Sexy Elvis Rocks Oakland

Elvis came to Oakland in 1956. I didn’t know this! I was ten.

Here is an article that appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle written by Ralph Gleason. I am bowled over. Ralph compares the concert to Hitler’s appearance at the Sportspalast in Berlin

“even, to those thousands who crowded the Sportspalast in Berlin to chant in unison during the Third Reich, his emotional power is frightening.”

For a week I have been considering a movie titled ‘Oakland’ that would take in the Bohemians of Carmel. The Black Panther’s, Hell’s Angels, and Oakland Raiders would be featured. Gleason throws in an exotic dancer, and, we got ‘The Producers’ with Elvis starring as Lorenzo St. DuBois……..LSD.

“But his musical performance is as elemental as the gyrations of an “exotic” dancer in a Tenderloin joint.”

Bill Graham gave a eulogy for Ken Kesey and the Oakland Coliseum. Ken held an Acid Test in a bar in Oakland. The Oakland Police recruited in the Deep South when blacks came to work on Kaiser’s merchant ship. Vic ‘The Nazi’ sailed on a Merchant ship. His best friend from High School was Sargeant Skip Sutter, who led a raid of fifty Oakland cops against Hell’s Angels headquarters. They left their guns in their squad cars, and put on black gloves. Skip ended up in the hospital. That night when Elvis gyrated his hips, 3,000 screaming girls rushed back stage, and the cops feared for their lives.

http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-oakland-56.html

For awhile, Oakland was the sexiest, and most radical place on the planet. With ‘The King’ in town, Oakland took the crown. But, before Elvis, there was my father, Victor. Here he is with his mother in downtown Oakland where pachucos hung out playing pinball. Note the rolled up blue jeans and the young woman turning to check Mr. Presco out. Only after my extensive research was it revealed Victor was ‘The King of the Bohemians’.

Jon Presco

Copyright 2015

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachuco

CONCERT DATE: June 3, 1956. Oakland, CA.

Presley Leaves You In A Blue Suede Funk
by Ralph J. Gleason
The San Francisco Chronicle
June 5, 1956

Elvis Presley doesn’t wear blue suede shoes. He wears black pumps and when he goes on stage to sing he removes his cream-colored striped jacket with the black velvet collar and puts a blood-red one.

Prior to his appearance on the stage, he chats quietly with former schoolmates, acquaintances and musicians in the dressing room. Sunday night in Oakland, he poked his head outside and occasionally yelled at the audience which earlier that afternoon had done its best to step on his black pumps.

He is afraid of the crowd. Perhaps “afraid” is not exactly the right word – he says he loves them. But he wouldn’t pay a visit to the men’s room Sunday night without a police escort

The reaction of the audience, which was mainly teenage girls, is simply frightening. At the afternoon performance, one of the ushers claimed an impromptu, voluntary panty raid disrupted proceedings for a while and at the evening show two young ladies collapsed with a mild case of hysteria and another fainted clear away at the mere prospect of owning an autograph from the Presley pen.

Presley’s reaction to the crowd is unusual. He plays to it constantly on stage with a performance that it is earthy and extremely direct and you won’t see it on the Milton Berle show tonight when he makes his appearance. It’s a bit rugged for TV.

“ah thunk they’re wunnerful.” Presley says in a thick southern drawl, of the audience. “It makes muh want to live up to their opinion of muh”

After the show, Presley stayed in the dressing room for almost half an hour until a squad of Oakland police could safely escort him to his car. As it was, 50 assorted fans managed to grab him and shouted and screamed as he drove away

To the few who were able to crash the police line and actually get near to him. Presley was casual, friendly and seemed to make it a habit to give each a quick peck on the cheek.

As to performance itself, there were several interesting things. He apparently doesn’t play the guitar at all, uses it merely as a prop. He is obviously either a trained showman or a natural one. His entire performance, grotesque as it may be, was deftly aimed at his own fans whom he deliberately raised to an emotional pitch that bears no little resemblance to the effect of Johnnie Ray, Frank Sinatra and, even, to those thousands who crowded the Sportspalast in Berlin to chant in unison during the Third Reich, his emotional power is frightening.

But his musical performance is as elemental as the gyrations of an “exotic” dancer in a Tenderloin joint.

The Oakland Police Department was formed in 1853. It succeeded law enforcement duties for Oakland, California, from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. Beginning with World War II thousands of poor rural Southern African Americans migrated into Oakland to work in the shipyards.[1] During this same period the Oakland Police Department began to heavily recruit white police officers from the Deep South.[2][3] In the years that followed incidents of police brutality increased.[4][5]

In the mid-1960s, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was formed in Oakland largely to organize armed violent resistance to police brutality.[6] During their “Patrolling the Pigs” operation, Black Panthers wearing a uniform of black clothes, black leather jackets, and black berets would follow Oakland police patrols while openly carrying statute books and firearms.[7] In October 1967, Black Panther founder Huey Newton shot and killed an Oakland police officer during a traffic stop.[8] Prosecutors failed to secure a conviction against Newton after three separate trials.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Police_Department

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh6YcUJPNkg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAR8W9iC1rA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuP7VLkHmhk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkMmeu6FVIw

http://www.elvisconcerts.com/newspapers/press111.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1968_film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_J._Gleason