Elvis Presley's Memphis fills a massive entertainment complex on Beale Street, celebrating the life of the King of Rock and Roll. Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in a two-room house in Tupelo, Mississippi, that his father Vernon built for $180. The family moved to Memphis in 1948 when Elvis was thirteen, settling in public housing in the Lauderdale Courts.
He attended Humes High School, attended Black gospel and R&B churches and clubs whenever he could get in, and absorbed everything he heard. When Sam Phillips at Sun Studio combined that Black sound with country twang in Elvis's voice, the result was a fusion no one had heard before. By 1956, Elvis was the most famous person on the planet.
But Memphis always remained his home, his anchor, and the source of his musical imagination. This complex tells that story through artifacts, film, and memorabilia. It's a good place to remember that the man who changed music wasn't born a star — he was born to a family with no running water, in a town most people had never heard of.