Crazy facts about Elvis

Elvis regularly attended autopsies to overcome his fear of blood. Always interested in death, towards the end of his life he began to go to mortuaries and actually practised embalming. According to Billy stanley, his stepbrother, "he called death the best thing that could happen to you."

Elvis once had a turkey named Bow Tie

The Elvis Impersonator's association, based in Aurora, Illinois, is dedicated to maintaining "standards for those who continue Elvis' creative and continuing art form". Each member has to take the following oath:

"I have an obligation to all associations, groups and businesses who purchase my entertainment services to provide those services in a professional and ethical manner.

I have an obligation as an Elvis performer, through all my personal business and social contracts, to be conscious of my image and what I represent and to conduct myself accordingly.

I will provide leadership and direction in continuing the music and style of Elvis, while lending strength and direction to the growth of the activity as a great world-class entertainment medium."

Vernon Presley once told his son: "You better make up your mind whether you want to be a guitar player or an electrician - because I never saw a guitar player that was worth a damn..."

A favourite Elvis hobby was sitting on a bulldozer and smashing down buildings. He used to do so anonymously on building sites, often wearing disguise so even the workers did not recognise him.

During his first few nights in an army bunk, Elvis slept with his teddy bear clutched close, a major US newspaper reported in 1958. "The incident caused such a furore around the camp, that the commanding officer had to order Elvis to do away with his furry friend."

London researchers claimed in May 1958 that Elvis Presley fans received lower school marks than the fans of singers Pat Boone, Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. "The youth organisation that has been investigating young fans adds that Presley's admirers do not seem to be keen on joining clubs or churches - and few of them are concerned about the future," said a news report.

Elvis always kept at least a million dollars in his cheque account just in case he wanted to write out a cheque to buy something.

When Elvis was appointed a US Federal narcotics agent, the emotional Presley was so overwhelmed at getting his own genuine, gold-plated badge that tears sprang to his eyes and he grabbed President Nixon in a Hollywood bear hug", reported columnist Jack Anderson. Elvis also had a gold belt buckle shaped like his deputy sheriff's star and encrusted with diamonds.

Elvis had 16 TV sets scattered throughout Graceland. There was one in each room, two in the kitchen and three in the basement. He had two sets embedded in the ceiling above his huge bed.

Elvis had a habit of ordering two pairs of trousers with every suit, because earlier in his career he often split and tore his trousers while performing.

The king hated the expression "Elvis the Pelvis". Shortly after the term was first used, he said: "I mean, it's one of the most childish expressions I have ever heard coming from an adult."

"I was never too smart readin' books," Elvis confessed in a 1971 interview about his childhood. "One of the few we had at our house was "how to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie, which turned out to be one of the best things that happened to me. I went back to it for years when I had a problem. If you believe that book, and everyone will who reads it, we're all trying to do somethingin life to make ourselves feel more important."

Elvis liked dressing up as an Arab sheikh, he even wore his costume in "Harum Scarum" home to Graceland after each day's filming.

Communist East Germany declared Elvis "Public Enemy No.1" of its country's teenagers in November 1959. A newspaper said: "schoolteachers have been ordered to report children who listen to Presley broadcasts and play forbidden Presley records." Fifteen Elvis supporters were jailed for between six months and four and a half years for staging a pro-Presley march in Leipzig that month. Editorialised East Germany's youth newspaper in 1958, while Presley was in the army: "the 23 year old star Presley is no artist and enjoys only limited brain power." It added that "people who believe in atomic war as the final solution for all political problems" were parading Elvis as a prominent personality.

Throughout his live Elvis loved pillow fights, with teenage girls. And at graceland, he loved putting on scubadiving gear, then sitting at the bottom of the pool watching pretty girls in skimpy bikinis swim around him.

Elvis once had a Cadillac covered with 40 coats of paint containing crushed diamonds and oriental fish scales. The ceiling was covered with gold records, and the inside with gold plated gadgets.

Elvis rarely took a bath or a shower. Priscilla once surprised Elvis by installing 3 spray nozzles in his shower so his entire body could be sprayed simultaneously.

Elvis wore a Star of David around his neck for several years before his death. He told friends: "I wouldn't want to be kept out of heaven on a technicality."

In 1978 the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York City held an exhibition of four life size Elvis dummies, draped in traditional, sequined Elvis finery. The dummies were so authentic they even perspired. Fans paid 5 to 10 dollars per person to see them and the show made a fortune.

"Who are they?" asked Elvis when told the Rolling Stones, already a famous rock group, wanted to meet him.

Elvis wanted to be a famous football star, but was thrown out of the high school team because he refused to have a haircut.

Women's feet fascinated the King. "The minute I see a woman's feet," he often said, "I know if I like her or not."

Jailhouse rock was bannen in many towns throughout Britain after being slammed as "sex crazed and disgusting" by British film critics. London critics described the film as "an unsavoury, nauseating and muddy brew of deliquency, bad taste and violence". In Australia, church leaders and psychiatrists also wanted the film banned.

Roman Catholics who had succumbed to Elvis Presley should pray for themselves, said the official Catholic organ in australia, Southern Cross, in June 1958. "They should pray for the wisdom to seek the better gifts and not to saturate themselves with the second best... Presley sends many young catholics, yet they know he is a kind of patron saint of larrikin groups."
The paper also recommended prayers for Presley "that he may be a good, humble reverent man and save his soul".

A Miss Robbie Moore was awarded 5500 dollars in an out of court settlement with Elvis in September 1956. Miss Moore, then a 20 year old Memphis telephone operator, had accused Elvis of invading het privacy, and of assault and battery. The assault? Elvis had seized the sandwich she was eating in a cafe and ate most of it.
The invasion of privacy? Uninvited, Elvis had laid his head on her shoulder. She sued when the photo of the incident was published in a fan magazine.

When Elvis appeared at a casino in Las Vegas, so many women threw their undies at him that the ladies' room started to stock panties and other underwear.