Over 50 years ago, a young singer from Memphis shocked the world with his controversial hips and his ‘black’ sounding voice. Now, a new exhibition focusing on the media uproar over the emergence of Elvis Presley is being put together at the Newseum – popular a Washington, DC history museum which focuses on US journalism.
Including rare objects from the “Jailhouse Rock” singer’s life, some of which have never been displayed before – including the Bureau of Narcotics badge US President Richard Nixon gave Presley during a visit to the White House (ironically to enlist him in the war against drugs), and his first Grammy Award for “How Great Thou Art” in 1968 – the exhibition showcases just how much Presley was dissected by the media. One never-seen-before document is the management deal his parents signed with Colonel Tom Parker, giving Presley’s manager 25 percent of his income (which would later stretch to a whopping 50 percent).
“Newspapers in the mid-’50s viewed themselves as arbiters of social values, and they felt they should be among the ones to speak most loudly when they saw someone threatening America’s mores,” said Ken Paulson, the Newseum’s president and former editor of USA Today. “What’s interesting is that fiercely negative coverage drove Elvis’ fame. ... After the national news coverage kicked in, he was the king of rock & roll.”
The exhibit opens next week, and will show through until February 2011. It’s just one of several Presley-related exhibits planned, with many galleries and museums deciding to celebrate what would have been the singer’s 75th year.
“There were many people who were more than willing to censor him or limit his expression,” Paulson says. “So Elvis truly is a symbol of freedom in America for all the right reasons.”