Celebrities

Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll, famous for Hound Dog, Blue Suede Shoes and his untimely death. Elvis' life was the stuff of dreams. A poor boy from Tupelo Mississippi makes good, but retains all his home spun values. Elvis was legendary for his respectful treatment of women and his love of meatloaf for dinner. He first started singing in public at the age of ten, at the Mississippi Alabama Fair, and the rest is history. He got his first Guitar in 1946, and a star was born. What was unusual about Elvis Presley is that he was a white boy who sang like a black man. His love of gospel music was a huge influence on his songs, but controversially initially hampered his musical career. White radio stations thought he was black and wouldn't play his music, while black radio stations thought he was white and retaliated. He recorded is first record at Sun Studios in 1953, but his career was cut short in 1957 when he was drafted into the army. It was there, in Germany, he met the woman who was eventually to become his wife, Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of a military friend, whom he brought back to the USA at the end of his military service. She was only fourteen when they met and they married in 1967. His film career really took off in the sixties, although controversially his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, kept half his earnings. It has been said that his film career, whilst making enormous sums of money, failed to give him the respect he craved as an actor. However,there is no doubt that the films were the vehicle for his extraordinary success on disc. Elvis returned to singing in the late sixties, touring across the USA until he died on 16th August,1977. Much has been written about Elvis' premature death, with a variety of theories offered for its cause,from addiction to prescription drugs to heart failure. Yet it is undeniable that Elvis' early death crystallized his image as "The King", a soubriquet still used about him today.