The Cat from Memphis

The Cat from Memphis

Elvis Presley enjoyed a long reign as the King of Rock N’ Roll. He succeeded in not only stealing the hearts of every teenage girl in America, but also in redefining pop culture. Not only did Elvis redefine the world of pop culture but he helped to create the genre of Rock-n-Roll. According to Horace Logan, a radio producer for the music show the Louisiana Hayride who helped to launch Elvis’s career, “Elvis changed everything. He changed the way popular music sounded, the way it looked, the way it acted-everything about it” (Logan and Sloan 9). By creating a new sound and style of music Elvis helped set the stage for recording artists such as The Beatles, Billy Joel and Elton John. Even John Lennon said, "Before Elvis, there was nothing." (Logan and Sloan, quotesandsayings.com)

While Elvis is toted as being the King of Rock-n-Roll, he was insanely self-conscious growing up. He was a young kid with acne who was torn between wanting to fit in and wanting to draw attention to himself, “He was an outsider who stressed his apartness by refusing to conform” (Mason 24). He would wear “flashy clothes to compensate for his deep dissatisfaction with his looks” (Mason 24). As Elvis’s fame grew he became a prolific figure in American culture; women everywhere wanted to be with him and men everywhere wanted to be him, however his initial self-esteem issues never seemed to fade. “Despite the way he acted on stage, he had a lot of insecurities bottled up inside him-insecurities that no amount of wealth and fame could ever erase” (Logan and Sloan 144). He needed to be noticed and needed to feel loved; therefore fame and fortune became his drug. Sadly, he became addicted to more than fame. Elvis began using drugs frequently to cope with the pressures of fame, “Sometimes stoned on pills, he stood on the coffee table and preached lengthy, hilarious sermons to the guys-who were not encouraged to laugh […] Everyone found Elvis’s behavior bizarre. His visions and preachings were no doubt enhanced by the uppers and downers he was taking” (Mason 120).

By the late 1950s Elvis could be heard on the radio, seen on the television and even seen in the movie theaters on the big screen. He had breeched all medias and was creating a new era of style and sound. On the radio he could be heard wailing his brand new sound of Rock and Roll. He was rousing teenagers everywhere to get up and dance. Elvis was inspired by African American artists such as B.B. King and Fats Domino. This only helped to fuel the fire of disapproval that was lit under Elvis Presley in the extremely conservative and racially segregated 1950s. Elvis admired the African American sound and told reporters in 1956, “The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doing now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them. Down in Tupelo, Mississippi, I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now, and I said if I ever got to the place where I could feel all old Arthur felt, I’d be a music man like nobody ever saw.” Parents were worried enough about Elvis corrupting their children without having to worry about them being exposed to alternate ethnicities. (Farley)

On television Elvis was making regular appearances. He made his career breakthrough on Louisiana Hayride appearing originally for eighteen dollars a show. This allowed him one song which would be played on CBS and then after every artist had their one song he was given the opportunity to play more songs for the studio audience which consisted of approximately thirty-eight hundred people. As Elvis became more and more popular he brought in more and more teenagers to the crowd. Logan said that when Elvis would take the stage the “Young females in the audience would explode with excitement [making] so much noise Elvis could’ve lip-synched the words and no one would’ve known the difference” (Logan and Sloan 138). Perhaps Elvis’s most famous television appearance and demonstration of his sexual appeal would be his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, “By his third and final appearance, Elvis was shot only from the waist up” (Simon) the people of the Ed Sullivan Show could not risk showing those notorious pelvic gyrations.

Elvis also appeared in many movies. Throughout his career he appeared in an astounding 33 movies. While none of these films held any political or deep