Elvis Presley 20 Facts Lesser Known

Elvis Presley-Life Magazine May 2021 Cover

Below is a list of 20 lesser known Facts About Elvis Presley that I have recapped from the May 2021 Life Magazine Special Edition.

The second source of information comes from the book, “Me and a Guy Named Elvis” by Jerry Schilling which is a look at Elvis’s private life through the eyes of a valued member of his inner circle.

According to Schilling, Rhythm and Blues music during the time of segregation in the mid-1950s had a liveliness and a rhythm to it that was unlike any music middle-class white people were listening to at the time. In the early years, Elvis was considered white trash playing black music by many people. His music and style were controversial. He appeared in his first interview on the Dewey Phillips radio show after his parents tracked him down and found him hunched down in the back of a movie theatre. His voice sounded obviously nervous during the interview.

Elvis: 20 Facts The Early Years

Elvis Presley Inspirational Favorites 1983 Reader's Digest RCA
Elvis Presley Inspirational Favorites 1983 Reader’s Digest RCA For Sale at Moore Old Signs and Antiques
  • On August 16, it will be 43 years since newscasters around the world began to proclaim that Elvis Presley was dead, at 42 years old.
  • Elvis Aaron Presley was born a twin on January 8, 1935
  • His twin brother, Jesse Aaron Presley, was stillborn and buried in a shoebox in an unmarked grave.
  • His mother, Gladys Presley, told Elvis later, “When one twin dies, the other one gets the strength of both.”
  • Elvis’s father, Vernon Presley, was convicted of writing a hot check for less than $5 in 1937 and spent 8 months in the Mississippi Parchman Farm Penitentiary.
  • Shortly thereafter, Gladys and Elvis were evicted from their home.
  • Elvis first performed when he was 10 years old at the Children’s Day at Tupelo’s Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. He sang “Old Shep” while standing on a chair. Elvis Presley 20 Facts

Elvis: 20 Facts His Start in Entertainment

Elvis Presley - Interviews and Memories of the Sun Years 1977 Album Stereo
Elvis Presley – Interviews and Memories of the Sun Years 1977 Album Stereo For Sale at Moore Old Signs and Antiques
  • Gladys Presley bought Elvis his first guitar for his 11th birthday
  • He took it to school and would sing during lunchtime. Some bullies swiped it and cut the strings on one occasion.
  • Sun Records released Elvis’s first single in July 1954 with the song “That’s Alright Mama” on one side and “Blue Moon of Kentucky” on the flip side.
  • Elvis’s moves during his singing were perfectly timed and executed. He threw his body around like a rag doll.
  • Elvis first appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in October 1954 where the audience was polite and stoic. He tried to sing the traditional ballads, but it was the upbeat and lively rhythm and blues music combined with his own unique deep velvet tone and “marvelous hip-swiveling virility” that ignited his audiences.
  • Elvis received an average of 10,000 fan letters a week. For some mysterious reason, Elvis developed the habit of ripping them up after reading them.
  • In 1956, In the studio he combined unbridled passion with relentless professionalism. He recorded Hound Dog and recorded it, and recorded it, after 31 takes later he was finally satisfied
  • Elvis’s mother, Gladys, once told a friend that if only Elvis would retire from music and buy a furniture store she would be, “the happiest person in the world.” Elvis Presley 20 Facts.

Elvis: Cadillacs and Continentals

Elvis Presley - An Original Sound Track Album 14 Great Songs LSP-2426 Blue Hawaii
Elvis Presley – An Original Sound Track Album 14 Great Songs LSP-2426 Blue Hawaii
  • In September 1956, Elvis became known for giving away Cadillacs to strangers and when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, his spectacular gyrations are shown only from the waist up in one of TV’s most notorious acts of censorship.
  • On October 19, 1956, Elvis drove his white Continental Mark II into a service station owned by Edd Hopper. A crowd gathered around Elvis blocking the gas pumps to paying customers. Edd ordered Elvis to move his car, but he was surrounded and couldn’t move his car. Elvis became angry and socked Edd in the eye. A decision which he later regretted. He paid a $26 fine in court and was exonerated. He realized that he was no longer free to act like any other human being. “It’s getting where I can’t even leave the house,” he sighed. Elvis Presley 20 Facts.

Elvis: Losses in Life

Elvis Presley - How Great Thou Art Victor Dynagroove Recording
Elvis Presley – How Great Thou Art Victor
  • When Elvis’s mother passed, he took it very hard. When her body was laid in the grave, he tried to jump in after it. For days, he clutched her pink housecoat to his breast, and kissed it lovingly.
  • Elvis was a good soldier and advanced to the rank of sergeant, but, compared to the life he was used to, it was deadly dull, and it was at this time, friends said, he began using stimulants.
  • On August 14, 1977, Elvis was found unconscious at Graceland and rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The cause cited was cardiac arrhythmia but the many physical abuses that his body had endured were surely a contributing factor.
  • During a hospital stay at Baptist hospital, in which Elvis tried to reset his body and get off the prescription drugs he had become addicted to, Jerry Schilling reported that one of his most vivid memories of Elvis was of him sitting on the edge of his bed, rocking back and forth, waiting for his body and his sleep cycles to reset themselves. “After 72 hours of uncomfortable wakefulness, his body was under such stress that the doctors finally gave him a sedative so he could sleep.”
  • To listen to Elvis’s greatest hits Elvis Presley Greatest Hits
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