What was it about Elvis that women loved so much?

The lady in this video (Susan Henning) said she broke off her engagement to her fiancé after finding out she was going to work with Elvis. They had an affair.

Undeniable talent, looks (at least when younger), and swagger. Plus money.

Women loved Elvis.

Yeah - but he never fucked Priscilla - except the once …

Nick Adams, however ….

A smoothness, sex appeal. The fame and money probably helped.

Only someone who had never seen Elvis in his prime could ask a question like that.

Jailhouse Rock, 1957.

Another example: Jane Elliot said she wasn’t an Elvis when they worked together on Change of Habit because she was a snob but that changed when they worked together. The director confirmed they had a romance and when asked about it in an interview Jane said, “I’m not gonna tell you we didn’t sleep together.”

wasn’t a fan*

Look at what they had in real life. At least Elvis was clean, didn’t belch or fart in front of them., and wore a clean shirt.

Sex appeal for days.

Bump

Did he fuck them or just rub around on them like he did me?

guess that's why he only had 1 kid.

Women want to fuck the person that all the other women want to fuck. It's an evolutionary phenomenon. It explains why every single woman I know under the age of 40 has become obsessed with Harry Styles in the past three years. It's a form of social contagion. 5 girls think he's hot, then 10, then 100, then 5,000, and so on. And now a bunch of straight guys are wearing pearl necklaces and painting their nails black to look like him. It's cringey as hell.

Charisma

He had a small dick and was sensitive. Straight guys always pressuring for butt sex. He probably didn't and if he did. She didn't feel it.

R12 Rita you slut. You were smoking hot. Probably intimidated the poor guy. He wanted to sing Gospel and you were spread eagle on the bed.

R14 same thing happened with Bieber. And women over 40 love Harry Styles also

Fame. It's like getting with one of the Kardashian chicks in today's world.

Elvis was gorgeous and very talented. He is not like the Kardashians

I get the appeal of young Elvis. Not so much with Harry and Justin.

I get why girls screamed over him.

You don’t need social contagion to explain the Elvis phenomenon. He was a beefy hunk with a delicious mouth and a deep voice who was openly sexual during a time when that was unusual, which would have made women feel he would do things with them that they weren’t supposed to want but secretly did.

R23 Definitely agree, he's handsome and incredibly attractive on his own. I'm just saying this cult like obsession of Elvis, and a new straight guy in showbiz every few years can be blamed on social contagion. Women MY AGE (20s) still think Leonardo DiCaprio is hot NOW. It's a big difference between gay men and women that I noticed lately. If you ask a room full of gay guys who their favorite male celebrity is, you'll get 50 or 60 different answers. If you ask a room full of women, it'll be the same 5 guys: Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber and Tom Cruise.

He was gorgeous when he was young, had a beautiful, velvety and powerful voice, broke societal rules by being overtly sexual on stage and was unattainable - he had all the elements that women find desirable. By extension, men wanted to be him for exactly the same reason, and that only increased his already enormous popularity.

Regardless of what might be written about him, it is undeniable that he possessed a great talent that was mostly wasted on sub-standard material and awfully bad films, and was one of the first teen heartthrobs (and unlike most teenage heartthrobs, he was actually handsome). The fact that he died relatively young only contributed to magnify his mystique and increase his appeal as a tragic figure. And that, just as it happens with Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, is what lies behind the adoration that so many people still feel for him.

R24 I disagree, Leo has been getting dragged a lot on social media for aging poorly. I mostly see women thirst after his 90’s looks. 2000’s Leo is barely acknowledged.

R25 Great comment

I just watched Elvis on Amazon Prime. I still don’t go to movie theaters. Anyway, what a great movie. I blame Prescilla and his father for not helping him get the care he so desperately needed. He was only 42 when he died. Everyone around him treated him like a work mule. Drove him right into the ground. What a sad story.

He (poorly) imitated Black men.

Bedroom eyes. Sultry voice. Full lips. Lush hair. Tall. Sexy hip moves.

Gee, what was Elvis's appeal?

R28, You blame PRISCILLA?!

Elvis was a grown man, FGS! And divorced.

He was gorgeous and he ticked the bad boy box. Those reasons alone cause female adoration. Add to that international fame, real talent, incredible wealth and....duh!

He had that most deliciously elusive "It" factor. I think so much can be summed up in that fantastic video that, for me, never gets old which r6 posted. He is just so fucking sexy.

Fun fact, if you watch it closely, you will see that they used an old school trick of putting white paint on the toes of his shoes (and other parts of his shoes but mostly his toes) to accentuate his moves even further.

God he was hot in that, and of course the....subject matter certainly doesn't hurt.

His hips.

Women love men who know how to move their hips when they dance.

It was his interpretations of George Eliot and Proust, Rose.

R29 Idk, I know Elvis emulated black artists and got so famous because he was a white man doing black music, but he had a certain it factor in films like Jailhouse Rock and King Creole that I don’t think can be denied. Or even in his concert special Elvis: That’s The Way It Is.

As far as I know, Elvis was open about his influences and rejected being called the king of rock n’ roll.

Muhammad Ali loved Elvis.

And having shown Elvis's exact same hip movements---swiveling, thrusting, punctuating---and having, in real life, full lips, lush hair, come-hither gray-blue eyes, height (6'), a beautiful smile, and a sweet singing voice, is why the latest portrayer/incarnation of Elvis, Austin Butler, will eclipse current stars of his generation.

R31 Prescilla had her hands in his wallet just like all of the rest. She gets her fair share of the blame. And Lisa Marie has smoked/snorted what was left of Graceland.

MONEY. He was pretty good looking for a millionaire.

This answers your question...

The pretty girl in OP’s clip, Susan Henning, has had an interesting life. She was also Hayley Mills’s photo double in “The Parent Trap”.

The gyrating?

This single photo captures Elvis Presley’s appeal.

Many zoomers on TikTok are swooning over Elvis thanks to the new movie.

R46 He was stunning. It hurts to think about what he looked like at the end of his life.

It was those swiveling hips...

Cybil Shepherd had an affair with him while she was with Peter Bogdanovich. She said Elvis smelled better than any man she’d ever met. She also said she taught him a few things in bed.

Cybil said Elvis asked her to live with him. He loved that like him, she was Southern. She said the only thing that stopped her was his addiction to pills. She said in every other way, he was wonderful. She went back to Bogdanovich.

What a maroon!

Elvis was one of those rare men who have it all: looks; sultry voice; beautiful smile; a generous heart; hip moves for days; commanding height; charisma; danger; shyness; humbleness; undeniable talent; sex appeal; and, and this IS NO SMALL THING,....

Androgyny. Eye makeup; deep necklined lace shirts tied at the waist; jewelry; soft and slim body (for the longest time).

R51 So true.

Dionne Warwick on Elvis

Why, OP? Because he loved his mama.

Often I’ve found that it is wealth and fame that people find attractive about rich and popular celebrities.

That's a wonderful story from Dionne at r53, about the autographed photo and her album sales. He was very generous, he must have known that his gesture would be meaningful for a black female singer in Vegas in the 60s. And people say he was racist?

R55, Girls and women went nuts over EP way before he was famous beyond Memphis and rich beyond motels and PB&B.

What's your explanation for his extraordinary longevity in our popular culture, while innumerable others of "wealth and fame" have come and gone in our collective memory?

And not simply longevity, but lasting, like MM, as an eternal SEX SYMBOL. NOTHING to do with any "wealth and fame" and EVERYTHING to do with, well, with what I noted in r51.

That, and his relatively early demise at 42. Marilyn (whose mother also was a Gladys) was 36, James Dean 25, and in "Elvis" are plot points of the assassinations of MLK, Jr, 39, and RFK, 42. They are cultural touchstones still.

Gays and straight women have different ideals for the perfect man. Not always but usually. Elvis embodied what straight women wanted and what straight men wanted to look like.

Celebrity worship is old as dirt. People become deeply attached to any entertainer who has amazing charisma and can move them emotionally. Elvis had the it factor, could sing, had looks and was the face of a new type of sound and modern youth subculture. Musically I find talented but not really my jam. But I understand the impact he had on pop culture. I don't find him physically attractive at all but his looks were definitely appealing to women.

Despite what people, Elvis had crazy charisma and star power. This scene looks like something out of a movie.

Despite what people say*

I wish he got to star in better movies.

As the Colonel notes in the movie, "He was as good as Brando. But you didn't want to see him in movies where he didn't sing."

And then added, "I made him the highest paid actor in Hollywood history."

Art v. Commerce.

Thank you, r52! Those are some awesome photos you found!

Here's a July review of "Elvis" that I just found which mentions Elvis's femininity and how he (and Brando and Dean) "offered America a new masculinity."

The terrific assessment of Austin Butler is tasty icing.

"I wish he got to star in better movies."

Me, too, but that's an odd film clip to link to, r62. King Creole is actually a good movie.

I think Elvis' films are underrated (though maybe that's not quite the word I'm looking for...._). Anyway, most people who say they're terrible have never even seen one.

King Creole and Jailhouse Rock hold up as entertaining films. Viva Las Vegas is campy, goofy, colorful fun, about 100x more entertaining than most movies made today. Watch it with a group of friends and a pitcher of margaritas and see if you don't agree.

People from other countries where Elvis films appear regularly on TV are often puzzled by Americans' knee-jerk reaction to Elvis movies. It'd be like arriving in a foreign country where everyone just keeps saying Bugs Bunny is total unwatchable trash, but no one has ever actually sat down and watched a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

R65 I also like Girls! Girls! Girls and It Happened at the World’s Fair.

I also like Loving You, Blue Hawaii and Follow That Dream, r66.

Elvis seems like he was a snooze in the sack. That is why he liked 14 year old girls with zero experience. He didn’t even want to fuck Priscilla anymore after she had their daughter.

Well, clearly, he had something, because Priscilla still adores him to this day, as does every other woman he was with.

I was born in the Pleistocene- 1961.

The first time I ever saw Elvis I was a girl. Our local TV showed one of his terrible movies.

He was the most beautiful human being I ever saw. Then, add in his voice and moves.

I couldn't take my eyes off of him. And since then, no other performer has equaled that first, and lasting, impression.

I adore Austin Butler's perfoance in "Elvis". He has earned every accolade.

Still, I do agree with one critic who said that Butler didn't capture (and NOBODY could) the air of dangerous virility and masculinity of Elvis, paradoxically, made all the more stark because of Elvis's use of eye make-up and fashion, things conventionally, and wrongly, perceived to be feminine.

Elvis was unreal.

performance

Nice post, r70. Do you happen to remember the movie?

R69 I think that’s probably why he hasn’t been “canceled” for his more questionable behavior. None of the women who’ve spoken out about Elvis said he took advantage of them or anything negative about him really.

R68 Barbara Leigh said Elvis was a great lover. She gave birth before she met Elvis so I guess it’s not true that he didn’t have sex with mothers.

R73 Another thing, Elvis’ female costars adored him.

No, r72. I do know it was one made in color which was superfluous and made Elvis's appearance only more garish, and I use "garish" in a good way.

Fat uncut cock?

He was a beautiful rock and roll animal, and had everything that matters in bucketloads. He still has a besotted following 45years after his death. Very few entertainers can claim that.

I see, r76. Parts of "Loving You" are pretty "garish" in the sense you mean. It almost reminds me of an over-the-top Bollywood film. I wonder if that was the one you saw. He was certainly gorgeous in it:

I think Elvis’ movies capture his one of a kind charisma best. A lot of people write him off as a culture vulture today, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. You watch any (decent) movie he starred in and it’s clear why he became a star. He had that it factor and that star power.

I can't ever get over the Jailhouse Rock clip. It is brilliant.

R68, And Elvis was a voyeur of the teens more than a doer, if he did at all (doubtful). He was no Jimmy Page, let's put it that way.

I think, Della/r70, that Dictator, I mean Director Baz Luhrmann might have reined in Austin.

Here is Austin in a very brief rehearsal, singing "Heartbreak Hotel"/"JR":

Here's a side-by-side of "HH" from the '68 CS.

Austin even got the shaky hand/fingers wrapping around the mic down. He mentioned in interviews how he and Elvis were nervous, betting their careers on their respective performances.

It's called being rich and famous

He had a gorgeous smile and very blue eyes with black eyelashes and black hair. I realize he probably wore mascara and his natural hair color was blondish but he also seemed very charming. I was never a fan and he was more of the generation of teens right before me so he was kind of before my teen years. I thought he looked really gorgeous in his 1968 special.

A mash-up of "Trouble," Austin singing:

And this clip skips the 2nd stanza, but includes the end. Again, Austin is singing. This is also on the soundtrack CD.

A comparison with Elvis in "King Creole"* evidences how accurate is Austin's vocal, even if the scenes are radically different (Baz is being creative for the essence). Plus, Elvis, singing on the top of a bar on a wager? I don't get "dangerous" or even feral therefrom.

*Not linked here

Elvis, "Trouble":