5,113 words
The recent movie on Elvis Presley[1] is exceptional in its acting, script, and production. For those interested in such matters, it is also excellent as cultural history.
The movie deals to a significant extent with the African influences on Presley’s music. As a little boy growing up in a poor, integrated neighborhood, he was fascinated by the rhythms and gyrations of the blacks, including black gospel music. This boyhood fascination developed into an adolescent identification with the “blues” of Negro musicians, and his frequenting of black nightclubs and bars.
With Presley’s distinctly Negro musical style and his equally Negro-influenced gyrations, the movie depicts the impact that he had on crowds of white female adolescents, which later spread to their initially...