Elvis - Tupelo - childhood - Project Idea

Cheers

Gun or Guitar, Gun or Guitar - I think mom made the correct choice!

May 24, 2011

I'm so glad they talked him into the guitar instead of the gun!!so interesting the way they worked out the "life size" for the statue!

May 23, 2011

Sure is a great sculptor.

May 23, 2011

Elvis - Tupelo - childhood

Journaling on this page:

Upper right journaling next to the church: While in Tupelo, Elvis attended the Assembly of God Church with his family. It was here that he was first exposed to the gospel music that influenced this musical style throughout his career.

The actual building where the Presley family attended church services has been moved to the Elvis Presley Birthplace Complex.

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The Park also features a Memorial Chapel which was built in 1979. It draws wedding couples from all over the world. The room holds approximately 50 and features vibrant stained glass windows as Elvis singing gospel music plays in the background. Elvis' Memorial Chapel and Elvis' boyhood church are both located in the park but are two very separate structures. I did not take a photograph of the chapel.

Lower Left journaling: In 1946 Elvis and his mother went to Tupelo Hardware where Elvis wanted to purchase a .22 caliber rifle. Although pitifully poor, Elvis's mother saw to it that her only surviving child would have the best of what little money could buy. For his 10th birthday, she bought him a guitar. At first little Elvis objected; he wanted the gun. Gladys persuaded Elvis to look at a guitar which store employees allowed him to try out. Elvis decided that he wanted the guitar, which his mother purchased for him, and his pastor taught him how to play it.

According to the Assembly of God minister, Brother Frank Smith, Elvis was fascinated with music and the prospect of learning to play the guitar. Brother Frank taught Elvis how to make D. A. and E chords... all he needed to play “Old Shep”.

Later a family friend, Mississippi Slim, encouraged Elvis' guitar playing by teaching him additional chords - sharps and flats. According to Slim, Elvis was an attentive student, but was not a quick learner.

When he was ten years old he made his first public radio broadcast when he stood on a chair and sang “Old Shep” in a youth talent contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show at the Tupelo Fairgrounds. WELO Radio broadcast the talent show and Elvis won the second place prize of $5.00 and free admission to all the fair rides.

Journaling in lower center next to the statue: At the suggestion of an Elvis fan from Ireland, the Elvis Presley Foundation commissioned an impressionistic bronze likeness of Elvis at age 13 to be displayed at the Elvis Presley Birthplace Park. Elvis is portrayed in oversized overalls, a full open-collar shirt and plain shoes as evidence of the poverty and humbleness of those early years.

The statue is life-size and displayed at ground level so that fans can more directly relate to Elvis as a person. The sculptor worked from photographs; his height was calculated from a sixth grade class picture by comparing him to the height of another classmate in the picture and by measuring the brick and mortar in the background wall.