Being Elvis
1,875 MILES TO CLARKSVILLE Written by Don Logay
W
hen Vernon and Gladys Presley had a child in their small, two-room home in Tupelo, Mississippi, they never could have dreamed that their newborn son – given the father’s middle name (a rare choice for that day and time... said to be of Scandinavian origin meaning “all wise”) – would one day be heralded as “The Best-Selling Solo Music Artist of All Time” by the Guinness Book of World Records. Nor could they have ever imagined that, in just 42 short years, their child would sell over 500 million records worldwide, or that he would become the undisputed most often imitated entertainer in history or that eventually half a million people a year would come to Memphis, Tennessee just to visit the Graceland Mansion he called home. 74 | VEGASLEGALMAGAZINE.COM
On Tuesday, January 8, 1935... a fitting announcement could have been, (drumroll) “Ladies and Gentlemen... Elvis has entered the world!” Reinventing Las Vegas The 1950s and 60s were the heydays of vintage Las Vegas. It was the newly created neon mecca in the desert that beckoned 8 million people a year to spend $200 million annually on 24-hour gambling and great entertainment, along with quickie weddings and even faster divorces. In an era when tuxedoed mega-stars like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the “Rat Pack” owned the town and big names like Tony Bennett and
