The Real Elvis: Good old Boy by Vince Staten, published by Media Ventures, Dayton, Ohio, ca. 1978. This volume, which is not widely known or distributed is one of the many books about Elvis Presley housed in the Wade Hall Collection of Southern History and Culture.

Elvis would have been 73 today — he was born January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi.

And of course he visited Tuscaloosa — performing twice on The University of Alabama campus. Some say that he visited Tuscaloosa fairly often and stayed with friends on Lake Tuscaloosa. This image of Elvis and George Wallace taken in 1974 after one of his concerts on campus is among the personal favorites from our collections!