Of all the pics of screaming Elvis fans, she is my favorite. This is from a show at the Philadelphia Arena in April, 1957. I love it because although people are screaming behind her, she’s the only one in … this particular state. She’s way out there on a limb by herself. The girl down the row, clearly caught up in her own emotions, looks shocked at what is happening with the girl. She’s feeling the same things. Maybe she wishes she could be as free with her feelings. In the second photo, the girl right next to her stares at her with a look of contemplation, like, “Wow. Check THIS out.”
It’s life-changing. To feel things like that. And to feel them so hard you don’t care who knows.
Please note, too, that she brought her binoculars.
The phrase “women want him, men want to be him” comes to mind.
I can only compare this photo to Bernini’s St Teresa of Avila in Ecstasy sculpture. I think that this Elvis fan is further in, of course marble is more solid, less transitory a medium than film “of and in the moment.” Either way, there’s something sacred about this young woman. She is in her moment in a way I’m not sure I’ve ever been. What visions, what prophecies did she see and hear?
I wonder if he was singing “Love Me Tender” or “Hound Dog”….or if he had just segued from one to the other?