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Graceland; Meditation Garden; Visitors
Here are some of the visitors to Graceland. You can tell it was a slow day when I went. They say that there are 700,000 visitors a year here.
There are actually four bronze markers there, not just his. They include one for his mother (Gladys) and one for his father (Vernon). There's also a marker but not one of the bronze stones for his stillborn twin (Jessie Garon); Elvis grew up an only child. Frankly, I don't remember who the fourth one was for. His dad (Vernon) remarried in July 1960; maybe it's his wife?
There wasn't anything for Colonel Parker, the promoter who took half of everything Elvis made, prevented him from touring abroad (except for five Canadian performances in 1957 in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver) because of secret questionable citizenship problems for Parker, and prevented him from performing before people like the President because the White House wasn't going to pay Parker's standard performance fee. Parker was signed as his manager on August 15 1955 and, despite many poor business decisions, was never replaced. Of course Parker had done well for the King, signing the agreement with RCA on November 20 1955 for the then unprecedented amount of $40,000.
Elvis' first gold record, "Heartbreak Hotel", would be recorded for RCA on January 10 1956 and be released on January 27. By the end of 1956, Elvis memorobilia has grossed $22 million in sales. In March 1957, Elvis bought Graceland for himself, his parents, and paternal grandmother. They moved in in April.
Gladys Presley died in August 1958, him coming back on emergency leave from the army because of her worsening condition. Elvis met 14-year-old Priscilla in Germany in November 1959 and married her in May 1967. Lisa Marie Presley was born nine months to the day of their marriage. Priscilla and Elvis separated in 1971 and Priscilla moved away with Lisa Marie in 1972. They formally divorced in 1973.
Parker and Elvis sold their rights to the existing RCA catalog in 1973. Elvis continued to tour through much of the 1970's, setting a single-performance record of 62,500 people in Pontiac Michigan in 1975. |