ELVIS ARON PRESLEY

ELVIS AARON PRESLEY was born to Vernon Elvis Presley and Gladys Love Smith on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi.  He had an identical twin brother Jesse Garon Presley.  Jesse was born 35 minutes before him, still- born. The twins were born in a shotgun house that their father built for the occasion.  The family attended the local Assembly of God Church. 

Vernon Presley was of German, Scottish and English origins.  He was a
descendent of the Harrison Family of Virginia, through his mother Minnie Mae Hood Presley.  Vernon moved from one job to the next, showing little ambition.  The family of three often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance.  In 1938, the Presley's lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by his land owner and sometime -- employer.  He was jailed for eight months. Gladys and Elvis had to move in with relatives.  

Presley's mother Gladys Love Smith was Scot-Irish with some French- Normandy ancestry, plus Cherokee Indian.  It is believed that Gladys's great great grandmother, Morning-Dove White, was Cherokee.  

In September 1941, Elvis entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated School, where his teachers regarded him as average.  He was encouraged to enter a singing contest held at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, which was his first public performance.  He was encouraged to enter the contest after impressing his teacher during  morning prayers with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep." Presley was ten years old and stood on a chair to reach the microphone to sing.  He recalls placing fifth.  A few months later, he received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else -- by different accounts -- either a bicycle or a rifle.  Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church.  Presley recalled that, "I took the guitar and I watched others and I learned to play a little bit.  But I would never sing in public.  I was very shy about it!"

In September of 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade; he was regarded as a longer.  The following year, he began brining his guitar to school during lunch.  He played and sang and was often  teased as a "trashy" kid, who played hillbilly music.  By this time the family was living in a largely black neighborhood.  He had received no formal training and could not read music. He played by ear.  He would frequented record stores that provided jukeboxes and listening booths to customers.  He loved the songs of many country singers.  One of his favorite singers was the Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess.  He is the one that influenced Presley on his ballad singing style.  Presley was a regular audience member at the monthly All-night Singings downtown, where many white gospel groups performed.  These gospel singers were influenced by the African-American's spiritual music. 

Presley was a classmate of Mississippi Slim's younger brother.  The younger brother described Presley as crazy about music.  He was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's radio show at a Tupelo Radio Station. Slim would often take him into the station.  He supplemented Presley's guitar instruction by demonstrating chord techniques.  When Presley was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances.  The first time Presley was overcome with stage fright, but Slim scheduled him to perform the following week.

In November of 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee.  They resided for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Lauderdale Courts.  Elvis was enrolled at L.C. Humes High School.  He received only a C in music in 8th grade.  His music teacher told him that he had no aptitude for singing so he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off of Me", to prove otherwise.  A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right, when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of music.  He was unusually shy and wouldn't perform openly.  He was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy." 

In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Lee Denson, a neighbor, two and a half years his senior.  That September, he
began working as an usher at Loew's State Theater.  Other jobs followed.
During his his junior year, he began to stand out more among his class-mates, largely because of his appearance:  he grew long sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and vaseline.  In his free time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze in the windows of Lansky Brothers Clothing Store.  By his senior year he was wearing those clothes.  He eventually overcame his fear about performing, outside the Lauderdale Courts and competed in Humes' Annual "Minstrel" Show in April of 1953, singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again With You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer.  This did a lot for his reputation.  It is said the only thing he ever failed in school was music.  Then he was entered in a talent show ... when he came on stage he heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause no body knew I even sang', Elvis recalled.  He became very popular in school after that.

Presley had received no formal music training and could not even read music.  He studied and played by ear.  He frequented record stores that provided juke boxes and listening booths to customers.  He knew all of Hank Snow's songs, he also loved records by other country singers.  The Southern Gospel Singer Jake Hess was one of his favorite performers and a significant influence on his ballad singing style. Many of the white gospel groups that were inspired b the African-American spiritual music.  Many of Presley's future recordings were inspired by local African-American musicians, such as B.B. King.  B.B. King recalled he knew Presley before he was popular, when both used to frequent Beale Street. 

In August of 1953, Presley checked into the offices of Memphis Recording Services.  The company was ran by Sam Phillips, before he started Sun Records.  Presley aimed to pay for a few minutes of Studio Time to record a two-sided acetate disc:  "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heart-aches Begin."  He later claimed he intended the record as a birthday gift 
for his mother, or that he was merely interested in what he "sounded like",  although there was a much cheaper armature record making service at a
near-by general store.  Biographer Peter Guralnich argued that Presley 
chose Sun Records in hopes of being discovered.  So What?  It was Presley's decision who he used to record.  After Presley recorded, Sun's boss Sam Phillips asked his receptionist Keisker to note down the young man's name.  She did and made a commentary of her own:  good ballad singer.

In January of 1954, Presley cut a second record at Sun Records --- "I'll Never Stand In your Way" --- but again nothing came of it.  Not long after, he failed an audition for a local vocal quartet, the Songfellows.  He ex-plained to his father, "They told me I couldn't sing."  Later Songfellow Jim Hamill claimed he was turned down because he did not demonstrate an ear for harmony at the time.  In April, Presley began working for the Crown Electric Company as a truck driver.  His friend Ronnie Smith after playing a few local gigs with him, suggested contacting Eddie Bond, leader of Smith's Professional Band, which had an opening for a vocalist.  Bond re-jected him after a try-out, advising him to stick to truck driving "because you're never going to make it as a s singer.  

Meanwhile, Sam Phillips was always on the look-out for someone who could bring to a broader audience the sound of the black musicians, on whom Sun focused on.  In June Sam acquired a demo recording by Jimmy Sweeney of a ballad "Without You" that he thought might suit the teen-age singer.  Presley came by, but was unable to do it justice.  Phillips asked Presley to sing as many numbers as he knew.  He was sufficiently affected by what he heard, to invite two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and bass player Bill Black to work something up with Presley for a recording session.  The session was held the evening of July 5, but proved entirely unfruitful until late into the night.  Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, "That's All Right."  All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing that song, jumping around and acting the fool, then Bill picked up his bass, and started acting the fool too, and Moore started playing with them.  Sam, Moore thinks, had the door to the sound booth open...he stuck his head out and said, "what are you doing?"  They said, "We don't know."  "Well back up, try to find a place to start, and do it again."  Phillips began taping; this was what he had been looking for.

Three days later, popular Memphis D.J. Dewey Phillips played "That's Alright" on his Red Hot, and Blue Show.  Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer was.  The interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the remaining two hours of his show.  He inter-viewed Presley on-air and asked him what High School he attended to clarify his color for the many callers who had assumed that he was black.  During the next few days the trio recorded a blue grass song, Bill Moore's "Blue Moon of Kentucky" again in a distinctive style and employing a jury-rigged echo effect that Sam Phillips dubbed "slap back."  A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.  The trio played publicly for the first time on July 17 at the Bon Air Club ---- Presley still sporting his child size guitar.  

At the end of the month (1954) they appeared at the Overton Park Shell venue with Slim Whitman headlining.  Here, Elvis pioneered "Rubber Legs, his signature style dance movement that he is best known for.  A com-bination of his strong response to rhythm and nervousness at playing before a large crowd, led Presley to shake his legs as he performed:  his wide-cut pants emphasized his movements, causing young women in the audience to start screaming.  During the instrumental parts, he would back off from the mike and be playing and shaking, and the crowd would just go wild.  Bill Black, a natural showman, whooped and rode his bass, hitting double licks that Presley would later remember as a "really wild sound, like a jungle drum or something."

Soon after, Moore and Black left their old band, the Starlite Wrangler's to play with Presley regularly, and DJ/promoter Bob Neal became the trio's manager.  From August through October, they played frequently at the Eagle's Nest Club and returned to Sun Studios for more recording sessions.  Presley quickly grew more confident on stage.  According to Moore, his movements was a natural thing, but he was also very conscious of what got a reaction.  He'd do something one time and then he would expand on it real quick.  Presley made what would be his "only" appear-ance on Nashville's Grand Ole Opry Stage, October 2, 1954.  After a polite audience response, Opry Manager Jim Denny told Phillips that his singer was "not bad" but did not suit the program.

In November of 1954 (age 19), Presley performed on Louisiana Hayride ---the Opry's chief, and more adventurous, rival.  The Shreveport-based show was broadcast to 198 Radio Stations in 28 states.  He had another attack of nerves during the first set, which drew a muted reaction.  A more composed and energetic second set inspired an enthusiastic response.  House drummer D.J. Fontana brought a new element, complimenting Presley's movements with accented beats that he mastered playing in strip clubs.  Soon after the show, the Hayride engaged Presley for a year's worth of Saturday-night appearances.  Trading in his old guitar for $8.00 and seeing it promptly dispatched to the garbage, he purchased a Martin and his trio began playing in new locals, including Houston, Texas and Tex-arkana, Arkansas.  

Presley developed a lifelong love of Southern Maid Donuts.  He made his singular product endorsement commercial for the donut company in exchange for a box of hot glazed doughnuts, but the commercial was never released.  Presley made his first television appearance of the KSLA-TV television broadcast of Louisiana Hayride.  Soon after, he failed an audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on the CBS television network.  By 1955, Presley's regular Hayride appearances, constant touring, and well-received record releases had made him a regular star, from Tennessee to West Texas. 

In January Neal signed a formal management contract with Presley and brought him to the attention of Colonel Tom Parker, whom he considered the best promoter in the music business.  Presley's blend of style made it difficult for his music to find radio display, because many country-music disc jockey's would not play it because he sounded to much like a black artist and none of the rhythm-and-blues stations would touch him,
because he sounded too much like a hillbilly.  His blend came to be
known as "rockabilly".  At the same time, Presley was variously billed as "The King of Western Bop", "The Hillbilly Cat" and the Memphis Flash."  Elvis renewed Neal's management contract in August of 1955, simul- taneously appointing Parker as his special advisor. 

It was almost frightening, the reaction that came to Elvis from teen-aged boys.  So many of them, through some sort of jealousy, would practically hate him.  There were occasions in some small towns, in Texas when the trio would have to be sure and have a police guard because somebody'd always try to take a crack at him.  They'd get a gang and try to waylay him or something.  In November at the Country Disc Jockey Convention, Presley was voted the Year's most promising male artist.  Several record-ing companies had shown interest in signing him.  After three major labels made offers of up to $25,000, Parker and Phillips struck a deal with RCA Victor on November 21 to acquire Presley's Sun contract for a unpre-cedented $40,000.  Presley, at 20, was still a minor, so his father signed the contract. Parker arranged with owners of Hill & Range Publishing to create two entities, Elvis Presley Music and Gladys Music to handle all the new material recorded by Presley.  Some writers were obliged to forgo one-third of their customary royalties in exchange for having him perform their compositions. 

Parker finally brought Presley to national television booking him on CBS's Stage Show for six appearances over two months.  After his first appear-ance, on January 28, Presley recorded at the RCA Victor New York Studio. Neal's contract was terminated, and on March 2, Parker became Presley's manager.  Unlike many white artists who watered down the edges of the original R&B versions of the songs in the 50s, Presley reshaped them. 

Elvis, having the time of his life on stage, played a crucial role in putting the guitar as the instrument that best captured the style and spirit of this new music.  A few days later his performance on the deck of the USS Handcock in San Diego, California, Presley and his band took a flight for a recording in Nashville and were shaken up when an engine died and the plane almost went down over the Arkansas.  Amid Presley's two-week residency at the now Frontier Hotel & Casino, he signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.

After a show in La Crosse, Wisconsin an urgent message on the letter-head of the local Catholic Diocese Newspaper, was sent to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and warned that Presley was a definite danger to the security of the United States.  The letter said his actions and motions at that concert were such as to rouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. After the show more than 1,000 teenagers tried to barge into Presley's room.  Two high school girls' abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph after they were able to barge into his room. 

Presley's actions  while performing was not well liked.  The New York Daily News said the popular music has reached its lowest depths in the grunt and groin antics of one Elvis Presley...Elvis who rotates his pelvis...gave a vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined in the dives and bordello's.   Ed Sullivan declared him unfit for family viewing.  
To Presley's displeasure, he soon found himself being referred to Elvis the
Pelvis, which he called one of the most childish expressions he had ever heard coming from an adult.  Elvis new exactly what he was doing for stardom.  Accompanying Presley's rise to fame a cultural shift was taking place.  Elvis brought Rock & Roll to mainstream culture.

In March of 1958, at the age of 24, Elvis was drafted into the U.S. Army He was just a regular guy turned singer and had a skyrocketing career.  One popular song, "Hound Dog" caused his career to skyrocket.  It had barely been a year-and-a-half since he'd made his world-rattling debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, sending his fans into hysterics and scaring the puritanical types with his swiveling hips, and he had already sold millions of records and pur- chased his 18-room Memphis mansion called Graceland, at the age of 22.  He was a mama's boy with an old-fashioned streak --- especially when it came to ladies acting like ladies (even while boys would be boys).  The death of his mother, Gladys, on August 14, 1958, was a huge blow that many close to him said he never got over.

By the time Elvis was drafted, it had barely been a year-and-a-half since he'd made his world-rattling debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, sending his fans into hysterics and scaring the puritanical types with his swiveling hips, and he had already sold millions of records and purchased his 18-room Memphis mansion known as Graceland.  He was a mama's boy with an old fashioned streak --- especially when it came to ladies acting as ladies (even while boys would be boys). 

PRISCILLA ENTERS ELVIS' LIFE:  Priscilla was just 6 months old when her dad Navy Pilot,  Lt. James Wagner, died in a plane crash. Her  mother Ann Iversen Wagner married U.S. Air Force Officer Paul Bealieu, after the death of her first husband James Wagner.  The young Priscilla never knew or even thought she had a different father than her younger 5 siblings.  She discovered that Paul was her step-dad when she found proof in an old cupboard.  However, she chose to still keep it to herself, and not let anyone else know about it.  To her it became the family secret, and she was happy to be part of it.  Paul raised Priscilla as his very own.  Due to Paul working in the Air Force, the family moved  around a lot, as military families often do.  The moving around a lot in those early days, impacted her develop- ment as a child.  Living a nomadic lifestyle made her crave stability and routine.  She admitted later in life that she was often concerned as a child about moving all around the country, she questioned if she'd ever have long-term friendships.  As soon as she met and made a few friends, her family left town.  Wiesbaden, Germany was their latest stop. 

Before Priscilla met Elvis, she had heard one of his songs.  One day her step-dad had brought home an album of his saying, "I don't know what this Elvis guy is all about, but he must be something special."  She was only 11 years old.  Three years later and 5,500 miles away, she would meet him for the first time.   

In 1959 Priscilla's dad was stationed in Germany.  She was out with her younger brother when a service man approached and asked if she'd like to accompany him and his wife to a party and meet Elvis.  Her father after checking with the man's commanding officer, gave his approval.  She was wearing a "little sailor dress" that night.  She could hardly believe she was going to meet Elvis.  When she was introduced to him the star asked her,  "Well, what have we here?  What are you, about a junior or senior in high school?"  When she told him she was in the ninth grade, he chuckled and said, "Why, you're just a baby."  Then he strolled over to the piano and started singing trying to get her attention.  She noticed the less response she showed, the more he began singing just for her.  She couldn't believe Elvis Presley was trying to impress her.

After that first night she was invited back to his house for another gathering and another.  On the third night, he invited her upstairs to be alone (definitely a no no in those days, especially with an underaged teen) assuring her, "I swear I'll never do anything to harm you.  I'll treat you just like a sister".  Her parents didn't like it at all that Elvis seemed interested in a 14 year old girl, especially when he was 24 years old and a super star. But when it became clear she wasn't going to stay away, Priscilla's dad insisted they at least meet the man.  When Elvis came for dinner, he dressed to impress in full uniform.  Paul leveled with him:  What do you want?  "Well, Sir, I happen to be very fond of her."  He told her father, "She's a lot more mature than her age and I enjoy her company.  It hasn't been easy for me, being away from home and all.  It gets kind of lonely.  I guess you might say, I need someone to talk to.  You don't have to worry about her, Captain, I'll take good care of her."  

Although their relationship was technically unconsummated, they became "deeply involved."  Something in his southern upbring had taught him that the 'right girl' was to be saved for marriage.  She was the right girl.  At the same time, he molded her into his woman.  She wore clothes, hairstyle and make-up of his careful choosing.  Early on she also started resenting having to share him with so many admirers.  It was only late in the evening, when they were in his bedroom, she was truly happy, she told People's Magazine.  

She started having trouble keeping up in school, so one night Elvis gave her a handful of pills to help her stay awake.  She didn't take them, but the next day she found out it was Dexedrine --- amphetamines, he started using when he got into the Army. 

Elvis liked that Priscilla was young and inexperienced.  He saw a resemb-lance between Priscilla and his deceased mother, Gladys.  He told his friend Rex Mansfield that Priscilla was young enough that he could train her the way he wanted.  Priscilla's age meant they couldn't go out in public, but they still saw each other often.  The only thing they didn't do was fully consummate their relationship.  As his time in the service came to a close, Priscilla wanted to do so, but Elvis told her, "Someday we will, but not now.  You're just to young."  He left Germany and went home.  They didn't see each other for two years.

When Elvis returned to the U.S. in March of 1960, Priscilla was informed
by paparazzi that he had started dating Nancy Sinatra (the first of many stars he'd be linked to), before she got a call from him.  Three weeks after he left Germany, he finally  got in touch,  and so began Priscilla's state of suspended animation, waiting for his infrequent calls.  Sometimes it would be a few weeks, sometimes more.  They hadn't talked in months or seen each other in over two years, when in February of 1962 he invited her to
fly out to Los Angeles.  Once they'd convinced her dad, Elvis sent her a round-trip first class ticket for a two-week stay.  (She was now 16 years
old and him 27.)  

After some cuddle time when she first arrived, he told her she couldn't stay overnight at his house.  He had a member of his entourage drive her to the home of some friends.  Priscilla later found out that he had only recently shipped his supposedly former girlfriend Anita Wood back to Memphis, and he was trying to avoid his guest from out of town being present for any late night phone calls.  The visit included a road trip to Las Vegas, where Elvis bought her more clothes and let her know that he would know if she was with any guy other than him, which was very intoxicating for her.

Priscilla spent Christmas of 1962 at Graceland.  When she went back to Germany, she told her mother Elvis wanted her to move to Memphis to finish high school.  He declared that his intentions were honorable.  He swore that he loved and needed her.  In fact he said he couldn't live without her.  He indicated that one day he would marry her.  In that light, there was little her parents could do but say yes, and they eventually did.  She moved in with his dad Vernon and his second wife Dee Presley, technically, while attending the all-girl school "Immaculate Conception Cathedral High School" in Memphis. 

She spent so much time at Graceland with Elvis, she was eventually living there.  On "Good Morning America" in 2017, people said, "oh my gosh, I can't believe your parents let you go with a stranger."  Priscilla said it was a very innocent time. "I liked him very much. I certainly felt safe...we cannot compare it to today.  We still had morals, high standards.  There was a lot of care." (There is no way, I would let my 16 year old move to another country with any man much less a superstar 10 years older than her, no matter if she and he liked or loved each other, no matter what was said, or that they had high standards.)  In 1962, Elvis asked her to visit him in Las Vegas (she was 16 at the time) During their time there, Priscilla began taking amphetamines and sleeping pills to keep up with Elvis.  She also started wearing, new, more adult outfits and lots of make-up.  He told her he liked lots of make-up.

At this time Elvis was making multiple movies a year, all with beautiful leading ladies, and even if he wasn't having as many flings with his co-stars as rumor would have it, he also wasn't living a life of a man who was spoken for.  Graceland was lonely for Priscilla in those first years.  Elvis's manager, Colonel Tom Parker didn't want it known that his valuable client had a steady girlfriend, for fear they would give up their own hopes of being with Elvis and stop buying his records.  There weren't any pictures of the pair around the house.  Parker was kind to her, but he just didn't want fans to know she was the one.  With all this secrecy about Elvis being spoken for, he would sometimes pick Priscilla up from school in a limo and would fly her out to L.A. when he was making movies.  Priscilla told People that in 1978, "it was a lifestyle so out-rageous, I am thankful I've come out sane."

Ultimately, Elvis never veered from the course he decided on with Priscilla, getting down on one knee in her bedroom at Graceland shortly before Christmas in 1966, he proposed to her with a 3 1/2 carat diamond ring, surrounded by 20 more diamonds.  As was told time and time again they never had sex before their wedding night, but that doesn't mean they didn't do other things for intimacy.  The ring was designed by a Memphis jeweler, Harry Levitch.

Trying to keep everything under wraps as much as possible, Colonel Parker had the two to fly from Palm Springs to Las Vegas at around midnight on May 1, 1967, on their wedding day.  Frank Sinatra loaned his private jet.  They got their license at about 3:00 a.m. and tied the knot in a room at the Aladdin Hotel in front of 14 people, the ceremony officiated by Nevada Supreme Court Judge David Zenoff.  The ceremony was followed by a quick press conference and a champaign breakfast for 100 guests which followed downstairs.  (Later they threw an even bigger party at Graceland.)

Priscilla told Vogue, "My wedding was very unusual.  It was the people closest to us, and private, and that's how we wanted it.  We didn't want a fan club.  We didn't want a circus."  After the ceremony, Elvis quipped, "Well, I guess it was about time.  With the life I had, I decided it would be best to wait."

THE END