Still The King

I ranted in an earlier blog on how people who arent die hard Elvis fans didnt recognize what good he had actually done. As I said in the other blog, Elvis was famous for giving away Cadillacs, cash and jewelryusually on the spur of the moment. But his true generosity and community involvement is not so widely known. In 1961, Elvis gave a benefit concert at Bloch Arena in Hawaii that raised over $65,000 toward the building of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. The resulting publicity gave life to the fund raising effort, which had lost its momentum. The memorial opened a year later. Audience tickets for his 1973 Aloha from Hawaii television special and its rehearsal show was free but each audience member was asked to pay whatever he or she could. The performances and concert merchandise sales were a benefit raising $75,000 for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in Hawaii. Each year, for many years, Elvis gave $1,000 or more to each of fifty Memphis charities, but also made other charitable donations in Memphis and around the country. Most of Elvis’ contributions received no publicity at all. Throughout his life, for his friends, family, and even total strangers, he quietly paid hospital bills, bought homes, supported families, paid off debts, and much more. So for all the people that portray Elvis as being a monster, read this blog over really good and rethink your conclusion on what type of man he REALLY was and not what the media and bitter former employees or a crazy step mother and step brothers portrayed him to be.