--- title: Elvis Presley: Early Photos of the King description: LIFE.com looks back at The King when he was a young, reckless, charming, thrilling and, for some, downright frightening rocker. canonical: https://time.com/3652543/life-with-elvis-early-photos-of-the-king/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-06-05T18:47:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:27.079Z og:title: Elvis Presley: Early Photos of the King og:description: On what would have been his 80th birthday, LIFE.com looks back at The King when he was a young, charming, thrilling and, for some, downright frightening rocker. og:url: https://time.com/3652543/life-with-elvis-early-photos-of-the-king/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27b9782be8bb48be/698777f5cd684820a8098e5a/150102-elvis-presley-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1683 og:image:height: 947 og:image:alt: Elvis Presley in Florida 1956 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elvis Presley: Early Photos of the King twitter:description: On what would have been his 80th birthday, LIFE.com looks back at The King when he was a young, charming, thrilling and, for some, downright frightening rocker. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27b9782be8bb48be/698777f5cd684820a8098e5a/150102-elvis-presley-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE With Elvis: Early Photos of the King > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 5, 2012 6:47 PM UTC  Elvis Presley in Florida, 1956. Elvis Presley in Florida, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jun 5, 2012 6:47 PM UTC It often surprises people who know even a little bit about LIFE to learn that the magazine didn’t cover Elvis Presley all that much. One might think that a publication so devoted to keeping its millions of weekly readers in the know would frequently feature, celebrate, analyze and dissect a phenomenon as stirring as the career of The King. And yet . . . LIFE didn’t. It’s not that the magazine completely ignored the man who quickly became — and, in some very fundamental ways, has remained — the biggest rock and roll star of the 20th century; but one gets the sense that the magazine was sometimes more fascinated by what might be called the ancillary impact of Elvis, rather than by the performer, or by his music. Little kids getting Elvis haircuts? Teens trying to dance like their idol? That sort of thing can be found in the pages of the magazine — while Elvis himself appears somewhat rarely. In 1956, though, LIFE did publish a feature on the young Mississippi native whose voice, looks and live performances were causing girls to scream and swoon; armies of boys to pick up guitars of their own; and legions of commentators, guardians of public morals and pop-culture critics to predict the end of civilization as they knew it if Elvis’ ungodly onstage gyrations were allowed to continue unchecked. For its part, LIFE reported rather drily on the uproar, choosing to remain above the fray — perhaps in hopes that Elvis would, eventually, just go away: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- Here, LIFE.com presents photos of Elvis — several of which never ran in LIFE magazine — when he was a young, reckless, charming, thrilling and, for some, downright frightening rocker. We all know his gruesome, terribly sad fate: dead on a bathroom floor at the age of 42: utterly alone, yet surrounded by sycophants; addicted to drugs; a bloated caricature of his early self. That is how one American legend came to a close. Here, we choose to remember how the legend itself began. . . .  Elvis Presley in Florida, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Happy screechers at Jacksonville hold their heads and yell as loud as they can as Presley yowls. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Pulpit comparison of a Presley poster and Bible is drawn by a Baptist preacher, Robert Gray. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Water-warped records played in Jacksonville added new twists to Elvis' wobbling song style. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Presley's motions are demonstrated by a 13-year-old, Steve Shad, in a Jacksonville record shop. High school boys have mastered Presley's gestures, but show little interest in his singing style. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Presley promoter in Jacksonville is the side-burned drummer and disk jockey Scotty Ferguson. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Barber Joe Governale in Jacksonville gives Ronny Turner, 16, the duck-tail cut Elvis favors, leaving a rich overhang of hair in back of head. Ronny is too young for Elvis-style-sideburns. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Antidote to Elvis was church social at Murray Hill Methodist church two nights after Presley left. Before dance, group heard Presley denounced in sermon on 'Hot Rods, Reefers and Rock 'n Roll. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Civic leaders meet with a Jacksonville, Fla. judge to discuss ways of "curbing" Elvis Presley's influence on local teens, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Prayer for Presley in Trinity Baptist church came after the Reverend Gray said the singer had 'achieved a new low in spiritual degeneracy. If he were offered his salvation tonight, he would probably say. 'No thanks, I'm on the top.' Then teenagers in front rows led in prayer that salvation be granted to him. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Crowd outside a Florida theater before an Elvis concert, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Elvis Presley in Florida, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Packed crowd for Presley, 2,200 Jacksonville teenagers turned up at every one of the six shows he gave in two days at the Florida Theatre. Line of uniformed cops and shore patrol seated in the orchestra pit were there to keep audience from storming over the footlights when Elvis sang his 'Hound Dog' finale. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Backstage kisses are bestowed on pretty admirers. Pictured: Andrea June Stephens, who came to Jacksonville from Atlanta, Ga., after writing prizewinning letter on why she would like to meet Elvis. Promised a dinner date with Elvis, she got instead a cheeseburger in a Jacksonville diner. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Elvis Presley in Florida, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Elvis Presley kisses a "Jacksonville girl" in Florida, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Elvis Presley in Florida, 1956. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  LIFE magazine, August 27, 1956. LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, August 27, 1956. LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, August 27, 1956. LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, August 27, 1956. LIFE Magazine  LIFE magazine, August 27, 1956. 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