AboutBeverly Taylor Expertise I can answer questions pertaining to his spiritual beliefs,his childhood,his parents,his marriage and reasons for breakup, his relationships and the woment he dated,his life as father to Lisa Marie,his personal struggles, his benevolent side,and the people who he took care of financially over the years, as well as his uncompleted dreams.
Experience I am a psychotherapist by training who has studied and analyzed the life and death of the greatest entertainer of all time.
Organizations Several Elvis organizations and many professional organizations.
Publications Several local and regional
Education/Credentials I have a Masters degree,2 licensures and multiple certifications in my field. I am also a free lance writer.
Expert: Beverly Taylor Date: 5/4/2008 Subject: American Dream
Question Im doing a project on Elvis. And i would like to know what his American Dream was? How he pursued it? And how he strived towards it?
Thank you very much.
Answer Hi Kelsey. You may want to read some on Elvis and decide which element of his lfe you think was "his American Dream." It could have been loyalty to his parents and caretaking of others, becoming successful in the music industry and being dubbed "the King of RocknRoll".......it wasnt his time in Hollywood for he didnt like that and was there only because of Tom Parker's contracts that kept him there for seven years!
I think his American dream was to provide a better life for his parents, lift them out of poverty and then to share with others less fortunate than himself. He strived to do this by taking financial responsibility for his parents at a young age from the first profits of his first record sale. They were able to move from the projects of Memphis, Tennessee. Prior to that, they had lived in modest bare places in Tupelo where one can still visit the two room shotgun shack where he was born. he bought his parents their first home in Memphis which was a 3 bedroom ranch house on Audubon. He later purchased Graceland for them and himself at the ripe old age of 21!
He bought his mother a pink cadillac after his first financial successes, and cried later that he didnt buy her a chair that she had wanted. His parents had been poor all their lives and he promised them they would "never be poor again".....like a good son, he kept that promise. He also shared with other family...cousins, aunts, uncles , etc by providing shelter, jobs,cars, etc for them. He once bought a black woman a cadillac because she was in need of transportation. He knew what it was like to have nothing and gave most of what he made away to others.
Some might say it was the American dream to be born a poor boy in Tupelo, Mississippi and grow up to become a world known icon!
Let me know if you need anything else! BA Taylor
