Elvis Presley before he was famous

The nobody years

1. 

   1938 Parchman Farm, 1938

   His father got three years at Parchman Farm over an altered cheque.

   His father was sentenced to three years at Parchman Farm for altering a cheque he had been paid for a hog. Source

2. 

   1949-1953 Lauderdale Courts

   From thirteen he lived in Lauderdale Courts, Memphis public housing.

   Lived from the age of thirteen in Lauderdale Courts, a Memphis public housing project. Source

3. 

   1954 A dollar an hour

   He drove a delivery truck for Crown Electric, about a dollar hourly.

   Was turned down by the Songfellows, a Memphis gospel quartet, for not hearing harmony. Source

4. 

   1954 Rejected by the Songfellows

   A Memphis gospel quartet turned him down for not hearing harmony.

   Drove a delivery truck for Crown Electric in Memphis for about a dollar an hour. Source

5. 1935

   Was born in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi; his twin brother Jesse Garon was stillborn thirty-five minutes before him. Source

6. 1938

   The family lost their house while his father was in prison, and his mother moved them in with relatives. Source

7. 1939

   His father was released after a year, on good behaviour and a petition from local people. Source

8. 1946

   Asked for a rifle for his eleventh birthday and was given a guitar instead, bought for $7.75 at the Tupelo Hardware Store. Source

9. 1953

   Paid four dollars at the Memphis Recording Service to cut an acetate as a present for his mother. Source

10. 1953

    Asked at that session who he sounded like, he answered that he did not sound like anybody. Source

11. 1953

    The family had no record player, so the acetate he made for his mother went unheard. Source

Reconstructions of documented moments, generated with AI. Not archive photographs, and not depictions of real people. © The Nobody Years