Elvis Presley: From Tupelo to Graceland

Elvis Aaron Presley was born here on 8 January 1935, the start of every Elvis trail. The family was poor: in 1938 they lost their home after his father Vernon was jailed for altering a check. The preserved shotgun house is the heart of a small museum site that also holds a chapel and the Assembly of God church building where the family worshipped. Start here to see how modest the beginning was.

Para el visitante: The Elvis Presley Birthplace museum site in Tupelo, Mississippi, includes the house, museum, chapel and church.

In November 1948 the family moved to Memphis, and Elvis enrolled at L. C. Humes High School. In the school's 1953 Minstrel show, he won the crowd over and became popular almost overnight. He graduated in June 1953 having decided that music was his future. The building is now a middle school, Humes Preparatory Academy.

As a teenager Elvis headed down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis' blues scene, and admired the wild, flashy clothes at Lansky Brothers. Beale Street's music inspired him. The pin marks the street in general rather than one shop, because the sources do not give a single address for his visits.

Precisión del lugar: The sources name the street and the clothing shop but no exact spot; the pin marks Beale Street.

Para el visitante: Beale Street runs through downtown Memphis.

In August 1953 Elvis walked into Sun to pay for a record. A year later, on the evening of 5 July 1954, a session went nowhere until late at night, when Elvis launched into Arthur Crudup's 1946 blues number "That's All Right". The recording launched his career. The studio was converted back into a recording studio in 1987 and is now a tourist attraction.

Para el visitante: Sun Studio at 706 Union Avenue is open to visitors as a tourist attraction.

On 30 July 1954 Elvis gave his first paid concert here, opening for headliner Slim Whitman in what music historians call the first rock and roll show. Nervous and responding to the rhythm, he shook his legs, his wide-cut pants emphasised the movement, and young women in the audience started screaming. It was the first appearance of his signature "rubber legs". The open-air amphitheater in Overton Park is now known as the Levitt Shell.

Para el visitante: The Overton Park Shell is an open-air amphitheater and museum in Overton Park, Memphis.

Fans crowding his earlier house pushed Elvis to look for property with buffer space, and on 19 March 1957 he bought Graceland for $102,500. He lived here until he died on 16 August 1977 at age 42. He is buried with his parents in the Meditation Garden next to the mansion, which visitors can see on a mansion tour. The estate opened to the public on 7 June 1982.

Para el visitante: Graceland offers mansion tours and the Meditation Garden with Elvis's grave.