Elvis Shocks Nation: Hound Dog Rocks TV
Elvis Presley performed "Hound Dog" on The Milton Berle Show on June 5, 1956, in a performance that scandalized America and cemented rock and roll as a cultural force. Elvis discarded his guitar and performed the song with suggestive hip movements that the camera filmed from the waist up (a restriction later imposed on his Ed Sullivan Show appearances). An estimated 40 million viewers watched. Newspaper critics were savage: the New York Daily News called him "an unspeakably untalented and vulgar young entertainer." The controversy drove record sales through the roof: "Hound Dog" sold over four million copies. The performance demonstrated that television could amplify cultural rebellion in a way radio could not, and it established the template for the music video generation that followed.
June 5, 1956
70 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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