Elvis Blog Archives — September 2008

Entry #26: Posted September 4, 2008
Did Girls Have Sex on Their Minds When Watching Elvis in the Fifties?

One recurring theme that came up during the research for my Elvis ’57 book was “screaming girls.” In all 18 cities Elvis played that year, the story was the same. The girls screamed so loud at every concert that no one could hear Elvis sing. Even the musicians on stage had trouble hearing each other. Scotty Moore once said, “We were the first band directed by an ass.” He meant that because of all the screaming, he and the other musicians couldn’t hear Elvis sing, so they took their cues from watching Elvis move. Elvis himself explained that at times in 1957 he had to cover his ears with his hands so that he could hear himself sing.

These days girls screaming at a concert is not unusual, but back in 1956 and 1957 it was a new phenomenon. It frightened some adults and puzzled nearly all of them. Sinatra’s fans had certainly gotten excited and some swooned, but they hadn’t abandoned all reason and screamed hysterically and continually like Elvis’s fans did. Why did they do it?

I recently came across an article in the September 28, 1956, issue of the New York Daily Mirror that tried to answer that question. The headline read, “Girls Identify Elvis as Lover, MD Says.” Writers Norman Miller and James McGlincy tried to uncover the reasons behind the Presley craze by consulting psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers. After doing so, they came to the following shocking conclusion.

“When a teenager on the threshold of womanhood watches or listens to Elvis Presley, there is only one thing on her mind—sex. She may deny this. She may not even believe it herself. But that’s what it is, according to specialists.”

Miller and James then presented their evidence in the form of quotations from these “eminent,” but unnamed, specialists. “Watch their faces,” one psychiatrist said of the girls in Elvis’s audiences. “See their twitching, their uncontrolled movements. They are in ecstasy. They have identified Presley as their lover. Many of them are, to use an old-fashioned term, ‘good girls.’ Most of them, probably. They never would let themselves go with their own boyfriends. But, watching Presley, it’s safe.”

The psychiatrist pointed out that this reaction was not confined to teenage girls. He also had business women as clients, who he said felt frustrated and confined in what was still a man’s world.

“They are fearful of romantic involvement,” explained the doctor. “But they still want to escape the masculinity of the business world. They want to be women. Elvis Presley gives them that. They escape to their natural femaleness, listening to him. And it’s perfectly safe. Next day they go back to work with no ties, no danger, as there might be in a love affair. It’s vicarious. But it is a release.”

A psychologist offered another theory for why Elvis affected girls and women as he did. “He’s primitive man. His dress, his actions, the music he sings, all these are primitive. And they arouse primitive instincts. Put Elvis Presley in a Brook Brothers suit, shave the sideburns and make him stand still while he sings a romantic ballad, and he would be just another unsuccessful entertainer.”

The analyst went on to contrast the female reaction to previous singing idols with that provoked by Elvis. “Rudy Vallee crooning into his megaphone was a nice-looking young man who attracted older women who wanted to mother him,” he explained. “I think Sinatra probably always made the girls feel they ought to take him home and feed him a big steak, another form of maternal instinct. As for Johnny Ray, who knows? But in all those cases there was some sweet, romantic attachment between the fan and the star.

“There is nothing sweet about it when a young girl goes crazy for Elvis, as all of them seem to have done. I’ve talked with some of them and they certainly can’t define their reactions too well. They say, ‘He’s gone,’ or ‘He’s the greatest.’ What they mean is that they are gone, probably for the first time in their lives. Many of them are going through that disturbing, puzzling period of their lives when they begin to awaken to the fact they are women.”

As you can imagine, within days some of the girls who felt they had been over-analyzed in Miller and McGlincy’s article, responded in the Mirror with letters-to-the-editor. Two of them used sarcasm to counter the authors’ conclusion that “sex” was the only thing on their minds when they watched Elvis.

Vivian Barnsworth wrote, “Sex! Yes, that’s it! That’s what Elvis has got. That’s what sends those shivers up and down your spine. Oh, sweet daddy—sing to me Elvis, sing to me!”

Bertha Millerman added in her letter, “I’ve always wondered what irresistible attraction Elvis has had for me. Now I know, and I’m dreadfully ashamed. The Norman Miller-Jim McGlincy series has opened my eyes to my iniquity. Oh, sex—begone! Elvis, why have you done this to me?”

When I talked with some women who had attended an Elvis concert back in 1957, most of them admitted they had screamed. But, as the psychologist explained in the Mirror article, most of them couldn’t explain exactly why they had done so. For some it was clearly a mob response. Everybody else was screaming, so they did too.

Only once did I get a thoughtful response to the question, “Why did you scream when you watched Elvis?” It came from a woman, who was 15 when she saw Elvis perform in Spokane’s Memorial Stadium on August 30, 1957.

“We screamed when he came out. I didn’t know I was going to yell and scream. I’d never done that in my whole life. It was spontaneous. You know, his wiggle and that leg going; all of us started screaming when he did that. There was that feeling there like when I matured; it was almost like that feeling. He could excite you with his music so much. My mom’s gone; I guess she wouldn’t care if I said it now … it was like a sexual experience. It went through your body kind of like that.”

So maybe Miller and McGlincy came to the right conclusion back in 1956, at least for some of the girls. But then, Elvis was also right back then when he said, “We’re all getting something out of our system and no one’s getting hurt.” — Alan Hanson

Entry #27: Posted September 11, 2008
A Look Back at "The 24-Hour Church of Elvis" in Portland, Oregon

On my flight home last month from Elvis Week in Memphis, I sat next to a man who was headed west to visit his father in Oregon. After I mentioned I had written a book about Elvis, he told me his mother was a devoted Elvis fan. He explained, “She thinks there have only been two perfect humans who have walked on the earth—Jesus and Elvis.”

While even the most fervent of Elvis fans surely wouldn’t go that far, I’ve met many who worship him with what approaches religious devotion. And as our plane landed in Portland, I was reminded of one of that city’s most unusual institutions—“The 24-Hour Church of Elvis.” It was widely listed as an out-of-the-way, quirky destination in the city by most Portland and Oregon guidebooks. Check out the examples below:

From “Hidden Oregon” (Ulysses Press, 2001): “The ultimate store-front parish fuses religion, rock and metaphysics in a multimedia window presentation likely to keep you plunking quarter after quarter into the church’s coin slot. Yes, it’s cash up front to get the ministerial computer rolling and set up your direct line to Graceland.”

From “Frommer’s Portable Portland” (Hungry-Minds, 2001): “Coin-operated art, a video psychic, cheap (though not legal) weddings, and other absurd assemblages, interactive displays, and kitschy contraptions … cram this second-floor oddity.”

If that leaves you confused about “The 24-Hour Church of Elvis,” you’re not alone. To get a handle on it, we have to go back to the beginning. The church was opened in 1989 by self-styled celebrity spokesmodel and minister Stephanie G. “Stevie” Pierce in Portland’s Oldtown district, just north of the city center. The free-spirited Pierce came to Portland after dropping out of the rat-race. (She earned a law degree from Georgetown University and had worked as a corporate attorney for AT&T.)

Pierce offered a number of displays and services for Elvis fans who made their way to her store-front church. They could view Elvis’s likeness on a tortilla chip and watch “The Miracle of the Spinning Elvises.” Pierce also offered a sermon by Elvis, the complete Elvis catechism, and Elvis fortune cookies. An excerpt:

“Renowned for your sneering luscious lips and your sinuous pelvic swivel, you became very fat and bloated late in life and fond of vinyl fringe jumpsuits. You may actually still be alive and living in Michigan.”

The facts are, though, that “The 24-Hour Church of Elvis” was not open 24 hours and was light on Elvis offerings. It also featured $1 weddings, the World’s Cheapest Psychic, a diet center and breast enlargement clinic, and a Bionic Woman Repair Station/Beauty Salon.

The pseudo-church made the news occasionally. An Illinois radio station broadcast the wedding of a Chicago couple in the church in 1990. Then, in 1992 Pierce lived for awhile in the church’s storefront window to raise money to pay off a $6,000 student loan.

“It was just so neat in those days,” recalled Portland café owner, Suzanne Hale. “It was a real draw for all kinds of trippy performance artists.”

Somewhere along the way, Pierce moved the church into the downtown area. There she gave free guided tours, which ended with a pitch for Church of Elvis t-shirts, refrigerator magnets, and other assorted souvenirs to help pay the rent.

Sales were thin, though, and Pierce soon fell a few months behind on her rent. Then one summer day, she threw her computer out of the church’s second story window onto the sidewalk below. A spectator reported that Pierce then emerged from the church, threw her computer to the sidewalk again, and “howled like a hound dog at drivers and pedestrians.”

The end came soon afterwards. The Portland Tribune reported in November 2001 that Pierce was spotted loading her belongings into a U-Haul truck. The Oregonian stated in 2002 that, “The church flamed out faster than a hunka, hunka burnin’ love.” On January 6 of that year, the Multnomah County Circuit Court issued an eviction notice to Pierce, who had fallen $12,000 behind in rent payments. To this day, nobody in the area seems to know where she is or how to contact her.

The guidebooks were slow in removing references to the church, with the result that for several years the Presley faithful, up to 20 per week in the summers, continued to find their way to 720 SW Ankeny Street in Portland. Instead of finding the “The 24-Hour Church of Elvis,” however, the building had a greater resemblance to “Heartbreak Hotel.”

In the summer of 2002, an Elvis fan from Tampa, Florida, wandered into a clothing store across the street from the old Elvis Church. “I’ve come all the way to visit the church,” he said to clerk Andi Bakos, who told him the place was closed. “I thought he was going to cry,” Bakos said. That same summer a half-dozen foreign tourists dropped into a downtown Portland restaurant to ask about the Elvis Church. They learned the bad news. “They were like, totally disappointed,” the restaurant owner told the Oregonian.

The guidebooks now have all purged themselves of any mention of “The 24-Hour Church of Elvis.” If you want to attend an Elvis religious service these days, you’ll have to do it in cyberspace. If you’re so inclined, you might try the “First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine.” On their web site, the Australian house of Elvis worship invites internet pilgrims to, “Pull up a pew and get yourself a dose of spiritual enlightenment, Elvis-style.”

I consider myself a “devoted” Elvis fan, but viewing him as some sort of a messiah seems a little freaky to me. I think I’ll confine my “worship” to listening to his music and watching his movies.— Alan Hanson

Entry #28: Posted September 18, 2008
Another Look at the "Johnny Rivers-Elvis Presley-'Memphis' Recording Caper"

A week ago I received an email from Johnny Savage, a DJ on KALX Radio, 90.7 FM in Berkeley. “You are too harsh on Peter Guralnick about the 1964 ‘Memphis, Tennessee’ incident,” he wrote. He was referring to a couple of paragraphs in my Elvis blog of this past March 20th. To set up the discussion, let me quote two paragraphs directly from that March blog entry:

Consider the story about Johnny Rivers included in Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley. Guralnick reported in the book that Rivers musically sucker-punched Elvis by rushing out his version of “Memphis” in 1964, when he knew Elvis planned to release the same song as a single. Guralnick had interviewed Rivers and knew his side of the story, but chose to believe some of Elvis’s “boys,” who claimed Rivers had blindsided Elvis.”

After Elvis heard Johnny’s version of “Memphis,” Guralnick claimed that Elvis said he “didn’t want to see Johnny anymore.” When Careless Love was published in 1999, Johnny Rivers quickly reacted. “Elvis and I were friends for years,” he stated, “and I am personally offended and outraged that Peter Guralnick has joined the ranks of writers who have tried to profit from Elvis’ downfall by taking a cheap shot with information that was not accurate.”

In his email, Johnny Savage outlined his view of the Rivers incident as follows:“At issue is not the province of the Chuck Berry song itself. Lonnie Mack had a hit with an instrumental version less than a year prior, in 1963. At stake was honor and trust.

“Elvis was proud of his January 1964 re-recording, and house visitor and new pal Johnny Rivers made it clear he was enamored with it, by asking Presley to play it again, and again.

“Then Johnny cut and issued a version, not telling Elvis beforehand. When it hit the radio that May, Elvis realized he’d gotten burned, and told his guys to keep Rivers away. Rivers took the friendship and flushed it down the toilet for a hit single.”

There are two sides to the “Johnny Rivers incident” in question. As a self-styled Elvis historian, naturally I’m interested in discerning the truth. Let’s look at the basic evidence on both sides.

First, Johnny Savage’s belief that Rivers had “burned” Elvis is based on statements made by several members of Presley’s personal entourage (aka the “Memphis Mafia” or Elvis’s “boys”). According to Savage’s research, the first mention of the incidence critical of Rivers probably appeared in Marty Lacker’s 1979 book, Elvis—Portrait of a Friend. In later books, Elvis insiders Alan Fortas and Lamar Fike told similar stories. As further support for his belief that Rivers was at fault, Guralnick cited interviews he had done with Joe Esposito, Jerry Schilling, and Red West. In fairness, Guralnick did include the following disclaimer in his book: “It should be noted that Johnny Rivers today denies the knowledge and the rift.”

Probably the most damning statement can be found in Alan Fortas’ book. It reads as follows:

“Johnny told [Elvis] he loved it—thought it was a great groove. And then, the next thing you knew, Johnny cut it himself, with the same arrangement. ‘Memphis’ was Johnny’s first hit, going all the way to number two, and it made him a star. Elvis wouldn’t release his own version for a long time, then, because he didn’t want to look as if he were copying Johnny. After that, Johnny was on Elvis’s shit list, forever barred from coming to any of Elvis’s homes.”

After Guralnick’s book came out, Rivers posted a news release on his web site, expressing “outrage” at the insinuation that he intentionally released his version of “Memphis” in an attempt to steal the song from his “friend” Elvis. He explained that he had been playing the song for years while he was an unknown, struggling musician.

“My producer Lou Adler chose ‘Memphis’ to be released,” Rivers insisted, “not me, only after the album ‘Johnny Rivers at the Whiskey a Go Go,’ had been released FIRST and was a success before any single was released.” Adler corroborated Rivers’ statement, adding, “At that time Johnny let me make decisions. When we cut Johnny’s first live ‘Whisky’ album, I didn’t know he had heard any cover recording by Elvis.”

Rivers also debunked the Guralnick statement that after Johnny’s release of “Memphis,” Elvis “didn’t want to see Johnny anymore.” Rivers countered with, “I was always Elvis’ friend, even his personal guest at many shows for years at the International Hotel in Las Vegas … He gave me his personal table, brought me and my guests backstage, and on more than one occasion, introduced me to his audience and had me take a bow. Does that sound like someone who ‘didn’t want to se me’ anymore?”

(Johnny Savage believes that Elvis was just being gracious and magnanimous to Rivers in Las Vegas. It was from Elvis’s homes that Rivers was banned.)

To counter the testimony of Elvis’ “boys,” Rivers offers a letter from Elvis insider Larry Geller, who wrote: “What Peter Guralnick wrote is inaccurate. I was around Elvis in 1964 and never heard him say anything about Johnny and the song ‘Memphis.’ Elvis loved Johnny and respected him.”

In the end, the whole “Johnny Rivers-Elvis Presley-‘Memphis’” incident boils down to a “he-said, he-said” situation. And there are lots of “he-saids” on both sides. All of those involved in the controversy are subject to bias. Shades of interpretation are certainly in play, and possibly some untruthfulness on one side or the other, or both. Under those circumstances, the ultimate truth of what happened back in 1964 may never be established.

Johnny Savage chooses to believe Lacker, Fortas, Fike, West, Schilling, and Esposito. “If it never happened,” he asks, “why did Rivers fall off the Presley map at that time? And why would the guys single out Rivers for scorn?”

As for me, I hope Rivers’ didn’t highjack Elvis’s plan to release “Memphis” as a single. If he did, then his statements on his web site are a pack of out-right lies. I hope that’s not the case.

As an Elvis fan, though, I would like to believe Rivers’ version is truthful, because it would reflect better on Elvis than the one told by his “boys.” I’d like to think that Elvis could have been charitable to Johnny Rivers in 1964. If he had truly been one of Elvis’s friends, then I hope Elvis would have been able to let go of any perceived slight and congratulate Johnny on his first hit record. I suspect, though, that the truth is in the middle somewhere, shrouded in misunderstanding and pride, with both sides somewhat to blame for the cooling of their friendship. — Alan Hanson

Entry #29: Posted September 25, 2008
"Elvis Pigsley" and Other Animals Named After Elvis Presley

I was having trouble coming up with a topic for this week’s Elvis blog, until I opened yesterday morning's paper. There it was, staring me in the face—a picture of “Elvis Pigsley”! A 9-month-old, 35-pound Vietnamese potbellied pig, "Pigsley" lives with his owner, Alisha Doolittle, in a residential Spokane neighborhood. “Elvis” uses a litter box and accompanies Alisha to the supermarket, the mall, and the library.

Initially, Elvis fans might be offended that someone would name a pig after their idol, but the fact is that Elvis loved animals. He owned numerous dogs, including “Baba,” a Collie that appeared with Elvis in Paradise, Hawaiian Style. Among the many other dogs he owned were a Pomeranian named “Edmund,” a Chow named “Getio, a Great Pyrenee named “Muffin,” a pedigreed Poodle named “Teddy Bear,” and a couple of Great Danes named “Snoopy” and “Brutus” that Elvis gave to Priscilla in the 1960s.

As an entertainer, Elvis sang severeal songs about dogs, including “Old Shep," “Hound Dog,” and "A Dog's Life." Dogs also played prominent roles in some Elvis movies, like Jailhouse Rock, Kissin’ Cousins, and Live a Little, Love a Little.

Of course, Elvis owned many other animals besides dogs. At various times during his life, Graceland was home to a Mynah bird, peacocks, and Scatter, the infamous chimp. Elvis also owned numerous horses, including “Bear,” a Tennessee walking horse; “Mare Ingram,” one of the horses Elvis kept at his Circle G Ranch; and “Rising Sun,” a golden Palomino that Elvis purchased in 1966 and remained at Graceland until its death in 1987.

It’s not so strange, then, that through the years people who have loved both Elvis and animals have named their pets after him. It started early in Elvis’s career. In the fities, Joyce Gentry was the president of “The Elvis Presley Fan Club of O’Fallon, Mo.” When Elvis played St. Louis in 1957, Joyce told a reporter, “We have a rock ’n‘ roll parakeet in our fan club as mascot. We’ve taught him to roll his head and stomp his left foot and sidestep on the stick. Of course, we’ve named him Elvis, as he shakes his left leg like Elvis and wears a fan club button on his cage.

Who knows how many thousands of animals have been named “Elvis” over the years. Undoubtly, most of them have been household pets, like dogs, cats, birds, hamsters, and the like. Certainly not many have been livestock, like “Elvis Pigsley.” But this pig is no ordinary pig. “He’s cleaner than most teenagers,” claims Cyndie Doolittle, mother of owner Alisha. He sings too. His crooning consists of a series of grunts, which Presley’s earliest critics might have favorably compared to Elvis’s singing in 1956.

“Elvis” the pig also emulates some of the moves of Elvis the rock ’n’ roller. When walking on a leash through the neighborhood, “Pigsley” walks on his tiptoes and swings his hips.

The Doolittles are battling city hall to be allowed to keep “Pigsley” in their home. Seems under a city ordinance, a pig’s a pig’s a pig, and pigs are not allowed to reside in city neighborhoods. There’re trying to get “Elvis” classified as a service animal, like a guide dog, which is allowed to live in the city. Rather than as an entertainer, “Pigley’s” owner believes his talent lies in spreading good cheer. He’s already provided therapy to hundreds of people who have stopped to pet him during neighborhood walks and at the mall. He’s made appearances at a nursing home and a pre-school, and a library presentation is on the schedule. “Elvis” has even offered to sell kisses for charity.

“Elvis Pigsley” is not the only farm animal to be named after Elvis Presley. In rural New York State, Jon Katz owns a 1,800-pound Brown Swiss steer that he named “Elvis.” Katz is no weirdo. A journalist and novelist, he is the acclaimed author of several books about dogs. Katz has also worked as a reporter and editor at The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Boston Globe. He also was an executive producer of the CBS Morning News.

An animal activist, Katz purchased the steer for $500 from a neighbor who couldn’t get the obviously smarter-than-the-average-cow to get on the truck to market. “I named him Elvis,” explained Katz, “because he seemed like a good old boy.”

As “Elvis Pigsley” is no ordinary pig, neither is “Elvis” an ordinary cow. “He has changed my ideas about cows,” says Katz. “He’s very social, fond of me and my helper Annie and my Labrador Pearl … He is amiable, happy to hang out with the donkeys and sheep, given the chance. He coexists peaceably with the chickens—with everyone, in fact. Once or twice a week, he has a burst of cow madness and goes dancing playfully around the pasture in circles. Trees tremble.”

Katz’s farmer friends keep telling him they’ve never seen such a friendly cow. “When people enter the pasture,” notes Katz, “Elvis comes running up to greet them … He sticks out his big tongue and slurps. He grabs at shirts and hats. If you sit down, he’ll happily put his head in your lap.”

It seems as if animals named after Elvis Presley tend to have one quality in common with their namesake. They all entertain and give pleasure to all people they come in contact with. And these are just a few examples. If you want to see more, do a Google search for “animals named Elvis.” Like me, you’ll be amazed at all the results that come up. It’s another example, although an odd one, of the continuing power of the iconic name “Elvis Presley.” — Alan Hanson

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