The most stunning moment in a short feature stuffed with stunning moments from 1956 is a clip of a chorus line of tap-dancing women playing xylophones contrasted with Elvis aged 20. One is white bread bland, the other raw sex. A mere month or so later Elvis shopped in Times Square with complete anonymity-something he'd never be able to do for the rest of his life.
This low key documentary doesn't make much of the shockwaves that Elvis' gyrations and twitchy body clearly caused, because these rare clips illustrate what happened so very clearly. Girls squealed, critics panned him. When he played Las Vegas, Liberace(!) gave him advice on how to dress to please audiences, maybe missing the obvious, that Elvis was pleasing them like crazy.
Elvis was a force of nature and once the girls (and probably their mothers too) had witnessed his singing and heard his blues-rockabilly sex-charged lyrics there was no way to throw that train into reverse. Even if he had never moved his hips on camera, it was too late. Whether that was a good thing for society can be debated, but it was a great thing for American music.
This low key documentary doesn't make much of the shockwaves that Elvis' gyrations and twitchy body clearly caused, because these rare clips illustrate what happened so very clearly. Girls squealed, critics panned him. When he played Las Vegas, Liberace(!) gave him advice on how to dress to please audiences, maybe missing the obvious, that Elvis was pleasing them like crazy.
Elvis was a force of nature and once the girls (and probably their mothers too) had witnessed his singing and heard his blues-rockabilly sex-charged lyrics there was no way to throw that train into reverse. Even if he had never moved his hips on camera, it was too late. Whether that was a good thing for society can be debated, but it was a great thing for American music.