Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [71]
Salvadore “Penue” Taranto, a member of Johnny Ellmer’s Rockets, which often brought 300 to 400 kids into the Lodge, was there that night, and he was blown away. He’d heard Elvis on the jukebox, but he was unprepared for a full show of music that would soon be termed rockabilly. “It was so different from any type of music that you couldn’t even relate to it at the time. Here was everybody making fun of this guy shaking like he had something wrong with him. But what he did, he did good. When he popped that first hit, he really took off.”
The following day, seventeen-year-old June Juanico had just gotten home from work when she got a call from her girlfriend Glenda Manduffy, who had attended the show at the tiny lodge. She was practically screaming into the phone about this guy Elvis Presley and the way he moved, and how it was wall-to-wall females in the place, and she couldn’t get close enough to him to really see him. But he was going to be at the Airmen’s Club at Keesler Air Force Base that night and the next, and c’mon, June, let’s go!
June thought about it a minute. She had a steady boyfriend, the six-foot-four Norbie Ronsonet, and you were supposed to be eighteen years old to get into this place, but reluctantly she went. She’d already heard other people say “You need to go and see him!” And so she caved. She called Norbie and told him she had to go somewhere with her friend, and that they’d be late getting in.
The first time she’d ever heard of Elvis, she was listening to the radio. “That’s All Right (Mama)” came on, and then later, “Good Rockin’ Tonight.”
“My first thought was that he was a nervous old man, an elderly hillbilly.”
When June and her friend got to the club, they saw maybe thirty-five women in a sea of airmen. They picked a table right by the stage, because Glenda kept saying, “Wait ’til you see this guy! He’s so good-looking!” To really get a good look at him, June realized they needed to be on the dance floor, since the couples would block their view between the table and the stage. She was skeptical about him—this nervous old guy—but when he finally came out, her jaw dropped. “I thought he was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.”
Elvis noticed her, too. He picked her out of the crowd, her suntan showing off her white dress as she danced. Still, she didn’t go over to him during intermission, when he stood and talked to a clutch of folks, mostly airmen. “Come on, Glenda,” she said, orchestrating a game of cat and mouse. “Let’s go to the ladies’ room.”
When they passed by him, he and June exchanged brief eye contact. Then as the girls made their way back to the table, Elvis reached through the swarm and grabbed her by the arm.
“Where are you going? You’re not leaving, are you?”
It was the first time she’d really looked into his face, and she just about died. He had those big dreamy eyes, but he didn’t look like anyone she had ever seen, either. His voice, laced with Memphis twang, was playful and seductive, a mix of little boy charm and adult sensuality. But he also seemed like a gentleman.
“No,” she said. “I’m going back to my table.”
“I get through here in about an hour. Will you stay until I get off? Then you can show me the town.”
She felt herself getting goose bumps, but she didn’t want to show it. She’d never even kissed on a first date, and she didn’t want to send the wrong message. She hadn’t screamed at his performance like the other girls.
“Well,” she said, “Biloxi is such a small town, there’s really nothing to see.”
“Oh, really. Well, show me what there is to see.”
He promised he’d take good care of her, and he could see by the look on her face that she thought it was all happening too quickly. He said, “In this business, if I meet somebody and I don’t make a fast move, I’m not going to make a move at all. I may never see you again.”
She was excited and scared, but she heard herself say okay, and after his second set was over and he loaded up the equipment, he pulled around front in his parents