Elvis-Crazed Fans Stream In To View The "King" of Rock
by Terry Kliewer
Dallas News
June 1974

FORT WORTH - It started Friday night, when 250 Elvis crazed-fans converged on the Green Oaks Inn for a look at their hero. Their effort was in vain. It continued Saturday, as the Elvis faithful flowed by thousands into town from every corner of the state and the region for their hero's opening show.

AND, MOST likely, it will continue Sunday, this 1970s Elvis Presley phenomenon labeled "The King" by loyalists will close out his Fort Worth concert date with two Sunday shows, leaving the city to breathe easy again.

As surely as Dallas pays its dues each year by enduring Texas - OU Week-end, Fort Worth has paid its dues in 1974 by hosting two of the biggest names of pop music.

First, of course, came Dylan. And now, The King himself - Elvis Presley. What's to say...two superlative artists, each master of a million-dollar genre.

Elvis' show is a happening. anything is liable to happen, and a lot of unlikely things eventually do.

TWENTY-ONE-year-old Debbie Nowlin, nine months' pregnant (believe it!), was one of the unlikely things that happened at Elvis' sellout Saturday afternoon opening at Tarrant County Convention Center.

Shrieking that she had to touch her idol, Debbie charged the stage during Elvis' closeout "Dixie" medley.

"Let me go. Let me up there! I love him," she screamed as a security guard manfully, if delicately, restrained her.

Later, recomposed and properly seated in her spot at the rear of the convention center, she confessed she didn't know what came over her.

"I don't do stuff like that. That's not me," she grinned embarrassingly, "I just wanted to touch him. Look at me, I'm not the type to do that. But i did. I adore him."

UNREASONING adoration aside, The King put on one sharp, uptown and professional show here Saturday afternoon.

Wrapped skintight or loosely (as appropriate) in white bellbottoms and waist-length jacket. Elvis had the show in the palm of his hand.

He moved smoothly through a few Elvis oldies, like "Houn' Dog" and "Love Me Tender," and wheeled into heavier stuff ... "Fever," "Why Me Lord" and "Suspicious Minds."

He was relaxed, comfortable before an obviously warm audience. His easy rapport with backup musicians and singers buoyed the show. Elvis basks in his shows and his considerable showmanship.

AT TIMES, he parodied himself. At times, he was pure Las Vegas Professional. At show's end, disgruntled Elvis fans were nowhere to be found.

At show's end, it turned out, Debbie Nowlin charged the stage yet another time. This time, she was rewarded...

"This is what I got," she grinned, pulling a white scarf out of her bodice. On the corner of the scarf was the simple legend "Elvis."

"Best of all, he touched me. That's all I wanted, anyway. I just don't know what comes over me when I see him. My husband will never believe this."

Courtesy of Scott Hayward