Before Elvis Presley's June 5, 1956 performance of 'Hound Dog' on The Milton Berle Show, Milton Berle reportedly told him, "Let 'em see you, son," advising him to perform without his guitar.
Notes on verification
Date and guitar-less performance are well corroborated by multiple independent sources including History.com. The specific Berle quote traces back to Berle's own later recollections and appears in several independent write-ups, but no primary contemporaneous source or documented interview citation was found, so it rests on a widely repeated anecdote rather than fully verified eyewitness corroboration.
Sources
- Elvis Presley on TV: 10 Unforgettable Broadcasts (rollingstone.com)
- https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hound-dog (mcsweeneys.net)
- https://elvisoriginalartists.blogspot.com/2012/03/hound-dog.html (elvisoriginalartists.blogspot.com)
- https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/june-5/elvis-rocks-the-milton-berle-show (history.com)