He actually had a twin - one of the interesting facts about Elvis Presley. Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, at his parents' two-room home in East Tupelo, Mississippi, roughly 35 minutes after the stillbirth of his identical twin brother, Jesse Garon. Jesse was laid to rest the following day in an unmarked burial in the neighboring Priceville Cemetery.

Gladys - his mother was unable to conceive and have children after her painful birth. Because of this tragedy, the King endured suffering throughout his life. Jesse Garon's remains were never transported to Memphis. He remains placed in an unmarked cemetery in Tupelo to this day. In Graceland, he is commemorated by a gravestone, but not next to his mother, brother, grandma, or father.

The Presley family relocated to Memphis in 1948 to gain better opportunities. Elvis Presley attended Humes High School there, where he was regarded as shy and an oddball because he failed a music class. He was the first person in his immediate family to receive a high school diploma when he graduated in 1953. After he graduated, he worked at a machinist shop and drove a truck before stepping into his music career with the July 1954 recording of “That’s All Right.”

Elvis Presley paid $102,500 in 1957 to purchase Graceland, a mansion in Memphis that was his home base for 20 years. It was constructed in 1939 by Dr. Thomas Moore and his wife Ruth on land that had formerly been a portion of a 500-acre farm called Graceland in honor of the original owner's daughter, Grace, who happened to be Ruth Moore's great-aunt. The white-columned Moore family mansion also became known as Graceland, and Elvis remained the name when he bought the property.

Graceland is located at the top of a hill, surrounded by rolling fields and an oak tree forest. This Colonial Revival-style home has two stories and five bays. An additional one-story stuccoed wing that is attached to the main one was once used as a four-car garage. The mansion has two chimneys, one rising through the roof ridge on the south side and the other on the outer wall of the north side. The back wall of the center block is stuccoed, as are the one-story wings and its front and side facades are veneered with tan Tishomingo limestone from Mississippi.

The King had a long list of items that needed to be on hand "at all times, every day" at Graceland. His weekly spending on groceries was about $500, some of which are one case regular Pepsi, at least six cans of biscuits, ingredients for meatloaf and sauce, ice cream... Over the years, Elvis Presley made a lot of improvements to the house, such as installing iron entrance gates with music-themed designs, a "jungle room" with an indoor waterfall and a racquetball court, and built-in TVs.

Elvis's future manager, Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, who was born in the Netherlands in 1909, emigrated to America as a young man without authorization. There, he assumed the identity of Tom Parker and claimed to be from West Virginia. He began his career as a salesman for touring carnivals before working as a dog catcher and founding a pet cemetery, among other jobs. He then took charge of the careers of several country music performers. Parker obtained the honorary rank of colonel from the Louisiana governor in 1948 and insisted on using it going forward.

Parker first met Elvis Presley in 1955, and by 1956 and by 1956 had become his sole manager. Within a short period of time, he had helped him earn a recording deal with RCA Victor. Presley's first single, "Heartbreak Hotel," which was released in 1956 as a result of this contract, helped him break through commercially and propel him to stardom as one of the most well-known and financially successful entertainers in the world.

Parker was able to receive more than half of the company's profits, which is unusual for a music manager. He arranged for Presley's lucrative endorsement deals, TV shows, and acting roles. He had an impact on Elvis Presley's personal choices, such as his acceptance of military service in 1958 and his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967.

Elvis Presley served in the Army after he was already famous - one of the interesting facts about Elvis Presley. When being a well-known celebrity, he was enlisted in the American military in December 1957. The 23-year-old was enlisted into the Army as a private on March 24, 1958, in front of a lot of media attention, following a brief postponement to finish filming his movie "King Creole."

He went to basic training at Fort Hood in Texas and was assigned to the Second Armored Division. He was still working at Fort Hood in August when he was given an urgent leave to see his ailing mother. Elvis moved out the following month for a duty with the Third Armored Division in Friedberg, West Germany, where he worked as a jeep driver and was getting tons of fan mail.

Presley's life was greatly affected while he was serving. His mother Gladys Presley passed away at the age of 46 from a heart attack brought on by acute hepatitis and cirrhosis not long before he was scheduled to be stationed in Germany. He first met Priscilla Beaulieu when stationed in Friedberg, West Germany, where they would later get married. Due in part to his time spent in the army and his subsequent releases of ballads as opposed to his earlier rock and roll songs, Elvis Presley was able to gain a new fan base among an older age range after leaving the military.

The fact that the singer never played outside of the United States, with the exception of a few concerts he delivered in Canada in 1957 is one of the interesting facts about Elvis Presley. It is claimed that 40% of his album sales have occurred outside of the country. Throughout his remarkable career, Elvis only performed in three cities outside of the US, which are Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver - during brief tours to Canada in 1957. At the time, US citizens could enter the neighboring North American nation without needing a passport.

According to a number of accounts, Colonel Parker, Elvis' manager, declined lucrative offers for the singer to perform abroad because Parker, an undocumented immigrant, was concerned about being denied entry into the country if he went abroad.

Legendary live promoter Harvey Goldsmith tried for years to bring "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" from America to perform in Britain in front of his millions of fans. However, in a private meeting with Elvis' manager "Colonel" Tom Parker, he was told that Elvis Presley could not perform overseas because Parker, who was actually Dutch, didn't know if he'd be allowed back into the US if he left.

Colonel Parker negotiated a deal for Elvis Presley to make three appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for a big deal of $50,000 in the summer of 1956. Although Sullivan had earlier stated he wouldn't bring the famous singer on his family-friendly TV variety show, he changed his mind after rival Steve Allen invited Elvis to perform on his program in July 1956, which significantly hurt Sullivan's ratings. On September 9, 1956, 60 million people—more than 80% of the TV audience—watched when Elvis made his debut on Sullivan's show. (In actuality, Sullivan was unable to serve as the show's host because he had been hurt in a vehicle accident that August.)

In response to Elvis Presley's performance of his popular song "Hound Dog" during his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, aggressive crowds in St. Louis and Nashville burnt the singer in effigy. This is because, in the 1950s, rock and roll was coming under more and more criticism for its alleged detrimental impact on American youth. As a result, Elvis was the object of this fury.

In January 1957, the singer made his last performance on Sullivan's show. This time, network censors required that he be shot only from the waist up. Sullivan gave Elvis Presley a particular nod at the end of the broadcast despite this stipulation, calling him "a real lovely, fine boy" and saying that "we've never had a pleasanter time on our show with a huge star than we've had with you."

Elvis Presley only paid $55,000 for the enormous boat known as the Potomac in 1964. That equals just over $464,000 in today's currency. During his administration from 1936 to 1945, Franklin Roosevelt used the boat as his "floating White House." However, the yacht was shut down after his passing in 1945. Before Elvis Presley came into possession of the Potomac, it was owned by a number of different persons. The Potomac was built in 1934 and served as a U.S. Coast Guard cutter at first.

The vessel wasn't kept by Elvis for very long for his own amusement. He gave the yacht soon after buying it to Graceland and St. Jude's Children Hospital, both of which have their main offices in Memphis. Then, in an effort to raise money, the charity hospital sold the boat. Elvis Presley did several charity concerts in addition to giving away cash, jewels, cars, and other items to friends and complete strangers. In 1961, one such performance raised more than $50,000 for the Hawaii USS Arizona Memorial's completion.

The project's construction had started years earlier but stagnated because of a lack of funding. It was intended as a memorial to the more than 1,100 soldiers who died aboard the USA Arizona during the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. The memorial was dedicated the following year thanks in part to Elvis' concert, for which tickets cost anywhere from $3 to $100.

Beginning in 1969, the vocalist of "Viva Las Vegas" appeared twice nightly, seven days a week, in 636 sold-out performances at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. The appearances solidified a professional resurrection that had started with a 1968 NBC return special. The Beatles and other newer performers had taken over the pop charts from Elvis Presley and other early rockers in the early 1960s, but "The King" had returned.

Presley's performances at the International were "huge rock extravaganzas, not tiny nightclub, Frank Sinatra-Rat Pack-style shows. The showroom where it took place was twice as big as any other in Vegas. By today's standards, the theater in that showroom, which had 2,000 seats, was modest. The Park has 6,400 seats, the Colosseum has 4,300, and Zappo's has 7,000. Colonel Tom Parker, the King's controversial manager, was able to secure a cool million dollars for 57 performances in July and August at the International Hotel in Las Vegas.

The summer of 1969 marked the height of Elvis Presley's career. Elvis attempted to achieve greatness one last time with a frenzy of performances in Las Vegas. The King established his legacy in nearly flawless condition before the terrible effects of the 1970s set in.

Elvis Presley arranged a meeting with President Richard Nixon in 1970 despite being once considered a threat to American decency. Presley addressed the president while dressing in a striking purple velvet outfit and assured him, "I'm on your side". Elvis also received a commemorative badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs thanks to Nixon's arrangement, given that Elvis was a collector of police insignia.

He arrived with a letter explaining his motivations to the President. The 35-year-old singer wrote in the letter: "I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good.” He also noted that since young people see him as one of them, he is the ideal candidate to aid in the fight against illicit drugs.

In her memoir, Priscilla Presley, who was then Elvis Presley's wife, stated that "The badge represented some kind of ultimate power to him." The U.S. National Archives acknowledged in 2015 that there are more requests for copies of the image of Elvis and Nixon shaking hands than any other in its collection coming from the public.

Elvis Presley started learning karate while serving in the Army and was stationed in Germany. Since that, karate would become a lifelong interest for him. Juergen Seydel, a German shotokan stylist, is Elvis' first teacher and worked with him until 1958 at his off-base residence in Nauheim. The military offered thirty days of paid vacation (leave) every year, which was a good perk.

Tetsugio Murakami, one of Japan's best shotokan stylists, would teach him privately while he was on vacation in Paris. Tetsugio would later help establish shotokan in Europe. On one occasion, he studied with Murakami for nine days in a row for several hours each day. He also spent hours training with Rex Mansfield when he had plenty of free time.

In 1960, Elvis Presley met Ed Parker, the founder of American Kenpo, at the Wilshire Beverly Hills Hotel. Mr. Parker introduced Elvis to Hank Slomanski, an Instructor at Fort Campbell where Elvis was doing his black belt exam. On July 21, 1960, Hank elevated Elvis to "Black Belt" and personally gave Elvis his own Black belt when he promoted him. After receiving his seventh-degree black belt in 1972, he used his understanding of the fighting style to choreograph fight scenes in his films. Even at performances, he would display some of his moves on stage.