It Was a Hot Day and Elvis Popped Up - Dr. Ed Iannuccilli

It Was a Hot Day and Elvis Popped Up - Dr. Ed Iannuccilli

There is nothing like a blistering afternoon to drive you to the cool of the movie theater, and last week did it for us.

It had been years since we have been to the movies, but the searing heat led to an instinctive, “Let’s go to the movies" chant, and off we went.

The movie choice was easy because we wanted to see ‘Elvis.' He was an integral part of our youth, and his music has remained endearing for years.

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His “Blue Suede Shoes” hit gave me the urge to own a pair when I was in the 9th grade. I wore them once and realized in a flash that I was not a suede shoe kinda kid, as my bent was toward white bucks and khaki pants, in the realm of faggy in those days, nerdy today. Oh well.

My shards of memory and images of Elvis harkened back to high school when I realized that my swooning female classmates were bonkers over him, and I was jealous; a jealously that bordered on envy.

He wore black pants, suede shoes, and a baby-blue shirt. His convulsive leg movements and pelvic gyrations added to the attraction, such that he garnered the handle of “Elvis the Pelvis.”

Said Elvis, “I get rhythm with the music. I jump around to it because I enjoy what I’m doing. I’m not trying to be vulgar, not trying to stimulate sex. I just do a lot of wigglin’ and quiverin,’ but I never do a bump or grind. I can’t sit still when I sing, so the kids can’t sit still . . .  my pelvis has nothing to do with what I do.”

It so annoyed my Dad. “What the hell is that?” he queried when he first saw Elvis on TV. Dad was a Jerry Vale and Perry Como patriot.

During the movie, I was peering through the foggy lens of nostalgia, remembering where I was and with whom when he sang. I thought of disc jockey Carl Henry, who introduced me to the gritty, sensual sounds of Rock ‘n Roll, and another, Alan Freed, whose sounds, smothered in static, arose from a New York station.

The movie is a juggernaut of Elvis’ life, moving quickly from moment to moment, interspersed with the great music of Little Richard, Big Mamma Thornton, BB King, and others, well represented by today’s talent.

The extraordinarily talented Austin Butler portrayed Elvis’ hardscrabble life rumbling down the dreaded drug path, though that was not his greatest addiction, His greatest was the adulation of his fans.

The movie tethered me to my past, as I recalled the tapestries of my youth. Our stories take place in snippets, experiences small at first but later looming larger, and sometimes pivotal. Elvis was part of it as he contributed to many of those pieces.

Elvis’s music ushered in waves of melancholy moments as I thought of good friends and good experiences on this hot summer day in the cool theater.