Elvis never performed outside of the U.S. and Canada.
Source: Original photo by United Archives GmbH/ Alamy Stock Photo
Next Fact

Elvis never performed outside of the U.S. and Canada.

Despite being beloved around the world, Elvis Presley never performed outside of the United States and Canada. The prevailing (though never officially confirmed) belief is that the King of Rock ’n’ Roll had to turn down every offer he received to play abroad because his controversial manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was an undocumented immigrant from the Netherlands who didn’t have a passport and feared he would be denied re-entry to the U.S. if he left. (If Elvis ever had a fear of flying, he evidently got over it, purchasing and customizing several planes over the years, including the especially tricked-out Lisa Marie, a Convair 800 jet.) Other than three 1957 shows in Canada (in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, B.C.), Elvis only ever performed stateside. 

Elvis had an eighth-degree black belt in karate.
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Incorrect.
It's a Fact
The rock ‘n’ roll star was first exposed to the martial art upon joining the Army in 1958 and quickly developed a passion for it. He received his first-degree black belt in 1960 and his eighth in 1974, the same year he opened the Tennessee Karate Institute in Memphis.

And perform he did. In addition to his legendary Las Vegas residency, which consisted of 636 sold-out concerts between 1969 and 1976, Elvis toured extensively throughout the country and starred in two concert documentaries, 1970’s Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and 1972’s Elvis on Tour (not to mention also starring in 31 feature films). Following his untimely death in Memphis at the age of 42 in August 1977, CBS aired the posthumous television special Elvis in Concert on October 3 of that year. Filmed during two performances on his final tour, it features several of his most beloved songs — “Jailhouse Rock,” “Hound Dog,” and “Can't Help Falling in Love” among them — and was watched by more than 24 million viewers. Today, more than 40 years after his death, Elvis continues to earn new fans — and of course, some believe he’s still with us.

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Numbers Don’t Lie
Percentage of Elvis’ record sales that have come from outside the U.S.
40
Amount Elvis paid for Graceland in 1957 (about $1 million today)
$102,500
Gold records by Elvis (the most in history)
101
Estimated current net worth of the Presley estate
$400–500 million
Elvis was nicknamed _______ after one early TV appearance.
Elvis was nicknamed Elvis the Pelvis after one early TV appearance.
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Think Twice
Elvis received extremely negative reviews at first.

To say that music critics were unkind to the burgeoning hip-swiveling superstar — whose telegenic sexuality sometimes shocked the nation — would be an understatement. A columnist from Miami wrote in 1956 that Elvis' fans deserved a “solid slap across the mouth.” The vitriol extended to the Los Angeles Mirror News, whose Paul Coates had this to say about the King on October 31, 1957: “If he was my kid (and I was a helluva lot better shape than I am), I’d smack that sneer off his face and send him out for a haircut. In all, I consider him a very distasteful individual.” Dorothy Ricker of the Tampa Bay Times was kind enough to avoid ad hominem attacks and simply focus on her belief that Elvis “cannot sing and his whole performance is crude and disgusting” before predicting that “in a comparatively short time he will be forgotten.” Well, not quite.

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