Less than a year after the film’s release Elvis by Baz Luhrmann with Tom Hanks, it is this time in a completely different register that the King shines. Netflix unveiled its new animated series titled “Agent Elvis” on March 17. In addition to his extravagant costumes made of rhinestones and sequins, Elvis takes on an unprecedented role here… that of spy.
A true icon and cultural figure, the Elvis legend crosses generations and continues to fascinate young and old. To dive back into the childhood of young Elvis (the real one, not the spy), head to the state of Mississippi where the beginnings of his career were played out.
Elvis, the child prodigy of Tupelo
The Presley family settled in the small town of Tupelo. Far from the excess of his future home Graceland in Memphis, Elvis grew up in a modest “shotgun house”, a narrow house typical of the south, which can now be visited at Elvis Presley Birthplace & Museum. It consists of two rooms that bear witness to the precariousness in which Elvis and his parents found themselves.
The house is located in a green park which also houses the chapel where the Presley family went, a museum, as well as two bronze statues: a first life-size of Elvis at his 13 years old and a second soberly titled “Becoming”, thus putting in parallel the young boy he was and the rock star he will become a few years later.
Still in Tupelo, Elvis received his first guitar on the occasion of his 11th birthday: it was at the Tupelo hardware company his mother gave him the instrument. Could she then only imagine that her first chords heralded a gold record ten years later?
Proud to have participated in the success of the King, the family-owned hardware store in Tupelo still sits valiantly along the main artery of the city, welcoming simple curious or experienced DIY enthusiasts.
A few blocks away, Johnnie’s Drive In should delight those nostalgic for the 1960s: it is in this restaurant, the oldest in the city, that the young Elvis used to have lunch. As if frozen in time, the authentic diner fitted out with only a few tables still serves regular or passing customers.
Elvis celebrates at the Tupelo Elvis Festival
As the native city of the interpreter of “Love Me Tender”, “Suspicious Minds” or “Jailhouse Rock”, Tupelo welcomes this year the 25th edition of the Tupelo Elvis Festival. From June 7 to 11, parades, concerts and competitions will celebrate the legend Elvis. Many artists will take turns to make the city’s stages vibrate to the sounds of blues and rock’n’roll.
