What an awesome photo here. If I had known we had this photo sooner, I would have included it in our “Houston 175” book.

What you see here are members of the Elvis Presley Fan Club outside the Metropolitan Theater to see “Love Me Tender,” his first film. The date is November 29, 1956, Thanksgiving Day.

Amusements editor Mildred Stockard was one of the attendees.

Two brave members of the Elvis Presley Fan Club, two teen-age girls from Rosenberg, left home in time to catch the 4:20 a.m. bus, and arrived at the Met hours before the doors opened, just to make sure they would be in the theater at the first showing. All were given pictures of Elvis as they left the theater, and scores of new members were signed.

Can you imagine how loud it was inside the theater? Stockard noted that the Metropolitan “has not resounded to such screams and shrieks since Frank Sinatra made his first picture. There were some titters, too, in moments that should have been highly dramatic, and some tear-stained faces after the scene in which Elvis dies.”

Spoilers, please!

As for the movie, Stockard called it “another western with a somewhat illogical plot.” Elvis’ performance was labeled “repulsive.”