It’s June fifteenth, and on this day in 1961… *Wild in the Country*, Elvis Presley’s seventh film, premiered in Memphis. Based on a novel by J.R. Salamanca, the film marked a more dramatic turn for Elvis, and proceeds from the premiere were donated to local charities. Elvis didn’t attend the event himself—Colonel Parker famously said, “Unless we can do our show, we don’t go.” Instead, Elvis later took a group of family and friends to see the movie privately. Critics were not kind: *Variety* called the plot wobbly and lacking substance, while *The New York Times* dismissed it as “shamelessly dishonest,” and *The Hollywood Reporter* labeled it “a Southern Peyton Place.”
