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Elvis "birthplace" home in Tupelo, Mississippi gets a facelift. The most significant landmark of Tupelo's modern history is Elvis Presley's two-room house where he was born on January 8, 1935. The city is also home to the Tupelo Automobile Museum, Tupelo Buffalo Park, two area National Battlefield sites, the Oren Dunn City Museum and the Natchez Trace Parkway headquarters. Guests can also enjoy performing arts through ballet & art exhibitions.
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Gladys always believed Elvis was an identical twin
(his brother Jessie Garon
died at birth)
and raised Elvis to believe this as
well, which led him to comment throughout his life that he always
felt emptiness in his life where his brother should have been.
This trauma bonded Elvis and Gladys. Mother and son were devoted
to each another to the extreme. The Presleys were poor as any
white Southerners could be. Vernon worked as a sharecropper,
Gladys at the Tupelo Garment Co as a machine operator. Vernon was
not an ambitious man, considered lazy, and for a time spent 18
months at Parchman Penitentiary for cheque forgery.
Elvis
Presley birthplace: Tupelo was a dirt-poor town in the deep South.
The sharecroppers and laborers, whites and blacks alike, all
sought refuse from their misery through religion. It was in
church, Elvis first heard music, Gospel music, and this
Southern-style expression in song would remain the strongest
influence on Elvis' music till the very end. Although pitifully
poor, Elvis's mother saw to it that her only surviving child would
have the best of what little money could buy. For his 10th
birthday, she bought him a guitar. At first little Elvis objected
- he had wanted a cap gun. Maybe that's the reason in later life,
when money was no object Elvis had a fascination and collected
firearms. Later, with the help of uncle Vester, Elvis learned to
play the guitar, well enough to accompany himself singing OLD
SHEP. A family friend, Mississippi Slim, encouraged Elvis' guitar
playing by teaching him additional chords - sharps and flats.
According to Slim, Elvis was an attentive student, but was not a
quick
learner.
Tupelo's City Council
authorised improvements to
Elvis Presley birthplace
in Mississippi and agreed
to accept the work as a
donation to the city. The
proposed expansion of the
gift shop at the museum
and improvements to the
restrooms are expected to
cost $100,000.
It will cost
the city nothing as members of the
Elvis Presley birthplace board have guaranteed
repayment of a 10-year loan to cover the costs. The work will
involve extending the south end of the museum and gift center
20 feet. "The most pressing need ... is upgrading of the rest
rooms," admits Donna Kaye Randle, board secretary of the Elvis
Presley Memorial Foundation of Tupelo.
The changes would increase traffic through the gift shop, and
the additional space, a higher ceiling and more use of glass
should also enhance gift shop marketing, said Donna.
The Elvis Presley Foundation members
believe increasing visitation to the center will be based on
attracting more tour buses. The improvements will be needed to
accommodate such tours. As yet no date for completing of the
expansion has been set.
Name: Elvis Aron Presley: born in
Tupelo, Mississippi at 4:35 AM January 8, 1935
during The Great Depression. Times
were hard everywhere, but especially in the rural South. The
national average annual salary was $1,368 unemployment was 25%
Milk was 14cents a quart & bread 9cents a loaf. To escape the
dire circumstances people amused themselves with board games
like the new Parker Brothers game Monopoly, and by reading
mystery novels by such writers as Agatha Christie and
Raymond Chandler. Another pastime was listening to the
radio.
On the radio in the 1930's were comedians
Jack Benny, George Burns/Gracie Allen, and Fibber McGee and
Molly.
Dramatic radio serials
featuring The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet &The Shadow kept
listeners enthralled. The
music was that of the Big Bands were Benny Goodman, Duke
Ellington &Tommy Dorsey as well as the folk songs of
performers Woody Gutherie. George Gershwin, Cole Porter &
Irving Berlin were the songwriters of the time. Popular
Country singer Jimmie Rodgers had died in 1933. The "singing
cowboy" Gene Autry was making movies and Len Slye (later world
famous as cowboy star Roy Rogers) and the Sons of the Pioneers
were becoming well known.
 Tupelo,
Mississippi Elvis Presley's birthplace now
features a permanent reminder that the singer was
a kid before he was king. The 350-pound bronze
statue of a 13-year-old Elvis was unveiled to
coincide with the 67th anniversary of the singer's
birth.
Museum at Elvis Presley's birthplace in Tupelo,
Mississippi, reopened to the public on Monday 8
January 2007, on what would have been Elvis' 72nd
birthday. The museum's $250,000 renovation was
completed last week. The collection features
memorabilia given by Elvis to his personal friend,
Janelle
McComb The museum tells the story of Elvis's
childhood in Tupelo will be open for 7 days
The statue was
created by sculptor Michiel Van der Sommen, at a
cost $50,000, which was paid by the Tupelo
Visitors and Convention Bureau. Henry Dodge,
chairman of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation,
said the idea of portraying Elvis as a young
teen-ager was first suggested by a fan. "We chose
13 because that was the age his family left and
went to Memphis," Dodge said. "He lived here until
he was 13 and nobody can really take that from
us."
Dodge said the goal was to depict
Elvis in his "innocence and humbleness." The final
product depicts a boy who doesn't quite resemble
the face the whole world knows. The 13-year-old
dressed in overalls carries a guitar at his left
side with his right hand reaching forward.
Elvis First Guitar The Elvis
Presley Guided Tours lead to some of the most
significant locations of Elvis' life in Tupelo.
-
Assembly of God
- where Elvis and family attended church
under t Rev. Frank Smith
-
Lawhorn
Elementary School - the first school
Elvis attended
-
Johnnie's
Drive-In - where Elvis and friends
enjoyed cheeseburgers
-
Shakerag -
where Elvis gained influence from gospel and
blues music
-
Tupelo Fairgrounds - where Elvis
performed concerts in 1956 and 1957
-
Tupelo Hardware - where Elvis
bought his first guitar
-
Lee County
Courthouse - Elvis performed his first live
radio show hosted by Mississippi Slim
-
Mayhorn's Grocery
Store - where Elvis sat on the porch and
listen to blues and gospel music
-
Lee County
Library - where Elvis received his first
library card
-
Milam Jr. High - last school
Elvis attended before moving to Memphis.
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