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You probably know that Elvis Presley
was a twin, that
Priscilla was only 14 when he met her
Germany
and he liked peanut butter & banana sandwiches
1
Elvis
name is Norse for "all wise."
2 Presley almost died in a
Tupelo, Mississippi tornado when he was 15
months old.
3 Research shows that "Elvis" is ?one of the most popular passwords
for computers.
4 Age 2, Elvis wiggled out of his mother's grip and joined
the choir at the Assembly of God Church
5
When he was 10, he sang Old Shep during a children's talent show. He
finished fifth.
6
At 11, Presley got a guitar. He really wanted a bicycle 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 for his mother. He paid $4
to Sun Studio to press two songs -- My Happiness and That's When Your
Heartaches Begin.
9 Presley 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."
11 A 14-year-old girl told the press: "My
parents locked up my Elvis records, and broke my record
player."
12 Another teen is captured in a
set of Alfred Wertheimer
photos 1956. The white-gloved girl got out of a cab with her
father in Manhattan, saw Elvis, talked to him and
broke down when he left.
13 Sometimes, Elvis would sign autographs on fans' breasts
"Elvis" on the left, "Presley" on the right.
14 In 1965, Presley talked about entering a monastery.
15
Presley started wearing a chai necklace because his mother, Gladys'
maternal grandmother was Jewish -- the reason he added a
Star of David
on his mother's gravestone.
16 When asked why he wore Chai, 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 & French.
18
A tartan was created in 2007 for the 30th anniversary of
Presley's death.
19 Can't Help Falling in Love is set to the melody
of Plaisir D'Amour, an 18th-century French song.
20 Presley loved potato cheese soup and meatloaf with mushroom gravy
21 He hated fish and wouldn't allow Priscilla to eat it at Graceland.
22 Presley preferred to take sponge baths.
23 As a teenager,
Elvis worked as an usher at Loew's State movie
theater in Memphis. He was fired when another usher ratted him out for
getting free candy from the girl.
24 He got to wear another type of uniform when he joined the JROTC in
the 10th grade.
25 Although Elvis was honored by his commanding officer for his
"cheerfulness and drive and continually outstanding leadership
ability," some Presley insiders thought the Army tamed him
26
The Germans called Presley "the rock and roll matador."
27
He liked to smoke thin German cigars.
28 While serving in the Army overseas, his one disappointment was
never meeting Brigitte Bardot.
29
Presley's movie idol was Tony Curtis, who had black shiny hair.
30 Presley used Miss Clairol 51 D, "Black Velvet."
31 The first time Elvis' hair was professionally colored, the
makeup department at Paramount used "mink brown" to make it look black
on screen.
32 Presley once used black shoe polish to do 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 Loving You,
Elvis had his teeth capped
35 Several big time stars say they were influenced by Presley after
seeing him perform, including Bruce Springsteen,
Roy Orbison and Cher.
36 Elvis' romance with Natalie Wood was short-lived, it
ended because he was just not that into her.
37 He performed Unchained Melody
only in concert
38 Elvis Presley's voice spanned three octaves.
39 Elvis had a slight stutter.
40 Presley used A&D ointment to keep his lips soft.
41 When he was young, Elvis could lose several pounds during a
concert.
42 Later in life, Presley topped the scales at 250 pounds.
43 Elvis loved The Tonight Show, until Johnny Carson joked about him
being "fat and 40."
44 Elvis said to be as fit as a 21-year-old when he taped the '68
Comeback Special. He was actually
45 He almost didn't go onstage the first night taping the NBC show.
46 He recorded 15 songs with "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 some of the strangely titled songs
Presley recorded for his movies.
48 After 1972, Elvis 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.
49 Viewers in the UK did not see the Aloha From
Hawaii special because the BBC refused to pay the price for the
January 14, 1973
concert. The concert was televised in 28 European countries.
50
Elvis met the Beatles 1965, because Tom
Parker force him to invite them to his Bel Air,
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 Elvis asked him not to.
52 Here's what Presley and
President Richard Nixon said during their
1970 meeting: "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
a year later.
54 Presley once gave
Muhammad Ali a robe declaring the boxer "The
People's Champion."
55 After receiving a kidnap-assassination threat, Presley performed
with a pistol in each of his boots.
56
For his 36th birthday, Presley treated himself to police equipment.
57 In the early 1970s, Elvis would impersonate a police officer,
driving around with a blue light, flashlight, guns,
and pulling people over. Instead of tickets, he would hand drivers
autographs.
58 During a concert at Nassau Coliseum in 1975,
he threw a guitar into
the audience, saying, "Whoever got the guitar can keep the damn thing.
I don't need it, anyway."
59 Some members of the
Memphis Mafia called him "Crazy."
60 Elvis karate name was "Tiger."
61 He once broke a woman's ankle while showing her a karate move.
62
Presley was a "dog" 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 onstage.
65 It is believed Presley was prescribed about 10,000 pills the year
he died.
66 When Presley played Madison Square Garden in 1972, he rented the
New York Hilton's top floor.
67 Minnie Mae Presley, Elvis' grandmother, lived at Graceland.
68 Presley had a pet turkey. His name was Bowtie.
69
Elvis Pets Elvis owned a basset hound, two great Danes, a chow chow, a
Pomeranian, several horses, peacocks and guinea hens, ducks, chickens, a chimpanzee, a monkey and a mynah bird.
70 His golden palomino quarter horse, Rising Sun, is buried at
Graceland.
71 It's not clear where Scatter, Presley's pet chimp, is buried. Some
think the hard-drinking animal died of liver disease; others say he
was poisoned by a maid he had bitten.
72 Presley believed he would die in his 40s.
73
Presley's last words were, "OK, I won't," when he assured Ginger
Alden, his last girlfriend, he wouldn't fall asleep in the bathroom.
74 There were about 170 Presley impersonators when he died in 1977.
Today are 250,000.
75 The first
Elvis Sighting was in Kalamazoo
- a woman said she saw him at a Burger
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