A spate of Elvis movies on Turner Classic Movies celebrated the King's 75th birthday and brought back a treasured childhood memory - seeing a very young Elvis, very live.
It was all the fault of Mrs. Gelfand, our cub scout den mother out in Queens. She managed to wrangle permission for our den to go all the way into Manhattan and see a rehearsal of the Tommy Dorsey Show, a temporary fill-in for the Jackie Gleason show, which was one of the most popular TV shows of that time. So off we went in our little blue uniforms with yellow bandanas tucked into special cub scout Webelos holders - I have a faint memory that we also took along our den flag, which Mrs. Gelfand's son got to carry.
Soon we were ensconced in an almost empty theatre on Broadway (it is now David Letterman's hangout.) The audience consisted of our den, a few technicians and producer types and, strung over about five seats in the back of the theatre, Jackie Gleason himself, who was regaling some buddies with what must have been very funny stories, because they were laughing very loudly.
After a series of acts that I can't really recall, out came Elvis, about to make his national television debut.He rehearsed his songs, "Shake Rattle and Roll" and "I Got A Woman," with both his band and his famous, still uncensored hips banging away. I'd say, as a group, Den 6 was not impressed by this strange noise. But we were definitely impressed when Jackie Gleason laughed out loud as Elvis left the stage.
That night, my older brother and I sat before our ten inch black and white television to see the live performance of the show I'd seen rehearsed. I might've mentioned Elvis to my brother, but I probably emphasized seeing Gleason. Then on came Elvis and - WHAM - he went into his act, with that amazing, fluid voice and his unique gyrations. From the first second we were awestruck, and I might've experienced some of my first pubescent stirrings - after all Elvis was the most up front sexual artist we had ever seen. Somehow, in the excitement of the rehearsal, I must've just not gotten it. That night I really did.
God bless the King, who I hope is hanging out with a host of female fans in the great Jungle Room in the sky.
