Elvis Presley FAQs
What was the cause of Elvis’ death?
The cause of Elvis’ death was not a heart attack, as stated on Google. The correct answer is “cardiac arrhythmia,” according to Dr. Jerry Francisco, the Shelby County Medical Examiner, who announced the results of Elvis Presley’s official autopsy results.
Dr. Kevin S. Meridian, who was a clinical pharmacologist and toxicologist at the Toxicology Center in the Elvis Presley Trauma Center in Memphis, Tennessee, explained to me, that:
“Cardiac arrhythmia just means the heart simply did not beat right. The electric activity was jumbled; it just did not make his heart pump. It is not a heart attack, which happens when something goes wrong with the blood vessels that nourish the heart with oxygen while it is beating. In a heart attack, the heart is really beating and all of the sudden, it gets no oxygen. Boom. You kill it! Or you can get a blood clot that forms in there when there is a lot of plaque from coronary artery disease or arteriosclerosis. When there is a lot of plaque formation in the arteries leading to the heart, the blood can’t get through, and finally it forms a clot in his heart. Well, Elvis didn’t have any clot in his heart.
Looking at the [toxicology] report from the Bio-Science Laboratories [ in Van Nuys, California, where Elvis autopsy specimens were sent for a second opinion], if Dr. Francisco said that Elvis died of a cardiac arrhythmia, he’s right on.”
Where did Elvis start his career?
Elvis Presley started his career at Memphis Recording Service (SUN Records) at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee.
He first went there in 1953 to have an acetate record made. Cost $4.00 dollars. He recorded two songs: “My Happiness” b/w ”That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.” This record was not released until 38 years later.
Elvis’ first released record “That’s All Right” b/w “Blue Moon of Kentucky” was recorded on July 5-6, 1954 at Sun Records. This is considered to be Elvis’ first record credited with launching his career.
Did Elvis have a brother who died?
The daughter of Dr. Will Hunt, who delivered Elvis, said her father told her he waited several days before writing down Elvis’ time of birth, so the time may not be exact. Elvis was the second child Dr. Hunt delivered that morning. Elvis’ twin brother’s original birth certificate had no name on it. It simply read: “stillborn, child of Vernon Presley. The mother’s name was not on the certificate.
Also, Elvis’ twin brother’s birth certificate had the wrong date, January 9, instead of January 8. Adding to the tragedy: the baby is buried in Priceville Cemetery, but no one knows the location of his grave. Elvis tried to find it, but he could not find anyone who knew where it was. Elvis’s brother was later named Jessie Garon Presley. Elvis and his mother Gladys were taken to the hospital following Elvis’ birth because she had such difficulty giving birth to her twins.
Did Elvis die from smothering in his bathroom carpet?
When Dr. Jerry Francisco, the Shelby County Medical Examiner, who announced the results of Elvis Presley’s official autopsy results announced that Elvis died from cardiac arrhythmia, he also stated at that time: “We may never know what caused his death.” These words caused journalists worldwide to go hunting for a cause of death. Many felt Dr. Francisco was covering up for Elvis’s drug use causing his death. Smothering is a theory with no substantial proof, due to unknown factors.
No one knows how long Elvis was alive after he fell forward into the carpet in this bathroom. It is possible after he lost consciousness and fell with his face down, he could have smothered, which may have caused the heart to lose its regular beat—causing the cardiac arrhythmia. Witnesses Joe Esposito, Elvis’ road manager, and Ginger Alden, Elvis’ fiancée, found fragments of shag carpet in Elvis’ mouth after Joe turned Elvis over to see if he was breathing. If someone had heard him fall, Elvis might have survived, since his face in the carpet would not have allowed him to get oxygen. That could have caused his cardiac arrhythmia. However, smothering would not be the cause of death, but the cause of his cardiac arrhythmia.
How burn-out on touring was Elvis at the end?
“The last year, year-and-a-half of his life, he was miserable. He wouldn’t confront Colonel with it, and he wanted to go out of the country, so he just was not happy . . . He hated tours because it was the same old places, going back again. They were out of venues. It took a big venue to hold Elvis. I mean, Elvis got real excited when we played Madison Square Garden, because that was different. He hadn’t played New York since he did the Ed Sullivan Show. That was different.
Had we toured Europe, he would have been really ready to go. He would have been ripping and roaring. . . . He was bored! It’s called apathy. If he’d have gone to Europe, he would have sold out.”
Elvis: Truth, Myth & Beyond: An Intimate Conversation with Lamar Fike, Elvis Presley’s Closest Friend and Confidant by L.E. McCullough & Harold F. Eggers, Jr., BookBaby, 2016.
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Send questions about The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll to Rose@Iknewelvis.com