Elvis 14, with bike front of S&S Drug Store 1949

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ed40
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Elvis 14, with bike front of S&S Drug Store 1949

#1425966

Post by ed40 »

Friends a very nice review / research on the pic, Elvis with his bike 1947.

http://blog.graceland.com/wheres-elvis-presley-tupelo-or-memphis/#prclt-tnN1nvvw

enjoy Ed
Last edited by ed40 on Tue Oct 13, 2015 9:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.




Mister Moon

Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1425968

Post by Mister Moon »

Very interesting, thank you !

Wasn't there an "alternate" version of this image with a different background ?




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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1425971

Post by Mr. Powers »

Wow, thank you!

Interesting that "In 1993, a photo was found in Gladys’ closet at Graceland of Elvis on a new bike with “age 13” written on the back" because I remember some YouTube video with Angie, director of archives, telling a story that they found a film negative in one of Glady's purse in her bedroom at Graceland ...it sounded like that the discovery was made just recently and not in 1993.

But I wonder if she was talking about that photo from 1993 or some other. Either way - I find it bizarre that they hadn't checked the closet much sooner
(wish EPE, or however did that wonderful research in the article, did as good job with the third and the latest auction catalog from Graceland :lol: )
Last edited by Mr. Powers on Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:12 am, edited 1 time in total.


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drjohncarpenter
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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1425976

Post by drjohncarpenter »

ed40 wrote:Friends a very nice review / research on the pic, Elvis with his bike 1947

http://blog.graceland.com/wheres-elvis-presley-tupelo-or-memphis/

enjoy Ed
Wow, that is a remarkably thorough run-down of this photo and the details. Thanks for finding the link!

It seems safe to say we see a 14 year-old Elvis with his bike in front of the S&S Drug Store on Poplar Avenue in Memphis, circa spring 1949.

(You might want to update your topic title.)

Here's the whole thing:
Where’s Elvis Presley: Tupelo or Memphis?
Posted by Elvis Presley's Graceland on Oct 12, 2015 | 0 comments

In January 2014, Vanity Fair magazine published an article showing a photo of Elvis Presley presumably taken in downtown Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1947.

The article traces the origin of the photo to a woman who was walking into a drugstore to drop off some film that had one exposure left on the roll. According to the story, she noticed a young Elvis on his bike and asked him to pose, snapping her last frame of him. The woman later gave the photo to Presley family friend Janelle McComb of Tupelo, who passed along the photo and the story of how she obtained it to Elvis fan and memorabilia collector Wade Jones shortly before her death.

The story behind the photo may have been correct, but the city was wrong.

Image

A young Elvis posing on his bike in front of the S&S Drug Store in 1949.
Tupelo lies in Lee County, which was a dry county in the 1940’s, meaning it was illegal to sell alcohol, yet the background of the photo shows a liquor store. Mississippi didn’t repeal Prohibition until 1966.

The bike in the photo is also familiar.

Image

Elvis on his new bike in Tupelo around January, 1948.
Elvis received a Firestone Pilot Classic bicycle, most likely for his 13th birthday. In 1993, a photo was found in Gladys’ closet at Graceland of Elvis on a new bike with “age 13” written on the back.

The bike is the same one in the Vanity Fair photo, except for the rims, which were removed in the later photo.

3streetview.jpg
Looking east down Poplar Avenue at High Street in Memphis around 1955. The distinctive twin gable home on the right shows up in the background of the Vanity Fair photo.
The Presleys moved to Memphis in November 1948 and lived at 370 Washington before moving just around the corner to a large rooming house at 572 Poplar Avenue in June 1949. They briefly lived there until September, when they moved to Lauderdale Courts. Elvis’ grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, continued living at the Poplar address, according to the 1950 Memphis City Directory. City directories list homes and businesses by street throughout the city.

4directory.jpg
Memphis City Directory listing for Poplar Avenue in 1950.
5map.jpg
Sanborn Insurance map of Poplar Avenue showing the Presley’s early homes and neighborhood from 1948 to 1949.
The 1950 directory also shows the S&S Drug Store, Lando Marossi restaurant and Milo’s liquor store that appear in the Vanity Fair photo. John Sampietro, whose father operated the S&S Drug Store at the corner of Poplar and High Street, remembered his father talking about how a young Elvis would come into the store to play pinball.

6building.jpg
S&S Drug Store building today at 548 Poplar Avenue in Memphis.
Milo Solomito operated the liquor store just across the street from the drug store and his son, Milo Jr., identified the store in the photo as the one his father ran for many years. To the right of the liquor store was the Marossi restaurant, which was also located across the street from the drug store before moving to a nearby location in 1954, according to Jerry Marossi.

7thenandnow.jpg
Then and now photo showing the spot where Elvis posed for the snapshot in 1949.
This was Elvis’ neighborhood for almost a year before moving to Lauderdale Courts in the fall of 1949.

Although not taken in Tupelo, the photo is one of the earliest photos of Elvis in Memphis, a city he would call home for the rest of his life.

http://blog.graceland.com/wheres-elvis-presley-tupelo-or-memphis/
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davide
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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1425994

Post by davide »

drjohncarpenter wrote:
ed40 wrote:Friends a very nice review / research on the pic, Elvis with his bike 1947

http://blog.graceland.com/wheres-elvis-presley-tupelo-or-memphis/

enjoy Ed
Wow, that is a remarkably thorough run-down of this photo and the details. Thanks for finding the link!

It seems safe to say we see a 14 year-old Elvis with his bike in front of the S&S Drug Store on Poplar Avenue in Memphis, circa spring 1949.

(You might want to update your topic title.)

Here's the whole thing:
Where’s Elvis Presley: Tupelo or Memphis?
Posted by Elvis Presley's Graceland on Oct 12, 2015 | 0 comments

In January 2014, Vanity Fair magazine published an article showing a photo of Elvis Presley presumably taken in downtown Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1947.

The article traces the origin of the photo to a woman who was walking into a drugstore to drop off some film that had one exposure left on the roll. According to the story, she noticed a young Elvis on his bike and asked him to pose, snapping her last frame of him. The woman later gave the photo to Presley family friend Janelle McComb of Tupelo, who passed along the photo and the story of how she obtained it to Elvis fan and memorabilia collector Wade Jones shortly before her death.

The story behind the photo may have been correct, but the city was wrong.

Image

A young Elvis posing on his bike in front of the S&S Drug Store in 1949.
Tupelo lies in Lee County, which was a dry county in the 1940’s, meaning it was illegal to sell alcohol, yet the background of the photo shows a liquor store. Mississippi didn’t repeal Prohibition until 1966.

The bike in the photo is also familiar.

Image

Elvis on his new bike in Tupelo around January, 1948.
Elvis received a Firestone Pilot Classic bicycle, most likely for his 13th birthday. In 1993, a photo was found in Gladys’ closet at Graceland of Elvis on a new bike with “age 13” written on the back.

The bike is the same one in the Vanity Fair photo, except for the rims, which were removed in the later photo.

3streetview.jpg
Looking east down Poplar Avenue at High Street in Memphis around 1955. The distinctive twin gable home on the right shows up in the background of the Vanity Fair photo.
The Presleys moved to Memphis in November 1948 and lived at 370 Washington before moving just around the corner to a large rooming house at 572 Poplar Avenue in June 1949. They briefly lived there until September, when they moved to Lauderdale Courts. Elvis’ grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, continued living at the Poplar address, according to the 1950 Memphis City Directory. City directories list homes and businesses by street throughout the city.

4directory.jpg
Memphis City Directory listing for Poplar Avenue in 1950.
5map.jpg
Sanborn Insurance map of Poplar Avenue showing the Presley’s early homes and neighborhood from 1948 to 1949.
The 1950 directory also shows the S&S Drug Store, Lando Marossi restaurant and Milo’s liquor store that appear in the Vanity Fair photo. John Sampietro, whose father operated the S&S Drug Store at the corner of Poplar and High Street, remembered his father talking about how a young Elvis would come into the store to play pinball.

6building.jpg
S&S Drug Store building today at 548 Poplar Avenue in Memphis.
Milo Solomito operated the liquor store just across the street from the drug store and his son, Milo Jr., identified the store in the photo as the one his father ran for many years. To the right of the liquor store was the Marossi restaurant, which was also located across the street from the drug store before moving to a nearby location in 1954, according to Jerry Marossi.

7thenandnow.jpg
Then and now photo showing the spot where Elvis posed for the snapshot in 1949.
This was Elvis’ neighborhood for almost a year before moving to Lauderdale Courts in the fall of 1949.

Although not taken in Tupelo, the photo is one of the earliest photos of Elvis in Memphis, a city he would call home for the rest of his life.

http://blog.graceland.com/wheres-elvis-presley-tupelo-or-memphis/
I was shown these materials, the background to the research and met with the person responsible for doing this, when I visited the EPE offices in August 2014.

With thanks
David



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Z0S0
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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426024

Post by Z0S0 »

fantastic stuff, love these type of finds & stories - 1000 000 times more interesting than any newly released 76 audience recording, or soundboard for that matter

funny, all the fuss about his large hand & it turned out to be Memphis ! lol

so DavidE the original is owned by EPE now ????


" Never was so Influential a Man so poorly prepared for his fate - nor so ineptly schooled for its Consequences"

"There was a reason they nicknamed him the King of Rock + Roll, !!!
THIS is the way ELVIS should be remembered! This is true greatness in the churchillian sense:
swaggering, daring, Proud yet humble, beaten yet never truly down,
MAGNIFICENT when victorious and always unforgettable! "

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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426025

Post by ElvisAronPresley1935 »

IS there an alternate?




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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426048

Post by Sodman »

Great research!


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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426054

Post by keninlincs »

ed40 wrote:Friends a very nice review / research on the pic, Elvis with his bike 1947.

http://blog.graceland.com/wheres-elvis-presley-tupelo-or-memphis/#prclt-tnN1nvvw

enjoy Ed
Thanks Ed,great post ,thanks for sharing


-instagram kenh1964


danielf

Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426065

Post by danielf »

That certainly puts to bed those who were shouting that the image was fake then.
Good to see that EPE are not all potato heads and junk.
And no doubt EPE will now dust down the bike which is hanging in the smoke house for a new display.




Mister Moon

Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426097

Post by Mister Moon »

ElvisAronPresley1935 wrote:IS there an alternate?
Yes, it was posted here.

It"s the same image, except for the background at top right, which is completely different.



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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426101

Post by ElvisAronPresley1935 »

Where? I don't see it! (sorry :3)




Mister Moon

Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426104

Post by Mister Moon »

ElvisAronPresley1935 wrote:Where? I don't see it! (sorry :3)
It"s here, in the FECC messageboard archives.

Sorry, I did not save it when it was posted in one of the many threads about that photo.



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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426113

Post by drjohncarpenter »

Z0S0 wrote:fantastic stuff, love these type of finds & stories - 1000 000 times more interesting than any newly released 76 audience recording, or soundboard for that matter ...
It's great that ed40 was kind enough to share the blog link with us, or we might have not seen it at all.


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Re: Elvis with bike 1947, very nice research EPE blog!

#1426115

Post by ed40 »

ElvisAronPresley1935 wrote:IS there an alternate?
Nope, there is no alternate...last year there was a sneak preview on Ebay, with half of the same pic covered.
Somebody made an artist 'ímpression' , also know as the alternate.

Ed



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Re: Elvis 14, with bike front of S&S Drug Store 1949

#1426120

Post by ElvisAronPresley1935 »

Aaaaaaaah I see I see.. Thanks Ed and thanks for sharing the link!




Mister Moon

Re: Elvis 14, with bike front of S&S Drug Store 1949

#1426142

Post by Mister Moon »

No "alternate", then...

:D



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Re: Elvis 14, with bike front of S&S Drug Store 1949

#1426321

Post by JANDERBIG »

Very good! post




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Re: Elvis 14, with bike front of S&S Drug Store 1949

#1426555

Post by CoyotaBlues »

That is just marvellous, thank you ed40!! Just love history and was wondering how the story with the picture will end - is it fake or not. Just great.


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