The Mystery

Elvis Presley lived from 1960 to 1966 on two occasions at Perugia Way, Los Angeles. However, two house numbers are floating around 525 and 565.

Is it possible to determine the real number? As the house at Perugia Way 525 was demolished in 1988, it is not possible anymore to compare photos from the Elvis period and now...

Available Information

Youtube Movie

There is a rare movie at youtube showing Elvis' home at Perugia Way.

Youtube stills

The following stills are taken from the earlier mentioned youtube movie and show a bit of the house and the gate:

Pictures

Two pictures are available, that are said to be from the Perugia Way showing a bit of the house and the entrance:

Satelite pictures

Perhaps it is possible to determine the shape and location of the house(s) from early satelite pictures.

The oldest, a bit useful satelite picture of the area is from 1989. That is just after the house at Perugia Way 525 was demolished in 1988, and it is therefor not really useful:

A photo from 1994 shows that there is now more green around the houses at Perugia Way 525 and 565:

Unfortunately these satelite pictures cannot be used to unravel the mystery.

Sun/shadow positions

Let's go back to the photos with Elvis and a part of the house. In this case pay attention where the sun or the shadow is coming from. This is from the left, and it shines against the house. Can this be used to solve the mystery? The pictures are said to be taken in April 1965, let's assume that that is the case indeed. With it, it is possible to determine the sun position and with the shadow length that the sun creates for that date (let's use 15 April 1965).

Looking at the shadow that is created by the head-light of the blue-ish car at the second photo: this is about the same length as the height - perhaps a little shorter - of the head-light position (height), about 1.50m high with a shadow lenght of 1.50.

Using the second photo again, the shadow ceated by the blue-ish car behind Elvis shows that the sun comes from the left, but a bit more from the back of the car. The shadow seems a bit shorter than the height of the car. The sun seems to shine perpendicular to the red MGA 1600 roadstar.

To make this more precise, let's measure the shadows:

For shadow 1, the ratio is: 74% and for shadow 2, the ratio is: 64%. Let's use the average of the two: 70%.

With this information the following sun/shadow positions can be determined at respectively Perugia Way 565 and 525.

Perugia Way 565

At this time 10:03 the shadow length is 70% of the object size. In Google Earth it looks like this:

In the afternoon at 13:33 the sun/shadow ratio is again 70% the shadow is going away from the house.

Perugia Way 525

At this time 13:44 the shadow length is 70% of the object size. In Google Earth it looks like this:

Remark: the shadows of the trees at the open space are the real shadows of the satelite image, not the ones that were calculated by Google Earth.

At what time were the photos taken?

Both houses support the scenario with a smaller sun/shadow ratio (64%) for the house at Perugia Way 565 that will be 15 minutes later (10:20). For the house at number 525 it will be 15 minutes earlier (13:30).

Conclusion?

Is it possible to draw a conclusion with this information?

In case the photos were taken at Perugia Way 565, they were taken at 10 o'clock. In case they were taken at Perugia Way 525, they were taken at a quarter to two (13:44). Both times are possible.

The house at the photo does not look like the one at Perugia Way 565, the one at 525 was rebuild in 1988.

Somehow, I think that Elvis' lived at Perugia Way 525. But who knows for sure?

Wunderful update: after my initial investigation and writing of the article I discovered the following in the youtube movie showing Elvis' home at Perugia Way (that's now mentioned in the beginning of the article). I only discovered the movie and the detail at the gate after I was actually finished with the article, though it did not have a satisfying answer. With this find, it is crystal clear where Elvis lived at Perugia Way.

Found it!!

The house number at the gate is shown 2'40" into the youtube movie.

Note: knowing this, it is confirmed that the 2 photos with Elvis were indeed taken at Perugia Way 525.

Update 9 January 2022: the article Elvis´ 1960 MGA Mark 1 Roadster was updated after the finding above was shared with the author :)

References

• Elvis' 1960 MGA Mark 1 Roadster
• The night Elvis met the Beatles...for Real!
• Elvis Meets the Beatles by Scooty Moore
• Paul McCartney Pays Tribute To Elvis Presley
• The Beatles meet Elvis Presley
• The Only Known Photos of The Beatles Meeting Elvis Presley on August 27, 1965
• Elvis Presley’s California Homes
• Home's of the Presley's

Data

• wikimapia
• Home information