55 years ago today, on November 8th, 1957, Elvis' third movie "Jailhouse Rock" opened nationwide. On Variety's National Box Office Survey it appears at #3 and becomes the fourteenth most successful film of 1957 and pretty impressive if you keep in mind that it started at the end of the year. " By 1969, the film's box office gross in the United States and Canada was similar to that of "The Wizard of Oz". In 2004, "Jailhouse Rock" was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Vince Everett becomes arrested by a society that has nothing to do with the changes that are going on in the younger generation. He leaves jail as a transformed young man seeking his own way in expressing himself through his music. Doing this he's faced with many problem ranging from recording industry matters to lack of understanding by his parent generation.
In this scene Vince joins his manager/girl-friend Peggy who's visiting a party at her parent's house. The people there obviously don't know what to think of Elvis and what he's doing. They're trying to get him involved into a conversation about music but on both sides there's a lack of understanding for each other's position. The only change in music they can imagine is actually a setback to Dixieland. They're instead discussing jazz music and things like atonality, something to which Vince only can reply: "Lady, I don't know that the hell you're talkin' about..." making the generation gap obvious.
When accused of insulting her family and friends by Peggy the only thing Vince can possibly answer is a quote that has become famous over the years: "Honey, that's just the beast in me..." Something untamed, different from what was possible until now. Youth was starting to go its own way. A new age was about to dawn...
"Hearing Elvis for the first time was like busting out of jail." - Bob Dylan
