Before we get to these cool facts I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and/or Happy Hanukkah.
Lets get to it:
10 Facts about the first home Elvis Presley bought in Memphis, TN located at 1034 Audubon Drive
The home was not built for Elvis, nor was it a brand-new home. In fact, it was built by Howard and Ruth Handworker for their family. They completed the home either in late 1953 or early 1954. Howard was employed by a wood products company and had experience in home construction. He designed his home with special features; redwood wall paneling, pocket doors that slide into the walls, and red oak floors. When the Handworkers moved out in 1956, Elvis bought the home, making the Presley family the second owners of 1034 Audubon Drive.
They bought the home in March 1956, not May 11, 1956 as many people have written. The transaction papers were signed on March 8 and 12, 1956. The Presley family; Elvis, Vernon, Gladys, and Minnie Mae, moved into the house the last week of the month.
It is also written that they paid $40,000 for the home. They paid $29,100, still a lot of money in those days for a home. The erroneous information about the date and price of this transaction stems from a newspaper article printed on May 11, 1956.
Obviously, Elvis provided the money to buy the home. But he signed the documents to own the home with his mother and father, giving all three “title” to the home. In fact, the following year all three would sign similar documents to take possession of Graceland. These documents are further proof that Elvis shared his success with his family.
Part of the legend is that the neighbors did not like Elvis. Some of the neighbors were said to regard the Presley’s as “white trash, hillbillies.” Or they viewed his performances as crude or sinful. Apparently not everyone on Audubon Drive shared those views. A few of the surviving neighbors are careful to explain that they liked the family but did not like the noise and confusion surrounding them.
No matter how the parents of Audubon Drive felt, the 60 or more children growing up on the street loved having the King of Rock and Roll live “next door”. For the young girls entering their sexual awaking, he must have quite a treat. The boys saw Elvis as the “leader of the pack.” Elvis was accommodating to them all; signing autographs, giving motorcycle rides, playing football with the boys.
The Presley family tried to be good neighbors. Those who met them particularly remember Gladys feeding cookies to the nearby children or showing off her vegetable garden by the swimming pool. Vernon was not as friendly. They saw less of Elvis, but he was always polite to his elders. The year 1956 was the beginning of Elvis mania, when he was mobbed everywhere, he traveled. The Audubon Drive home became an unofficial tourism attraction in the city, especially when Elvis was home. The Presley’s understood that the unbridled enthusiasm for Elvis was a distraction but were unable to solve the problem.
Many of the most famous pictures of Elvis were taken at 1034 Audubon Drive. Elvis allowed Alfred Wertheimer to follow him at close range for months that year. Alfred shot Elvis, young cousin Billy Smith, and Vernon sitting by the patio table. Elvis has cocked his head to one side to observe the photographer and is holding a Pepsi bottle. This photo has been reproduced thousands of times. An even more famous photo is of Elvis on his Harley-Davidson, casting his eyes downward. It is the most iconic photo of moody, restless youth of the 1950’s. Elvis was not striking a pose but was disgusted that his motorcycle did not have gas in the tank. He could not start it.
Eight families have owned 1034 Audubon between the years 1957 to 1998. After all these years, Elvis was the last homeowner to add a room to the house. Elvis converted the outdoor patio into a large den; with a glass wall to look out to the pool, two wood and glass trophy cases, mahogany wood paneling, custom made star shaped light fixtures, and an acoustic tile ceiling. The room looks the same today. Although he was the homeowner for one year, he made far more changes to the house than everyone else after him.
Finally they knew that they had to move into a place with more privacy and security than was possible at 1034 Audubon Drive. It is well known that the Presley bought Graceland from Ruth Brown Moore, a member of a wealthy Memphis family who built that estate home in 1939. Graceland was named after a relative of Mrs. Moore, but few knew that Mrs. Moore swapped homes with the Presley’s. She took possession of 1034 Audubon Drive and rented it to another relative. Elvis paid $102,000 for Graceland, half of that in cash, and half in the assessed value of 1034 Audubon Drive.
In a recent Instagram post, guitar legend Jimmy Page has shared an untold story of how he paid his respect to rock n’ roll star Elvis Presley in 1998.
He also mentioned about how Elvis Presley’s vision changed the world. Here’s what he wrote:
“On this day in 1998, I played at Tupelo, where Elvis was born and raised, when there were no local attractions apart from the cotton fields or getting to Memphis.
When Elvis grew up it must have been pretty bleak but the white and black picked the cotton side by side and the local indigenous music provided the soundtrack to this tough environment and it took the visionary genius of Elvis to blend those musical sources and change the world. 🔊John Lee Hooker’s sonic ambience to the region; ‘Tupelo’ recorded in 1960.”
*** Note – this article was not originally authored by Jeff Schrembs as is the case in 99.99% of the time. We do not know the origin but would like to give them credit for this well written and factually correct article.
ELVIS 1965 History:
By the time the turbulent Sixties were halfway through — really, before they’d even had a chance to become the Sixties we know fully — certain pop stars were already undergoing overwhelming personal transformations, questioning authority, consuming mind-altering drugs, reinvesting in their spirituality, looking for a purpose. That’s not news to anyone, unless you put Elvis in that number; by 1965, he was exhibiting all these behaviors and more, demonstrating that even as the entertainment world’s most pampered house pet, one seemingly removed from any sense of a normal interaction with the world, that he could still be reached and even changed. The pull of the turbulence now rolling under polite society was even stronger than The King. Without realizing it (or perhaps even wanting it), he’d help set in motion the very forces that would cause him to question his success.
Or maybe it was just that his success wasn’t deeply satisfying. In that same year, he made what’s usually considered the worst film of his career, Harem Scarum, a horrible pseudo-comedy that was filmed in just under a month, starred a former Miss America as a Middle Eastern princess, and used costumes and sets from 20-year-old films in lieu of anything resembling authenticity. Then there were the songs he recorded for this and two other films that year: “My Desert Serenade,” “Petunia, The Gardener’s Daughter,” “Queenie Wahine’s Papaya.” Who wouldn’t be looking for a deeper meaning?
It’s debatable, given how his life ended, that he found it. But he was looking, that’s the crucial point; as soulless and ignorant as his detractors have made him out to be, he cast off all his dreams (at least, in his own heart) when they failed to help him understand himself and went looking for other ones. Can you imagine the Colonel doing such a thing? No, Elvis was no dummy: he knew, sitting on a pile of money, cars, and women any man would kill for, that he’d been had. What he didn’t know was why — why, if there was someone behind the wheel, he’d focused his lightning on Elvis Presley. He may have been a truck driver from Memphis by way of Tupelo, but he wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d deserved it just by being born. Or what in God’s name he was meant to do with it now.
Recording:
February 24: “Shake That Tambourine” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
February 25: “So Close, Yet So Far (From Paradise),” “My Desert Serenade,” “Wisdom Of The Ages,” “Kismet,” “Hey Little Girl” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
February 26: “Golden Coins,” “Animal Instinct” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
March 9: “Harem Holiday,” “Go East, Young Man,” “Mirage” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
March 18: “Tomorrow Night” (RCA Studio B, Nashville, TN)
May 13: “Come Along,” “Beginner’s Luck,” “Down By The Riverside,” “When The Saints Go Marching’ In,” “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me,” “Shout It Out” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
May 14: “What Every Woman Lives For,” “Petunia, The Gardener’s Daughter,” “Look Out, Broadway,” “Everybody Come Aboard” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
May 15: “Chesay,” “Frankie And Johnny” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
May 19: “Hard Luck” (Goldwyn Studios, Hollywood, California)
August 2: “Drums Of The Island,” “This Is My Heaven” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
August 3: “Sand Castles,” “Scratch My Back,” “Stop Where You Are,” “A House Of Sand” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
August 4: “Datin’,” “Queenie Wahine’s Papaya,” “Paradise Hawaiian Style,” “A Dog’s Life” (Radio Recorders, Hollywood, California)
Singles:
February 9: “Do The Clam” b/w “You’ll Be Gone” (RCA Victor 47-8500)
April 6: “Crying In The Chapel” b/w “I Believe In The Man In The Sky” (RCA Victor 447-0643)
May 28: “(Such An) Easy Question” b/w “It Feels So Right” (RCA Victor 47-8585)
August 10: “I’m Yours” b/w “(It’s A) Long Lonely Highway” (RCA Victor 47-8657)
October 20: “Puppet On A String” b/w “Wooden Heart” (RCA Victor 447-0650)
October 26: “Santa Claus Is Back In Town” b/w “Blue Christmas” (RCA Victor 447-0647)
December 3: “Tell Me Why” b/w “Blue River” (RCA Victor 47-8740)
EPs:
July:
Tickle Me (RCA EPA 4383):
Side 1:
“I Feel That I’ve Known You Forever”
“Slowly but Surely”
Side 2:
“Night Rider”
“Put the Blame on Me”
“Dirty Dirty Feeling”
Albums:
March 1:
Girl Happy (RCA LPM 3338):
Side 1:
“Girl Happy”
“Spring Fever”
“Fort Lauderdale Chamber Of Commerce”
“Startin’ Tonight”
“Wolf Call”
“Do Not Disturb”
Side 2:
“Cross My Heart And Hope To Die”
“Meanest Girl In town”
“Do The Clam”
“Puppet On A String”
”I’ve Got To Find My Baby”
“You’ll Be Gone”
October 20:
Roustabout (RCA LPM 3450):
Side 1:
“Your Cheating’ Heart”
“Summer Kisses, Winter Tears”
“Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers”
“In My Way”
“Tomorrow Night”
“Memphis, Tennessee”
Side 2:
“For The Millionth And Last Time”
“Forget Me Never”
“Sound Advice”
“Santa Lucia”
“I Met Her Today
“When It Rains, It Really Pours”
November 3:
Harem Sacrum (RCA LPM 3468):
Side 1:
“Harem Holiday”
“My Desert Serenade”
“Go East, Young Man”
“Mirage”
“Kismet”
“Shake That Tambourine”
Side 2:
“Hey Little Girl”
“Golden Coins”
“So Close Yet So Far (From Paradise)”
“Animal Instinct”
“Wisdom of The Ages”
Movies:
April 14: Girl Happy
Also starring: Shelley Fabre’s, Harold J. Stone, Gary Crosby, Joby Baker, Nita Talbot, Mary Ann Mobley, Fabrizio Mioni, Jimmy Hawkins, Jackie Coogan, Peter Brooks, John Fiedler, Chris Noel, Lyn Edgington, Gail Gilmore, Pamela Curran, Rusty Allen
Directed by: Boris Sagal
Screenwriters: Harvey Bullock, R.S. Allen
Produced by: Joe Pasternak
June 30: Tickle Me
Also starring: Julie Adams, Jocelyn Lane, Jack Mullaney, Merry Anders, Connie Gilchrist, Edward Faulkner, Bill Williams, Louie Elias, Barbara Werle, John Dennis, Laurie Burton, Allison Hayes, Linda Rogers, Ann Morell
Directed by: Norman Taurog
Screenwriters: Elwood Ullman, Edward Bernds
Produced by: Ben Schwalb
November 24: Harem Scarum
Also starring: Mary Ann Mobley, Fran Jeffries, Michael Ansara, Jay Novello, Phillip Reed, Theodore Marcuse, Billy Barty, Dirk Harvey, Jack Constanzo, Larry Chance, Barbara Werle, Brenda Benet, Gail Gilmore, Wilda Taylor
Directed by: Gene Nelson
Screenwriter: Gerald Drayson Adams
Produced by: Sam Katzman
January 8: Elvis turns 30, an event not unnoticed by several Memphis newspapers, who wonder if this, especially in the light of the British Invasion, isn’t the end of an era. For his part, The King celebrates quietly with Priscilla and family at Graceland.
February 24: After 38 frustrating, listless takes of a terrible song called “Shake Your Tambourine,” Elvis leaves the Memphis recording sessions for his 19th film, Harum Scarum. Elvis is quite vocal about his dissatisfaction with the latest batch of songs given him. Noting this, the Colonel moves Presley’s medical checkup to Memphis in order to keep him away from Hollywood as long as possible.
March 5: A milestone in Elvis’ personal life. While driving to Los Angeles to begin work on his latest film, the singer tells Larry Geller that he feels their recent religious studies haven’t produced a bonafide religious “experience.” Not long after, Elvis pulls over and runs into the middle of the desert when he sees a cloud formation that looks like Russian dictator Josef Stalin. As he watches, it turns into a face Elvis interprets as that of Jesus Christ. As Geller recalls it in Peter Guralnick’s acclaimed book Careless Love:
“It’s God!” Elvis cried. “It’s God!” Tears streamed down his face as he hugged me tightly and said, “…I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You got me here. I’ll never forget, never, man. It really happened. I saw the face of Stalin and I thought to myself, Why Stalin? Is it a projection of something that’s inside of me? Is God trying to show me what he thinks of me? And then it happened! The face of Stalin turned right into the face of Jesus, and he smiled at me, and every fiber of my being felt it… Oh, God. Oh, God,” Elvis kept saying. Then he paused and added a peculiar aside. “Can you imagine what the fans would think if they saw me like this?”
“They’d only love you all the more,” Geller said.
“Yeah,” he said, “Well, I hope that’s true.”
Visibly shaken, he resumes the trip, although most of the Memphis Mafia are skeptical about the validity of this “sign.”
March 15: Elvis begins filming Harum Scarum. He also rehires Joe Esposito.
March 17: Presley joins a religious group based in Pacific Palisades, CA, called the Self-Realization Fellowship, led by Sri Daya Mata, whom Elvis will turn to for spiritual guidance on and off for the rest of his life. Elvis asks Mata, whom he came to call “Mother,” the question that had been troubling him: “Why did God make me Elvis Presley?” and Mata responds by giving him some ancient literature.
Elvis tells a fellow initiate that “People don’t know my life or that I sometimes cry myself to sleep because I don’t know God.” Later, Elvis reportedly tells a friend: “I know some of the things that I think are kind of far out…and I don’t meet a lot of people that I can relate to, and those that I do meet that need to know more about their spiritual selves, I do the best that I can, but I would like to be in a position to reach these people that are out there, I know that, and I can’t get in that position. My career won’t allow it, my management won’t allow it, my friends won’t allow it… I’ve been fortunate in that I can, if I read something that somebody has written, and I’m intrigued by it, or I need to know more, I can contact them, and chances are, they’ll respond because of who I am, and that’s good because it’s helped me, and in helping me, they’ve helped other people, but I have this need for more, and its driving me crazy, it’s driving me crazy. I’m going to be a blundering fool if I don’t solve this somehow. I don’t know, maybe time will straighten it out. Time has a way of doing that, you know.”
April 4: Elvis sees Jerry Schilling’s new Triumph motorcycle and immediately buys one for every member of the Mafia, including himself.
April 19: With production already completed on Harum Scarum, Elvis stays on in Los Angeles to await the filming of his next movie.
May 12: During the recording of the soundtrack for his 20th film, Frankie and Johnny, Elvis, clearly angered by the material, blows up at the musicians and storms out of the studio. The band continues to lay down tracks without him; Elvis returns and does the vocals the next day.
May 24: Elvis begins filming Frankie and Johnny.
June 18: The final cut of Harum Scarum is screened for studio executives, and the Colonel, aghast, declares “It would take a fifty-fifth cousin to P.T. Barnum to sell this picture… The best thing to do is to book it fast, get the money, then try again.”
June 24: Elvis does some publicity stills for Frankie and Johnny and attends a special on-set ceremony where he contributes $50,000 to the Motion Picture Relief Fund, which helps out-of-work actors. Frank Sinatra and Barbara Stanwyck are presenters.
June 26th: The Colonel turns 56, for which Elvis presents him with an electric golf cart.
July 7th: Having heard of the religious experiences some are having while taking (the still legal) LSD, Elvis talks Mafia members Red West, Sonny West, and Alan Fortas into taking the drug, and also has marijuana brownies made for the gang, though he himself does not partake.
July 20th: The colonel, still distressed by the results of Harum Scarum, suggests having the film narrated by a talking camel, so that audiences will think the movie is intentionally stupid. The studio declines his suggestion.
August 2: Elvis arrives a week late at Paramount Studios to begin work on his 21st film, Paradise, Hawaiian Style.
August 5: The Mafia, with Elvis, show up in Hawaii two days early for location shooting.
August 15: While in Hawaii, Elvis, Vernon and the Colonel visit the USS Arizona, bombed in Pearl Harbor, and place there a wreath of 1,177 carnations — one for each man on the ship as it went down. Tom Moffat, disc jockey for KPOI in Hawaii, arranges for Herman’s Hermits lead singer Peter Noone to interview the King live from his bungalow. “Who’s your favorite group?” Noone asks. “The Boston Pops,” Elvis replies, laughing.
August 16: Dave Dexter, head of Capitol Records, sends a telegram to Elvis inviting him to Los Angeles for a cocktail party in the Beatles’ honor. He sends no reply.
August 27: The Colonel contacts Brian Epstein to let him know that Elvis will agree to meet the Beatles in his Los Angeles mansion on Perugia Way. When the group arrive, stoned on marijuana, The King is in the darkened living room, surrounded by his entourage, sitting on an L-shaped couch, looking at the TV with the sound off, fooling around on a bass guitar. “Hi, Elvis,” says the group, almost all at once. “Hey, you guys want a drink?” Elvis offers.
The four sit down to watch TV with Elvis and are taken with his early-model remote control, still a novelty. The group is also thrilled by the King’s pool table, and plays a few games with the Mafia, while Presley’s jukebox plays Charlie Rich’s “Mohair Sam” over and over. Priscilla is presented to the group and then quickly whisked away, dressed, according to Paul, “in a purple gingham dress, with a gingham bow in her very beehive hair, with lots of makeup.”
Awed somewhat by each other’s presence, conversation does not come easily, but John thinks to ask if Elvis is working on a new movie. “I sure am,” he replies. “I play a country boy with a guitar who meets a few gals along the way, and I sing a few songs.” “We all looked at one another,” remembers John. “Finally Presley and Colonel Parker laughed and explained that the only time they departed from that formula – for Wild in the Country – they lost money.”
Paul offers to give Elvis some lessons on the bass; the group eventually falls into a very informal, brief, and anticlimactic jam session. Everyone seems pleased with the experience, however: John Lennon, upon leaving, tells Jerry Schilling to make sure Elvis knows that “if it hadn’t been for him, the Beatles would be nothing.”
September 11: The Colonel tells a Memphis newspaper that “sooner or later, someone is going to have to take over the reins” regarding his client’s recent unprofessional behavior.
October 1: Having completed filming on Paradise, Hawaiian Style the previous day, Elvis and his entourage head back to Memphis.
October 7: Construction is completed on Graceland’s Meditation Garden, inspired by the Self-Realization group’s own park in Pacific Palisades. Cost: $21,000.
October 21: Bill Black, the bass player on Elvis’ legendary Sun Records sides, dies of a brain tumor at Memphis’ Baptist Hospital. The local newspaper The Memphis Commercial Appeal quotes the King as saying, “He was a great man and and a person everyone loved. This comes as such a shock to me that I can hardly explain how much I loved Bill.” Elvis, fearing a scene, does not attend the funeral, but sends Vernon and his second wife, Dee, in his place.
October 22: The Colonel manages to get Elvis’ RCA contract extended to 1972, despite a serious recent slump in record sales.
December 7: As he does every holiday season, Elvis donates $50,000 to local charities.
December 14: Elvis buys a number of jewelry items for Christmas presents, including personalized gold watches, diamond rings, and bracelets.
December 25: Knowing how much he loves the hobby since being introduced to it in L.A., Priscilla’s Christmas gift to Elvis is a slot-car racetrack; mindful of his recent experience, the Memphis Mafia’s 1965 gift is a statue of Jesus that Elvis immediately has placed in the Meditation Garden. It remains there to this day.
December 28: Elvis, surrounded by friends including Larry Geller, “drops” LSD for the first time, joined by Priscilla. After staring at each other’s distorted faces, the tropical fish in his aquarium, and, the next day, at dew drops on the breathing grass, both decide that they’d be risking their sanity to try the drug again.
December 31: Elvis rings in 1966 at Memphis’ Manhattan Club in a semi-private affair.
Courtesy of EPE, Graceland, and Lisa Marie Presley this collaboration with HBO should have exceptional production qualities.
Here are the facts:
‘Elvis Presley – The Searcher,’ Documentary Exploring His Creative Journey, Debuts April 14
The HBO documentary ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER debuts SATURDAY, APRIL 14 (8:00–11:00 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.
This three-hour, two-film presentation focuses on Elvis Presley the musical artist, taking the audience on a comprehensive creative journey from his childhood through the final 1976 Jungle Room recording sessions. The films include stunning atmospheric shots taken inside Graceland, Elvis’ iconic home, and feature more than 20 new, primary source interviews with session players, producers, engineers, directors and other artists who knew him or who were profoundly influenced by him. The documentary also features never-before-seen photos and footage from private collections worldwide, and includes an original musical score composed by Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready.
As previously announced by SXSW, Priscilla Presley, David Porter (legendary Memphis music writer and producer), Thom Zimny (director), Jon Landau (producer) and moderator John Jackson (SVP A&R, Sony Music) will discuss the film, the cultural impact of Elvis’ music and how that impact became the embodiment of rock’n’roll at the 2018 SXSW Festival in March. The panel is expected to cover:
how Elvis found inspiration in black and white gospel music of Tupelo
his early experience with the great African-American blues and r’n’b of Memphis
his evolution as an artist with Sam Phillips
the creative impact of his time serving in the U.S. Army in Germany
the creative highs and lows of his career in the 1960s, culminating in the triumphant ’68 special
an assessment of Elvis as a performing artist in the early ’70s, featuring a discussion of Jon Landau‘s seminal 1971 review of Elvis in concert
a discussion of the interviews conducted for the film, including insights into the conversations with Scotty Moore, Red West, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, among others
insight into the creation of the film’s score by Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready
an inquiry into the artistic and personal struggles that preceded his death in 1977
RCA/Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release “Elvis Presley: The Searcher,” the musical companion to the HBO/Sony Pictures documentary, on Friday, April 6. It will be available in digital and physical configurations.
ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER is an HBO Documentary Films Presentation in association with Sony Pictures Television; executive producers, Glen Zipper, Priscilla Presley, Jerry Schilling, Andrew Solt, Alan Gasmer and Jamie Salter (chairman and CEO, Authentic Brands Group); producers, Jon Landau and Kary Antholis; directed and produced by Thom Zimny.
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Most know the name Elvis or Elvis Presley. Many know of his fame, his music, his looks. his life, etc. But this post is not about that this post is about what Elvis Presley…was.
I recall back the early 1970s there was a (for lack of a better word) gossip magazines and there was one photograph of Elvis in a blush pink suit in total concentration with his hands on the piano keys. One of the comments was “it really takes a man to wear pink and make it look natural and beautiful”.
(photo courtesy of the private collection of Mr. Schrembs)
Elvis was, including but not limited to, a man with emotions. Back in the 1950’s some thought Elvis was mean and it showed in his eyes and his face. Girls/women thought he was the best looking thing. Guys/men were either jealous or took Elvis for part of what he was and that was genuine. He gave his all onstage and in recordings. Critics thought that he was a neanderthal and gave him the childest (note – in one amazing interview in the 1950’s Elvis was asked about Herb Ross called him Elvis the pelvis and Elvis showed his disdain by saying in part “the kids that come out to my shows are someones daughters. Someones sons. They come out to have a good time. I bet Herb Ross is so old he never gets it. One day these girls and boys will grow up but let them have their joy. Let them have some fun” Elvis RARELY criticized anyone in public but his tone was strong and semi-angry and let us have a glimpse of what he truly thought) nickname of “the Pelvis”,
Thanks for visiting and please let others know about our site, blogs, and http://www.ElvisCollector.info the premier Elvis Presley website with NO ads. NO pop-ups. NO solicitations. NO selling. Just great, rare, awesome, unique, cool. and “you can only find here” content. Oh yeah it features Jeff Schrembs the Elvis Presley expert, collector, historian, and author.
For those who don’t know Jeff Schrembs, pertaining to Elvis and per his own self description, he has been collecting Elvis Presley memorabilia for six decades. He put a priority on photographs, videos, Elvis personal notes/letters/handwriting/autograph/signatures/etc. Mr. Schrembs has never monetized any aspect of his collection, website, knowledge, etc. Having a personal relationship, with great respect, to so many who; worked with, lived with, were related to, who were loved by, etc. Elvis (in all areas of Elvis personal and professional life dating back to Elvis’ childhood continuing until Elvis’ passing and continuing to this very day). Mr. Schrembs has never, nor will ever, attempt to monetize his relationships (individually or collectively) with these fine people nor does Mr. Schrembs (even remotely) believe/convey that he knows Elvis “better” than any of these people or so many in the “Elvis Presley world”. Had it not of been for Mr. Schrembs having cancer, dating back a few years ago and he opted to begin to share his knowledge about Elvis Presley online as a positive distraction, this blog would not be in existence. With that said lets get to some way cool info.
Elvis Presley, back in the 1950’s, preferred Pepsi versus coke because at that time Pepsi offered twice the quantity for less.
Elvis would chase down the milk man, it was the norm for a milk man to deliver fresh milk in bottles on the porches and/or front doors, of it’s customers, and pay for a few frosty/perfectly chilled milk bottles so fresh rich cream was at the top of the bottles.
Many times Elvis would go the donut store, and they made them 24 hours a day and Elvis knew when they would be piping hot, and eat 1/2 a dozen donuts and wash it down with his bottles of milk.
Elvis was an usher at a movie theatre as a teenager.
When Elvis was told, by Sam Phillips that Dewey Phillips the DJ (no relation), that Elvis’ first recording of “that’s all right little momma” would be played on the radio that night Elvis went into a movie theatre to be alone with his nerves and in the darkness should the song not be received well.
When the song was played the switchboard at the radio station lit up with request after request to hear the song played again. It was an instant hit and Dewey Phillips radio show, red hot and blue, was played to a wide and diverse audience (i.e. white audiences, african american audiences, etc.). African Americans, and white people and others across the spectrum, were equally enjoying this song and 99% of the audience thought Elvis was African American. It was only until Elvis, who was invited, went into Dewey Phillips radio booth to do an interview (note – Elvis did not know the interview was live and being broadcast) and he disclosed that he attended Hume’s High School did the radio audience realize that Elvis was white (as Humes High School, like most every school in the nation was segregated).
Memphis, during Elvis’ childhood and throughout the 1950’s, was a bustling thriving location where muscians were found on the streets, in the churches, and on front porches everywhere. You could not go down a main street in downtown Memphis and not hear various songs. But, it was in church that Elvis was first exposed to as a child that he exhibited singing, dancing, and his own vocal inflections and movements. This was not regulated to Elvis’ family church for it has been documented that Elvis, at an early age, went to African American churches and loved the music. The sermons. The praising of the lord. Many African American Pastors have participated in documentarys confirming these statements and remarking that Elvis was a truly gifted singer. He was unlike anyone they had seen or heard.
There was a well known mens clothing store in Memphis named Lanksy Brothers where there were bright colors, custom tailored shirts/suits/pants, wild shirts, shiny leather/animal print/suede/etc. shoes, and just about everything a man of style would want. Elvis often windowshopped and one day went to Bernard Lansky, one of the owners, and told him “Mr. Lansky one day I am going to buy a lot of clothes from you”. Within a few years Elvis’ statment came true and Elvis remained a loyal customer for decades.
The only school subject that Elvis failed, which was an F, was in music. Can you imagine? Elvis failed music? He had a photographic memory. He had perfect pitch. But, at the time he was so shy and distracted by hardships (monetarily and within the family construct) that he earned this grade. There are several interviews, along with firsthand accounts, wehreby Elvis admiited this happened but his music teacher thought Elvis had talent so she entered him into talent shows and Elvis won the talent show at Humes High School to the shock of many students and facility. From that moment on Elvis brought his guitar to school and often would be outside during lunch break strumming it and singing for the students espically the young ladies.
One of Elvis’ favorite barbers was African American. There are many photographs of this, along with some firsthand accounts, taking place. The barber said that Elvis told him exactly how he liked it done, long for the time period and he wanted his sideburns neat but wide and long like the truck drivers wore theirs, and since Elvis’ hair was very thin, but he had a lot of hair, Elvis’ hair could be styled in any fashion he wanted.
The HBO documentary ELVIS PRESLEY: THE SEARCHER debuts SATURDAY, APRIL 14 (8:00–11:00 p.m. ET/PT) on HBO.
(photo courtesy of the private collection of Mr. Schrembs)
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