It was 55 years ago this week when Elvis Presley performed his first show in Las Vegas marking an iconic return to live performing.
The King has spent a decade exclusively making mostly poor Hollywood movies until his 1968 Comeback Special on TV reignited his hunger for the music once again.
Gaining the confidence to have a Sin City residency after watching his friend Tom Jones, Elvis’ opening night at the International Hotel took place on July 31, 1969.
The star would perform two shows a night (one at dinner time and another at midnight) every day for four weeks straight in a showroom for 2000 people.
The likes of Cary Grant, Sammy Davis Jr and Viva Las Vegas co-star Ann-Margret were in the audience as backstage a nervous Elvis prepared to go onstage.
Yet the King shouldn’t have worried as he was a hit and would go on to perform over 600 Las Vegas residency shows for the last seven years of his short 42 years.
Marking the anniversary, the star’s brother David Stanley wrote on Facebook: “55 years ago today Elvis did his first show at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. I was there, along with my brothers Billy and Ricky.
“Today, I serve as an Ambassador to the International/Westgate resort and live on the 29th floor of what I call The House that Elvis Built. Elvis was awesome that night as he did the first of his 636 sold out shows at the famous resort.”
Elvis’ identical twin Jesse Garon Presley was tragically stillborn, but the King had half-brothers via his father Vernon’s second marriage to Dee Stanley.
She had three sons called Bill, David and Rick, who would grow up next door to Graceland and become part of the singer’s Memphis Mafia.
In 1972, Elvis asked David to drop out of school and join his entourage, the Memphis Mafia, when he was just 16. He would go on to be one of The King’s bodyguards for the remaining five years of his short life, which is recounted in his own movie about his relationship with Elvis called Protecting The King.
