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| The Presleys moved into 462 Alabama Avenue - Near the Lauderdale Courts complex, the two-store Victorian brick building on Alabama Avenue with a sweeping front porch, was home to the Presley's from April 1953, until late 1954. There were just two apartments in the house. The family paid $50,00 a month to rent a small apartment, fifteen dollars more than at Lauderdale Courts, payable to Mrs. Dubrovner, whose husband had been a kosher butcher and who lived down the street herself, and both Mrs. Dubrovner and the Presley's upstairs neighbours, Rabbi Alfred Fruchter and his wife, Jeanette, showed a considerable amount of kindness, and financial consideration, toward the new tenants. Vernon and Gladys occupied the only bedroom. Minnie Mae slept on a cot in the dining room. Elvis Presley took the couch each night. Mrs. Fruchter later told an interviewer, "They never had much. There wasn't even a decent chair to sit down in. About all they had was this cheap little radio". Mrs. Fruchter remembered Saturday afternoons when Elvis Presley and Vernon would polish Elvis' ten-year-old Lincoln. Others recalled seeing Elvis Presley walk down the street with his guitar, his hair spilling over the collar of his pink shirt. Mrs. Anna Mae Bradley, who lived a block away on High Street, also recalled the Presley's time at this address. Once, she was sitting on her front porch when Elvis Presley stopped to visit with his guitar. He sat down next to her on the porch swing and began to play. "It seems like a hundred years ago now", she said. |
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A couple of photos said to have been taken circa spring 1953:
9th April 1953
A couple of months before he graduated from high school, Elvis performed in the Humes' annual Minstrel Show. Listed as sixteenth on a 22-act bill and listed in the program as 'Elvis Prestly', he shocked pupils, parents, and teachers with his performance of Teresa Brewer's 'Till I Waltz Again with You'.
These next four photographs appear to be taken on the same day. Elvis is wearing the same clothes and holdong onto his pipe in more than one of them.
Some have dated the image of Elvis standing in front of and seemingly proud of his car as being from 1954. He had only acquired this car in March 1953 and despite still having it in 1954 I think he'd given up on being proud of it by then due to it letting him down so often.
Also, the photo I've marked as being Gladys and Elvis - is that Gladys? Is it not his Aunt Clettes, Gladys sister? Is this the same camera that took the photos of Elvis at the Eagles Nest August 1954? Questions, questions, questions lol.
| Elvis with his fellow pipe smoking cousin Gene Smith and the neighbours children, David and Debbie Fruchter. Again, the clothes etc lead me to believe these were all taken on the same day, the other three photos taken most likely by Gene and this one possibly by Clettes. |
| I don't think that's Gladys, I think it's Elvis' aunt Clettes. I've never seen photos taken by a camera owned by the Presleys, They either had photos taken by a photographer when Elvis was growing up or the photos are taken by others around them. Clettes took the photos of Elvis at the Eagles Nest in August 1954,maybe even with the same camera that took these shots. I'm assuming that Gene took the shot above. |