Tupelo Driving Tour Pt.1 - Elvis driving tour |Tupelo Hardware Co & Tupelo Fairgrounds

We take you on all the stops of the Tupelo driving tour or the Elvis driving tour of Tupelo. TIMESTAMP 0:00 Intro 0:20 Tupelo Hardware Co. 4:20 Tupelo Fairgrounds & Homecoming Statue 7:08 Outro Take a look at our other travel content at: ‪@OceanHops‬ Tupelo Hardware Co & Tupelo Fairgrounds. In this first part of the Tupelo driving tour, the Elvis Presley Driving Tour, we visit Tupelo Hardware Co where Gladys bought Elvis his first guitar. Also the site of the Tupelo Fairgrounds where the annual Mississippi Alabama Fair and Dairy Show took place, and where Elvis sang on no less than 4 occasions. The first time may have inspired Elvis to ultimately choose the guitar for his birthday a few short months later at Tupelo Hardware Co. The young Elvis first Tupelo appearance was in October 1945 and Elvis sang Old Shep and came fifth! Elvis second Tupelo show was August 1955, the famous Elvis Tupelo Homecoming was September 1956, and Elvis was back in Tupelo for his last Tupelo show in September 1957. Music by Mini Vandals So next stop on the Elvis driving tour of Tupelo is perhaps, behind the  birthplace, the most important stop in Elvis history in Tupelo - the Tupelo Hardware Company. Proprietor George H Booth. This is where, on Elvis's eleventh birthday on January 8th 1946, Gladys brought him to buy a birthday present. Elvis wanted a guitar - tut!.... Elvis wanted either a bike or a rifle, which Gladys thought too dangerous. So eventually the the life-changing choice of a guitar was made. The winner of the children's competition on a talent show on the previous October....October 3rd 1945, the winner was a girl singing and playing the guitar. Obviously by that time Elvis loved singing anyway, and that may have swayed his decision, that the singer with the guitar got further. "1946 Elvis's mother Gladys brought him here to buy a bicycle. Once they arrived at 22 caliber rifle caught Elvis's eye and he asked his mother to buy it instead. She wasn't happy about purchasing a gun so they compromised on the guitar. Forrest L Bobo, a longtime employee of Tupelo Hardware sold the guitar to the young Elvis for $7.90 It opens early this morning so we're going to go in and have a look. A lot of the hardware store is in the same sort of fashion that it it's been all those years ago. It's a very typical old hardware store, and it's great that it still survives. It's a typical old southern hardware store. So here's the Elvis section with the guitar - that of course is not the guitar But that... apparently is. SIAN - You can have an egg like a guitar ME - Fried egg....guitar shaped fried egg. SIAN - It's heavy - it's cast-iron. So this is where Gladys and Elvis came in 1946. So here is another stop on the Elvis driving tour of Tupelo - the Fairgrounds. "Elvis returned here in 1956 and 57 to perform concerts on what was then known as the Tupelo Fairgrounds. Proceeds from these concerts were used to buy and restore his birthplace and build Elvis Presley Youth Center. The Presley family also lived in this area in the late '30s." This area here, it would have actually been, more in the mid '40s that they actually lived in this area. And this is the entrance to the Fairgrounds. So it was off Main Street, perhaps where the fountain is there, or perhaps even a bit further back, was where the entrance to the Fairgrounds once was. And there is the statue depicting Elvis's homecoming concert Wednesday September 26 1956. Two shows he performed, that afternoon and evening The actual place of the performance was further down behind City Hall there. City Hall also wasn't here in 1956. This was all the Fairgrounds here and actually this this bit where we are standing here would have been buidings. Of course 1955, '56 and '57 was not the only time Elvis performed at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. He was also here on October 3rd 1945. As a ten-year-old he entered singing a song, inevitably it was 'Old Shep'. He was unaccompanied and he came in fifth. The little girl who won the competition that day was singing and playing a guitar. That may have influenced Elvis's decision the next January, just four months later on January 8 1946, may have influenced Elvis's decision to actually have the guitar for his birthday from Tupelo Hardware - which is just up the road a bit from the actual Fairgrounds.