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  • The KISS LetterAn Encounter with Elvis
  • Eugenia Dettelbach Wicker (bio) and Marcie Cohen Ferris (bio)

“The Last Time I Kissed Him, He only Had on Half a Shirt.”

Along with talent and energy, Elvis brought a sexual charisma into the music business that his colleagues did not possess. Certainly no country entertainer before him had exhibited such raw masculine appeal. Elvis’ unusual combination of little-boy shyness and leering sensuality won him a legion of female followers of all ages. Nicknamed “Elvis the Pelvis” because of his peculiar dance gyrations, Presley awakened feelings among his young women listeners that not even they understood.

—Bill C. Malone, Country Music U.S.A.

June 1956, Atlanta, Georgia. It was the summer before ninth grade at a white girls’ academy. Genie Dettelbach was thirteen years old, on the cusp of fourteen. Although her friends had returned for a final year of summer camp, Genie rebelled and chose to stay in Atlanta. Little did she know that her independent spirit would shake her from both a sense of summer malaise and her adolescence. When Genie heard Elvis Presley was coming to Atlanta’s Paramount Theater, she jumped at the chance to attend a performance.

Twenty-one-year-old Presley’s career had rocketed that year, thanks to his first rca recording session, the hit single “Heartbreak Hotel,” national television appearances, and his first gold album. Knowing of her parents’ disapproval of the controversial Presley, who was already famous for his charisma and “physical gyrations” on stage, Genie secretly made her way to the 2 p.m. concert on Friday, June 22.

The following “KISS Letter,” so named by Genie and her friends at summer camp who received the letter, was written the evening after the concert. At the heart of her description of the event is a passionate kiss with Presley. Genie’s excitement, as well as her close attention to detail—what Elvis wore, the songs he performed, the first-time appearance of the Jordanaires, the reaction of the young girls—confirm historians Peter Guralnick, Bill Malone, Pete Daniels, and Joel Williamson’s descriptions of the powerful convergence in Presley’s music of an emerging sexual revolution and the loosening of racial boundaries. Kissing [End Page 116] his female fans—of all ages—was exactly the kind of illicit behavior that both shocked Middle America and enthralled those who adored Presley.

Genie Dettelbach was one of the thousands of young women “awakened” by Presley’s dynamism in an era of 1950s conformism. Her parents must have wondered what had gotten into their daughter that night. Genie wrote, “I couldn’t even eat tonight. We had Roast Beef, but I just couldn’t eat it . . . I can’t even lie down without moving . . . I’m going back tomorrow. You bet.”


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Twenty-one-year-old Elvis Presley’s career had rocketed in 1956, thanks to the hit single “Heartbreak Hotel,” national television appearances, and his first gold album. Knowing of her parents’ disapproval of the controversial Presley, who was already famous for his charisma and “physical gyrations” on stage, Genie Dettelbach secretly made her way to his concert. The “KISS Letter” was written the evening after it. The envelope, courtesy of the author and the American Museum of Visionary Art, Baltimore, Maryland.

The Kiss Letter

June 22, 1956

Dear Ann, Dell +Flossie,

Yall, I’m so excited I can’t write. I’m also listening to Elvis’s album+records. Its been a dream come true + I really mean it like never before. I’ll give you an exact record of what I’ve done today. Got up at 7:30 fixed breakfast. got ready left the house at 15 to 11, got to town at the Paramount at about 11:30. I saw Patsy Allen + we ate a small lunch there were girls even then from the ticket box clear to the corner. However I bought my ticket and we both broke in line boy were those girls mad most of them had sign posts like this [drawing] + they were carrying them. At a quarter to twelve I was so hot it wasn’t funny. excuse...

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