The year was 1956. Elvis Presley, only a mere 21 years old, was already making huge waves on American radio. Already a bonafide “RCA Victor Recording Star,” his songs “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog” had absolutely blown up the airwaves. But the part that’s a little difficult for us to appreciate 70 years later is how much of a wave he was also making with his physical presence — particularly his hips — during his live shows.
Elvis appeared on the Milton Berle Show in June, 1956. The way he moved his hips — he absolutely gyrated them — sent the teenage girls in the studio audience (and in the television audience) into a squealing, apoplectic frenzy.
Just weeks away from going to Hollywood to start work on his first movie, Elvis’ tour scheduled six shows (three a day) over a two-day period on August 10 and 11, 1956.
Elvis had played Jacksonville the previous year, and the reaction from teenage fans had sufficiently alarmed some local leaders that, before his return, Juvenile Court Judge Marion Gooding prepared arrest warrants accusing Elvis of “impairing the morals of minors.”
So all eyes were of course on Elvis as he took the stage at the Florida Theater. Police were stationed inside the theater; Judge Gooding himself watched Elvis perform. Even LIFE magazine was there, documenting the controversy. Would Elvis tempt fate — and the authorities — by giving his usual, gyrating performance?
Nope. He largely stood still. Instead of wagging his hips, he simply wagged his little finger. And the audience still went absolutely crazy.
There’s something wonderfully “1956” about the entire episode: government authorities essentially saying
“young man, you are forbidden to move your pelvis,”
followed by Elvis discovering he could cause approximately the same hysteria with one finger.
Guitarist Scotty Moore later recalled that Elvis “stood there flat-footed and did the whole show,” and said the Jacksonville incident was where the famous curled-lip-and-little-finger gesture began.
More than 10,000 people reportedly attended the six sold-out shows over the two day weekend.
We’ve had the poster hanging in our studio stairwell here at ULS for a number of years. How we came to own it involves the demise of a legendary local restaurant here in Arlington: Hard Times Cafe, a restaurant formerly at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and Highland Street in Arlington, was a chili-themed restaurant famous in Clarendon for its cheap, plentiful food and late night hours. We used to love going there, especially after late night studio sessions. The restaurant sadly closed in 2016. The owners held an auction to sell off a variety of cool vintage and faux-vintage signs that hung in the restaurant, including Elvis’ Jacksonville concert poster.
Now, to be clear — I was not under the impression that the Elvis poster was “original”; I figured it certainly was a reprint. The copyright notice on the poster even mentions ©1985, so we just figured it was a cheap offset printer reproduction put out by some random poster company.
But as was I was researching for this article, I discovered that the company that made the original poster, Hatch Show Print in Nashville— is still making these posters today. So what we have is a 1985 letterpress print (the same process used to make the original poster) by the same legendary shop that made the original.
Ours is not particularly valuable or anything (I definitely paid too much for it when we bought it in the Hard Times Cafe’s closing auction, but we liked the idea that it had hung on the wall of a restaurant we used to love). There’s even some ink staining on the bottom of the poster — damage you would not see if this was just a mass-produced offset print. But that may just be a side effect of the poster’s relatively rough previous life on the wall of a bar & restaurant here in Arlington.
In any case — long live the King. For two days in Jacksonville, 70 years ago today, Elvis Presley was apparently dangerous enough that a judge had to sit in the theater and make sure he didn’t move his hips.
