HOMECOMING SH-BOOM: THE LEATHERNECKS
At a 1956 Christmas party my 45 year old aunt, devout fan of Perry Como, got smashed, did the chicken, broke into sobs and admitted to no one in particular she wanted to get in Presley’s pants. As everybody knows, they wouldn’t show Elvis from the hips down on the Sullivan show.
HOMECOMING SH-BOOM THE LEATHERNECKS
OCTOBER 30, 1954
At a 1956 Christmas party my 45 year old aunt, devout fan of Perry Como, got smashed, did the chicken, broke into sobs and admitted to no one in particular she wanted to get in Presley’s pants.
As everybody knows, they wouldn’t show Elvis from the hips down on the Sullivan show. It was the year he had 8 consecutive million sellers. “Love Me Tender.” “Anyway You Want Me.” “Love Me.” “Heartbreak Hotel.” “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You.” “Too Much.” “Don’t Be Cruel.” And “Hound Dog,” which at last count has alone sold over six million copies. At various times in 1956 nearly 50% of R.C.A. Victor’s record business was the result of kids shelling out as much as seventy thousand bucks a day for Presley records.
You could feel the tension in the air. Everybody was going a little nuts,. Guys; on the street comer began snarling, sprouting sideburns, and turning up their collars. Girls screamed, pissed, creemed,' fainted. Magazines, newspapers, and parents verbally attacked Elvis implying he was some kind of sex-maniac dope-pushing jack-the-ripper-sadist or -worse. But old El had arrived. Why? Because ...