On 28 October 1957 in the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles Elvis Presley gave a legendary performance, his first in the city where he lived. A horde of stars with their children had turned up for the first of the two shows, in which Elvis shocked his audience with the steamiest, horniest antics most of them had ever seen. These involved an on-stage replica of Nipper, the famous mascot of the rca record label. Elvis came on stage in the celebrated gold jacket and black wide-legged
trousers, and for an hour gyrated his hips across the stage. But it was his last song that produced the headline: ‘Elvis Presley will have to clean up his show — or go to jail.’ No one knew what got into him, but when he launched into ‘Hound Dog’ his eyes had a wild look, and his pupils were dilated, as if he were very far away. He did the unthinkable: he began unbuttoning his trousers at the waist and pulling down the zip. The audience, already whipped into a frenzy by the sexual undertones of the show, went crazy.
With his trousers undone — though not dropped — Elvis grabbed hold of Nipper. He forced the animal against his crotch and started making masturbatory gestures. When the audience went completely wild, Elvis started rolling about on the floor with the replica of Nipper in a perfect imitation of bestiality. It was deeply shocking. The next day the vice squad arrived in suits with official warnings and a video camera. Elvis toned things down and Nipper’s double came through the show unscathed.
Elvis would soon acquire the nickname of The King, but ironically the supposedly dangerous rock ’n’ roll idol was anything but a sexual glutton. He wasn’t that keen on intercourse, though he did like fellatio. This was connected with the fact that his mother had taught him that sex before marriage was a sin, and recalls Bill Clinton’s proverbial protestation: ‘I did not have sex with that woman!’ Virtually impotent from medication and recreational drugs, Elvis departed this life on 16 August 1977, at the age of 42.