Interesting facts
about
the life and the career of
the life and the career of
Elvis Presley
Life
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He
was born on January 8, 1935, Tupelo, Mississippi, at
4:35, just 35 minutes after his twin brother was
born. The street (street) was Old Saltillo
Road; later was given the name 306 Old Saltillo Road and is presently 306 Elvis
Presley Drive. His parents moved to Memphis in 1948.
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The names of his parents: Vernon Elvis and Gladys Love Presley.
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Elvis was a direct descendant
from Abraham Lincoln's great grandfather.
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The
famous black hair was dyed - the real colour was brown. He had blue eyes.
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He
was 6ft tall and wore shoes that were size 11 D.
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He
attended LC Humes High School
(Memphis) from 1948 to
1953. Elvis graduated from Humes High School on June 3rd 1953.
It was where he met Red West who would later become one of the Memphis Mafia.
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He
was rejected by girls at school.
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At
the age of 10 he came fifth in a talent contest by standing on a chair and
singing 'Old Shep'.
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In
1947 a local radio show offered the 12-year-old the chance to sing live, but he
was too scared to go on.
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Before he became famous, Elvis
drove a truck (Precision Tool Company) for a short time after High school. He
was also a movie usher.
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Aged
18 he paid $4 to make his first record, a present for his mum. He sang 'My
happiness' and 'That's when your heartaches begin'.
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In
1954 he auditioned for gospel quartet the Songfellows. They said no.
The same year a radio DJ played Elvis's version of 'That's all right'.
It proved so popular he played it another 13 times, but had to tell listeners that Elvis was
white, despite the sound of his voice.
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Priscilla was 14 years old when
they met.
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Elvis and Priscilla married May
1, 1967 in Las Vegas. 6 tiers were at their wedding cake.
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Elvis' only child was a daughter, Lisa Marie. She was born on February 1, 1968, at
Baptist Memorial in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Elvis Presley bought Graceland in
1957. Elvis was fortunate to obtain Graceland as the property had been sold to
YMCA by the time he saw it. The
YMCA had purchased the property for $35,000 a few days before Elvis had the
opportunity to see it for himself. After he saw the 13.8 acre farm and baptized
it with a few rock 'n' roll songs on the piano, he persuaded the sellers to
accept his bid of $100,000. Graceland is located in Memphis,
Tennessee, 3764 Elvis Presley Blvd. Graceland was built in 1939 by Dr. Thomas
Moore. It was named after his aunt Grace Toof, a lady whose family owned the
property for nearly 100 years.
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Elvis had a pet chimpanzee by the
name Scatter. It eventually became violent, was caged behind Graceland and
that's where he eventually died.
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Elvis collected statues of Joan
of Arc.
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According to Elvis Presley 'Little
Elvis' was his manhood.
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Elvis said big Feet on a woman
turned him off.
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Elvis' first Cadillac was blue
colored before he bought it and painted it pink. Elvis loved to give Cadillacs
away to his body guards and perfect strangers.
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Elvis purchased a Cadillac for
his mother in 1956, even though she was unable to drive. The original colour
was blue, but Elvis had it custom painted to pink. Elvis still had the car at
Graceland on the day he died. Elvis had promised to give the car to his
daughter, Lisa Marie when she turned 18 in 1986.
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Elvis's pool at Graceland is in
the shape of a kidney.
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Elvis purchased a Convair 880 Jet
in 1975 which he named 'Lisa Marie'. The purchase price was $250,000. The Plane
was built in 1958 and used as a commercial airline for Delta Airlines. It had
been out of service for a while before Elvis purchased it in 1975. Elvis spent
approximately £800,000 to refurnish the Jet.
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Elvis named his ranch 'The circle
G'. He christened his ranch The Circle G
for Graceland. The ranch had a small house, which Priscilla hoped they would
use, but Elvis wanted to live in a trailer that was set up near the Entourage.
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On every 4th of July Elvis and
his entourage did Roman Candle Fights.
In the book 'Elvis and me' Priscilla states that Graceland had more craters
than the moon due to Roman Candle Fights.
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Elvis received a guitar from his
parents for his 11th birthday, paving the way to his fame. But he thought he
was getting something else: bicycle and gun. Most Elvis experts say he was
expecting to get a bicycle, but there are those that say he wanted a gun. Both
very common gifts for a young boy growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi. It turns
out his surprise gift of a guitar was, in the long run, a gift to all Elvis
fans.
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Elvis took a vacation from live
performances from 1961 to 1968 to focus on making movies. The live performance
in March of 1961 was held at Bloch Arena, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. There he raised
$62,000 for the USS Arizona Memorial Fund, which was bogged down due to low
funding. The now famous war memorial was completed a year later. He also
started filming 'Blue Hawaii' soon after the show.
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After 8 long years Elvis made his
big comeback in Las Vegas at the International
Hotel on July 31, 1969. It was one of the most successful shows in Las
Vegas up to that time, performing for 4 weeks and 57 different shows, starting
on July 31, 1969.
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As a performer Elvis never did an
encore.
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Elvis' TV Special 'Elvis: Aloha
from Hawaii' was a benefit concert for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund which raised
$75,000.
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Elvis liked his meat burnt.
Everyone who ordered food for Elvis had to specify burnt. To Elvis, meat having a little pink was raw.
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RCA paid Sun Records $35,000 plus a $5,000 bonus for Elvis contract. Sam
Phillips from Sun Records needed the
money to promote his other singers. So, the record company that gave Elvis his
start was Sun Records.
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In the 1970 documentary 'Elvis -
That's the way it is', Tom Jones sent Elvis a note reading: 'Here's hoping that
you have a very successful opening and break both legs'. Elvis and Tom Jones
became lifelong friends after Elvis saw Tom Jones perform in Las Vegas in 1968.
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In 1994 Christies sold a piece of
Elvis memorabilia for $41400 (Amex credit card).
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On the Elvis album, '50,000,000
fans can't be wrong - Elvis Gold Records volume 2 ', the cover had a full
length shot of Elvis wearing a gold suit. The same photograph can be seen on an
earlier album 'A touch of gold. Apparently, Elvis hated the gold lame tuxedo
suit, he thought it was too heavy.
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The first National TV (TV debut) show
that Elvis appeared on was On Stage Show,
hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Although Elvis was on several TV shows before
his Stage Show debut in January 1956,
that show was his national debut. He wasn't on the Ed Sullivan show until months after he was on other TV shows.
Apparently Ed Sullivan did not want him on his show at any price. That is, not
until after he was a big hit on other shows.
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The famous rock star Bruce
Springsteen once snuck on the grounds of Graceland in an unsuccessful attempt
to meet Elvis in 1976. The Boss once said 'anybody who sees Elvis Presley and
doesn't want to be like Elvis has got to have something wrong with him'.
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Roy Orbison said about Elvis that
'he was the greatest in the world'.
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Elvis used 357. Magnum to blow
away 2 TV sets because he didn't like Robert Goulet and Mel Torme.
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President Nixon gave Elvis the Narcotics Badge that he wanted.
Death
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There were quite a few cancelled
concerts just before Elvis's death and obviously just after. Portland, Maine
Elvis' final concert was on 26 June 1977 in Indianapolis, before his death on
16th August 1977.
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The
last will and Testament of Elvis A. Presley was
signed and sealed on the 3rd March 1977, witnessed by Charlie Hodge, Ginger
Alden and Ann Dewey Smith.
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Elvis died on August 16th, 1977,
at 42 years old. He was pronounced dead at 2pm. The
doctors worked on him from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m., but the effort was futile.
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Elvis was 23 years old when his
mother died. Gladys Love Presley died in 1958. Shortly before her son was
shipped to Germany.
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Lisa Marie Presley was 9 years
old when her father died. She didn't really know what was going on.
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The pallbearers at Elvis' funeral
were Joe Esposito, Lamar Fike, Charlie Hodge and Billy Smith, Dr. George
Nichopoulos. Felton Jarvis was to have been the sixth member, but he couldn't
attend the funeral.
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The hearse that carried his body
was white.
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The Presley family spell Elvis'
name on his tombstone 'Elvis Aaron Presley'. The correct spelling on both
Elvis' birth certificate and tombstone is Elvis Aaron Presley. However, Elvis
did spell his middle name 'Aron'. His father had them spell Elvis' middle name
Aaron on his tombstone because Elvis preferred the traditional spelling of
Aaron.
