KING CREOLE: 55 ANIVERSARIO

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi. He had a twin brother that was a still born. In September 1948 when Elvis was 13, he and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he attended Humes Highschool. In 1953 Elvis attended the senior prom with the current girl he was courting, Regis Wilson. After graduating from Humes High School in Memphis, Elvis took odd jobs working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver for Crown Electric Company. He began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then signed with a local recording company, then in 1955 with RCA. He did much to establish early rock and roll music, bringing black blues singing into the white, teenage mainstream. Teenage girls became hysterical over his blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" (television cameras were not permitted to film below his waist). At the time of his death, he had sold more than 600-million singles and albums. In 1956 following his six television appearances on The Dorsey Brothers' "Stage Show", Elvis was cast in his first acting role in a supporting part in Love Me Tender (1956), the first of 33 movies he starred in. Critics blasted most of his films, but they did very well at the box-office earning upwards of $150 million total.