My family moved to Memphis when I was 13. After working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver, I began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then I was signed with a local recording company, then in 1955 with RCA. I did much to establish early rock and roll music, bringing black blues singing into the white, teenage mainstream. Teenage girls became hysterical over my blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got me the nicknamed "Elvis the Pelvis" (TV cameras were not permitted to film below my waist haha). I have sold over 600-million singles and albums. The first of my 33 films was Love Me Tender (1956); critics blasted most of my films, but they did very well at the box-office earning upwards of $150 million. Military service in the late 1950s and the "British invasion" of the 1960s reduced my concerts, though not my movie/recording income. I made a comeback in the 1970s, but my increasing weight and dependence upon stimulants and depressants took their toll. And here I am today, live and well...
