Pandemonium in the Rock
’56 concert by Elvis Presley sent teens, adults alike into a frenzy.
F“We knew we were swept away in the beginning of
something huge.” — Eleanor Nolan, Seattle
ans were lining up outside Robinson Auditorium 5 1⁄2 hours before showtime.
It was “the biggest mob scene the Auditorium has ever witnessed,” the Arkansas Gazette reported in a Page One story with the headline “Elvis Cools Cats Down to a Dungaree Delirium.”
Little Rock was ground zero on May 16, 1956, as Elvis Presley, soon to be the undisputed king of rock ’n’ roll, began a rocket-paced ascent to superstardom.
Fifty-six years later, the Arkansas Democrat-gazette invited readers to share their memories.
Bonnie Wessen of Sherwood remembers “cars lining up at the curb with the doors flying open and girls screaming, jumping out of the cars with arms in the air, running all the way up the steps ....”
Wessen, who styled her hair after Presley’s ducktail haircut, arrived at the auditorium on the back of her brother’s black Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Once inside, it was “a state of pandemonium,” says Donna Groom Bartell of North Little Rock.
1956 was the pivotal year in Presley’s career, as he rode his rock beat, swivel-hipped movements, curled lip and bad boy good looks to the top of the charts and established himself as rock’s most important singer.
There were eight acts on the bill that night, but for the teenagers who packed the auditorium for two shows, only one act really mattered.
Chants of “we want Elvis” filled the hall as impatient fans called for the star, who was running late.
“Once he began to sing, everyone was constantly thrashing and bouncing out of their seats, into the aisles in a state of nonstop
frenzied excitement to the beat of his music,” says Joe W. Crow of Little Rock. “The whole of Robinson Auditorium was rocking and shaking.”
MOM? IS THAT YOU?
Presley sang just seven songs.
“You heard two or three notes and the girls started shrieking and you didn’t hear anything else,” recalls Dent Gitchell, a retired Little Rock lawyer. “We were all excited.”
Teenagers weren’t the only ones.
“The place was really jumpin’,” says Mildred Smith of Little Rock, whose son, former Democrat-gazette executive editor Griffin Smith, was 15 and in the audience.
“The music was wonderful and we were absolutely fascinated with it,” Smith says. She and her friend, Betty Ruth Russell Mcmath, had taken their daughters to a Brownie Scouts event and, after putting them to bed and in their fathers’ care, went to see Presley.
“When the girls found out where we had been, they never forgave us,” Smith says, laughing.
“I wasn’t shocked by him; I knew what I was getting in for; Griffin was a very big fan. I thought Elvis’ movements were fun. I really liked the music and it was a riot to be there.”
Smith says her son didn’t know she was there.
“That would have been a terrible embarrassment for a teenager to have your mother show up,” she says.
Jeanette Jones Green’s mother was especially excited.
“It was so electrifying I was afraid my mother was going to jump over the railing,” Green, of Lafayette, La., says. “She was screaming like any teenager. I screamed too.”
SHOCKED! SHOCKED!
Not all parents felt that way.
“My dad was shocked at Elvis’ movements,” says Judi Rogers Clifford of Hilton Head, S.C. “We girls were so naive, we didn’t have a clue.”
“My mother was pretty startled when everyone started screaming,” says Lynda Childers Suffridge of North Little Rock.
“I was raised to be prim, proper ... and I screamed! It was like nothing I’d ever seen before, with people so open with their emotions.”
BIRTHDAY GIRL
The night was very special for Susan Linebarger Overton Sutton of Little Rock, who celebrated her 15th birthday with a party and the Presley concert.
“That was what I wanted for my birthday, to see Elvis,” Sutton says. She invited a group of her friends for a pre-concert dinner.
“We felt totally connected to him,” Sutton says. “We were standing up screaming and clapping the whole time. All we could do afterwards was sing his songs and talk about our favorites.”
Cathie Remmel Matthews was one of the guests at the party.
“We were very excited about Elvis,” says Matthews, director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage. He “was so cute, really cute, and he had great legs and a really good voice.”
WHAT THEY WORE
Sutton says she and her friends were also impressed by Presley’s outfits. The Arkansas Gazette reported that Presley wore a “purple coat and black silk slacks.”
Those who attended also remember what they wore.
“A floral print dress with lots of roses,” says Joyce Franklin of Little Rock. “But what I wore yesterday is truly a mystery to me.”
Joyce Joyner Hightower, president of the I Met Elvis Fan Club, says she wore a pink and black dress with a black scarf around her neck.
“I knew those were Elvis’s favorite colors,” says Hightower, of Tumbling Shoals. “I still have the black scarf.” She also has several photographs of her taken with Presley, including one taken backstage that night.
“I wore my pink poodle skirt with the black poodle and heels,” says Verniel East of Searcy. “The concert was wonderful.”
Clifford’s mother bought her a pleated skirt and matching gray sweater for the concert.
“Rock and roll soft saddle shoes and bobby socks completed the outfit. My hair — a ponytail, of course.”
Karen Giss Morrical says she planned what to wear for a week. “I wore a yellow and white striped skirt and a beanie to match,” the Carmel, Ind., resident says.
Crow remembers Presley as “the biggest thing to hit our lives.
“Everyone wanted to be like him, imitate him, sing his songs, try to do their hair like his and dress like him.” Some did, that night. “We had our hair cut in the female version of Elvis’ ducktail,” Ann Shaw Whitehead of Little Rock says of herself and a friend.
‘IT WAS WORTH IT’
Ann Selig of Fort Smith broke a date to keep one with Presley.
“I couldn’t get in touch with him, so I asked my mother to tell him I had gone to see Elvis,” the then-dardanelle resident says. “He was not happy and I don’t think he ever forgave me, but that’s OK. It was worth it. Being at the Elvis concert was one of the highlights of my life.”
Selig also got an autograph that night.
Gitchell was offered one by Presley, but “I, being the cool 14-year-old I was, said, ‘No, man.’”
Gitchell and Robert L. Brown, associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, have written about their experiences. Gitchell’s was in a paper for a graduate class at what is now the University of Memphis; Roberts’ was for a University of Arkansas at Little Rock magazine.
“We left exhausted, but with a whole new repertoire of dance steps and a conviction that we had just witnessed a cataclysmic event,” Brown wrote.
Nearly 56 years later, many are still fans.
“I make a memorial every year and spend a few days at Elvis Week” in Memphis, Wessen says.
Whitehead says she listens to Presley’s music every day. She attended the 1956 concert with her friend, Diane Champion Mullins of Benton.
“A couple of years ago, Diane and I drove over to Graceland. When we got back to the truck, it wouldn’t start.” They called for help “and I got to tell them we were at the end of Lonely Street at Heartbreak Hotel.”