Girls, I’ll see you backstage,” Elvis announced. Many of the 14,000 spectators took him seriously!

Sometimes called the first rock & roll riot in history, havoc broke out at Presley’s Jacksonville concert on Friday the 13th in May, 1955. Fans poured out of the stands at the new Wolfson Baseball Park and chased the King into his dressing room, tearing at his clothes and ripping off his shirt. A few females even clamored through a ceiling vent, while Elvis clung to overhead pipes in the shower area. The photo shows him backstage after he eventually escaped. The singer is eating ice from a soda drink box, while a lucky admirer, Ardys Bell Clawson, makes eyes at him.

~written by Glenn Emery