The shocking sentiment about his parenting aside, it is clear critics were not keen on the way Elvis seemed to take over the music scene, turning young women into screaming, obsessed fans.
Another reporter, Herb Rowe of the Miami Daily News, wrote on 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.
“What’s happening that makes these girls scream, faint, pay lavish devotion for these musicians?”
For Mr Rowe, evidently it was not just the fandom that frustrated him, but his perception of Elvis’ lack of talent.
