In the spring of 1953, a shy senior at Humes High in Memphis asked a girl named Regis Wilson to his prom. That boy was Elvis Presley, three years before the whole world knew his name.
He wanted to do it right. Elvis took the money he’d earned ushering at a movie theater and spent it on a rented dark blue Chevy. He showed up in a dark blue suit and, of course, blue suede shoes.
Regis wore a pink taffeta dress that cost her $14.98. She felt like a princess. “I felt like Cinderella getting ready to go to the Royal Ball,” she said.
The prom was held in the Continental Ballroom at the fancy Peabody Hotel downtown. It should have been a magical night, and in a lot of ways it was.
But then Elvis leaned in and told her something that’s almost impossible to believe now.
He told her he couldn’t dance.
That’s right. The man who would soon shake up all of America with his moves, the man whose hips got him in trouble on television, sat out every single dance at his own prom. He and Regis spent the whole night drinking sodas and watching the other couples glide by. Regis figured it had something to do with the strict way he’d been raised.
It’s hard to square with what came next. So take a listen to the song that tied right back to what he wore that evening.
Elvis Presley, “Blue Suede Shoes” (official audio)
Now hold that picture of the boy who wouldn’t dance. Then look at what he turned into just a few years later.
Elvis cuts loose on “Blue Suede Shoes” (’68 Comeback Special)
Quite a change, isn’t it? The quiet kid in the corner at the Peabody became the most electric performer anyone had ever seen.
The rest of prom night had a few bumps too. Afterward Elvis took Regis to Leonard’s Barbecue for a little party with friends. The trouble was, nobody else showed up. So the two of them just sat there a while, then he drove her home.
A few weeks later, Regis’s family moved away to Florida, and just like that, the prom was behind them. The boy who couldn’t dance went on to change music forever. Regis held onto the memory of a sweet, shy date who made her feel like a princess, and the clips above show you both sides of him.