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Elvis Reading (about Elvis)

 

By Bob Pakes

 

11111-1Every now and then you run into a photo of Elvis checking out a magazine. ‘Teeny-mags’ were published by the truckload in the late 50’s, and since Presley had become the hottest thing in showbusiness, he appeared in nearly all of them in one way or another. And Elvis apparently enjoyed reading the articles about himself!
 
Most of these vintage magazines are very collectible nowadays, especially the ones that have Elvis on the frontcover. In this topic you’ll find a chronological collection of photographs of Elvis reading (or in another way connected to) magazines that could be identified. Where possible, an image of the magazine in question accompanies each entry.

 

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02 USA versie upgrade

August 10, 1956 |
Jacksonville, Florida

ELVIS PRESLEY
(1956)
 
When Elvis came to town, juvenile court Judge Gooding did his best to control Elvis’ uncontrollable movements on stage. He even attended one of his shows that day. So Elvis couldn’t move, he had to stand still, the only thing he could move was his little finger …

 

09 Radio TV Mirror (Mildred Scrivener, Humes History teacher)

Unknown | Humes High School, Memphis

Humes High’s history teacher Mildred Scrivener did not think Elvis was a bad influence at all. In a March 1957 article in TV Radio Mirror (that this image appeared in) she states she saw him as a “decent-thinking, right-living, generous and kind person.”

 

96 12

August 18, 1956 |
Knickerbocker Hotel, Hollywood

HEAR the Voice of Hollywood
(November, 1956)

 

101 november 1956 20 September 56 (Fox)

September, 1956 |
The set of Love Me Tender

DIG
(November 1956)
 
Check below the awesome photo of Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps going through this magazine!
 
The magazine can be found HERE!

 

22 DIG Gene upgrade (Josep) 23 DIG frame

 

111 playboy january 1957 30 January 6, 1957 NYC

January 6, 1957 |
Warwick Hotel,
New York City

PLAYBOY
(January 1957)

 

32 31 January 6, 1957 NYC (upgrade Ger) Elvis is checking out some magazines in the lobby of the Warwick Hotel.
In the photo to the right we can see him going through an article titled What Presley Really Wants.
 
The titles of these two magazines are, as of yet, unknown.

 

36 (1956) 35 January 7, 1957 Greeneville station

January 7, 1957 |
Greeneville Station

ELVIS Photo Album
(1956)

 

121 (17-02-57) 40 (1957, Thomas Beyl on set Loving You)

1957 |
The set of Loving You

BRAVO
(Germany. February 17, 1957)
 
BRAVO reporter Thomas Beyl visited Elvis on the set of Loving You and showed him an earlier edition of the magazine that had Elvis on the cover.
Thomas visited Elvis again when he lived in Bad Nauheim.

 

46 Teen (April 1958) 45 March (12) 1958 King Creole set

March, 1958 |
The set of King Creole

TEEN
(April, 1958)

 

50 Little Gerhard (Wiesbaden 23-10-58)

October 23, 1958 | Wiesbaden, Germany

BILDJOURNALEN, No. 20 (Sweden. May, 1958)

Swedish singer Little Gerhard met Elvis at a Bill Haley concert,
and he brought along a magazine that had an Elvis-article in it.

 

151 60 (11-58 Hotel Grunewald)

November, 1958 |
Hotel Grunewald,
Bad Nauheim

THE ELVIS PRESLEY ALBUM No 2
(UK, 1958)

 

66 Hotel Grunewald (October 1956) 65 Hotel Grunewald PICTUREGOER
(UK. October, 1956)
 
It’s interesting to note that the magazine Elvis is reading here, is actually over 2 years old.

 

68 BRAVO 26-10-58 69 BRAVO 30-11-58 67 Hotel Grunewald 30-11-58BRAVO
(Germany.
October 26, 1958)
 
BRAVO
(Germany.
November 30, 1958)

 

71 (february 1959) 70 January 1959 (PX Store)

January, 1959 |
The PX Store

MOVIE LIFE
(February 1959)

 

81 Bravo (22-08-59 80 (19-8-59 Thomas Beyl)

August 19, 1959 |
Goethestrasse, Bad Nauheim

BRAVO
(Germany. August 22, 1959)
 
The second time that Thomas Beyl interviewed Elvis was in Bad Nauheim.

 

91 Die Tonende Story (November 1959) 90

1959 | Germany

DIE TONENDE STORY
(Germany. November 1959)
 
This is actually one of the first books about Elvis Presley, and the first in the German language.

 

171 Film Revue (01-03-60) 100 1960

March, 1960 | Germany

FILM Revue
(Germany. March 1, 1960)

 

back Photo Folio 1957 Bad Nauheim March, 1960

March, 1960 | Germany

Photo Folio
(1957)

 

120 (25-03-61)

March 25, 1961 | Hawaii

Hawaiian Life
(March, 1961)

 

131 Film Revue (5-12-61) 130

December, 1961 |
On the set of Kid Galahad

FILM Revue
(Germany. December 5, 1961)

 

141 Muziek-Expres-97-januari-1964-01 140 February 14, 1964

February 14, 1964 |
Long Beach, California

Muziek Expres
(Holland. January, 1964)
 
This magazine can be found HERE!

 

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PHOTO CREDITS:
Lloyd Shearer
Ed Braslaff
Alfred Wertheimer
Thomas Beyl
Jan Storm
and the many unknown photographers!
 
THANKS:
Jans (for the Elvis Presley 1956 magazine)
Kari Paju (for the Radio TV Mirror article)
Josep Rulló Guàrdia (for the upgrade-photo of Gene Vincent)
Roger Ersson (for identifying the Swedish magazine)

 

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16 Comments Post a comment
  1. Gerrit De Jong #

    A real Nice overview Bob … I had Fun with this one, cool !!

    January 16, 2014
  2. Jans #

    Nice magazines, wished I had them all.

    January 16, 2014
  3. Josep #

    Great topic, Bob !

    And many rarely seen photos too. Thank you !

    January 16, 2014
  4. Kari #

    Great topic!
    About the first magazine … You have the cover of the UK edition of the magazine. You might want to change that to the cover of the US edition that Elvis is reading. It is slightly different.

    January 23, 2014
  5. Bob, if you still need a copy of the US edition of the 1956 Elvis mag, let me know, okay?!

    February 8, 2014
  6. Thanks Bob.
    Fascinating stuff. I remember the Elvis Presley magazine from the time I got it in, 1957. I was 15 and had not yet seen Elvis in a movie!

    February 25, 2014
  7. Craig Philo #

    This is great…..superb research

    March 2, 2014
  8. Diana from New York #

    A wonderful treat to see this! Thank you so much.

    March 5, 2014
  9. Tom Mees #

    I enjoyed this very much, in fact this whole site is just splendid! Thank you.

    March 11, 2014
  10. Roger Ersson #

    The title of the Swedish Magazine is Bildjournalen

    May 8, 2014
  11. Still a superb piece of research, Bobman!

    December 27, 2015
  12. Great collection of newspaper articles.
    You guys did a great job. Well done, friends.

    Ralf (webmaster of “Elvis-Cinema”)

    January 11, 2016
  13. SENSATIONAL article.
    I must have missed this one – fascinating.
    Cheers, Piers

    April 18, 2016
  14. Anthony Dobb #

    Splendid piece. Does anyone know if there is any Elvis content within the March 1960 ‘Film Revue’ magazine?

    September 22, 2017
  15. Mary L Culp #

    The picture of Elvis looking at the magazine was taken in his compartment on the train, at Union Station in Los Angeles. It was taken by Mary Cary Culp, with Sandie Kaye Stevens’ camera. Sandy was there too.

    January 17, 2019
  16. Cayetano #

    Missed it…Fantastic topic!!!.

    April 9, 2020

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