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75 fascinating facts about Elvis Presley COURTESY OF NEWSDAY and edited by yours truly:
1. Elvis is Norse for “all wise.”
2. The Presley family were subjected to a violent tornado in Tupelo, Miss., when Elvis was 15 months old.
3. Research shows that “Elvis” is one of the most popular passwords for computers.
4. When Presley was 2, he wiggled out of his mother’s grip and joined the choir to sing during an Assembly of God Church service.
5. When he was 10, he sang “Old Shep” during am Alabama Mississippi children’s talent show. He finished fifth ** note – many have falsely stated that Elvis won this show but there are conflicting accounts of Elvis placing fifth or sixth
6. At 11, Elvis got a guitar. He really wanted a bicycle (some say a rifle), but his parents couldn’t afford it..
7. Once a boy he was wrestling with broke a hip.
8. The first time Presley recorded, it was (supposedly) for his mothers birthday which is odd as her birthday was not in the near future. He paid $4 to Sun Studio to press two songs – “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”
9. Elvis recorded anywhere from 600 to 1,200 songs, depending on whether the list includes unfinished works, alternate versions, bootlegged recordings, etc.
10. After Presley’s first TV appearance in 1956, Jackie Gleason said, “The kid has no right behaving like a sex maniac on a national show.” * Note there are conflicting accounts of this with Gleason saying he never said it.
11. Parents got freaked out, too. On Long Island, a 14-year-old girl told the press: “My parents locked up my Elvis records, and my father broke my record player.”
12. Another Long Island teen is captured in a set of iconic Alfred Wertheimer photos in 1956 – the white-gloved girl got out of a cab with her father in midtown Manhattan, saw Presley there, talked to him and broke down crying when he left.
13. Sometimes, Presley would sign autographs on fans’ chest (at their request) – “Elvis” on the left and “Presley” on the right.
14. In 1965, Presley talked about entering a monastery and was a deeply spiritual/religious man and had respect for all faiths.
15. Elvis started wearing a chai necklace because his mother Gladys’ maternal grandmother was Jewish – the reason why he added a Star of David on his mother’s gravestone in the mid-1960s.
16. When asked why he wore the necklace, he said, “I don’t want to miss out on going to heaven on a technicality.”
17. He also is said to have been partly Scottish, Irish, German, Welsh, Cherokee Indian and French.
18. A tartan was created in 2007 for the 30th anniversary of Presley’s death. It contains pink, baby blue, black and gold.
19. Presley’s 1961 hit “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is set to the melody of “Plaisir D’Amour,” an 18th century French love song.
20. Elvis loved biscuits and gravy, potato cheese soup and meatloaf with mushroom gravy, but he also loved the fat-free, antioxidant-rich, very healthy beefsteak tomato.
21. He hated fish, and wouldn’t allow Priscilla to eat it at Graceland.
22. In Elvis’ later years, primarily while touring, preferred to take sponge baths, using a rag and soap.
23. As a teenager, Presley worked as an usher at Loew’s State movie theater in Memphis.
24. He got to wear another type of uniform when he joined the ROTC in the 10th grade.
25. Elvis was honored by his commanding officer for his “cheerfulness and drive and continually outstanding leadership ability,”.
26. The Germans called Presley “the rock and roll matador” and the Russians called him “a threat to their citizens”
27. He liked to smoke thin German cigars but often had a cigar or cigarette that was not lit hence no smoking.
28. While serving in the Army overseas, Elvis laughed and said that his one disappointment was never meeting Brigitte Bardot.
29. One of Elvis’ movie idol was Tony Curtis, who had black shiny hair.
30. Elvis dyed his hair, starting in 1955-56, and used Miss Clairol 51 D, “Black Velvet.”
31. The first time Presley’s hair was professionally colored, the makeup department at Paramount used “mink brown” to make it look black on screen.
32. Elvis once used black shoe polish when he did it himself.
33. He also dyed his eyelashes, which caused health problems later in life.
34. In between filming 1956’s “Love Me Tender” and 1957’s “Loving You,” Presley had his nose done (he thought the bridge of his nose was too wide), his teeth capped and his acne treated.
35. Several big-time stars say they were influenced by Presley after seeing him perform when they were kids, including Bruce Springsteen, Roy Orbison and Cher.
36. Presley’s 1956 “romance” with Natalie Wood was short-lived, some saying it ended because he was just not that into her.
37. He performed “Unchained Melody” only during the last six months of his life.
38. Some commentators say Elvis’s had a four and a half octave vocal range.
39. Elvis had a slight stutter.
40. Elvis used A&D ointment to keep his lips soft.
41. When he was young, Presley could lose several pounds during a concert.
42. Later in life his weight ballooned to 250 pounds.
43. Presley loved “The Tonight Show,” until Johnny Carson joked about him being “fat and 40.”
44. Presley was said to be as fit as a 21-year-old when he taped the ’68 Comeback Special. He was actually 33.
45. He almost didn’t go onstage the first night taping the NBC show.
46. He recorded 15 songs with the word “blue” in the title.
47. “Queenie Wahini’s Papaya,” “Yoga Is as Yoga Does” and “There’s No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car” are just some of the strangely titled songs Presley recorded for his movies.
48. In the 1970s, Presley would start every concert with “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” a 19th century Richard Strauss tone poem and the theme of the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” because he liked its rhythm and movements.
49. Viewers in the United Kingdom did not see the worldwide “Aloha From Hawaii” special because the BBC refused to pay the price for the 1972 concert.
50. Presley met the Beatles in 1965 in Elvis’ home in California, although his manager, Col. Tom Parker, had to force him into having them over to his Bel Air, Calif., house.
51. He met Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in 1975, but Wilson says the meeting ended badly when he made an unexpected karate move on Presley after Presley asked him not to.
52. Here’s what Presley and President Richard Nixon said to each other during their 1970 meeting celebrated in the famous photograph: “You dress kind of strange, don’t you?” Nixon said, to which Presley responded, “Well, Mr. President, you got your show, and I got mine.”
53. The meeting was a secret until The Washington Post broke the story about a year later.
54. Presley once gave Muhammad Ali a robe declaring the boxer “The People’s Champion.” (Ali gave Presley gloves that said, “You’re the greatest.”)
55. After receiving a kidnap-assassination threat while performing in Las Vegas which the FBI investigated and warned Elvis not to perform. Elvis decided not to upset the fans and went ahead with the concert appearances but took precautions including a pistol in each of his boots.
56. For his 36th birthday, Presley treated himself to police equipment which was not uncommon throughout his life.
57. In the early 1970s, Presley would impersonate a police officer, driving around with a blue light, long flashlight, a billy club and guns, and pulling people over. Instead of giving out tickets, he would hand drivers autographs but on one occasion broke up a violent fight between two men.
58. During a concert at Nassau Coliseum in 1975, he threw a guitar into the audience, laughed by saying, “Whoever got the guitar can keep the damn thing. I don’t need it, anyway.”
59. Some members of the Memphis Mafia called Presley “Crazy and/or Crazy eyes” as when mad he had an imposing look and physical presence
60. Elvis’ karate name was “Tiger.” and he studied the martial arts from the early 1960’s throughout his life
61. He once broke a woman’s ankle while showing her a karate move at his hotel suite in Las Vegas.
62. Elvis was born under the “dog” sign (astronomical)in Chinese astrology.
63. He was Patrick Swayze’s guardian angel, four psychics told the late actor.
64. Some believe that Parker had the ability to hypnotize Presley, especially before he’d go on stage which everyone of his inner circle said never happened as Elvis was his own man and his own performer. He did not need Colonel Parker to do anything but focus on the business aspects
65. It is believed that Elvis was prescribed about 10,000, thousands were unused, during the later years of his life.
66. When Elvis played Madison Square Garden in 1972, he rented the New York Hilton’s top floor and this concert set a record in sales, and sold out in less than an hour after the tickets became available, a feat (like many) never equalled
67. Minnie Mae Presley, Elvis’ grandmother, lived at Graceland having divorced her husband Jessie Pressley who, upon Elvis getting famous, changed his name to Presley and actually recorded a few songs and appeared on tv.
68. Elvis had a pet turkey. His name was Bowtie.
69. He also owned (including but not limited to) a basset hound, two great Danes, a chow chow, a Pomeranian, several horses, some donkeys, some peacocks and guinea hens, ducks, chickens, a chimpanzee, a monkey and a mynah bird.
70. Elvis, his parents and grandmother aren’t the only ones buried at Graceland. So is his golden palomino quarter horse, Rising Sun one of his two favorite horses.
71. It’s not clear where Scatter, Presley’s pet chimp, is buried (note Michael Jackson, like he did in so many ways, copied Elvis). Some believe the hard-drinking animal died of liver disease; others say he was poisoned by a maid he had bitten.
72. Elvis believed, beginning in his teenage years, that he would die in his 40s, like his mother. In fact Elvis believed his mother Gladys was 42 years old when she died but was really 46 years old. Sadly, Elvis and his mother died in in the month and year being August (Elvis on the 16th of 1977 and Gladys on the 14th of 1958)
73. Elvis’ last words were, “OK, I won’t,” when he assured Ginger Alden, his last girlfriend, that he wouldn’t fall asleep reading in the bathroom.
74. It is estimated that there were about 170 Presley impersonators when he died in 1977. Today, some say there are 250,000. But it is not debatable that Elvis influenced thousands upon thousands of entertainers/music superstars.
75. The first post-death Presley spotting was in Kalamazoo, Mich., where a mother of five told the Weekly World News that she saw him in a grocery store and at a Burger King. This sighting was untrue as Elvis sadly died at his home Graceland in Memphis Tennessee on August 16, 1977 at the young age of 42.
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