// The Eras
From Tupelo to Graceland
Six acts. From a shotgun house to a mansion. From revolution to ruin.
1935 - 1954 . The Foundation
The Boy from Tupelo
Born with a dead twin brother. Raised in poverty. Sang in church. Walked into a recording studio and detonated American culture.
Elvis Aaron Presley was born in a two-room shotgun house in Tupelo, Mississippi. His twin brother Jesse Garon was stillborn. His father Vernon served time in Parchman Farm penitentiary for forging a check. His mother Gladys worked in a garment factory and treated Elvis as if he were two sons in one. They were dirt poor. Elvis sang at the Assembly of God church, absorbed gospel music through his skin, and received a guitar for his eleventh birthday. The family moved to Memphis when Elvis was thirteen. He haunted Beale Street, soaking up blues from Black musicians. In 1953, he walked into Sun Records and paid $3.98 to record "My Happiness" as a birthday present for his mother.
The Shotgun House
January 8, 1935 . Tupelo, Mississippi
Elvis Aaron Presley is born. His twin brother Jesse Garon is delivered stillborn 35 minutes before. Gladys never recovers from the loss. She will treat Elvis as if he carries two souls for the rest of her life. The family lives in a 450-square-foot house that Vernon built with borrowed lumber.
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Sun Records, Memphis
The Sun Session
July 5, 1954 . Sun Records, 706 Union Avenue
During a break in a failed recording session, Elvis starts goofing around with Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup's "That's All Right." Guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black join in. Sam Phillips sticks his head out of the control room and says, "What are you doing?" They say they don't know. "Well, back up and do it again."
Off Stage
Elvis was so shy at Humes High School in Memphis that he was considered a loner. He carried his guitar to school and other students made fun of him. He entered the school talent show as a senior and won. The same kids who mocked him gave him a standing ovation. It was the first time he felt the power of an audience.
1954 - 1958 . The Explosion
The King Is Crowned
A white boy singing Black music on television. America had never seen anything so dangerous or so irresistible.
Five Sun singles made Elvis a regional sensation. Colonel Tom Parker took over management. RCA bought his contract for $35,000 -- the most ever paid for a single artist. "Heartbreak Hotel" hit #1 in April 1956. Then came "Don't Be Cruel," "Hound Dog," "Love Me Tender," "All Shook Up," "Jailhouse Rock." Fourteen #1 singles in four years. He appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show three times, the third time filmed only from the waist up because his hip movements were deemed too sexual for American television. He was 21 years old and the most famous human being on the planet.
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The Ed Sullivan Show
60M Viewers
The Ed Sullivan Appearances
September 9, 1956 . CBS Studios
Elvis performs "Don't Be Cruel" and "Love Me Tender" to 60 million viewers -- 82.6% of the television audience. Sullivan had said he'd never book Elvis. The ratings for Steve Allen's rival show forced his hand. By the third appearance, cameras are ordered to shoot Elvis only from the waist up.
82.6% audience share
60M viewers
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Billboard Hot 100
#1
"Heartbreak Hotel"
January 27, 1956
Elvis's first RCA single. Written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, inspired by a newspaper article about a suicide note that read "I walk a lonely street." It stays at #1 for eight weeks. Elvis Presley goes from a regional rockabilly act to a national phenomenon in a single release.
Drafted
December 20, 1957 . Memphis Draft Board
Elvis receives his draft notice from the United States Army. Parker insists he serve as a regular soldier, not in the Special Services entertainment division. The strategy is calculated: Elvis will prove he's a patriot, not a rebel. He's inducted on March 24, 1958, and assigned to the 3rd Armored Division in West Germany.
1958 - 1968 . The Hollywood Years
The Colonel's Prisoner
He came home from the Army and made 27 movies. Almost none of them were good. He knew it. He couldn't stop it.
Elvis returned from Germany in 1960 to "Stuck on You" and a new pop sound. But Colonel Parker had a plan: three movies a year, each with a soundtrack album. The formula printed money. "Blue Hawaii" earned $4.7 million. But the quality was abysmal -- scripts were interchangeable, songs were filler, and Elvis was trapped. Meanwhile, the Beatles and the British Invasion made him seem outdated. By 1967, Elvis was miserable, overweight, and furious at the material Parker forced on him. He hadn't performed live since 1961. "GI Blues," "Girls! Girls! Girls!," "Clambake" -- he hated them all.
Meeting Priscilla
September 13, 1959 . Bad Nauheim, Germany
Airman Elvis Presley meets 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu at a party in West Germany. She is the stepdaughter of an Air Force captain. Elvis is 24. He pursues her father's permission relentlessly. She will move to Memphis at 17, live at Graceland under strict supervision, and marry him in 1967.
The Beatles Meet the King
August 27, 1965 . Bel Air, Los Angeles
The Beatles visit Graceland West (Elvis's Bel Air home). John, Paul, George, and Ringo are starstruck. They jam together. Lennon later says: "Before Elvis, there was nothing." The meeting lasts four hours. No photographs exist. The moment the revolution met its father.
Off Stage
Gladys Presley died on August 14, 1958, while Elvis was in basic training at Fort Hood. She was 46. Elvis was granted emergency leave and collapsed sobbing over her coffin at the funeral. "She's all I ever had," he told reporters. Friends said he was never the same person after her death. She was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis.
1968 - 1969 . The Comeback
The '68 Special
They dressed him in black leather and put him in front of a live audience for the first time in seven years. He reminded the world why he was the King.
NBC's "Singer Presents...Elvis" aired on December 3, 1968. Director Steve Binder defied Colonel Parker, who wanted a Christmas special. Instead, Binder created an intimate concert with Elvis in a black leather suit, sitting on a small stage surrounded by the audience, performing raw, unpolished rock and roll for the first time in years. The show was the highest-rated program of the season. Elvis followed it with "From Elvis in Memphis," recorded at American Sound Studio with Chips Moman producing -- "Suspicious Minds," "In the Ghetto," and "Don't Cry Daddy." He was relevant again. He was alive again.
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NBC Studios, Burbank
#1 Rated
The '68 Comeback
December 3, 1968 . NBC Studios, Burbank
Elvis in black leather. No orchestra. No script. Just him and his original musicians on a small square stage, playing to a sit-down audience of 200. He sweats, he jokes, he sings "That's All Right" and "Heartbreak Hotel" like his career depends on it -- because it does. Forty-two percent of the television audience watches. The King reclaims his throne.
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American Sound Studio
#1 US
"Suspicious Minds"
August 1969
Written by Mark James, produced by Chips Moman. Elvis's last #1 single and one of his greatest recordings. The song's repeated false endings -- it seems to fade out then comes roaring back -- mirror the cycle of a relationship that can't let go. It's also the story of his comeback: everyone thought he was done, and he came roaring back.
1969 - 1973 . The Vegas Reign
Viva Las Vegas
He walked into the International Hotel and didn't leave for four years. 636 sold-out shows. The greatest live performer who ever lived, trapped in a golden cage.
On July 31, 1969, Elvis opened at the International Hotel in Las Vegas with a 57-show residency. He was backed by the TCB Band, a 35-piece orchestra, and the Sweet Inspirations. The jumpsuit era began. "Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite" in January 1973 was broadcast to an estimated 1 to 1.5 billion viewers across 40 countries -- more people than watched the moon landing. He sold out 636 consecutive shows in Vegas. But the marriage to Priscilla ended in 1973. The pills increased. The weight increased. The isolation deepened.
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Honolulu International Center
1.5B Viewers
Aloha from Hawaii
January 14, 1973 . Honolulu
The first entertainment special broadcast live via satellite to a global audience. Elvis wears the American Eagle jumpsuit, perhaps the most iconic costume in music history. He performs "An American Trilogy," "Suspicious Minds," and "Can't Help Falling in Love." He throws his cape into the audience. More people watch Elvis that night than watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
The Divorce
October 9, 1973 . Santa Monica, California
Elvis and Priscilla's divorce is finalized. They hold hands walking out of the courthouse. Elvis cries in the car afterward. Priscilla receives $2 million, $6,000/month spousal support, and joint custody of Lisa Marie. Elvis never remarries. Friends say the divorce destroyed him more than any career setback.
1974 - 1977 . The Fall
The End of Graceland
He couldn't leave Graceland. He couldn't leave Vegas. He couldn't leave the pills. The King was dying, and everyone could see it except the one man who should have stopped it.
The final years are the hardest to watch. Elvis ballooned to over 250 pounds. Dr. George Nichopoulos ("Dr. Nick") prescribed him thousands of pills -- amphetamines, barbiturates, opioids. The concerts became erratic. He forgot lyrics, slurred words, and had to be held upright by backup singers. He fired his bodyguards -- Red West, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler -- who then published "Elvis: What Happened?" exposing his drug use. His final concert was June 26, 1977, in Indianapolis. On August 16, 1977, Ginger Alden found him dead on the bathroom floor at Graceland. He was 42 years old.
The Last Concert
June 26, 1977 . Market Square Arena, Indianapolis
Elvis performs his final concert to a sold-out crowd of 18,000. He closes with "Can't Help Falling in Love." Photos from the show reveal a man barely recognizable from the black-leather figure of 1968. He is bloated, sweating, struggling. He still sings with power. The audience still screams. They don't know it's the last time.
Graceland, August 16
August 16, 1977 . Graceland, Memphis
Elvis Aaron Presley is found dead on the bathroom floor by his girlfriend Ginger Alden at 2:00 PM. Paramedics attempt CPR for 30 minutes. He is pronounced dead at Baptist Memorial Hospital at 3:30 PM. The official cause of death is cardiac arrhythmia. Toxicology reports later reveal fourteen drugs in his system. He was 42. Eighty thousand people line the streets for his funeral procession.
The Estate
1977 - Present
Elvis died with an estate worth $5 million (most of it Graceland). Priscilla Presley took control, turned Graceland into a museum, and grew the estate to over $100 million. Lisa Marie inherited at 25. Elvis Presley Enterprises generates $50M+ annually. The man who died in debt became one of the most profitable dead people in history.
Off Stage
Colonel Tom Parker was not a Colonel, not named Tom Parker, and not American. He was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, an illegal immigrant from the Netherlands who never obtained U.S. citizenship. He couldn't get a passport, which is why Elvis never toured internationally. The greatest performer in the world was grounded because his manager was hiding from immigration authorities.