Fearful of exposing her sole surviving child to danger, Gladys was quick to threaten physical punishment if he dared escape from her sight.Īn introverted Elvis reportedly had few close friends during his early years in East Tupelo, and teachers from that period largely remembered him as a "sweet and average" student. His twin brother, Jessie, was stillborn.Īccording to Peter Guralnick's Last Train To Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, there was no money to spare but plenty of affection showered on the boy by his parents, Vernon and Gladys, and the extended family who resided in the area. Where Did Elvis Spend His Childhood?Įlvis was born in January 1935, during the depths of the Great Depression, in East Tupelo, Mississippi, in a modest two-room "shotgun" shack that defined the humble circumstances of his early childhood. His charismatic showmanship rarely surfaced during a childhood marked by unpleasant bullying and a long-simmering desire to achieve musical fulfillment in the face of crippling shyness.
Yet, that carefully practiced stage presence was a 180-degree reversal from the Elvis who came of age in Mississippi and Tennessee. And it's hard to imagine that he was ever anything but one cool dude. It's easy to see how the Southern boy, his moves matched by a tender, yearning voice, became the "King" of popular entertainment. There's the perfectly coiffed pompadour and mesmerizing gaze, a gentle demeanor jolted by a sudden hip thrust before settling into an aw-shucks grin. Elvis dancing in a stylized prison uniform in a promotional portrait for director Richard Thorpe's film, 'Jailhouse Rock.' Getty Images / Michael Ochs Archives / StringerĪ peek at any of Elvis Presley's early television performances from the mid-1950s quickly reveals the magnetism that made audiences swoon.
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