any of his stage mannerisms where intended to be vulgar or offensive to anyone, but what was he doing? he was doing rock and roll.

The true also is, and we must not forget this, those where the early days of rock and roll music, and lots of people hated it, not just because a matter of taste, but because of moralistic issues. Sure for the fans, for the young people, rock and roll just meant having fun, having a ball, be yourself, express yourself, (sure, for many teenagers, female and male, rock and roll music, ELVIS: it might even meant to discover sex, and nothing wrong with that,) but in the moral climate of the 50's, for many grown ups, that was synonymous of indecency, of bad bad behavior one step away from delinquency, to be a sinner lasciviously dancing to the so called devils music, needles to recall the racist connotations implicit in rock and roll music detractors back then. So you might not like to see your son on sideburns and leather jacker, needles to say to see your daughter going nuts on that, right?

So no matter who much of a clean decent boy Elvis was, (and how much a of a clean almost naive show a Presley concert may look today), back then, Elvis Presley was the embodiment of rock and roll, not just musically, but of all the social-cultural connotations that came with that music, to see ELVIS PRESLEY LIVE, DOING HIS THING ON STAGE, DO WAS A TOTAL CULTURAL SHOCK!!! one that you might experience, paraphrasing Bob Dylan words: as busting out of a jail. A whole generation loved that experience and did changed their lives, obviously some others, what they saw in that, was something TO be condemned.

So sure, this article its nothing but garbage, but in its historical context, it does tell me: Elvis Presley in the 50's! definitively something was going on there!

For us the pics below show us good old El, good old rock and roll, back then, Presley falling on his knees in front of Nipper singing and grinding You Ain't Nothingt But a Hound Dog... well I don't know what some people had on their minds. But certainly, Elvis Presley , in his naivety, in sawing nothing wrong with that, nothing that will upset his own mother, did threw away, certain tabus that needed, pleaded to be broken by the younger generation, (ones that had anything to do with having sex with a dog).

Great photos!.....nobody did "cool" like Elvis.....love `em!!

[Lisarose]

Too many cameras not to have it all on record - and yes, he was hot!

[KPM]

The idea that Elvis was just having fun rolling around with a stuffed dog on stage would not create the controversy that saying he "humped the Nipper Dog" on stage did-so which sells more papers?
Perhaps the ones with the sex hangup were the reporters.

[Diane]

Perhaps the ones with the sex hangup were the reporters.

And there you have it in spades!

Diane

[LISY]

The idea that Elvis was just having fun rolling around with a stuffed dog on stage would not create the controversy that saying he "humped the Nipper Dog" on stage did-so which sells more papers?
Perhaps the ones with the sex hangup were the reporters.

Bingo...