Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was a legend in rock and roll in life. He still is the king of rock and roll even in death. He was born on January 8 1935 in Mississippi in 1948 his family moved to Memphis Tennessee, where he graduated high school from Humes High School. He was attracted to music at a young age and began his music career in 1954 with Sun Records label in Memphis. In late 1955 his recording contract was bought by RCA Victor. By 1956 he was an international sensation. He starred in 33 films and did hundreds of shows and specials. This success would eventually lead him to an early death.

Most telling of all, Elvis was the most popular entertainer in the world, a figure of constant attention who came off as the boy next door while his life grew increasingly bizarre. He was fascinated by guns, and in his last years rarely went anywhere without carrying one. He became a nocturnal creature who would rent an amusement park outside Memphis so he could ride the roller coaster at night -- alone except for his entourage. He covered hotel-room windows with aluminum foil to keep daylight out. His appetite for food and dependence on drugs like uppers and downers and painkillers was incredible.

Elvis didn't play out his final years alone. There were other actors in the drama. The Colonel. His father, Vernon, and his daughter, Lisa Marie. The women -- his former wife, Priscilla, and his girlfriends Linda Thompson and Ginger Alden. His bodyguards, Red and Sonny West, and his aides, Joe Esposito and Charlie Hodge. And his doctor, George Nichopoulos. But by 1974, Elvis was a very sick man. And it seemed that none of the people he gathered around him could do anything to stop him from slipping away. Elvis' health plummeted as...

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... many as ten different drugs coursing through his body, taking control of his brain, his heart. Four of the drugs were in what the medical examiner would describe as "significant amounts." These were codeine, ethinamate, methaqualone and unidentifiable barbiturates. He had also taken a number of Placidyl and Valium capsules, both tranquilizers, and unknown quantities of Demerol and Meperidine, both painkillers. Bringing the amazing total to ten were morphine and chloropheniramine, an antihistimine that by itself would make its user sleepy.

Elvis sat staring at the open book in his lap, his eyes glassy, his body motionless. His chin dropped to his chest, the big body slumped imperceptibly then shifted and toppled out of the big cushiony chair, the noise of the fall muffled by the brown shag carpeting.

The room was silent except for the sound of his final breath.