If you had turned on the evening news on this day in 1977, this is what you would have seen:
David Brinkley broke the news on ABC, saying:
Good evening. Elvis Presley died today. He was 42. Apparently, it was a heart attack. He was found at his home in Memphis not breathing. His road tried to revive him, he failed. The hospital tried to revive him, it failed. His doctor pronounced him death at 3 o’clock this afternoon. The end, at an early age, of one of the two most spectacular careers in the history of American entertainment, the other being Frank Sinatra’s… He sold records in the multiples of millions, made millions, bought a string of Cadillacs one after another, gave away a string of Cadillacs to people he liked…
I’m not old enough to remember the announcement, nor would it have made waves in my household. While my mom was a fan, my dad was not. We were much more likely to have the Greatest Hits of the 187os on our stereo than a pop record from the 1970s.
That is, however, what’s so interesting about Elvis. Despite not hearing his music as a little girl, I became a fan. He was so immensely popular that his records were played in my hometown well into the 1980s alongside Madonna, Duran Duran and Michael Jackson. And by the time I was in college, I made a road trip to Memphis to see Graceland because, well, how could you not want to see Graceland? It is a piece of Americana.
I’m not the only person fascinated by Elvis. His personality and career are legendary: he was, after all, the King of Rock and Roll.
Elvis Aron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi. He got his first guitar at age 10 – his first step towards chasing his dream of becoming a musician. At age 18, he paid $4 ($35 in today’s dollars) to cut a demo at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. He caught the attention of Sun’s Sam Phillips and the next year, released his first commercial single, “That’s All Right.” The song, ranked at #112 on the 2004 Rolling Stone magazine list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, launched Presley’s musical career.
In the entertainment world, however, it isn’t enough to have talent. You have to have name recognition. Enter controversial and colorful “Colonel” Thomas A. Parker, whose circus-promotion-like character would propel Presley to the top. Parker realized that Elvis had the makings of a star – and he wanted a piece of the action. He would manage Presley’s musical career, as well as his acting career.
In 1956, when Parker negotiated with 20th Century-Fox for Presley’s screen debut, the studio executives reported balked on paying Presley big dollars. Finally, they asked, “Would $25,000 be all right?” Parker reportedly replied: “That’s fine for me. Now, how about the boy?” That movie would turn out to be Love Me Tender. The original title of the film was to be The Reno Brothers but that all changed when sales of Presley’s “Love Me Tender” single passed one million. The song has been successfully covered more than 30 times, including turns by Willie Nelson and Barry Manilow.
Parker’s involvement with Elvis’ career would make him one of the wealthiest entertainers of our time. Elvis said, about Parker, “I don’t think I’d have ever been very big if it wasn’t for him. He’s a very smart man.” Parker reportedly said, about his promotional efforts for Presley:
I consider it my patriotic duty to keep Elvis up in the 90 percent tax bracket.
And during the peak of Elvis’ career, there really was such a thing as a 90% tax bracket: in fact, it even went up to 94%. Yep, you read that correctly: 94%. That happened in 1944, as World War II heated up even further. The U.S. had officially entered the war in 1941 after the invasion of Pearl Harbor. Most Americans didn’t expect the war to last as long as it did – or to cost as much as it did. The cost of the war to the country was estimated, in a report to Congress (downloads as pdf), to be $296 billion ($3.928 trillion) – or more than a third of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Before the war, however, taxes were still quite steep: in the year that Elvis was born, the top tax bracket for an individual taxpayer was 63%. That rate kicked in at $1,000,000 of income, which is equivalent to $17,050,802.92 in today’s dollars. After the war boost, however, rates wouldn’t dip below 90% until 1964 when they plunged back to 77%. Top tax rates would remain in the 70% range until 1982 when they dropped to 50%. In comparison, for the tax 2013, the top tax bracket is 39.6%, kicking in at $400,000.
Elvis would remain in the spotlight for most of his life as he continued to tour, despite health problems related to his lifestyle. Even when he didn’t tour, he made money: in the early ’60s, despite no personal appearances, he earned $5 million a year ($40,000,000 in today’s dollars). By 1973, he was still raking in money and was allegedly the top taxpayer in the country.
His last concert was held in June 1977, two months before his death. When he died, he reportedly had $5 million in the bank, not counting other assets like Graceland: that works out to $20,526,889.28 in today’s dollars. That would have put him at the top of the federal estate tax brackets: in 1977, the exemption was a mere $120,000 (downloads as a pdf) and kicked in at a bottom bracket of 18.0%. The top bracket was 70.0% beginning at $5,000,000.
During his lifetime, Presley had 18 No. 1 singles and made millions of dollars. He reportedly overpaid his taxes along the way, a move some called patriotic – but others attributed it to the paranoia that Parker had about his own immigration status. Despite saying that he had been born in the U.S., Parker was here illegally: he was born in the Netherlands, jumped ship, and never applied for or received a valid immigration status. Reportedly, Parker went to great lengths to stay off of the government’s radar, including, allegedly, encouraging Elvis to overpay his taxes in order to not attract additional government scrutiny.
Elvis has continued to make money long after he died. Still a recognized name today, he is ranked #3 on Forbes’ list of the 15 Top-Earning Dead Celebrities; his estate brought in $55 million.
