Trivia and the King

At the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death, interest is surging, revivals are revving, and you’d better be prepared in case someone asks you his mother’s maiden name. (It was Smith.) Some other Elvis trivia:

Born: Jan. 8, 1935, in a two-room shack in Tupelo, Miss.

Died: Aug. 16, 1977, of drug-related cardiac arrest in the ornate bathroom of Graceland, his home in Memphis.

Height: Six feet.

Weight: From 170 pounds in his prime to 260 pounds in his sequined-jumpsuit final years.

Records sold: More than a billion albums and singles worldwide, enough to circle the globe more than four times at the equator.

Last show: June 26, 1977, playing to 18,000 fans at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

Next show: This weekend in Memphis. A video Elvis was to sing along with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra during the climax of the city’s Elvis Week on Saturday, which also features a fan-club presidents’ ball, dedication of an Elvis statue and, as always, a candlelight vigil at Graceland.

Elvis sightings: Nearly a quarter of a million since his (alleged) death, reports the Star, the supermarket tabloid that ought to know. A few of his disguises: street musician in Chicago, Amish farmer in Vicksburg, Mich., and produce clerk in West Palm Beach, Fla.