20 Rare Elvis Presley Facts

Published May 20, 2023Updated November 29, 2024

Elvis Presley had an identical twin. Born 35 minutes before Elvis, Jesse Garon was stillborn and buried in an unmarked grave in Priceville Cemetery._[3]
Elvis' father, Vernon, forged a check for $4 and was sentenced to three years in prison. He served less than a year._[3]
Elvis Presley attended Humes High School, where he was considered to be a quiet outsider. He also failed a music class there._[3]
Elvis never toured outside the United States. His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was an illegal immigrant, and Parker was afraid that if he left the U.S., he would not be allowed back in._[6]

Elvis said his four favorite movies are Rebel Without a Cause (1955), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Dirty Harry (1971), and Bullitt (1968)

When Elvis was growing up, he didn't have electricity, an indoor bathroom, or running water._[1]
Presley is a distant relative of two former U.S. presidents, Abraham Lincoln and Jimmy Carter._[7]
Elvis' natural hair color was dark blond. He started dyeing his hair black with shoe polish when he was a teenager._[2]
Elvis was on the boxing team when he was a student at Humes High School._[3]
Presley was an avid gun collector. At the time of his death in 1977, he owned 37 firearms and one machine gun._[9]
When Elvis was 19 years old, he auditioned for a gospel quartet called Songfellows. He was rejected because they thought he couldn't harmonize well._[3]
Elvis Presley did not write any of his songs, including "Hound Dog, "Jailhouse Rock," or "Love Me Tender."_[8]
One of Elvis' nicknames was "Elvis the Pelvis" because he would gyrate his hips as he sang._[3]
Elvis Presley starred in over 30 movies._[3]
A Florida judge once called Elvis "savage" for "undermining the youth."_[3]
After his father finished his prison sentence for fraud, Elvis and his family joined a local church. It was there that Elvis first started singing._[1]
Elvis received his first guitar when he was 11 years old._[1]

Elvis bought Graceland on March 19, 1957, for $102,500. It has 23 rooms and 13.7 acres. It is named Graceland because it was originally a church

Elvis' Graceland mansion is the second-most visited house in America, after the White House._[1]
Elvis recorded his first song when he was 18 years old, as a birthday present for his mother. It cost him $4._[1]
During a performance of "Jailhouse Rock," Elvis accidentally swallowed one of the caps on his teeth. It lodged in his lung, and he underwent throat surgery to remove it._[5]
Elvis' most expensive and most iconic jumpsuit was called "The American Eagle," or the "Aloha." At the time, it cost $65,000. Today, it would cost four times that amount._[4]