(Movie)
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley, nicknamed "The King" (Jan. 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi - August 16, 1977 in Memphis, Tennessee) was a singer and an actor. His influence on the musical culture is global.
During his lifetime, Elvis has sold around 700 million records, has played in 31 films, given 1054 concerts in the United States and three in Canada, gave 525 performances in Las Vegas [1]. He was the first artist to give a concert via satellite. The concert took place on January 14, 1973 in Hawaii and was simultaneously watched by a billion viewers in 43 countries. It appeared in seven television shows. At his death, his personal fortune amounted to USD 100 million.
It is undoubtedly the solo artist who has sold the most records in the world while he was alive but also after his death because nothing of her disappearance in 1977 until 1980, it has sold 400 million records' Elvis. During these four years, it was the artist who died reported the most money.
According to the American magazine Forbes, in 2007, Elvis tops the list of public figures who died the richest in the world with 49 million, 34 million, before John Lennon and Charles Schultz, American cartoonist. He had already reached this place in 2005.
Childhood and early music
Born on January 8, 1935 in a poor family in Tupelo in Mississippi, Elvis Aaron Presley [2] is the only son of Gladys Love Smith and Vernon Elvis Presley. He has a twin brother stillborn, Jesse Garon Presley. He grew up in Tupelo until the age of thirteen. His mother works as qu'ouvrière in a clothes factory and his father in a grocery store, but in great financial difficulty, moved to Memphis, the largest city in Tennessee. Living in a one-bedroom social, Gladys makes household and works the night in a hospital, Vernon works here and there. Soon, Elvis also works: mowing lawns, washing cars and selling ice-cream cones outside the school. After high school, he quickly found a job in a company tool, but dreaming of driving a truck, he finally found a job at the Crown Electric Company as a delivery driver, a job that suits him. Amateur black music, as well as gospel and blues, Elvis decides to perform this music, and during the summer of 1953, opens the door of a small recording studio specializing in black music, the Sun Studio Records in Memphis. Received by the secretary Marion Keisker, he recorded at his own expense, two recordings, My Happiness and That's When Your Heartaches Begin and departs with the disk in hand to offer it to his mother, his sole motivation for the recording. Keisker, who knows that his boss Sam Phillips is looking for young singers, note the phone number of young Elvis. Although it is a bizarre style, it recognizes some beautiful voice. It notes on its "detailed EP voice to listen, good ballad singer."
When it speaks to Phillips, it again Elvis for a trial. The phone just hung up, Elvis is in the studio before Phillips. After several tests inconclusive, Sam Phillips is nevertheless impressed by the great memory of the young man "at the tail duck," he will say later in this regard "It was incredible, Elvis knew by heart all the songs that I was talking to him . If his voice was often not fair, on the other hand I must say that she had a particular pace. Unfortunately, I did not have time to teach him to put his voice, but Elvis was tenacious and I permettais him to return the next day. "
Phillips asked a musical group to be present at a new hearing to support musically Elvis: Scotty Moore on guitar and Bill Black on bass. If Moore is more or less impressed, Black is even less [3]. On July 5, they are in the studio. While nothing suitable comes out, and Phillips, very disappointed, preparing to close the studio, Elvis starts to begin the first notes of an old song, That's All Right Mama Arthur Crudup. Here is the commentary Phillips:
"What had been done with Elvis That's All Right immediately gave me goosebumps. I knew we wanted something. It was not the song itself, but what was Elvis, the song was originally a blues, Elvis has turned into rock and roll. I can tell you that for me it was a shock. I decided that he should save it. This was his first real success in Memphis.
Musical Career
Elvis recorded five 45 laps for Sun Records and Phillips sent on tour in the southern United States. The debut on the stage of the future "King" of rock and roll are quite awkward, but certainly not shy. Shots sudden Basin young man, a provocative innovation for the time, earned him the nickname of "Pelvis" and boost its reputation.
While young Elvis immediately recognize one of their own, this is not the same for their parents who, outraged at the déhanchements increasingly suggestive of Elvis, seek to enjoin. As a result, some of his concerts will simply be cancelled and its discs burned in public. Elvis leaves no one indifferent if it annoys the American Puritan, he became an idol to millions of young adolescents. In Florida, when the young star was preparing to go on stage in front of 22000 fans delirious, they warned that the police are present in the room to film his famous déhanchements. Elvis then decides not to move his little finger during the entire duration of the concert, and the hysteria was at its peak. The last of its five 45 laps, I Forgot to Remember to Forget, accompanied by Mystery Train, reached ranked sales of singles.
At that time, Elvis continues to occur in the south and south-west. In particular, it is now 50 times the issuance regional Louisiana Hayride. The founder and producer of Hayride, Horace Logan, has indeed good idea to sign Elvis for a weekly occurrence, although it is still little known. At the last Elvis participation in this program, Logan announced qu'Elvis left the building in order to calm the teenagers who try to see the star after the show. He did not know that this sentence will become a ritual celebrated at the end of each concert: "Elvis has left the building. "(The famous sentence will be taken over by Al Dvorin in the 1970's.).
Elvis, which is famous in the south and southwestern United States, meets at the end of a concert a man who is vaguely impresario, but better known as qu'aboyeur circus. Thomas Andrew Parker, "said the colonel," is a man who does not fear. There was a time impresario of young singer Eddy Arnold, but it is with Elvis that he would place at the top of his profession in the "show business". He signed in 1955 an exclusive contract with Elvis in twenty years, with the key 15% of all revenues of Presley. (In the 1970's, that percentage has increased to 50%). The "colonel" impressive Elvis, a man who authoritarian and nothing escapes. Did he not say to Elvis for the approach: "Young man, for the moment you worth a million dollars, you will soon counting? These are the phrases that impress the young Elvis who dreams of success and as much as $ Parker himself. This duo atypical changes the world of show business. Elvis, with his first look young, which will become the biggest sex symbol of history, knows how to attract the crowds on stage with his voice, his facial expressions, his dance steps osés and his sense of humour. As for Parker, he has the business acumen and organizes the King's career as a real show: tubes, movies, products, posters, photos ... The world of music was so transformed forever because many of his techniques have been used by other artists. However, even if their collaboration is very fruitful, Elvis is not the colonel in his heart and soon began to hate. His manager abused his trust, taking advantage of his popularity to enrich itself. It does suggest that commercial films, poorly made or musicals little interest while Elvis' dream is to become a major player and embody dramatic roles. In addition, Elvis never did digèrera that Parker did everything to send to military service when he knew very well that this would put a brake on his career. This event deeply the perturba especially since his mother died some time later.
When the contract comes into force, Parker offers three gift Presley. The first is a contract with the most powerful home record in the world, the RCA. She is the one who will build on Elvis and to advance the millions of dollars needed for a global expansion. The second is a first gold disc with Heartbreak Hotel, Elvis was just twenty years. The third and final gift to the young singer is arriving on the small screen million viewers. That evening, the broadcast reached a record audience of more than fifty million viewers, which represents more than 80% audience share. During his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show (Oct. 28 this year), he dyed his hair black, whereas they were previously light brown. The "King of rock and roll" has been born.
If these television appearances delight youth, adults, they admonish and condemn the holding of the "King". His déhanchements lascivious and / or sudden shock America, moralistic and self-righteous want to ban Elvis on television. Accordingly, if Elvis will never be banned antenna, but the filmmakers have no instructions from the film star and above the waist. Thus qu'Elvis interprets his greatest hits from the mid-1950: Heartbreak Hotel, Blue Suede Shoes, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You, Do not Be Cruel, and very suggestive Hound Dog ( ie "hound").
Along with television, Elvis continued his concert tours soon become a kind of carnival, fair dangerously uncontrollable. The star performing before huge crowds, arriving in Cadillac and surprotégé rose by a swarm of policemen, America wants to see and touch this young singer became in less than a year an idol for his children. The year 1956 ended on a high note, Elvis landed his 48th Gold record of the year, it is undergoing a genuine reverence hysterical and said the tax no less than 22 million USD in revenue.
Pursued day and night by his admirers, Elvis finally take refuge behind the walls of a fortress. It opens on March 19, 1957 to 120,500 USD a large house on Highway 51 South in Memphis (name changed Boulevard on Jan. 19, 1972-in Elvis Presley Boulevard). Dubbed Graceland, it has twenty-four rooms on a plot of thirteen acres. Immediately, Elvis invests half a million USD in work to make Graceland his kingdom and installs his mother, his father, his uncles and aunts, his cousins and a group of friends or former classmates who become gardeners, drivers or accountants for the show. At that time, it is considered the biggest star of rock and roll.
On Jan. 20, 1958, Presley received a letter from the U.S. Army, which means that he must perform his military service for two years. He was assigned to Germany, where he will lead a jeep for Sergeant Ira Jones (which will relate their relationship in a book). His service was suspended on March 5, 1960. He lives in Bad Nauheim during his military service, which is done at Ray Barracks in Friedberg. Since then, many have questioned the legitimacy of this mobilization, while it was in times of peace and qu'Elvis was the sole support of his parents and his grandmother. Some believe that the purpose of this action was to protect American youth from the influence of the singer.
It is shortly before his departure for Germany, while it is still in Texas to attend classes, his mother died suddenly at the age of 46. Elvis, who loved his mother, will never really recover. Much later, John Lennon would say: "Elvis died the day he joined the army, but we can also say that Elvis died the day her mother died. The young man will never be the same, and the joy that accompanied it will leave.
The years in the army are dark years for Elvis. In a foreign country, far from his friends and admirers, Elvis depression. Although it is as famous as his country, he hardly ever comes out. It was during an evening at his master that he met a young girl of 14 years, Priscilla Beaulieu. He falls in love and decides to host even at Graceland from 1962. Finally, Elvis's wife in Las Vegas in 1967. Both have green eyes. It was also in Germany that his father joined him, met his future second wife, Dee Stanley.
When demobilized, the "show business" is waiting for Elvis and resumed the course of his career.
Presley is very religious and he has recorded many albums of gospel. The three Grammy Awards he receives it all awarded for gospel songs. He does not like the title "The King", because according to him, the only "King" on earth is Jesus.
Careers in film
In 1956, Hollywood is interested in him. His first appearance on screen as an actor is surprising. In the beginning, it should not be a song, but the producers added four and The Reno Brother's (original title) was renamed Love Me Tender, the title of his latest success. The film talks about the Civil War and is frowned upon by the admirers of Elvis that outraged to see their idol rock in a pale western.
Nevertheless, the film is a huge success. The next film, made for Elvis, is Loving You, the title of his latest success. The idol practically plays its own role, that of a small singer who becomes a superstar thanks to the work and a manager affairiste. Loving You get a huge success and Elvis became a film star. His third film is the archetype of the violent film. Elvis plays an employee who loves to sing. But, following a fight, he kills a guy and was sent to prison. There, he began to sing and became the darling of his co-detainees. Liberated, he became a star before knowing the horrors of celebrity. The film is called Jailhouse Rock, also the title of his latest success. Jailhouse Rock lack of depth, and shows a superficial character, but won a resounding success with youth.
His last film before he parte for the army will be regarded as his best. This is King Creole. The scenario was planned for James Dean and the character moves from the singer boxer. Once again, Elvis interprets a simple boy who gets off with the song.
Starting in 1960, upon his return from the army, Elvis abandons his career as a singer and withdraws from the stage to dedicate himself to Hollywood. Of these many years (nine years), only a few films on 27 worth noting: Flaming Star (1960), Blue Hawaii (1961), Fun in Acapulco (1962) with Ursula Andress, Viva Las Vegas (1964) with Ann - Margret and Charro (1969).
All these productions have only one purpose: to distribute Elvis in the world without the star did need to travel. The success is phenomenal, but over the years, the magic is lost and Elvis movies become caricatures. His only discs from soundtracks of the films are also falling and Elvis meets with more success he had before. The world has changed and new singers and groups have emerged, and to look good, Elvis agrees to meet the Beatles at his home on Aug. 27, 1965, at her home in Bel Air, California.
More than ever in isolated houses for billionaires from Beverly Hills, Elvis no longer has any contact with the outside world. Surrounded day and night by the same people since its inception (the "Memphis Mafia"), he no longer appears to be in a position to judge his career. The stunning career if King disaster in the dark and the image of Elvis becomes ridiculous.
In 1966, his film production birth of turnips, all unhealthy one more than the other, to the point that even the most loyal fans are turning their idol. Each new film is then welcomed into icy indifference and revenues are no longer remarkable. The period from 1963 to 1968 was marked by a profound crisis in the career of Elvis, but also in his personal life. Although he had always taken drugs such as amphetamines to withstand the pressure and be at the top on stage, it increases its regular consumption of stamps and began to take stamps, which are prescribed only in extreme cases: amytal , quaalude, dexedrine, biphétamine, percodan, dilaudid ... All these drugs cause hallucinations, sentiments, blurred vision, speech, concentration ... Elvis then consumed by 2 to 3 times a week. This addiction to drugs surely explained by the fact that the King was at the lowest of his career. He hated deeply films that forced her to turn thinking that the writers did not exploit all of his talents Thursday His drives were also taken directly from his films no longer corresponded to what he wanted to do. Although qu'entourés a crowd of friends, nobody could understand what he was feeling: an artist once adulated by millions of people throughout the world, but who was now "has been". He began to doubt his own ability as a singer and soon turned into spiritualime to find answers to his questions. In 1964, he had an eye when he met Larry Geller, a hairdresser, who had read books on philosophy, religion :'... Larry, I do not believe it. I mean, what you're talking about is what I secretly think about all the time ... There has to be a purpose ... There's got to be a reason ... Why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley. "[112]," Larry, I can not believe this. I mean, anything that you tell me that's what I think all the time in secret. There must be a purpose. There must be a reason why I was chosen to be Elvis Presley. "Very anxious, he read tons of books about the meaning of life such as The Voice of Silence, Tibetan Book of the Dead, The Wisdom of and the Overself The Impersonal Life took it everywhere and considered his book bedside. Geller becomes his only real confidant and the star told him all his troubles: "I swear to God, no one knows how lonely I get and how I really feel empty. "[113]" I swear before God that nobody knows how I am alone and how I feel empty. "
When his contract film ends in 1969, Elvis, tired and criticized, decided to put an end to his career in Hollywood.
Death tragic
His death was caused by abuse of drugs (cortisone, powerful sleeping pills in the evening when energising the morning). It is believed that he was suffering from a rare and incurable: Lupus Erythémateux. Elvis was 1.83 m (6'00) and weighed 102 kilograms (224 pounds).
On August 15, 1977, Elvis rented for the evening Theatre Memphis Ridgeway. The latest film is watching qu'Elvis MacArthur. A few hours later, he went to the dentist Lester Hofman, because he had an appointment for 22 h 30 (rumours indicate that it provides a dangerous dose of analgesics). He returned to Graceland to 00 h 30, August 16. That's when the last picture of Elvis alive was taken by Sir Robert Call, of Pierceton, Indiana, through an Instamatic camera. On August 16, 1977 at 1 h 30, Elvis called Dick Grob, the head of security for Graceland, so that it prepares sheet music for a possible inclusion in its new tour. Thereafter, Elvis drew his favorite nurse, Marian Cocke, to the welcome before going on tour. Elvis would begin a new tour of 14 sold-out concerts which was to begin on August 17, 1977, in Hartford, Connecticut. During the night, Elvis plays racquetball (in a building on the grounds of Graceland) with his cousin Billy Smith and his wife Jo, and his girlfriend Ginger Alden. At its last night, Elvis plays the piano in front of Ginger Alden, near the short racket, and he sings the song Blue Eyes Crying in the rain Willie Nelson. This was the last interpretation of its existence.
Having absorbed sleeping pills (according to his companion Ginger Alden, he slept very late, around 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning of August 16), in the middle of the afternoon, Elvis was found dead in her bathroom by Ginger Alden. Al Strada in turn contacted Joe Esposito. The latter, along with Delta Aunt Mae Presley, allegedly practiced mouth-to-mouth on Elvis to try to revive. His daughter Lisa Marie, then eight years old, and that day stayed with him, will be witness to the scene. Called to the scene, two paramedics come to Memphis 40 minutes later to the rescue. It is too late, Elvis died of a crisis of arrhythmia. Attempts at resuscitation at the hospital in Memphis were unsuccessful. At one point, a thin ray of hope showed a sign of life, but too weak to revive him completely. Elvis had several health problems since 1974. He suffered particularly from a weight problem, glaucoma, a problem with the intestines (chronic constipation) and a serious addiction to drugs that his personal physician, Dr. George Nichopoulos Constantine, it prescribes. It will be suspected of serious professional misconduct by having fostered by abuse of the many requirements overdoses of drugs which he was injured during the last decade of his life, and presume that will leave a final fatal overdose. He was removed from the doctors. Some people in his entourage, including soprano Kathy Westmoreland, persist in saying that it would have been a bone cancer. That argument was supported by his friend Charlie Hodge. However, nothing is official. This is a rumor and the disease can can justify his death. It seems that his heart problem may have been genetic. His father and his uncle Vernon Vester died of a heart attack. During the autopsy, médécins have found that the left side of his heart, Elvis was twice as big as normal. They found ten drugs in his blood system.
One of the recent theories of the most interesting on the limited attention qu'Elvis lent to his physical health during the last decade of his life (apart from the infernal pace of touring that he subjected her to his insatiable officer Colonel Tom Parker), is that his guru-and close friend Jerry Schilling (author of Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley, published in 2005) gradually convinced of its quasi-immortality, or at least that he had a divine essence that its existence could not be dissolved in any way affect. Elvis was in a depression. He sang the same songs he interpreted several times during his tours. In the mid-1970's. He also had financial problems, but his shot enabled him to be in monetary bail. Upon his death, he had only 5 million in the bank. Since his childhood, Elvis was a member of the Pentecostal church "Assembly of God Church, a Protestant evangelical movement. Without being hungry for spirituality and wondering about the meaning of his life (he even wondered about its possible Jewish ancestry), it would come to take for granted the theories and Buddhist spiritual thinkers such as Khalil Gibran, Krishnamurti , Helena Blavatsky, Berkeley, advocating that only the mind exists, and that the true reality is immaterial. Larry Geller, her hairdresser and a personal friend, regularly brought him books about spirituality and the various religions. A few hours before his death, Elvis read a book on the Shroud of Turin qut was found near him.
The greatest voice of America (as John Lennon) died and his untimely death will be the effect of a first bomb in the United States and throughout the world. We speak with overdose, murder, death and even disguised false death after honoured during a funeral worthy of a head of state, after his body showed surprisingly rejuvenated the crowds, and after Royal walked his remains in a silver hearse flanked by six riders of the Republican Guard along the boulevard, on Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis.
The "King" is based at Graceland in the middle of his own, his mother Gladys died in 1958, his father Vernon died in 1979 and his grandmother Minnie My deceased-the last in 1980. His area is visited by more than 600000 people each year.
How to bury a living god? How the greatest voices of America could she simply disappear? Among the founding myths of American contemporary of Elvis's death will rapidly among conspiracy theories, such as John Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. Statistically, in 2005, 24% of Americans surveyed on the question in a poll in USA Today felt qu'Elvis was probably not dead. The vast cult of personality that will ensue and the persistent influence on the music of the 2000 somehow prove his immortality. This sacralization, managed by his former wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie, now relates huge dividends: Elvis Presley Entertainment, which manages, among dozens of derivatives, the mausoleum has become picturesque said Graceland in 2007 income posthumous largest (nearly 280 million US) awarded to an artist since his disappearance. And Graceland remains between the Capitol, the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty, one of the attractions visited most often of America, the historical monument's most visited after the White House. Beyond the King's death is still ... The King.
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