Janet Fulton was only 13 years-old when she attended Elvis' Canadian Ottawa concert on April 3rd 1957, despite her family having great reservations.
One of the highlights of her life was not only meeting Elvis but also being kissed by him, as shown in the famous photo.
Last month Janet Fulton contacted EIN regarding some other photos she was tracking down and was kind enough to let us interview her about the experience of meeting Elvis and being a young teenage fan in the fifties.
Interview by EIN's Piers Beagley |
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Sixteen thousand fans attend Presley's two sold -out concerts, tickets $3.50 each. He wears his famous $4,000 gold lama jacket, black silk shirt, black draped pants, and white bucks. Each show is only 40 minutes long with nine songs including 'Hound Dog', 'Don't Be Cruel', `Heartbreak Hotel', 'All Shook Up', and 'Love Me Tender'.
The brevity of the performances is true to the philosophy of his canny manager, Col. Tom Parker, who, cigar clamped in mouth, roams back and forth in front of the stage: "Always give 'em just a taste, leave 'em begging for more."
More than 100 policemen guard the stage and are dispersed throughout the crowd. Many of
the fans are wearing 'I Like Elvis' and 'Elvis Forever' buttons and Elvis charm bracelets and carry $1 programs. The worshippers are warned that anyone attacking Presley will be ejected from the building.
Elvis sings, but no one can hear him over the deafening pandemonium. It is total madness, a wall of non-stop screaming. When he drops to his knees, when he touches his ear with his thumb, when he snaps his legs, when he swivels his hips, when he shakes, when he shimmies. when he smiles that crooked smile, it is mass hysteria.
During his pelvis-thrusting, shoulders-juking rendition of 'Hound Dog', three cops charge down the centre aisle tossing fans back into their seats like sacks of potatoes.
– - The Ottawa Sun.
See additional 2014 update below from Ottawa fan club President Pete Mercer's niece! |
Janet Fulton was only 13 years-old when she attended Elvis' Canadian Ottawa concert on April 3rd 1957, despite her family having great reservations. One of the highlights of her life was not only meeting Elvis but also being kissed by him.
Last month Janet Fulton contacted EIN regarding some other photos she was tracking down and was kind enough to let us interview her about the experience of meeting Elvis and being a young teenage fan in the fifties.
Interview by Piers Beagley.
EIN: Hi Janet it is an amazing thing that you contacted us about these 1957 photos after all these years.
Janet Fulton: I was looking at pictures from the 1957 Ottawa concert and was wondering if there were any more around. I was interested in the Scotty Moore website pictures of our auditorium which is no longer there.
(EIN Note - Please check out the fabulous Scotty Moore website here for more about the Elvis Ottawa concert)
EIN: Were you one of the girls told not to go to the concert? You weren’t at the somewhat infamous Notre Dame Convent were you?
Janet: The night that I went to the concert my Mother was quite concerned as I was a convent girl and the nuns were saying it was the Devil's work. I wasn’t at Notre Dame Convent, I was at the Sacred Heart. The nuns there did not tell me not to go - but they weren’t too keen on it.
At Notre Dame there was a form they had to sign. I knew some of the girls there who were naughty and went to the Elvis Concert. Afterwards the parents had to get in touch with the Convent and the nuns had to accept them back to school.
The Ottowa Journal reported .. Students of Notre Dame Convent have been asked to promise they will take no part in either the reception for Elvis Presley today or his show at the Auditorium tonight.
The request, circulated throughout high school classes at the Convent, followed a speech over the public address system at another Ottawa school yesterday.
But, while the other simply warned students not to misbehave at the rock ’n` roll rally and to do nothing to bring dishonor on their school’s name, the Notre Dame circular requested students not to attend.
It was written on blackboards at the convent during routine class hours, students said, and they were asked to copy it, then sign it at the bottom.
It read:
"I promise that I shall not take part in the reception accorded Elvis Presley and I shall not be present at the program presented by him at the Auditorium on Wednesday, April 3, 1957. Signed .... "
EIN: It is extraordinary that just a popular singer could cause that consternation isn’t it?
Janet: I know that when I first saw Elvis I must have been 12 and I was lying on the living room floor and I was drawing or something and all of a sudden I heard Elvis singing ‘Shake Rattle & Roll’ and I thought, "Oh my God what is this?", it was like a bolt of lightning! Later he sang his single 'Heartbreak Hotel' and I was .. you know ..... this was on the rather staid Tommy Dorsey show!
EIN: Being in Canada I guess you got the US TV shows exactly as they did?
Janet: Yes. He was on The Dorsey show and on Ed Sullivan later. Elvis hit me like a tons of bricks, as this was a family show where they had organ players, jugglers and suchlike. My parents were only watching because it was a family show, no one was expecting THAT!
On some of his later shows they only showed Elvis’ upper half – But I had never seen anybody jump around and wiggle like that!! It was really something…
EIN: What did your friends feel?
Janet: Well they were struck, but not as much as I was. I immediately started looking for an Elvis Presley Fan Club. And I found one which was in Pottsdamn New York, which is about an hour from here. I soon became the Vice-President of the Fan Club. |
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EIN: Did you write to them or visit them?
Janet: At first I wrote to them, but the President .. I don’t remember her name now, anyway the week of the concert the weather was bad, it was April 3rd and she couldn’t make it. So that’s how I got to meet Elvis as I went in her place! I went in the President’s place since I was Vice-President - and with a friend from school.
EIN: Would you have tried to force your way in if you didn’t have the concert ticket?
Janet: It was a pretty wild crowd let me tell you. There was a lot of screaming and yelling! Unbeknownst to me my Mother, thinking that it was perhaps the Devil’s work, had got a ticket and was sitting about ten rows behind me so that she could yank me out of there if she thought there was something terribly wrong going on.
EIN: That’s amazing that she was that worried.
Janet: I only found about it afterwards! In fact I was looking at the Scotty Moore website recently and I found my Mother’s picture in the crowd right behind me. ..(Right: The protective Canadian Mothers!)
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EIN: Of course there’s a couple of lovely photos of you being kissed by Elvis.
Janet: I have the three, one gorgeous one where I’m trying to touch his sideburns! The girl beside me was my friend from school and I have no idea exactly who the other girls were – but they sure look envious, especially the blonde!
EIN: Did you get an invite from Colonel Parker, how did you actually get to meet Elvis?
Janet: Well, the fan club President’s tickets had us on the very front row and Colonel Parker himself came up to a few of us and ushered us all in. I’m pretty sure it was afterwards but it could have been before the concert started, I can't quite remember the timing I was so excited.
EIN Note: Elvis is wearing the same jacket as at the afternoon Press Conference, so presumably the meet-up with the Fan Club Presidents was in fact before Elvis and the band came on stage and possibly during the show while the earlier acts were performing.
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The Ottawa Citizen reported about the Press Conference.
Presley handles a press conference like a veteran statesman (except, perhaps, that few statesmen grant interviews while perched cross-legged on a table). He answers readily and intelligently, doesn't try to weasel out of questions, doesn't get huffy, and remains honest even if it's to his disadvantage. And he tops it off with a sharp sense of humor and quick wit.
Some of Elvis' answers:
On the Notre Dame Convent ban on him: "I'd like to invite whoever did this to come and see the show. If he still thinks it's harmful to kids after that, okay."
On rock and roll: "Music can't have anything to do with making a person bad."
On his movie, Love Me Tender: "Certainly it wasn't a great movie - just average. It would have done as well without me. I didn't do a top-notch job. I was just glad of the chance to be in it"
On a recent smear in a scandal magazine: "I'm a boy. I do what other boys do."
On the magazine's description of his wooing technique: "Sounds like fun."
On his professional future: "I'm just taking things as they come. I'll keep on until people get tired of me. It could happen, likely as not."
On the rigors of being a teenage idol: "Not having a any privacy gets on your nerves, all right. But it’s part of the business. That’s what made me. I haven’t got a beef."
EIN: How much do you remember of the concert?
Janet: It was wild, thousands screaming but I can’t remember many specific details. Elvis played ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’.. we were screaming and it was front row. In the front row the sound system was pretty good so we could hear. I found out later that my Mother left early because she found it too noisy for her!
It was sheer pandemonium. The screams and squeals were so devastating that it was virtually impossible to hear anything that Presley was allegedly singing. This didn't seem to bother the teen-agers who erupted on cue on the frequent occasions when their idol went into his 'bump and-grind' routine. Despite all their enthusiasm, the boys and girls and the sprinkling of adults were very well behaved. There were no arrests and no one was thrown out of the party.
One girl fainted, hundreds cried, but generally speaking it was a peaceful Presley program. The only potential danger peaks came when Elvis turned on the steam and gyrated like a Minsky burlesque graduate. Several times the audience started to close in on the platform but prompt action by police kept the situation under control.
- The Ottawa Citizen
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EIN: I can understand aged only 13 you would be overcome with excitement!
Janet: It was like my memories of when Elvis kissed my cheek - he was going for my mouth actually!! But I was too embarrassed, but I was only 13 so I was in awe. But I looked older I guess.
EIN: Do you remember what Elvis said, did he talk with you?
Janet: Oh it’s terrible but I just don’t remember. Elvis was so famous and I was in shock. You see I didn’t know I was going to meet him, I had no warning. I even had my Convent uniform on and this little old tweed coat! I had no idea I was going to meet Elvis. The invite was to the concert only, there was no indication that we would be meeting Elvis!
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EIN: So what did you think when Colonel Parker said you were going to meet Elvis?
Janet: It wasn’t like that because there was so much noise and it wasn’t explained. Colonel Parker appeared and organised a group of us and we were just ushered in and there Elvis was sitting there!
EIN: How was seeing Elvis in the flesh?
Janet: Oh, he was so handsome, he was so handsome and he had the bluest eyes. In most pictures you can’t really tell what colour Elvis’ eyes are but they looked so blue to me. We spent around ten minutes tops with him and I was the only one he kissed!
It was the night of my life. An Ottawa fan club President Pete Mercer was there at the concert but I don’t remember all the fan club details. I remember that Pete Mercer walked me home late one night, possibly that night, and my Mother was in a rage! Of course I’m sorry I don’t remember more salient details of the night. To me it is incredible that I find all these other pictures now!
EIN: Looking back nowadays it is hard to imagine the impact and shockwave Elvis caused. Imagine your Mother thinking he could be the Devil’s work. What did she say after the concert?
Janet: Oh she actually quite liked him! Our family was very conservative, I was a conservative young girl but nobody had seen anything like it in their lives! Before it had been Perry Como and so on, I think Elvis was a complete shock and took everyone by surprise.
When I told my friends I met Elvis, they were all in awe. I can’t quite remember what I did afterwards and whether I wrote anything specific for our Fan Club, but I know I didn’t wash my cheek for a week!
EIN: (Laughing) That’s so cute! Did he give you an autograph?
Janet: No sadly he didn’t, but I got the kiss..
EIN: Here’s a review from the Ottawa Journal from their reporter Helen Parmelee.
"Some wept, some moaned; some clutched their heads in ecstasy. Every body screamed, stamped, clapped hands, flailed arms; one person got down on all fours and pounded the floor. Elvis `sent' them. Elvis 'sent' me too — home with a bursting headache. I'm still bewildered. Last night's contortionist exhibition at the Auditorium was the closest to the jungle I'll ever get." - What did you think of the rest of the crowd’s reactions..
Janet: A lot of people were out of control, but of course they were behind me and I couldn’t really see the crowd’s overall reactions. Being on the front row I was just concentrating on watching Elvis. There was a lot of yelling and screaming but if the reporters complained I sure they were older journalists. Now kids do the same to Justin Bieber – but I don’t see it!
EIN: Did you ever see Elvis again and stay a fan?
Janet: I certainly stayed a fan but I never got to see him again. And later when he was courting Priscilla a radio station called me up and asked me what I thought of that. I replied "I shall never marry" - the announcement really knocked me for a loop! But later on I felt a little silly about it. This was early on, around the end of his army stint. |
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I stayed a fan though to the sixties but I preferred his fifties songs to his sixties stuff and I wasn’t too keen on those movies. They went downhill pretty rapidly. I had gone overseas and was studying Spanish and sort of went my own way.
EIN: Do you listen to Elvis now?
Janet: I do but I listen to all kinds of music - but maybe Spanish music more.
EIN: What made you investigate the Canada concert and search for pictures all these years later?
Janet: One night I started to get curious and found a few mentions of the Canadian concerts and found a few photos of me in books and found your website. My daughters and grand-daughters know of my story and they think it’s funny. My daughters like Elvis.
EIN: It is amazing after all these years, fifty years after Elvis kissed you, that he still means so much to the new generations.
Janet: It’s too bad that Elvis went the way he did. I thought Colonel Parker was a rough character, he had a manager before Colonel Parker didn’t he? The whole story of Elvis is really fascinating and it still continues on.. There’s even the Newport Elvis restaurant nearby here still.
(Right;Colonel Parker in control) |
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EIN: Janet, thanks so much for talking with us. I hope you go round and everyday tell someone Elvis kissed you!
Janet: Well I do have the picture on my Blackberry! I’m going to get one of the pictures blown up poster size. I have never done that!
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From Bonnie Mercer.
You may be interested to know that my uncle is Peter Mercer.
He was the one that walked Janet Fulton home in her story on your website.
Being his niece, I saw a taping from him that he let his brother Don (my father) show his family. I saw it on a projection "wheel to wheel" and I was about 5 when I saw it.
It was in 1957 in Ottawa and my uncle Peter was at that time the president of the Elvis Presley fan club here in Ottawa.
When I was in school I went to school with a Mark Fulton so I wonder if Janet Fulton was his mother. I didn't know him well, I just knew he was there and at my school.
I never told a soul about this interview of my uncle's because, well, who to believe it and so I let it be hidden.
My Uncle, Peter Mercer, is the one wearing the dark trench coat with the 3 buttons. My son has the same nose and distinctive eye brows.
Just thought you might like this story to share.
--- Bonnie Mercer - Ottawa - February 2014.
- Janet Fulton has told EIN today that although in the same school Mark Fulton was not in fact related to her family. |
Click to comment on this interview
Interview by Piers Beagley.
-Copyright EIN November 2011
EIN Website content © Copyright the Elvis Information Network.
'Elvis In Ottawa' Spotlight & Elvis Interview: Elvis performed in Ottawa, Canada on April 3rd 1957, 55 years ago this month. Janet Fulton was only 13 years-old when she attended Elvis' concert and one of the highlights of her life was not only meeting Elvis but also being kissed by him. Back in November 2011 EIN interviewed Janet Fulton about the experience of meeting Elvis and recently she also provided us with this interesting article on 'Elvis In Ottawa' - 55 years ago this month.
Following the spotlight is Ottawa's radio CKOY Mac Lipson's interview with Elvis on the same day.
"I have never thought I had a good voice. I just enjoy what I'm doing and I put every part of my heart, soul and body into it. But I guess one of the reasons the people have liked it is because it was a little something different" - Elvis Presley, Ottawa 1957.
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