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Arkansas Catholic club's claim to fame? Pastor kicked out Elvis
By Tara Little - Catholic News Service
Published Nov 2, 2006

The story goes that Elvis Presley was kicked out of the Catholic Club in Helena for signing the thigh of a teenage girl after he performed there in 1955.

The sisters who ran Sacred Heart Academy banned boarding students from attending Presley's shows, after the rumors of his shocking 'hip gyrations' had reached their ears.

Stories about the future king of rock 'n' roll vary in Helena as much as the opinions on his unique music style. Though the details of Presley's legendary expulsion have been muddied by 50 years of creative storytelling, most agree on this basic point: the late Father Gregory Keller, former St. Mary Church pastor, told the ambitious musician to leave and never come back.

The Catholic Club, as it was known in the 1950s, was a building that was also St. Mary's parish hall and Sacred Heart's school gymnasium. The former Sacred Heart Academy was run by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth until 1962.

The club also served as Helena's community center because it was the largest building of its kind at the time. Civic organizations, schools and other local groups frequently rented the club for banquets, meetings and dances.

So when the young and not-yet-famous Presley went looking for a place to perform in Helena, only 65 miles southwest of Memphis, Tenn., he was directed to the parish hall, in part by St. Mary parishioner and local celebrity radio host 'Sunshine' Sonny Payne.

Payne, 80, who has hosted a radio show since 1951, still broadcasts five days a week from the Delta Cultural Center. He and fellow parishioners Nick Brocato, 79, Lynne Von Kanel, 70, and Annetta Beauchamp, 77, recently sat down with the Arkansas Catholic, Little Rock diocesan newspaper, to remember the days when Presley played in Helena in 1954 and 1955.

Payne said his first impression of Presley was not a good one.

'He had on an old T-shirt and a cigar in his mouth. He didn't impress me one bit,' he said. 'When you're in show business, you have to look like a show person, and you can't do it in T-shirts or blue jeans.'

Brocato said he worked the concession stand when Presley performed at the Catholic Club. He shared Payne's view on Presley.

'I wasn't a fan of his at all', he said. 'You have to keep in mind that he was just starting out when he came here. He wasn't an overnight success.'

'The guys didn't like it, but the girls sure did', Von Kanel chimed in with a laugh.

Brocato said he doesn't remember a lot about the shows except when Elvis 'did that little dance on the stage with that shuffling of his feet (and) the girls went wild.'

Von Kanel admitted she was one of those girls.

'Oh, I went wild', she said. 'I was one of those girls screaming and hollering'.

Brocato said he was there the night Presley was asked to leave the club, but he only saw the crowd of girls rush on the stage after the performance. Von Kanel said she saw Presley autograph a girl's leg. 'She hiked her skirt up and he autographed her thigh', she said.

Neither of them saw or heard the exchange with Father Keller.

Beauchamp, who was not there, said she was told by several parishioners at the time that a 'furious' Father Keller told Presley, 'You're a disgrace to manhood and don't come back anymore'.

Von Kanel said she never saw that side of Presley.

'We would all go backstage and talk and visit and get autographs. He was very congenial, very nice', she said. 'The guys hated him'.

'Looking back I don't see anything that was obscene or really bad about it, it was just that we weren't used to that', she added.

Presley even drew the attention of America, the National Jesuit Magazine, in its June 23, 1956, issue. Titled 'Beware Elvis Presley', the author quoted several newspapers around the country that found Presley troublesome. One described a performance in Wisconsin as a 'striptease with clothes on' (that was) not only suggestive, but downright obscene'.

Payne and Brocato both said in later years they grew to enjoy Presley's music.

'I never appreciated Elvis until he died,' Brocato added. 'His songs about religion ... are really beautiful, to give him credit for it.'

'I had the greatest respect for him for what he did', Payne said. 'He pulled himself up by the bootstraps with the help of Colonel Tom Parker. He made a man out of him'.