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Elvis Presley was the first real rock and roll star. A white southerner who singing blues laced with country
and country tinged with gospel, Presley brought together music from both sides of the color line. Presley performed this music
with a natural hip swiveling sexuality that made him a teen idol and a role model for generations of cool rebels. Presley
was repeatedly dismissed as vulgar, incompetent and a bad influence. However the force of his music and image signaled to
the mainstream culture it was time for a change.
Entering the fifth grade, Presley is asked by his teacher, Mrs. J.C. Grimes to enter a talent contest on children's day
at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. At the age of ten , dressed in a cowboy suit, and standing on a chair to reach
the microphone, Presley for his rendition of Red Foley's "Old Shep" won second place, a $5 prize and a free ticket to all
the rides. On his birthday the following January he received a guitar. Over the next year,Vernon's brother Vester gives him
basic guitar lessons
In his senior year Presley gets his first car, a 1942 Lincoln Zephyr, from Vernon. At eighteen majoring in Shop, History,
and English he graduates from Humes High in 1953.
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In 1948 after losing another job Vernon moved the family to Memphis. Glady's brothers get him a job at the Precision
Tool Company and the Presleys moved into a small apartment at 572 Poplar Avenue. On September 13 Elvis enrolls at L.C. Humes
High School.
Starting his sophomore year Presley works in the school library and after school at Loew's State Theatre. In 1951, his
receives his first driver's license, joins the ROTC unit at Humes High, tries out for the football team (he's cut by the coach
when he won;t trim his sideburns and ducktail), and in his spare time hanging around the black section of town, especially
on Beale Street.
The day after graduation he took a job at Parker Machinists Shop. By June was working at the Precision Tool
Company and then drove truck for the Crown Electric Co. After a short time in the stock room he is promoted to truck and began
to wear his long hair pompadoured, the current truck driver style. That summer he recorded "My Happiness" and "That's When
the Your Heartaches Begin" at Memphis Recording Studios, a sideline Sam Phillips had started at his Sun Records studios
where anyone could record a ten inch acetate for four dollars
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