On the night of July 1, 1956, millions of Americans switched on their televisions and saw the wildest young man in the country standing perfectly still. Elvis Presley was in white tie and tails, on a fancy set built with Greek columns, singing “Hound Dog” — to an actual basset hound wearing a top hat and a bow tie.
He wasn’t allowed to move his hips. He wasn’t allowed to do anything. Elvis later called it the most embarrassing moment of his entire career.
It didn’t come out of nowhere. Weeks earlier, on June 5, 1956, Elvis had performed “Hound Dog” on The Milton Berle Show — and he’d put his guitar down and moved with a crazy dance. The reaction was enormous. Newspapers attacked him. Religious groups condemned him. Parents wrote furious letters. Overnight, Elvis Presley became the most controversial performer in America.
Elvis Presley – Hound Dog (The Steve Allen Show)
Enter Steve Allen. He had a new show going head-to-head against The Ed Sullivan Show, and he needed ratings badly. He had also already booked Elvis. So he came up with what he later described as a comedy bit — take rock and roll’s wildest star, dress him up like an opera singer, put him in a room that looked like Carnegie Hall, and have him sing his rowdiest song to a dog. Elvis’s biographer Peter Guralnick described the idea precisely: low culture placed inside a high-culture setting, to make it look ridiculous.
Elvis, being a professional and a polite Southern boy, went along with it. He said “Thank you, Mr. Allen” and did what he was asked. But watch the clip, and you can see it in his face. At one point the basset hound slobbered all over his hand, and he laughed and wiped it on the suit, and by all accounts he was quietly furious the whole time. Priscilla later said it plainly: after that night, he didn’t like Steve Allen at all.
Elvis Presley “Hound Dog” (October 28, 1956) on The Ed Sullivan Show
The worst part was that it worked. Allen crushed Ed Sullivan in the ratings that week, 20.2 to 14.8. Sullivan was so annoyed he fired off a telegram that has become legendary in television history, addressed to “Steven Presley Allen” and containing one word of review: “Stinker.” But Sullivan had also learned something. By Monday morning, the man who had publicly sworn he’d never book Elvis Presley picked up the phone and booked Elvis Presley.
And that’s where the story turns. Sullivan reportedly paid a then-unheard-of $50,000 for three appearances. When Elvis walked out onto that stage, there was no tuxedo, no Greek columns, and no dog.
He introduced the song with a smirk, quoting “a great philosopher” — and then tore into “Hound Dog” exactly the way he wanted to, snarling and moving, head to toe on camera. The bit designed to tame Elvis Presley ended up being the thing that got him onto the biggest stage in America. The dog won the night. Elvis won the decade.