Elvis Aaron Presley, in the humblest of circumstances, was ...



Elvis Aaron Presley, in the humblest of circumstances, was born to Vernon and Gladys Presley in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935. His twin brother, Jessie Garon, was stillborn, leaving Elvis to grow up as an only child. He and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1948, and Elvis graduated from Humes High School there in 1953.

Elvis’ musical influences were the pop and country music of the time, the gospel music he heard in church and at the all-night gospel sings he frequently attended, and the black R&B he absorbed on historic Beale Street as a Memphis teenager. In 1954, he began his singing career with the legendary Sun Records label in Memphis. In late 1955, his recording contract was sold to RCA Victor. By 1956, he was an international sensation. With a sound and style that uniquely combined his diverse musical influences and blurred and challenged the social and racial barriers of the time, he ushered in a whole new era of American music and popular culture.

He starred in 33 successful films, made history with his television appearances and specials, and knew great acclaim through his many, often record-breaking, live concert performances on tour and in Las Vegas. Globally, he has sold over one billion records, more than any other artist. His American sales have earned him gold, platinum or multi-platinum awards for 150 different albums and singles, far more than any other artist. Among his many awards and accolades were 14 Grammy nominations (3 wins) from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received at age 36, and his being named One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation for 1970 by the United States Jaycees. Without any of the special privileges his celebrity status might have afforded him, he honorably served his country in the U.S. Army.

His talent, good looks, sensuality, charisma, and good humor endeared him to millions, as did the humility and human kindness he demonstrated throughout his life. Known the world over by his first name, he is regarded as one of the most important figures of twentieth century popular culture. Elvis died at his Memphis home, Graceland, on August 16, 1977.

1935 - 1957

April 25, 1912

Gladys Love Smith is born.

April 10, 1916

Vernon Elvis Presley is born.

June, 1933

Gladys Smith and Vernon Presley are married.

January 8, 1935

In Tupelo, Mississippi, shortly before dawn, in a two-room house built by her husband and her brother-in-law, Gladys Presley gives birth to twin sons. The first, Jessie Garon, is born dead. The second, Elvis Aaron, is born alive and healthy. Elvis would be their only child.

1935 - 1948

Elvis grows up within a close-knit, working class family, consisting of his parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, who all live near one another in Tupelo. There is little money, but Vernon and Gladys do their best to provide for their son, who is the center of their lives. They move from one house to another in Tupelo. Elvis attends the Assembly of God Church with his family, and the music and preaching register deeply. Other influences are black bluesmen in the neighborhood and country music radio programs enjoyed by his family.

October 3, 1945

Ten-year-old Elvis stands on a chair at a microphone and sings "Old Shep" in a youth talent contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show, held in Tupelo. The talent show is broadcast over WELO Radio. Winning fifth prize, Elvis receives $5.00 in fair ride tickets.

1946

Elvis’ parents cannot afford a bicycle that Elvis wants, so Gladys talks him into accepting a guitar instead. Elvis' first guitar costs $12.95 and is purchased at the Tupelo Hardware Company.

November 6, 1948

Elvis plays his guitar and sings "Leaf on a Tree" for his Milam Junior High class in Tupelo as a farewell. Elvis and his parents pack their belongings in a trunk strapped to the roof of their 1939 Plymouth and move to Memphis, Tennessee in search of a better life economically. Other members of the Presley and Smith clan would follow.

1948-1953

Elvis and his parents live in public housing or low rent homes in the poor neighborhoods of north Memphis. Life continues to be hard. Vernon and Gladys go from job to job and Elvis attends L.C. Humes High School. Elvis works at various jobs to help support himself and his parents. The Presley-Smith clan remains close-knit, and Elvis and his family attend the Assembly of God Church. The teenage Elvis continues to be known for singing with his guitar. He buys his clothes on Beale Street and he absorbs the black blues and gospel he hears there. He’s also a regular audience member at the all-night white, and black, gospel sings that are held downtown. He wears his hair long (compared to the day’s standards) and slick, and lets his sideburns grow. He’s really different from the other kids, a good-natured misfit.

While at Humes High, Elvis nervously sings with his guitar at a student talent show. Much to his own amazement, he gets more applause than anyone else and wins, then performs an encore. The acceptance feels good.

1958 to 1965

Late January- Early March, 1958

Elvis films and records for his fourth motion picture, King Creole.

March 24, 1958

Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army at the Memphis Draft Board and is assigned serial number 53310761.

March 25, 1958

Elvis gets his famous G.I. haircut at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.

March 28, 1958

Private Presley arrives at Fort Hood, Texas for basic training and is stationed there for six months.

June 10, 1958

After basic training, while on his first leave, Elvis has a recording session, his last until 1960. Among the songs recorded was "A Big Hunk O'Love."

June 20, 1958

Elvis' parents soon move into a temporary trailer near the Army base at Fort Hood, Texas. They move into a house on July 1.

July 2, 1958

King Creole, Elvis’ fourth motion picture opens nationally and the reviews are the best he will ever have for his acting. Its impressive list of co-stars and supporting cast includes Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dean Jagger and Vic Morrow. It becomes a top five film at the box office. This Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz-directed movie, set in New Orleans and based upon the Harold Robbins novel, "A Stone for Danny Fisher," will come to be regarded as Elvis’ finest film, his greatest acting performance, and proof positive of his potential to have become a respected serious actor, though the realization of this desire will remain forever out of his grasp.

August 8, 1958

Gladys Presley becomes ill and returns to Memphis via train to be hospitalized with acute hepatitis. Elvis is granted emergency leave and arrives in Memphis on the afternoon of August 12th. He visits her that night, and the next day and night. A few hours after Elvis goes home to Graceland to rest, she dies in the early hours of August 14 at age 46. Her body lies in state at Graceland that afternoon. Services are at the Memphis Funeral Home on the 15th, with the Blackwood Brothers singing "Precious Memories" and "Rock of Ages," two of Gladys Presley’s favorite hymns. She is laid to rest at Forest Hill Cemetery, a few miles down the road from Graceland. Elvis is devastated.

August 24, 1958

Elvis reports back to Fort Hood.

September/October 1958

September 19, Elvis boards a troop train to New York, later boards the USS. Randall and sails to Germany, arriving on October 1. He will be stationed in Friedberg for 18 months, maintaining an off-base residence in Bad Nauheim, shared with his father and grandmother, and some friends from Memphis. He finds the fans in Europe to be as enthusiastic as those in America.

January 8, 1959

Elvis is interviewed off-camera via trans-Atlantic telephone by Dick Clark on his American Bandstand show on ABC-TV. The show commemorates the star’s twenty-fourth birthday. (Elvis never performed on American Bandstand.)

Later in January the family moves from a hotel to a rented house, and Elvis poses with actress Vera Tschechowa and the March of Dimes poster child.

Colonel Parker continues to keep Elvis’ career alive with promotions and hit record releases.

March 3 – 5, 1959

On a three–day leave, Elvis visits Munich where he visits actress Vera Tschechow and the Moulin Rouge.

June 13 – 27, 1959

Elvis visits Paris via Munich visiting clubs in Paris and Munich, which includes a visit to the Lido.

August 15, 1959

Captain Joseph Beaulieu moved from Texas to Weisbaden Air Force Base near Friedberg, Germany accompanied by his wife and children, including his fourteen-and-a-half- year-old stepdaughter, Priscilla Ann. (Priscilla is the only child from Ann Beaulieu’s marriage to her first husband, James Wagner, a Navy pilot who was killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was an infant.)

September 13, 1959 Through a mutual friend, Priscilla is invited to a party at Elvis’ home soon after her arrival in Germany. They meet, and the rest is history.

1966 to 1969

January 1966

MGM extends his contract for four more movies. Plans were made to add what is now the trophy room onto the house as the slot-car tracks are now large. On January 22, 1966, Elvis and Priscilla along with their friends build a huge snowman on the front lawn.

February - April 1966

Elvis records the soundtrack music and shoots his twenty-second motion picture, Spinout, co-starring Shelley Fabares. Renews his interest in music, buys a great deal of new equipment and, along with Red and Charlie, spends his free time working on music at home. He is especially interested now in folk music. He has purchased a Greyhound bus and it is being customized by George Barris.

March 30, 1966

Frankie and Johnny opens nationally and doesn’t do particularly well. The soundtrack album goes to number twenty.

May 25, 1966

Elvis meets his new record producer, Felton Jarvis, and begins working on what will become the album “How Great Thou Art.” Also during this session he is especially enthusiastic about working with one of his mentors Jake Hess and his group The Imperials.

June-September 1966

Soundtrack recording and shooting for Elvis’ twenty-third motion picture (to be the twenty-fourth released), Double Trouble.

July 6, 1966

Paradise, Hawaiian Style is released and doesn’t do well. It lands at #40 for the year. The soundtrack album peaks at number fifteen while the single "Love Letter" has made it to #19 on the charts.

July 12, 1966

Col. Parker turns down a Japanese movie deal saying that Elvis is booked through 1969.

August 30, 1966

Not waiting until the end of 1967, RCA goes ahead and picks up its option to extend Elvis contract until 1974.

September 1966 - November 1966

Soundtrack recording and filming for Elvis’ twenty-fourth motion picture (the twenty-third to be released), Easy Come, Easy Go.

September 21, 1966

Elvis signs a lease on a Palm Springs house at 1350 Ladera Circle.

November 23, 1966

Spinout opens nationally and is #57 for the year. The soundtrack album goes to number 18. Elvis is the tenth-highest-paid star for the year.

December 1966

Elvis’ interest in horses becomes serious by Dec. 5 purchasing riding clothing and equipment, and on Dec. 20 he buys Priscilla a horse for Christmas. He will also formally propose marriage just before Christmas presenting her with a ring.

February 8,1967

Elvis buys a 163-acre ranch in Mississippi, minutes across the Tennessee state line from Graceland for $437,000. He and his entourage and their wives had become interested in horseback riding after Elvis purchased a horse for Priscilla as a gift. The hobby had outgrown the pasture at Graceland. Over the months to come, Elvis and the gang will enjoy spending a lot of time at the Circle G. It becomes a happy diversion for Elvis as his frustration and unhappiness over the state of his career reaches its height.

RCA releases Elvis’ second gospel album, How Great Thou Art, which was recorded in mid-1966. It gets very good reviews and goes on to earn Elvis the Grammy Award for Best Sacred Performance from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. This is the first of his three Grammy wins.

March 22, 1967

Easy Come, Easy Go opens nationally and is #50 for the year.

March-April, 1967

Soundtrack recording and filming for Clambake, Elvis’ twenty-fifth movie. It is the third of three Elvis movies to co-star Shelley Fabares.

April 5, 1967

Double Trouble opens nationally. Although better than some of his recent screen efforts, it is #58 for the year.

April, 12 1967

Ironwork is added to Graceland windows and doors.

May 1967

On May 1, Elvis and Priscilla are married in a private ceremony amongst a small group of family and friends at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, just after 11:40 AM. A press conference and breakfast reception follow. The couple honeymoon for a few days in Palm Springs. Then they return to Memphis.

May 24, 1967

Elvis and Priscilla celebrate her 22nd birthday.

May 29, 1967

Elvis and Priscilla dress in their wedding clothes and have a second wedding reception in the trophy room at Graceland to accommodate family and friends who were not in Las Vegas for the wedding.

June 10 -June 15, 1967

On the way to Hollywood all the guys and their wives caravan stopping on the way to sight- see at Grand Canyon per home movies.

June - August 1967

Soundtrack recording and filming for Elvis' twenty-sixth movie (to be the twenty-seventh released), Speedway, co-starring Nancy Sinatra. During the production, news of Priscilla's pregnancy is announced.

September 29, 1967

Memphis Mayor William Ingram and TN Governor Buford Ellington each declares “Elvis Presley Day” in recognition of Elvis' many charitable contributions. Elvis will name one of his horses Mare Ingram in the mayor’s honor.

October-November, 1967

Soundtrack recording and filming for Elvis' twenty-seventh movie (to be the twenty-sixth released), Stay Away, Joe. In this western-themed comedy he once again plays a character who is part Native American. It's a real departure from the virtually interchangeable plots and characters in most of the films over the past several grueling years. He has fun with this one.

October 26, 1967

Priscilla and several other wives and girlfriends of the entourage will travel to Sedona, Arizona to visit the set of Stay Away Joe.

November, 1967

Interest in the Circle G ranch has led to selling off equipment. November 4, 1967 Vernon holds an auction at the ranch.

This month, Elvis and Priscilla will buy their first home in Beverly Hills at 1174 Hillcrest, for $400,000

November 22, 1967

Clambake is released nationally and goes to number fifteen at the box office. The soundtrack album goes to number 40.

1970 to 1977

January/February 1970

Some say it is a mistake to go back to Vegas so soon, especially during the slowest season for the city. Can he fill the seats? But, Elvis returns to the International Hotel for another month-long engagement. This time he breaks his own attendance records. One-piece jumpsuits debut and karate moves are now an even bigger part of his stage show. The live album, "On Stage", is recorded in February and will be shipped in June. It will reach #13 on the album chart.

February/March 1970

A press conference in Houston on the 27th. Elvis performs afternoon and evening shows at the Houston Astrodome. Two more shows follow on the 28th. Two more follow on March 1. A closing press conference and banquet follow, and Elvis is presented an armload of recent gold record awards. The six shows attract 207,494 people and set records. There is speculation among the press and the public that Elvis might tour in concert for the first time since the fifties.

April 20,1970 The single “The Wonder of You” is released and hits #9.

June 1970

In Nashville, Elvis records several singles and the material for the albums “Elvis Country” and “Love Letters From Elvis.”

July/September 1970

Back to Las Vegas for what the Colonel has now dubbed “The Elvis Presley Summer Festival.” This is another month-long engagement at the International. He opens on August 10 and closes on September 7. MGM is on hand to shoot a documentary film called Elvis -That’s the Way It Is that will show Elvis off stage, in rehearsals, in the recording studio, and on stage. RCA will also release an album with the same title.

In order to listen to audio and view video you will need Real Player. Click here to download Real Player.

September 1970

From the 9th through the 14th Elvis takes his show on a nine-city tour. It is a smashing success, the first tour since 1957, only these days the show is much more elaborate . MGM films portions of the first show on this tour for use in Elvis - That’s the Way It Is.

Elvis has a recording session in Nashville to finish up the albums started in June.

October 9, 1970

Elvis buys his first Stutz Blackhawk, a 1971 model.

October 19, 1970

Picks up the first order of 12 TCB necklaces from Schwartz and Ableser Jewelers in Beverly Hills.

November 11, 1970

Elvis, That’s The Way It Is, Elvis' thirty-second film, opens in theaters to good reviews and good box office. Documentaries traditionally do not do well at the box office, but this one makes a respectable showing. It, like other Elvis movies will go on to have a life on television and home video in years to come. An album of the same title is released, but only one song, "I Just Can't Help Believin'," is actually from a stage performance included in the film. The other songs are studio recordings, some of which Elvis performs live on stage or in rehearsal footage in the film. The album peaks at #21 on the album chart.

Elvis does a successful eight-city concert tour.

December 4, 1970

December 4, 1970, Elvis and Priscilla complete the purchase of another home in California at 144 Monovale for $339,000

December 21, 1970

Elvis’ famous visit with President Richard Nixon at the White House occurs and today copies of the photos from that meeting are the most requested documents from our National Archives..

January 16, 1971

Elvis attends a day of functions culminating in an evening awards banquet. He and nine others accept the honor of being named One of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce (The Jaycees). He is nervous about his acceptance speech. He is touched, excited and deeply proud. This national honor has been given each year since the late 1930’s and recognizes young men who have made great achievements in their field of endeavor, illustrating the opportunities available in the free enterprise system. It also applauds humanitarianism and community service. Scientists, inventors, performers, film makers, politicians bound for the Presidency, and men of greatness in all fields, have been selected for this award over the years. For Elvis, a man who grew up poor, and, in his early career knew the sting of ridicule from the Establishment, who, through the years has known criticism of his work, this is one of his proudest moments. It is a sign that he has achieved acceptance, recognition, and respect for his work and for the kind of person he is. During this Las Vegas engagement, “Also Spach Zarusthra” commonly known as the theme from the movie 2001:A Space Odyssey will be played in the middle of the show as a break for Elvis.

Late January/February 1971

Elvis plays another month-long engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas.

March 1971

Elvis begins a recording session in Nashville, but cancels it due to pain and inflammation in an eye. He is treated at a Nashville hospital where he is diagnosed with secondary glaucoma. This eye condition will plague him from time to time in varying degrees for the rest of his life.

May 1971

Elvis is featured on the cover of Look Magazine, which carries an installment of the forthcoming biography on Elvis by Jerry Hopkins. Many books and articles have been written over the years, but this is the first in-depth, serious biography. The book Elvis : A Biography will be released in October.

Elvis has recording sessions in Nashville. Much of the work is for his forthcoming album Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download