What It Was Really Like To Be An Elvis Presley Fan In The 1950s

The love and fervor that Elvis ignited in his fans sometimes led him to be physically mobbed. Once during a performance in Jacksonville, in his classic flirty way, Elvis invited the crowd backstage after the show, as described by Jacksonville Magazine. Whether he was joking or not was of no concern to the hundreds of overenthusiastic fans, who subsequently charged forward past security, mobbed their idol in his dressing room, and literally tore his clothes off his body, according to the book Elvis and Gladys. 

Such reactions were witnessed in horror several times by Elvis' mother, Gladys, whose own protective instincts jumped in one time when her son performed at a high school in Mississippi. At that show, Gladys apparently clawed through and confronted the mob of fans, furiously asking them, "Why are you trying to kill my boy?" 

Amazingly, Elvis was rather unbothered by the chaos that tended to ensue around him. In a 1956 interview, he talked about that "Presley riot" in Jacksonville: "Shucks, they were only tearing my clothes. I didn't mind a bit." It is perhaps this nonchalance, this easy acceptance of wild adoration, that reinforced fans' affections and strengthened his long-lasting star power.

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