“Known For Values”

Elvis and You

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Elvis and You is more than a book; it is the ultimate Elvis fan’s guide to Elvisizing your life, with the most comprehensive listings available on everything Elvis: Elvis resources, Elvis events, Elvis merchandise, Elvis trivia, Elvis et cetera. If it’s Elvis, it’s here. With 557 photos, many never before published, this 626 page resource guide provides tons of fun ideas and information that will help you get the most out of your realtionship with the King.

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If you ever doubt the importance of service, think of Tupelo Hardware Company. More than 50 years ago the store demonstrated its commitment to customer satisfaction, and the world hasn't been the same since.

At first glance, Tupelo Hardware may not seem unusual among independent home improvement retailers. Founded by George Booth in 1926, the business has been family owned for 71 years, and it primarily serves professionals and commercial/industrial accounts, with a strong assortment of core categories as well.

But a deeper look into the store's past is what truly sets it apart. For instance, how many retailers can say that they had Elvis Presley as a customer? Even among that presumably elite group, only Tupelo Hardware can claim to have provided him with his first guitar.

One small sale for the Booth family one giant leap for music history.

In the mid-1940s, Tupelo Hardware was filling a niche that no one else in its area was providing: musical instruments, including guitars and viobus. However, young Elvis didn't care about that at all. Less than 10 years old at the time, the future King was a frequent visitor who had his eye on a .22 bolt-action rifle. "The older boys in the neighborhood liked to hunt, so it was natural that he'd want to do it, too," said Bill Booth, George's son and now the store's owner.

Forrest Bobo, an employee at the time, was married to a relation of Elvis' mother, Booth says. Bobo let the boy work the bolt and play with the unloaded rifle when he would come into the store.

Bobo told him, 'If you play that, you might be famous someday' just to calm his disappointment. Well, we know what happened."

-Bill Booth    (1920-2000)

At one point, he promised Elvis a present, knowing the Presleys were a family of "slight means," Booth adds. The day his gift was to be given, Elvis came with his mother to show her what he wanted. "We would never have sold a rifle to a child, and his mother told him it was too dangerous anyway," Booth recalls. "His whole world fell in. He just cried and cried, he was so disappointed."

As the child carried on, Bobo suggested a guitar. He told him, "Sit here and play with this guitar-you'll like it," Booth says. Elvis wanted the rifle, but his mother told him he couldn't have it, and that was her final decision. So he cried some more. But finally he plunked on the guitar, because it was that or nothing. Bobo told him, "If you play that, you might be famous someday"-just to calm his disappointment.

"Well, we know what happened." In the years between that fateful $7.75 sale and Presley's first brush with fame, Booth heard from the youngster from time to time. Although Elvis spent much of the rest of his childhood living in Memphis, Booth says, he often came back to play in Tupelo as an adolescent and young adult. "He came into the store one day looking like he'd slept in his clothes for a week," says Booth, who was also unimpressed with the young man's longer, "greasy-looking" hair. "I walked over and waited on him. He bought a couple guitar picks and left, and I thought he was just some crummy looking guy who had come in."

"I turned to an employee and said, 'Leon, did you see that guy?' He said, 'Oh, that's Elvis Presley. That boy can really sing-I believe he'll make the big time.' About a year and a half later, he was on his way up. You couldn't turn on the radio without hearing requests for Elvis songs."

Twenty years after Presley's death, Booth still marvels at the impact of the local boy who made good. In fact, Booth feels that impact every day inside his store. "It's unbelievable," he says. "People come in to see where he bought his first guitar. Every network and media organization in the world has been here and filmed the place."

An occasional challenge is doing business with the extra traffic attracted by the store's place in history. The building was especially crowded this summer, during the week of the 20th anniversary of Presley's death. Anywhere between 30 and 40 people were continually "milling in and out" of the store throughout that period, Booth says.

Tupelo Hardware

Serving you

Since 1926

The site of a sale that would help alter popular music, Tupelo Hardware is now one of most frequently visited sites for fans who come to town to trace Elvis Presley's roots.