Based on the pandemonium Elvis Presley had generate the last two times he played Jacksonville , Florida , Colonel Tom Parker , his manager , book him for six shows over two days in August of 1956 . All six display would be at the Florida Theater , a medium - sized locus that held about 2,200 people .
The 21 - class - old Elvis was quickly becoming a national celebrity based on the riots he had stirred up in places like Jacksonville . A few months earlier , after his Jacksonville operation , which included his trademark bumps , grinds , and hip joint motions , " Elvis the Pelvis " had incited the distaff members of the crowd to about tear him apart like jackals on a rabbit . They literally tore the clothes off his back . Besides his gyrations , Elvis would also lie face down on stage , debase full out on the mike , squirm and saying thing every girl in the crew wanted to pick up . And while the girls were whipped into a frenzy by Elvis ’s controversial singing and moves , their fellow were furious with jealousy , and many desire to tear the untried Isaac Merrit Singer apart themselves .
Although the teenaged girls were enthralled , the adult of Jacksonville were both apprehensive and terrify . And so it was that before his August concerts of 1956 , Elvis Presley was order to run into with local judge Marion W. Gooding . Meeting Elvis with Judge Gooding were the Optimists Club and the National Congress of the P.T.A. All were up in arms , " frigid stiff with outrage and bewilderment " at Elvis ’s " bizarrely spasmodic and purely intimate " move . They saw Elvis as self-important , sneer , grave , and defiant – the very embodiment of the 1950 ’s juvenile delinquent – and insisted the judge monish him to chant down his libidinous intensity .
“They had me convinced that no teenage girl was safe around Elvis Presley…”
" They had me convinced that no teenage girl was safe around Elvis Presley , " Judge Gooding recalled years later . " They wanted to have him watch at the theater and they wanted his hotel room watched . They had him pictured as a real scoundrel . "
In his chambers , the judge monish Elvis and his manager that he would be present at the first show and that he had educate warrant excite him with " impairing the morals of minors . " As if for proof , deputy would be send in wings of the Florida Theater .
After the meeting , Elvis told reporters , " I do n’t cognise what I ’m doing wrong . I make love my mother approves of what I ’m doing . "
Judge Gooding called Elvis a mellisonant , blue Kyd , " with the sorting of adept way that we link up with southern niceness . " Still , the judge attend the first show at 3:30 p.m.
On phase , Elvis opened with his current strike , " Heartbreak Hotel , " and discombobulate his pelvic girdle out once . " I ’m going to put him in jail , sure as anything , " Gooding whispered to the lawyer in the theatre . But then Elvis get himself and decided to have some playfulness .
“Wait a minute. I can’t do this…”
" expect a moment . I ca n’t do this . They wo n’t let me do this here , " Elvis told the audience . To everyone ’s amazement , instead of shaking , wiggling , and jumping around , Elvis stand perfectly still . Then he joggle his little finger suggestively in place of his common campaign . This thrilled the bunch , who find " the finger’s breadth " both hilarious and deeply erotic . Elvis continued the finger twitching movements throughout the rest of the concert .
" The kids went nuts anytime he did anything , " said June Juanico , Elvis ’s girlfriend at the sentence . " He could just make a funny fount , and they would shout . These stripling would just go half-baked . "
So Judge Gooding ’s wife , the Goodings ' three daughters , and their girl all watched as Elvis wiggled his finger suggestively throughout the unique concert . Even they roared when Elvis dedicated " Hound Dog " to the judge .
" Everybody in the consultation got the biggest charge out of that , " said Marilyn , one of the jurist ’s girl .
After the concert , Elvis happily enjoin June ( who had n’t been able-bodied to attend that day ) all about it : " Baby , you should have been there . Every time D.J. [ Elvis ’s drummer ] did his affair on the drums , I wiggled my fingerbreadth , and the girls went raving mad . I never heard screams like that in my life . I prove them sons of bitches – call me vulgar . Baby , you do n’t think I ’m vulgar , do you ? " Then , to lighten the humour , Elvis put a brace of June ’s panties on his head and strode around the elbow room .
Elvis performed all six concert in the Florida Theater on August 10th and 11th with no pelvis thrusts or gyrations , just the " aphrodisiacal " wiggling of his pinkie finger .
Elvis ’s mother , Gladys , hearing later about Judge Gooding , order her beloved Word to never , ever go back to Jacksonville . There was nothing for him there except hassle .
But he had made some new buff . The judge ’s grandson , Tony , would raise up to idolise Elvis and plaster Presley posters over his wall . And the last Christmas Judge Gooding was alive , for a Christmas present , he give his married woman an album of Elvis Presley singing spiritual song . There seem to have been no punishing feelings by the jurist or anyone after Elvis ’s " censored " performances in Jacksonville .
But what about Elvis himself ? Did Elvis leave the Florida Theater with any form of upset or angry feelings ?
Well , after Elvis ’s sixth show and final carrying into action in Jacksonville on August 11th , Elvis had a small message for the good judge and his cronies in attendance , according to Juanico .
“F**k you very much…”
" You know how Elvis always said , ' Thank you very much ' ? I heard it clear as day . He say , ' Fk you very much . Fk you very much . ' Everybody was scream , but all the fellow member of his entourage heard it . He did it double and he look over at me and grinned . " But June could n’t quite believe what she had hear . She could n’t think Elvis had said those words right on point , in front of everybody .
After the concert , once they were alone together , June asked Elvis if she ’d hear him aright .
" You get wind aright , " he replied .
