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Elvis Presley's family moved to Memphis when he was 13. After working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver, he began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then signed with a local recording company, then in 1955 with RCA. He did much to establish early rock and roll music, bringing black blues singing into the white, teenage mainstream. Teenage girls became hysterical over his blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" (TV cameras were not permitted to film below his waist). When he died he had sold over 600-million singles and albums. The first of his 33 films was Love Me Tender (1956); critics blasted most of his films, but they did very well at the box-office earning upwards of 0 million. Military service in the late 1950s and the "British invasion" of the 1960s reduced his concerts, though not his movie/recording income. He made a comeback in the 1970s, but his increasing weight and dependence upon stimulants and depressants took their toll. Since his death his Memphis home Graceland has become a shrine for followers. Elvis impersonators and purported sightings have become stock subjects for humorists. |
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