Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this article:
- At just 21, Elvis made his debut Las Vegas performance at the New Frontier Hotel, but his older audience greeted him with silence.
- After filming Viva Las Vegas in 1963 and marrying Priscilla Presley in 1967, Elvis returned to the Sin City stage in 1969 and thrilled fans with record-breaking performances.
- From 1969 to 1976, Elvis performed 636 sold-out shows at the International Hotel, solidifying his status as a Vegas icon.
Sure, Memphis, Tennessee, has Graceland, but no other city might be as synonymous with Elvis Presley as Las Vegas. That’s where he filmed movies, got married, and thrilled crowds with record-setting residencies.
But the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s legendary run in Sin City all started with awkward silence.
On April 23, 1956, Presley—billed as “The Atomic Powered Singer”—made his Vegas debut at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino. Riding the success of his first No. 1 hit, “Heartbreak Hotel,” the 21-year-old was expecting to hear the familiar roaring screams from his teenage fans when he rolled into the show. Instead, a much older audience could only muster blank stares. One critic dismissed Presley’s set as “a jug of corn liquor at a champagne party.”
Nevertheless, Presley felt at home, and not just because he saw Freddie Bell and the Bellboys perform their version of his soon-to-be smash “Hound Dog” at the Sands Hotel. “Man, I really like Vegas,” he told the Memphis Press-Scimitar, according to Peter Guralnick’s book Last Train to Memphis. “I’m going back there the first chance I get.”
He returned later that year—and kept coming back. In 1963, Presley filmed Viva Las Vegas, cementing his connection to the city. And in 1967, he married Priscilla Beaulieu in a quick ceremony at the Aladdin Hotel.
After 1968’s televised “Comeback Special” lived up to its name, Presley returned to the Vegas stage one year later to headline the International Hotel. Opening with “Blue Suede Shoes” and “All Shook Up,” Presley had the crowd “eating out of his hand.” The four-week run drew a record 101,500 fans and locked in a deal for repeat engagements.
Presley proceeded to perform 636 sold-out shows at the International (later renamed the Las Vegas Hilton) over the next seven years as he holed up in a 5,000-square-foot penthouse and played two shows a night. By his final Vegas concert in December 1976, the city that had once given him the cold shoulder had fully embraced him as its own.
To learn more about Presley’s Vegas years, read his full profile on Biography.com.
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