Elvis Presley: The Last 24 Hours

Memphis, Tennessee is the home of the late great Elvis Presley. It was in the Sun Studios in Memphis, 50 years ago, that rock and roll was born, and so began the legend that is Elvis Presley. In the course of a glorious career, Elvis would take the world by storm, starting in 1954 with his first hit "That's Alright, Mama." Elvis was a very, very shy retiring type individual. He didn't like to be around new people. He didn't trust them. He only trusted his closest friends.

They were a source of comfort. He could be what he wanted to be around them. Elvis did not make new friends easy. He just didn't like to do it.

Elvis was preparing for yet another backbreaking tour, the second tour of that year and Elvis' girlfriend, Ginger Alden, didn't want to go on tour with him. Ginger was just 21 and not prepared to bow to his every demand, something Elvis was used to, even during his doomed marriage to Priscilla. Over the years, his Memphis Mafia had supplied him with a string of compliant girls.

Elvis' security chief says that if you've got wealth and looks, they're really going to come, and they're going to come fast and hard. What you have to do is on a continual basis weed them out, because you've got to weed the squirrels out from the lambs. The squirrels cause you more trouble than a lamb ever caused you... not because they eat a lot of nuts, but it's because they're crazy, and this is the problem. He was so charismatic that the girls were like moths flying around a flame.