Newspaper Reporter Said He’d “Kick (his daughter’s) Teeth In” If She Went To An Elvis Presley Concert

WOW. These newspaper "reporters" - and I use that term EXTREMELY loose - became super-violent when they had to report on the Elvis Presley craze in the 1950's...so much so, they remark that they would even become physically violent to the teenage girls who were Elvis fans. You can't get away with THIS kind of 'reporting' nowadays. Read this GREAT question and sit back and shake your head at what some of these hack newspaper guys had to say...

Q: When Elvis first became a star what nasty things were the critics saying about him?

A: Wow. Except for a rare few, these people were NOT kind to Elvis Presley at all. Here are some examples. 1) Herb Rau, Miami Daily News, August 4, 1956: “Elvis can’t sing, can’t play the guitar, and can’t dance. Yet two thousand idiots per show yelp every time he opens his mouth, plucks a guitar string, or shakes his pelvis like any striptease babe in town. We might suggest a gift for these fourteen thousand Miami girls who, as if it were a fetish, are vocally and mentally genuflecting to Elvis Presley A SOLID SLAP ACROSS THE MOUTH.” 2) Letter-to-the-editor, Houston Chronicle, October 8, 1956: “It’s the raving teen-agers themselves, who will sound the death-knell for Elvis. They, with their antics, make people sick, so the people lash out at Elvis. If I had a daughter who said everybody was stupid who didn’t like Elvis, I’d take her to the woodshed. When I got through she would understand other people have a right to their opinion, also.” 3) Mac Reynolds, Vancouver Sun, August 31, 1957: “It is a frightening thing for a man to watch his women debase themselves. It’s hardly original, but if any daughter of mine broke out of the woodshed tonight to see Elvis Presley in Empire Stadium, I’d kick her teeth in.” 4) Paul Coates, Los Angeles Mirror News, October 31, 1957: “He’s the kind of a child that other children are traditionally not allowed to play with. He’s a sullen, ill-kempt-looking youth. If he was my kid, I’d smack that sneer off his face and send him out for a haircut. In all, I consider him a very distasteful individual.” 5) Dick Williams, in the Los Angeles Mirror News of October 28, 1957 “accused Elvis of committing lewd acts on stage with a statue of Nipper, the RCA dog.” With all the bashing Elvis was getting in the press, it prompted Billboard Magazine to refer to him as "the most controversial entertainer since Liberace."