In his early career, Elvis Presley was known for inciting riots of screaming girls at his shows. It was all part of being young, good-looking, and famous. His first riot, however, allegedly came in 1955 after playing a show in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Presley gave a show in May 1955 at Wolfson Park, opening for Hank Snow’s Country and Western Jamboree. Allegedly, Presley wasn’t well known in the area at the time, but as soon as he sang, the girls in the front row went crazy for him.
Eventually, this one instance evolved into a regular occurrence for Elvis Presley. But at the time, it was a relatively new experience. Because Presley had little exposure to dealing with rabid fans, he “got a little cocky,” and invited the girls backstage, according to Jacksonville Historical Society archivist Mitch Hemann.
“They took him up on the offer and chased him down into the showers,” said Hemann. “They tore his clothes off and kind of attacked the guy.”
Elvis Presley Gets His First Taste of Rabid Fans After a Florida Show In 1955
While there’s a lot of myth and lore surrounding Elvis Presley’s shows in Florida, there’s a decent chance that this was his first taste of rabid fandom. Or at least, one of the earliest.
Former City of Jacksonville employee Ardys Bell Clawson was at that 1955 show as a teenager, and has photos with Presley to prove it. She spoke with Jacksonville Magazine in 2019 about the incident, revealing that she and her brother eventually found a shirtless Elvis sitting by himself, essentially hiding from his gaggle of screaming fangirls.
Clawson had her photo taken twice with Presley, which she donated to the Jacksonville Historical Society. In the first, taken after she found him alone eating ice under the bleachers, he’s shirtless, slender, and skittish, while 18-year-old Clawson beams at him.
“It looks like I was gaga over him, but I wasn’t,” Clawson said. “I was smiling at him and thinking about what those girls had done to him.”
In 1956, Presley returned to Jacksonville to play the Gator Bowl Stadium. There, Clawson had her photo taken with him again. He looked much more relaxed with his arms around her and was fully clothed this time.
“He was more popular then,” Clawson recalled. “But not so much that you couldn’t get close to him.”
Featured Image by Archive Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
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