Review 'Elvis 1956: October 10 - 31

Following no fewer than five books on Elvis in 1958, visual biographer Paul Belard jumped back on the Elvis Presley timeline with a new book, covering the three weeks between October 10th and October 31st 1956.

Design

The author selected a great picture for the cover, perfectly grasping the time-frame of the book, Elvis touring Texas, the state that "put him over the top" according to Elvis himself. Consistent with his established format, he added all available pictures, in good, and not so good quality, to present the visual timeline as complete as possible.

These photographs are accompanied by short descriptions with the date, location and what happened in a day-by-day format, something I can appreciate. Added to that are several relevant documents and original articles. 

Belard has a pleasant writing style, but limits his text to providing the factual context in which the - some color(ized) - images and original documents can tell the story themselves. I like the format, as it offers us the original perspectives on Elvis, and what happened at a certain moment.

Content

A big part of this book was already covered in the Follow That Dream release 'Rebel with a Cause' by David English and Pal Granlund. That book featured many of the same pictures in better quality, but Belard managed to find new and alternative ones, further completing the documentation of this period.

I enjoyed reading the story of Kay Wheeler, going from the first (female) fanclub president to a Rock and Roll star herself. And what about those newspaper headlines and articles, "Screamers Are 26,500 Strong As Elvis Rocks The Cotton Bowl", stating "Elvis rolled into the Cotton Bowl last night and 26,500 teenagers and a few moms and pops went wild…" Original articles like this make the pictures come alive, and make fascinating reading seventy years later.

A few days later, the headline for an article reads "Elvis Crowd Is Expected To be Orderly" and although 14 off-duty policemen and two deputy sheriffs were at hand the article also mentioned "the crowd went hysterical when he came into view". And finally, to emphasize Elvis' impact, an article stated: "Elvis Presley created more mass hysteria here Friday night than the 1953 Tornado".

Many of the images shown are from local newspapers, and show professional journalists, but also high-school kids interviewing Presley with a recorder. I do wonder if some of these tapes are still to be (re)discovered …

Besides creating "mass hysteria" with his appearances on stage, he also appeared in court. It was interesting to see that the judge took his side, and didn't judge him just on the "impact" he made on young people or the image he had as a "menace to society". When he was charged with assault, battery, and disorderly conduct after he got into a fight with a filling station assistant, he was acquitted of all charges.

At the end of the month, he was back in New York, recording his introductions for the 'Perfect For Parties' EP and plugging RCA phonographs – highly collectable items these days. Also connected to "these days" is one of the last items in the book, Elvis rerecording an alternative ending for his 'Love me Tender' movie at Junco Studios. Earlier this year, new footage of Elvis in Junco Studios and interacting with fans afterwards was discovered. 

This illustrates the beauty of documenting Elvis history, it isn't only looking backwards, some of it still happens today.

Conclusion

With this book Belard added another few interesting notches to the Elvis Presley timeline, offering an insightful read at the same time.

Buy the book

The 'Elvis 1956: October 10 - 31' book is available from >>> Amazon (associate links). For a signed edition you can contact Paul Belard by email at >>> pbelard@hotmail.com