Detroit Free Press<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIn 1970, Elvis signed an autograph for a very excited 12-year-old girl who later went on to become Madonna,\u201d reads a grammatically challenged caption copied and pasted hundreds and hundreds of times over the years by clickbait social media pages seeking to exploit this serendipitous \u201cdiscovery\u201d for views.<\/p>\nThe photo illustrated the Detroit Free Press’<\/em> review of Presley\u2019s Sept. 11, 1970 concert at Olympia Stadium. (Image: newspapers.com<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cWow, that\u2019s a cool fact!\u201d commented Anita Smith under a post created by the Facebook group “Rock n’ Roll” on Nov. 19, 2023, which as of this publication has “earned” 1.4K likes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cThen she became more famous than him. Girl power!!!!!!\u201d added Pamela Hawk. \n<\/strong><\/p>\nMaterial Evidence<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe photo is genuine. It illustrated Tom DeLisle\u2019s Sept. 12, 1970 review of Presley’s concert at Olympia Stadium the night before. Elvis had just wrapped his second run at the International Hotel in Las Vegas on September 7, and was three shows into a nine-city tour, his first multicity trek in 13 years.<\/p>\n
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Taken by photographer Mike McClure, the photo shows the King signing autographs for a group of fans outside the venue before his concert that evening. And, yes, one of those fans does look a hell of a lot <\/em>like Madonna, who grew up in Detroit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nLet\u2019s compare the photo to one of the real Madonna Louis Ciccone, age 14, from the 1972 yearbook of West Junior High School in Rochester Hill, Mich.<\/p>\nThe Elvis fan in the 1970 Detroit Free Press<\/em> photo is shown next to the undisputed Madonna at age 14. (Image: newspapers.com,<\/em> inset: Daily Mail<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe hair, jawline, lips, and teeth are all very close matches. And the completely different eyebrows prove nothing since eyebrows are often removed and drawn back on by young women experimenting with makeup.<\/p>\nMadonna smooches a poster of Elvis in her 1987 movie, “Who’s That Girl.” (Image: YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAlso, Madonna was<\/em> a huge Elvis fan. In her 1987 movie, “Who\u2019s That Girl,” her character is depicted kissing a poster of Elvis from his 1956 movie, “Jailhouse Rock.” And, in an October 1992 interview for Swedish TV, Madonna was asked to describe Elvis in one word.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe word she chose was \u201csexy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suspicious Minds<\/h2>\n Only one month before McClure snapped his photo, however, Madonna was 11 years old. While the subject of his photo is young, she doesn\u2019t appear to be that<\/em> young.<\/p>\nCasting further doubt is a tribute to David Bowie that Madonna posted to Facebook a day after his 2016 death. In it, she wrote that his concert at Detroit\u2019s Cobo Arena was her very first. That concert occurred on June 22, 1974, when she was 15.<\/p>\n
\nWait, we\u2019re not finished …<\/p>\n
In 2005, Madonna tied Elvis’ record of 36 Top 10 US singles and was asked about him by dozens of interviewers. Yet she mentioned nothing about ever meeting or seeing him to any of them, nor during any of the hundreds of other interviews she granted in which Elvis\u2019 name came up.<\/p>\n
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It lies beyond any stretch of the imagination to believe that such a notoriously outgoing superstar never once in her 42 years in show business would mention such an iconic encounter, and that no legitimate biographer or journalist would ever once dig it up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Getting your photo taken with Elvis isn’t something that any true fan would want to keep secret. And one that was published in a big-city newspaper is not something they could. \n<\/em><\/p>\nOne of hundreds of social media posts making the same false claim. (Image: Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n