Elvis Presley, the first and greatest American rock‐and‐roll star, died yesterday at the age of 42. Mr. Presley, whose throaty baritone and blatant sexuality redefined popular music, was found unconscious in the bedroom of his home, called Graceland, in Memphis yesterday at 2:30 P.M.
He was pronounced dead an hour later at Baptist Memorial Hospital after doctors failed to revive him.
Dr. Jerry Francisco, the Shelby County coroner, who conducted a two‐hour examination of the body, said “preliminary autopsy findings” indicated that the cause of death was “cardiac arrhythmia,” which a hospital spokesman defined as “an irregular and ineffective heartbeat.” The coroner was not immediately able to determine the cause of the “cardiac arrhythmia.”
Mr.Presley was once the object of such adulation that teenage girls screamed and fainted at the sight of him. He was also denounced for what was considered sexually suggestive conduct on stage. Preachers inveighed against him in sermons and parents forbade their children to watch him on television. In his first television appearance on the Ed Sullivan show, his act, which might be thought Elvis Presley, Rock‐and‐Roll Singer, Is Dead at 42; Object of Teen‐Age Adulation and Adult Ire in '50s
as tame by today's standards, was considered by the broadcasters to be so scandalous that the cameras showed him only from the waist up, lest his wiggling hips show.
Mr. Presley's early hit songs are an indelible part of the memories of anyone who grew up in the '50s. “Hound Dog,” “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Blue Suede Shoes” were teenage anthems. Like Frank Sinatra in the decade before and the Beatles a decade later, Mr. Presley was more than a singer—he was a phenomenon, with 45 gold records that sold more than one million copies each.
Mr. Presley was a show‐business legend before he was 25 years old. At the age of 30, he was the highest‐paid performer in the history of the business. He made 28 films, virtually every one of them frivolous personality vehicles and nearly all of them second‐rate at best, but they grossed millions.
In recent years, Mr. Presley, who used to carry about 175 pounds on a 6‐foot frame, had been plagued with overweight.
A recently published book called “Elvis, What Happened?” by three of his former bodyguards alleged that the singer was given to using amphetamines.
History of Mild Hypertension
Dr. Francisco said yesterday that Mr. Presley had a history of mild hypertension and that he had found evidence of coronary artery disease. Both of these, the coroner said, could have been "contributing causes” in Mr. Presley's death.
“But the specific cause may not be known for a week or two pending lab studies,” he said, adding, “It is possible in cases like this that the specific cause will never be known.”
A hospital spokesman said that the coroner is required by law to conduct an examination if the cause of death is not immediately apparent.
Responding to repeated questions about whether the autopsy had revealed any signs of drug abuse, the coroner said the only drugs he had detected were those that had been prescribed by Mr. Presley's personal physician for hypertension and a blockage of the colon, for which he had been hospitalized twice in 1975.
Dr. George Nichopoulos, Mr. Presley's personal physician told the Associated Press that Mr. Presley was last seen alive shortly after 9 A.M. Dr. Nichopoulos said that Mr. Presley had been taking a number of appetite depressants, but the physician said they had not contributed to his death.
Elvis Aron Presley was born in a two-room house in Tupelo, Miss., on Jan. 8, 1935. During his childhood, he appeared with his parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley, as a popular singing trio at camp meetings, revivals, and church conventions.
The family moved to Memphis when Mr. Presley was 13. He attended L. 0. Humes High School and worked as an usher in a movie theater. After graduation, he got a job driving a truck for $35 a week. In 1953, Mr. Presley recorded his first song and paid $4 for the privilege;he took the one copy home and played it over and over.
A shrewd song promotor called “Colonel” Thomas A. Parker was impressed by the early records and took over the management of Mr. Presley's career. Mr. Presley toured in rural areas under the sobriquet “The Hill Billy Cat.” Colonel Parker, a character of P. T. Barnum proportions, followed the credo, “Don't explain it, just sell it.” He once observed, “I consider it my patriotic duty to keep Elvis up in the 90 percent tax bracket.”
When Colonel Parker went to negotiate With 20th Century‐Fox on a film deal that would be Mr. Presley's screen debut, the studio executives dwelled on the singer's youth and inexperience. “Would $25,000 be all right?” one executive finally asked. Colonel Parker replied: “That's fine for me. Now, how about the boy?”
“Heartbreak Hotel,” Mr. Presley's first song hit, was released by RCA in January 1956. A blood‐stirring dirge about love and loneliness, it burned up the jukeboxes and eventually sold two million copies.
A phenomenal string of hit songs followed, and Elvis Presley fan clubs sprouted all over the world; membership at one time numbered 400,000.
In 1957, he went to Hollywood to make his first film, “Love Me Tender.” It opened to unanimous jeers from the critics and grossed between five and six times what it cost to make.
His later films were considered equally obnoxious by cineastes. One critic remarked of “Jailhouse Rock” that Mr. Presley had been “sensitively cast as a slob.” Mr. Presley responded, “That's the way the mop flops.”
Drafted Into the Army
In the spring of 1958, Mr. Presley was drafted into the Army as a private, an event that caused as much stir as an average Super Bowl. “The Pelvis,” as he many were known, was stationed in West Germany for two years and was given an ecstatic welcome home by his fans.
In 1967, Mr. Presley married Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of an Air Force II colonel. They met during his military service and had a daughter named Lisa Marie, born on Feb. 1, 1968. Although concrete details of their private life remained sketchy through his deliberate design, the fan magazines were full of reports of marital difficulties, and the couple separated in February 1972. They were divorced in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1973.
Mr. Presley was said to have been a shy person, and rarely granted interviews. He seems to have been scarred by some of the early heavy publicity and returned from his stint in the Army more withdrawn than he had been.
In the early '60s, he made no personal or even television appearances but earned $5 million a year simply by cutting a few records and making three movies a year. He made a picture called “Harem Holiday” in 18 days and was paid $1 million.
In the '70s Mr. Presley appeared with some frequency in Las Vegas, Nev., nightclubs. Although he sometimes appeared bloated, he was still an excellent showman and audiences always loved him.
In his nightclub act, he would occasionally parody himself. “This lip used to curl easier,” he joked, referring to his one‐time trademark of singing with a sneer.
It was believed that Mr. Presley neither smoked nor drank, but according to the book by his former aides, he depended heavily on stimulant and depressant drugs. He is also said to have been depressed by the book's “iconoclastic” treatment of him.
He was a generous and often sentimental man. He deeply mourned the death of his mother, and kept a suite for his grandmother, Minnie Presley, at his home in Memphis.
The house, Graceland, was an 18‐room $1 million mansions with a jukebox at the poolside. Mr. Presley surrounded himself with a retinue of young men called the Memphis Mafia, who served as bodyguards, valets, and travel agents. He had a passion for cars, especially Cadillacs, which he tended to acquire in multiples.
Preferred Night Hours
Mr. Presley also gave Cadillacs away with startling frequency. He would from time to time see some stranger, nose pressed against a car‐showroom window, and invite the person to go inside and pick out the color he or she liked best. Mr. Presley would then pay the entire cost of purchase on the spot.
Mr. Presley was a nocturnal person who thrived when most others were asleep.
Maurice Elliott, a vice president and spokesman for Baptist Hospital, said Mr. Presley had gone to sleep yesterday morning at 6 A.M. Sometime during the evening or early morning hours, Mr. Elliott said, Mr. Presley visited a dentist. Then, between 4 A.M. and 5:30 A.M. he played racketball on the court of his mansion, the hospital official reported.
When Mr. Presley was a patient in the hospital, Mr. Elliott recalled, “he would put tin foil over the windows. He would normally not get up until noon or thereafter, and not go to bed until 2, 3. A.M.”
Mr. Presley's movie career ended in 1970, and in that year he made a successful television special. Critics re
marked on how little he had aged. He kept in shape for years with karate, in which he had a black belt. But his penchant for peanut butter and banana sandwiches washed down with soda finally caught up. In one of his last appearances, his trademark skintight pants split open.
After his death became known yesterday, radio stations around the country began playing nothing but old Presley records. Mr. Presley recorded about 40 albums, many of the soundtracks of his films. They include “Loving You,” “King Creole,” “Frankie and Johnny,': “Paradise, Hawaiian Style,” “Clambake” and “Speedway.”
At his death, Mr. Presley had been an indelible part of the nation's musical consciousness for 20 years.
The funeral is being handled by the Memphis Funeral Home. A spokesman said late yesterday that arrangements had not been completed.
Mr. Presley is survived by his 9‐year old daughter, father, and grandmother. His father and his daughter were reportedly at Graceland at the time of his death.
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