There are so many pictures. The Image has won the war. But if you look closely, you can start to see a narrative. Perhaps it is projection. We all see what we want to see. But I believe that the greatest stars have a certain kind of blankness to them – not boring-ness, not nothingness – but a void, an emptiness – which means they become natural projector screen for our dreams and hopes and desires. Not all performers have this blankness. As a matter of fact, very few do. It’s a rare quality. But all the greatest stars have it. They don’t give us all. Something essential – maybe THE thing – is held back. This is why we keep going back to them.
Elvis became famous when he was 19 years old. He didn’t grow up in an era where you had millions of pictures taken of you when you were a baby. Besides, he grew up in poverty. When Elvis was two years old, his father went to jail for altering a check. I think he served 8 or 9 months. A long time when you are two years old. Forever. Elvis’ mother had to keep things going without her husband’s paltry income. She picked cotton with baby Elvis strapped to her back. But dammit, that woman was determined he would go to school. She marched him to the library to get him a library card. They lived in shacks with their extended families. They moved to Memphis when Elvis was 13. They got placed in low-income housing. The projects. But when they made too much money (comparatively) they would get evicted because they weren’t “low income” enough. It put them in a bind. It seemed set up to keep you poor. They had nothing. Elvis certainly experienced hunger and fear in his childhood. He walked in his sleep. He was often sickly. And while he was only 2 years old when his father “went away”, that must have made an impression on him. He wouldn’t remember it, but it would have an impact. His father was not to be depended upon. It was Elvis and his mother against the world. Even as a 4 year old, 5 year old, he catered to his mother, making her sit down and bringing her water. He called her his “baby” when he was still a baby himself. You can see why he would be protective of this hard-working woman who picked cotton in the summer and worked as a seamstress to pick up the slack left by the lackadaisacal father.
The few photos we have of Elvis as a kid are either from school yearbooks or class photos. Only a couple other ones exist.
Of course, suddenly, at age 19, we have more photos of Elvis than we know what to do with.
The photographs slack off in the 60s and 70s, when Elvis stopped being accessible to the press, when he stopped going out and circulating. In the 60s we have mainly images from him in the movies, or personal family photos from vacations or Graceland days – but those photos were private, not publicity photos. In the 70s the lockdown gets even more acute, and we really only have images of Elvis onstage from those years. Again, there are the private photos, but these wouldn’t have shown up in the newspapers. He had become a remote mysterious figure, rarely seen, except onstage.
Every photo has a story. Some of the stories I know, some I don’t. But I like looking at them.
Jacksonville, Florida, 1956. The girl Elvis is kissing won a date with him by writing an essay about how much she loved him. At the time, Elvis was having a crazy tour of Florida, where police threatened to close down his show, and judges denounced him, and riots broke out. Meanwhile, he was traveling with his girlfriend, June Juanico, from Biloxi. Elvis had convinced June’s mother to allow June to go on tour with him. June was so pissed that Elvis had to meet up with this “fan” that she sulked in the hotel room. Elvis called her from the lobby: “Where are you????” June was huffy. “You’re on a date with some other girl. I’m BUSY. LEAVE ME ALONE.” Elvis pleaded: “Baby, her name is June, too – she’s really nice – we’re playing the piano, come down and join us!” June Juanico eventually did. The three of them had a ball that night, and June Juanico and the other June, Elvis’ date-for-the-night, became good friends and remain good friends to this day.
Elvis peeping through the camera. That’s Norman Taurog, his main director, in the background. Elvis was a sponge. He hung out in editing rooms, he asked questions, he was curious about everything.
In October, 1956, Elvis pulled into a gas station in Memphis. A throng gathered. He signed autographs. The gas station attendant ordered him to move his car but the crowd was too big. Elvis couldn’t get out. The gas station attendant got in Elvis’ face about it, aggressive, and Elvis ended up punching him. He had to appear in court to defend himself, which he did on October 15, 1956. The case was dropped. Meanwhile, he was supposed to wire June Juanico money so she could come and visit and he wasn’t heard from for 24 hours. Very unlike him. June was convinced he was blowing her off and, again, got pissy with him on the phone. Elvis told her what had happened. She was in Memphis soon afterwards.
March 24, 1958: Memphis. Elvis is inducted into the Army. A box lunch is provided. Every second of that day was documented.
January 10, 1959. Elvis in Germany. His mother died in August 1958, he shipped out in September to Europe. His father and grandmother came to Germany with him. With no time to grieve, Elvis was thrown into a new world, where he was not a performer anymore, but a soldier. He was afraid he wouldn’t do well as a soldier. He was afraid that his career was over. He was afraid that music would change, leaving him behind. Two years is a long time when you are at the height of your success.
Look at his eyes behind the shades. He is dead serious. It’s ridiculous. I search for irony, I find none. I love it.
March 7, 1960: Elvis disembarks from the train returning him back to Memphis after 2 years away in Germany. It’s about 8 o’clock in the morning. It’s snowing in Memphis. I don’t know: ya think Elvis is happy to be home?
1965: Elvis in the front room at Graceland. Elvis allowed a local paper to come into his home and photograph him, even though he expressed reservations at the time. His home was sacred. He didn’t want to seem like he was showing the house off, or revealing something about himself that shouldn’t be revealed. Privacy was paramount to this man.
Memphis. Looking out at fans. I find his expression so intriguing here. You can see the happiness. But there’s a softness there, a self-awareness, too. He doesn’t see anything as “his due”. It all still amazes him a little bit.
He probably spent the majority of his life in just this situation. Makes me feel claustrophobic just thinking about it.
Totally abandoned in his work. 1956. RCA recording.
September 1956: Elvis stopped by Sun Records to say hi to Sam Phillips. I love seeing that front room even more now that I’ve been there.
He looks very vulnerable and young to me here.
Performing in Ottawa, 1957, in the gold jacket (he had abandoned the gold pants, after the Colonel admonished him not to fall to his knees onstage because it was wrecking the suit). Elvis quietly abandoned the pants so that he could continue to … you know … fall to his knees. This series of Canadian concerts were the only time Elvis Presley performed outside of the United States.
Nobody like him. Gorgeous.
This photo cracks me UP. When Elvis went to Canada in 1957, he was greeted by a frenzy that was almost more intense than what he experienced in the US. He arrived and was driven to the theatre in a motorcade, where he then gave a press conference and a couple of interviews. He sat on a table during the press conference. Afterwards, he signed autographs and this photo is from that section of his night. I just love how the Canadian girls are looking at him as though he is a Martian who has just come out of a spaceship. They want to touch him. He is an exotic creature. And he just sits there, taking it, loving it … but still: he was just a person. He was a 22 year old human being. Heady stuff, to be treated like a Martian when you have pimples and live with your parents and do all the other things that regular human beings do.
70s rock star Elvis signing autographs.
1956. One of my favorite candid photos of Elvis. This is from Alfred Wertheimer’s famous series of photos. Here, Elvis was on the train returning to Memphis after being in New York. He was telling his cousins a story, and he acted out all the parts, and the story went on forever, and maybe his listeners were a little bit bored, but Elvis kept going, laughing hysterically throughout the entire telling of his funny story. This photo makes me laugh just looking at it.
Elvis is so isolated in that mirror and you can sense the frenzy of the photographers offscreen. Elvis always said that he often felt lonely “in the middle of a crowd”.
Another one of Wertheimer’s. What is cool about this picture is the story behind it. Elvis was returning to Memphis by train. He had his cousin with him, as well as the Colonel, and Wertheimer. Elvis was always impatient to get home, and there are stories of him getting off planes in Houston, renting or buying a car and driving to Memphis as opposed to submitting to the flight anymore. Like: He could not WAIT. Here, as the train made its way through Memphis, Elvis asked if he could get off. He was near his house, and he’d just walk home from there. This was the Audobon Drive house, the first house Elvis bought. So the train stopped and Elvis, not even carrying his luggage, got off in the middle of a field. There are pictures of him walking across the field and then stopping a black woman on the sidewalk and asking her which way he should go to get home. What I like about this photo is that it is both totally ordinary and totally bizarre at the same time. Which, to me, says “Elvis”. Elvis, you can’t wait fifteen minutes until you get to the proper station? Well, no, he couldn’t. You want Elvis to WAIT for something? You don’t become Elvis Presley by “waiting” for ANYthing. He knew he was passing through his neighborhood so he just asked if he could get off there. And he did. As the train pulled off without him, you can see Elvis on the sidewalk with the woman, and he waves goodbye to the train. This was in the spring of 1956. A mere 5 months later, there would be no disembarking of trains all by himself. He would be too famous to be allowed to go anywhere alone.
I love images of Elvis performing that also include his audiences. This one is iconic. He is so young, yet he is already a mythical creature.
There’s just something about this candid shot that really speaks to me. He’s blonde, he’s all dressed up, and his face is thoughtful and sensitive. But it’s his posture that really makes this photo. His hand between his legs. His slouched torso. His ringed hand across his face. His outfit is eye-catching and sexy, collar opened, but he looks like a teenager, awkward, kind of holding himself together with his two hands, one on his face, one between his legs. Unselfconscious, and yet totally self-conscious too.
Early morning, March 24, 1958: Elvis showing up for his induction into the Army in Memphis. On his way in to being processed. Everyone is yawning. It is too damn early.
Elvis and his mama, 1956. Wertheimer, again. The intimacy of the photos he got would be unheard of in Elvis’ career only a short time later when all access was cut off. But here, we see Elvis at home on Audobon Drive, and his mother hovers by him, even standing there as he gets undressed. Totally intimate. In almost every photo, Elvis and his mother are touching each other. Elvis is naked from the waist up in this photo. He’s 21. But the body language between the two is as if he is still a little boy. It was obviously a very comfortable relationship. Elvis, in interviews, letters, telegrams, refers to his parents as “his babies”. So although his mother babied him, he also had an acute awareness that he was the Head of the family.
In a hotel room in Miami, Florida, 1960. Elvis got out of the Army in March of 1960. His first personal appearance was in a television special hosted by Frank Sinatra called “Welcome Home, Elvis”, filmed in Miami. Sammy Davis was on it, and other Rat Packers. Elvis sang “Stuck On You” – it’s a performance I love – and then an awkward duet with Frank Sinatra, and that was it. But it was a big deal, especially because Frank Sinatra had dissed rock and roll, saying it was only “for goons”. So this was a big Establishment Acceptance moment. But for whatever reason, a ton of pictures were taken of Elvis in the hotel room in Miami. The banner button above for all of my Elvis Essays is also from that day. The photos are candid. Elvis looks unreal in terms of his gorgeousness, but they are candid photos. His hair is tall and greasy. He seems unselfconscious and happy in all of the photos. I love this one.
There have to be 5,000 pictures taken of Elvis during this one press conference on August 1, 1969, heralding his opening show at the International Hotel in Vegas. And there’s something about the photos that even if it’s a closeup, I can tell immediately that it was from this press conference. He looks fantastic. His sideburns are gigantic. He wears a silk scarf, an open shirt, and glittering rings. Also, he looks happy and open. Huge laughter, accessible expression. This is my favorite shot. Childlike.
Tom Jones, Priscilla and Elvis. This is right around the time Elvis and Priscilla got married. He and Tom Jones were good friends. They vacationed together with their wives. They hung out. They went to each other’s shows. It was a very close relationship. Elvis often had a long cigarillo with him, either in his mouth or between his fingers. He rarely smoked though. I often wonder if it was to help keep his restless hands still.
Imagine being a 15 year old girl in 1956. You are so in love with Elvis Presley that your entire family is now annoyed at you. You have started to masturbate because now you have the perfect inspiration. You listen to his albums until they wear out. You have a scrapbook. You weep throughout the entirety of Love Me Tender. You think your heart will explode. You weep throughout Loving You. You ache with longing watching him being whipped in Jailhouse Rock. You write him fan mail. Then. OMG. He is drafted. And he disappears. Entirely. It’s like he was never there. Did that even happen?? Was Elvis Presley ever here?? You keep your ear to the ground for any press about him, how he’s doing in the Army, promotions he’s received, etc. And once in a blue moon, pictures of Elvis will float back across the ocean to you in the United States. Pictures like this one. Imagine how despite his absence he would grow in your mind when pictures like this would surface. So admirable, so patriotic, so selfless, so mysterious, so … there and yet not there.
Elvis after a performance in 1956. It was not uncommon for him to faint following shows. Or collapse from exhaustion. He was hospitalized once. And this was actual exhaustion, not a euphemism for something else. He sweat so much during his shows that he lost up to 7 pounds a night. Which, naturally, he would gain back by eating five ice cream sundaes and a giant pile of bacon. But Elvis couldn’t phone anything in if he tried. This kind of thing was what worried his mother so much. She feared he would burn out, that he would hurt himself, that he would get sick, that he would collapse once and never get up. The thing I love about this photo is that Elvis – unlike the Beatles, for example – was out there all by himself. Yes, he had his band, but it became apparent quickly, as in immediately – that he was the draw. The Beatles could commiserate with one another, and share their excitement of a group experience. Elvis shared the experience of fame with no one. His friends were proud, they supported him, they surrounded him with their hands out wanting to come along for the ride, but they didn’t know what it was like. That’s what I see when I look at this photo. His aloneness.
It’s the cocked crooked leg that I love about this photo.
1956. Elvis sleeping on the train. I can’t remember where he was coming from. Either New York or Richmond. He had gone to New York to do the Steve Allen Show, as well as record “Hound Dog” at the RCA Studios, and then came back to Memphis on the train. There was a lot of hijinx on the train, involving a stuffed panda, and then Elvis passed out. Alfred Wertheimer took this photo. This was at a time in Elvis’ life (rare) when he could sleep when he wanted to. Meaning: he was able to sleep. He would lie down and be dead to the world in 2 seconds. His girlfriend June Juanico describes that phenomenon. Elvis was a bad sleeper – from early on – and, of course, it became a major issue later in his life. But he always had nightmares, and also sleepwalked. His mother and father did, too. I have this image of the three Presleys wandering around their little shack in Tupelo, all of them sleepwalking at the same time. Elvis’ mother asked George Klein to look after him when they were on the road, because Elvis might sleepwalk and she didn’t want him to hurt himself. One time, Elvis woke up in the stairwell, in his underwear. This photo is 1956. His life had already turned upside down and would stay that way for the next 20 years: night would be day and day would be night. When he slept, he meant business.
Full-blown magnificent 70s Elvis.
Goofing off with fans.
One of the many many photos Alfred Wertheimer took of Elvis trying to kiss, and then succeeding in kissing, Barbara Grey, the girl in my banner, backstage at the theatre in Richmond, Virginia. They had been hanging out all day. They ate lunch at a lunch counter, and Elvis went over his script for the Steve Allen Show with her. They drove in the back of a car to the show. Elvis was playful with her, pretending to strangle her, and then cozying up close to her, only to shout at the top of his lungs into her ear. Brat. Finally, they were alone (well, except for the photographer skulking around) and Elvis moved in for the kill. I like this one the best, although they’re all great. He looks so intent. He WILL kiss this girl.
Another one from the same series. I love how their silhouettes leave that tiny space between them. Lovely.
Signing autographs in Germany. I adore this photo. He looks so innocent. Of course, he is far from innocent. He’s sleeping with about 5 or 6 people simultaneously, and cavorting with strippers, while writing strange passive-aggressive urgent letters to his girlfriend back home, and of course had started taking Dexedrine at the suggestion of one of his superior officers so he could stay awake during maneuvers. Maybe it’s the contrast that make these German photos so interesting, and also uneasy. His mother had just died. He had no time to grieve. Also, his father had started dating someone else, and Elvis felt betrayed. It was too soon, he thought. Vernon ended up marrying her, and Elvis never warmed to her and always got an uneasy feeling that she had married his father to get close to him. I think he was right, by the way. He even said in an interview around this time when he was asked about his father’s new marriage, “As long as she doesn’t think she can replace my mother, we should be fine.” He was very upset. One of Elvis’ friends describes being in the house Elvis rented in Germany and hearing both Elvis and Vernon (in separate rooms, of course) having sex with people at the same moment. How could everything have changed in such a short period of time. Chaos.
Elvis with his parents. The body language is eloquent. Elvis and Gladys are a unit. He cups her head tenderly, like a lover. He stares at her, gently, sadly, totally focused on her. She looks lost in anxiety. She needs her son’s support. Vernon is clearly on the outside, his hand on his son’s shoulder like he wants “in”. But that touch doesn’t gain him access to the powerful dynamic between Elvis and Gladys.
Elvis in his room at the Warwick Hotel in New York reading his fan mail. Another one of Wertheimer’s photos. After Elvis read each letter, he would rip it up. Wertheimer asked him why. Elvis replied, ” It’s nobody else’s business what’s in them.”
Elvis backstage in Vegas, greeting a fan. I mean, come on.
Ann-Margret and Elvis. The body language is interesting. He’s alert, yet relaxed, hands on his hips, he feels confident with her, and she’s focused and gentle and attentive. They seem together. We also have Elvis’ ubiquitous sweat stains. A very human photo, despite the fact that they are both gorgeous movie stars. It’s a private moment. He called her “Ammo”, short for Ann-Margret Olsson.
He looks like a gorgeous Spock here. He’s handsome in almost an otherworldly way. It doesn’t seem possible that genes could fall together in this particular way and create THIS. And the blue suit. The suit, man.
One of my favorite photos of Elvis Presley ever taken. This is during a show in 1956, reaching out to the fans. He looks so gleefully happy, excited for himself, excited about everything. It’s all fun.
Coming back to Memphis by plane.
Another one of those innocent German pictures. Beautiful.
1956. Browsing in a record store. Love the white bucks.
Also one of my favorite pictures of Elvis ever taken. The outfit, the sunglasses, the BELT, check out that BELT, not to mention his awesome gun, and the expression on his face. Not only that, but the expressions on everyone else’s faces. He is strutting into the room wielding a firearm. He looks aggressive. This is in the main room at Graceland. Lisa Marie was back there somewhere, you can actually see her baby shoe over to the left. I think he looks fantastic.
In 1954, Elvis started playing football with friends in Guthrie Park. He had a song out on the radio, and suddenly he was able to make friends. He had been kind of a misfit in high school. The weekend football games was a tradition he kept up even into 1956 when he was becoming really really famous and the crowds would gather around to watch. There are some really great stories – mainly from Jerry Schilling, who was one of the Memphis boys who played football with them, and went on to become Elvis’ great friend. Past 1956, Elvis’ fame was too intense to gather in Guthrie Park anymore. But he kept up the football game tradition, playing games out in Hollywood as well as at Graceland. They had jerseys made up. They played rough. Elvis broke his finger. People got concussions. It was hard core. Elvis loved football. This photo is from November or December of 1956.
Elvis and his mother, 1956. Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis was about to go out for a ride on his motorcycle. There is so much going on in this photo. Again, he presents himself to Wertheimer’s camera nakedly. There is no artifice. Or, there is, but it’s naked artifice. It’s not a “pose”. He’s a hot sexy young man, comfortable in the company of his hovering mother. Elvis had no embarrassment about how much he loved her, and their relationship. It made him who he was. He took being a star in stride, because he was already a star to her. He grew up an only child. He was pampered and fussed over. He grew up fast, and yet he also stayed a baby. Here he is in his full-blown sexuality, he’s out in the world now, without her, and yet he seems pleased and excited to come home and share all of that with his mother. Look at me now, mama, look at me now.
I literally do not know what to do with myself. Elvis is channeling the spirit of Bob Fosse and I LIKE IT.
I love this one for many reasons. It gives you a good look at the intricacies of his hair style.
I know these photos are heavy on the 1956 era, but that is only because Elvis was still accessible to the press at that time, and his photos were everywhere. There’s just not as much out there of him in the 60s and 70s. I mean, of course, there’s a ton out there, but not like the candid everyday shots that you get from the 50s before the Colonel’s publicity machine really clamped down. This is at the house at Audobon Drive, that Elvis bought in 1956. There was no security and fans would gather on the lawn. Elvis would hang out with them, sometimes inviting pretty girls inside to have pillow fights. I love this one because of how he is standing. Look at how his belly is sticking out, his back arched. He’s standing like a toddler stands, yet he’s all duded up in his motorcycle cap and sleek shirt. It looks like he’s looking at a little pillbox hat someone must have left for him.
A classic photo. Wertheimer again. Elvis came home to Audobon Drive, the home he just bought. He had just had a pool dug and it was only half-filled. He went swimming with his cousins. He traipsed through the house half-naked, cuddling up with his mother, looking at scrapbooks, bare-chested. One of his girlfriends – because, you know, he always had a lot – showed up in her girlie dress and heels. Barbara Hearn. (Speaking of which ….) Elvis played her some of the records he just cut in New York. He tries to dance with her – and there he is, bare-chested, and she looks VERY uncomfortable with this big half-naked hunk trying to dance with her in front of his mother. This photo is hilarious to me, especially if you don’t know the context. Why is Elvis sitting there without a shirt on? Who is that girl? He looks so relaxed, in his element, and she looks nervous and anxiously polite. Look at the furnishings, look at the decorations. Elvis had gone apeshit buying furniture, and Gladys had had all of her old furniture moved to the house, too. The Audobon house was crammed with random furniture. Remember: not even two years before, this family had been living in a low-income housing project. Having a house was a big big BIG deal.
Elvis doing his friend’s hair. Look at Elvis’ outfit. There are multiple levels to this photo, some homoerotic, all of which I adore.
After a show. Surrounded. Poor boy. Of course he has a comb in his pocket.
Kay Wheeler, the first president of an official Elvis Presley fan club. She was a teenager. Obsessed with Elvis. In April of 1956, she finally got a chance to meet him when he played in Dallas. She was 17 years old. She met him backstage and introduced herself, and she said that he moved in on her almost immediately. He hugged her, running his hands over her waist and hips, asking her, “Is all this really you?” Wheeler hadn’t even kissed anyone at that point and said she nearly fainted. Later that night, this photo was taken. Elvis grabbed her to him, pressed up on her from behind, and hugged her and a photographer took this picture, which mortified her when she saw it. They hung out for a couple of days. She was a virgin. He was cool with that. He was a 1950s guy. He was always cool with stuff like that. There are even funny stories of him starting to put the moves on a girl in Vegas, the 70s, and she would stop him saying, “I’m a virgin.” And he would stop, congratulate her on being a virgin, and then suggest that they watch “Dr. Strangelove” or maybe have a pillow fight or something. Dying …. Anyway, I love this photo, even though Kay Wheeler is basically being sexually harassed by the young rock star.
July, 1956. Elvis being escorted by Memphis police to his giant show at Russwood Park in Memphis. This is yet another of Alfred Wertheimer’s. Elvis’ love affair with policemen started early and was something he kept up his entire life. He had great respect for cops, and had a lot of access to them because they escorted him everywhere. He would quiz them on their lives, their work, and wanted to be a cop himself. That’s why he had a 15 year manic episode where he basically collected police badges from every city he visited. He would take their police tests, he would be tested at the firing range, and get an honorary badge. I saw some of those badges at Graceland. Elvis was very proud of them. He was so obsesssed with getting badges that he basically knocked on the White House door at 6 in the morning, asking President Nixon if he could get a federal badge.
Scruffy cute 70s Elvis. I love him in candid shots. Hard to get a bad picture of him.
Elvis was a better piano player than he was a guitar player. It was also where he relaxed, where he felt most in touch with himself. He started out all sessions at the piano, playing gospel.
On the road. This one haunts me.
In the bathroom at the Warwick Hotel. Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis was so relaxed he allowed Wertheimer to photograph him brushing his teeth, shaving, and doing his hair. He has pimples all over his body and a big wart on his wrist. Elvis didn’t care. He is so accessible to the camera. This is why he was a good actor, too, even in poor material. He presented himself to the camera nakedly. It was in his bones to do so. Later on, this kind of access would not be allowed. Elvis Warts and All could not be allowed. But in 1956 he was still available. The only time he got testy with Wertheimer is when Wertheimer was going to take a shot of Elvis zipping up his fly. Elvis said, “Hey. No.” Elvis was both modest and immodest. Many of his girlfriends report they never saw him naked, even though they were, you know, sleeping with him. He was shy. But shy people – or introverts – which Elvis was – often have a relaxed exhibitionistic streak in them. That’s why so many performing artists are actually introverts. You can see that contrast in these amazing photos Wertheimer took.
Oh, Elvis. This is from the same day as the Barbara Hearn photo was taken. Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis is about to go into the pool and takes a phone call. His father hovers in the background. Look at Elvis’ body and his pose. His hair is perfect. He’s clearly a man, but he’s only 21 years old. He still seems like a little kid. At least he does to me here. Something about the pose, and the vulnerability of his body.
In October 1957, Elvis gave a performance at the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. He wore the gold suit. It is a show that is now famous because it was apparently so outrageous that the newspapers went into outrage overdrive the following day and the Los Angeles Vice Squad was contacted. The Vice Squad threatened to shut down his next show if he didn’t clean up his act. Elvis did tone it down for the next show – and the Vice Squad were there filming it, to give you an idea of the threat and how crazy that time was. There are a couple of photos of that first outrageous show. One of the things that happened that was beyond the pale was Elvis, during “Hound Dog”, attacked Nipper, the RCA Victor dog, and rolled around on the stage with it. Most of the photos of Elvis rolling around with the dog are blurry. This one is not. The newspapers said that Elvis’ behavior was “too indecent” to even describe. Man, I wish I had been there.
I think this is one of the most beautiful and intimidating photos of Elvis ever taken.
I can’t figure out what is going on here. Elvis was on a date with the young lady in white – there are many other photos of him opening the door for her, leading her up some steps, etc. It looks like some other woman is in distress. Did she faint? Elvis is helping her, holding her hand. I would love to know the story.
Lisa Marie was born in Memphis on February 1, 1968. Elvis was so in love with the baby that he kept waking her up to play with her and hold her, and Priscilla had to tell him to please let her sleep. When Elvis first saw Lisa Marie in the hospital, he was in tears. He said to Priscilla, “I can’t believe that I made a part of this beautiful child.” You can kind of see all of that going on in this candid family shot when Lisa Marie was first brought home to Graceland. Priscilla smiles for the camera, Elvis can’t stop looking at his daughter.
Alfred Wertheimer. Maybe the most famous photo ever taken of Elvis. Well, that and the one with Nixon. Elvis on the train with a portable record player listening to music. Dreamy.
There’s a new exhibit that just opened up at Graceland, devoted to Elvis’ relationship with Lisa. This photo is on the wall, blown up, behind the exhibit. There is so much detail in this photo, the cane, the rings, the clothes, but most of all: it is her expression, and his expression. An intense photograph.
I find this photo fascinating. I am guessing that is in the “backstage” tent area in Tupelo, Mississippi – when Elvis returned to play a big show there in September of 1956. That is the concert where he wore the blue velvet shirt. Elvis had been out in Hollywood starting filming “Love Me Tender”. He had made friends with Nick Adams, an actor who latched on to Presley. Nick Adams had had a small part in “Rebel Without a Cause” and Elvis’ idol was James Dean, so he was very impressed. There is some evidence that Nick Adams had actually been hired by the Colonel to keep a close eye on Elvis and report back to him. The Colonel always wanted an insider he could trust. Elvis was probably unaware of that. Nick Adams does not come off well in the Elvis story. He reads as a strict bottom-feeder, a leech. At the Tupelo show, he got on the stage at one point – Elvis introducing him – and Nick said, “I was a friend of James Dean’s!” Shut up, Nick. Get off the stage. The friendship didn’t last. Nick was a sketchy guy. Ambitious for himself. He didn’t like the fact that Elvis was dating the little girl from Biloxi, June Juanico, and made trouble there too. June hated him. Elvis would say to her, “Be nice to him. He’s a lonely Hollywood guy, doesn’t have many friends.” Anyway: here the two of them are. I can’t stop looking at this picture. Every detail. The mirror, Elvis’ posture, Nick’s expression … it’s a fascinating picture.
Late Elvis. This one haunts me, too, and the phrase “it’s lonely at the top” really comes to mind.
Elvis got out of the army and took the train home from New York to Memphis. At every stop along the way, fans had gathered to welcome him home. Press were allowed on the train, and Elvis gave a couple of interviews. He sounds nervous at times about how music might have changed in his absence, and comes off as intelligent and thoughtful. Here he is on the train. 1. His hair is so tall. 2. He looks happy and unselfconscious. 3. He bit his nails his whole life. Look at his nails. They look like shit. Nervous boy, nervous man.
Yet another one of the army photos, where he always looks innocent to me. Maybe it’s because of the uniform, and the cleancut hair. Listening to records in his uniform. It had to be really lonely and disorienting over there. Would his fans stay loyal? Would people forget him? What would happen to him if he couldn’t be an entertainer anymore? The thought kept him up nights.
Can’t get enough of the jumpsuits and the glorious extravagance of his persona in the 70s. It suits him. He would have moved on. But I love that THIS is how the talent expressed itself once he became an older man. I think it’s fantastic. He looks amazing, larger than life, the Prototype of a Man. Yet wearing a jeweled jumpsuit. It makes no sense, it makes perfect sense.
BRILLIANT. There is much that is brilliant about this entire punk rock episode but I think my favorite part is a moment that is not as well-known. After the meeting with Nixon, Elvis and his two friends were given a tour of the White House. All of the secretaries and staff members came flooding out of their offices to see him. Prime ministers and heads of state were par for the course, big whup, but Elvis? Everyone went nuts. Elvis didn’t care so much about the White House tour, but he got really turned on when he was shown the conference room where big decisions were made, maps on the wall, and a giant gleaming table. Elvis looked around him, taking it all in, and then said, quoting his favorite movie: “No fighting in the War Room.” I love this man.
You came a long way, boyo.
Epic overview, Sheila!! His life covered so much ground in a million directions, and was full of contradiction, but laid out like this it makes sense. What a fine tribute!
Epic is certainly the word for his life. Hard to believe it all went down like that. But it did. As I keep saying, I think he handled it remarkably well, all things considered. How does one make sense of a childhood like he had – and the steep fast climb to fame that he experienced?
Also, boy, is the man beautiful. I love his vanity and pride in his appearance. He always LOOKS great.
New to your page, but stumbled upon it the other day doing some research and of course can’t help but comment. This is the important part of his story that gets lost, overtaken by the 70’s extravaganza that is so easily associated with this life, which will packed with lots of stuff going on, is just a small, very small part of the epic story. Love you pictures by the way. Many happen to be favorites of myself as well. And that comment of the photo in the blue suit….well, that was some serious DNA aligned up to create what we see. Almost too much to look at all at once.
Quite a visual contrast to the era of “the man in the gray flannel suit” that he was caught in. What strikes me is that he pioneered so much of his trajectory, on the level of basic survival. He’s like John Glenn sitting on top of a rocket for the first time in human history, breaking boundaries and exceeding all known tolerances. Keep smiling… give planet earth a wave… sing a song.
Fascinating – I think I told you this that my friend David remarked that Elvis’ fame was not on a level comparable to any other performer. The only valid comparison was an astronaut. Those astronauts who actually made it out into space and looked back at the earth from the moon were forever changed by that experience – and only a handful (literally!) of people in the history of the human race could relate. It really is one of those “you had to be there” things. You would be alone with that feeling. Who could share it?
Elvis’ fame was like that. I always knew he was famous – of course I did – his fame was so omnipresent that it trickled down by osmosis. I can’t remember the first time I heard about him, for example. However, it didn’t REALLY land for me what that actually looked like until I went into the Hall of Gold and the racquet-ball court in Graceland where you are confronted with just how many gold records and platinum records and awards this man achieved. It’s inhuman. There is no comparison.
Astronauts would get it. They’d look at that hall of gold and go, “Yup. It must have been pretty lonely for him.” Awesome, but lonely. Because who else could understand?
Nina Simone understood.
Lena Horne would understand.
It’s lonely out there by yourself.
Nina S. is so intense for me that I find it difficult to listen to her casually. She comes up on my iPod and I normally skip it – because she requires that I go there and often I’m not ready or willing.
Her “Here Comes the Sun” is one of the most brilliant and terrifying things I have ever heard. She makes that song sound like the dying gasp of a suicide, watching her last sun come up.
Extraordinary talent and vision. And yes, I listen to her stuff sometimes and think, “How on earth did you bear it?”
Very few in history. Chaplin. They’d have to be a powerful Russian Czar combined with the humble roots of Abraham Lincoln and possessing the innate technological sense of Benjamin Franklin, the creativity of Mozart, the allure of Cleopatra carved by Michelangelo and the shamanism of Rasputin. hmmmm. Only 1 Elvis.
Yeah, I always thought an appropriate comparison would be a freakin’ Pharaoh.
Oh goddamnit do I wish Elvis and Bob Fosse had worked together. Think of the TV special, or the movie, if life was fair Fosse would have done a film version of Chicago in the late seventies, and Elvis would have made a terrific Billy Flynn.
Oooh cool idea! An Elvis movie by FOSSE! Set in ancient Egypt… Pharaoh E-Ho-Tep!!
Pharaoh E-Ho-Tep – hahahahahahaha
Yes! Bob Fosse was openly perverse, Elvis was secretly perverse (despite his onstage shenanigans, he presented himself as a cleancut good young boy – and he WAS that, but he also WASN’T – that’s how disturbing he was, that’s the cat he let out of the bag). Could have been a match made in heaven. I mean, look at that picture. He totally looks like he belongs in the Kit Kat Club.
If only life were fair … :(
Yes, they would have been a match made in heaven and hell. Until you began your historic excavation in the Valley Of The King, I wasn’t aware that he wanted to play Midnight Cowboy. Brilliant possibility, what an insight. Sometimes life is more than fair, but it’s certainly not perfect. I do think that’s the generous lesson of Elvis. He stands for the brilliance and the imperfection of human life.
The fact that he would read that script and think, “I want to do that” tells me he knew exactly who he was. “Well, sir, I ain’ t a for-real cowboy. But I am one helluva stud.”
Picture EP saying that.
Imagine how brave he was to even WANT to do that part.
No, life is not perfect. It SUCKS. But the fact that that desire was there, that we even know he was iNTERESTED in such material – speaks volumes. He meant business. REAL business. Not just money-making business, but real business.
Good for you, Elvis.
He was lookin’ for T-R-O-U-B-L-E!! Right ON, Elvis!
Also – the man was the most competitive man on the face of the earth. He had failed himself in his goals in Hollywood. It haunted him because he knew he could do better. It obsessed him. He WANTED T-R-O-U-B-L-E. That was the only way he could redeem himself.
Reminds me of Mickey Rourke – a comparison I have made before.
But still. I feel for the guy. To want to do Midnight Cowboy – to be the kind of person who would want to play a gay male prostitute – and then to have to make It Happened at the World’s Fair.
There’s something huge here, something I’m not getting – I keep circling around it. I have approached it but never dealt with it head on. Lester Bangs did.
How does the culture DEAL with an Elvis Presley? We trap him and try to contain him. He implicates all of us in his unabashed greatness. And so the culture tries to bring him down, punish him, level him.
I know I’ve made myself clear that I don’t think the 60s and 70s were some kind of a waste – far far from it. His discography is intimidating, and his movie career is daunting in its scope and success (whatever reputation those movies may have had now).
But Elvis brings up interesting and disturbing questions about what a culture does when genius erupts. How we react, how we handle it. This is not unique to Elvis. Geniuses throughout history have been shunned and punished.
Eventually, the system broke him. Well, and his addiction to drugs, which couldn’t be addressed at the time, or handled appropriately. But still: I think it’s bigger than drugs.
The culture loved him but it also had a vested interest in keeping him in his place. Not the fans – but the overall taste-makers and … see, I have to think more on this. Lester Bangs said it better than I could.
We have no equivalent today, although you see flashes of it when someone comes up who is raw and exciting, and you immediately worry for them. “What will ‘they’ do to this person?”
It’s not just about the money-train and everyone wanting to get on it. It’s about the culture deciding that “this” is where we like this person, THIS is where we can handle him, so we MUST keep him there.
Elvis was complicit in this. He never tried to be a pioneer. He had no mission. That is the most amazing thing about him, and the strongest evidence of his genius.
But it’s hard not to feel that giant forces swooped in to try to contain him, the second he emerged.
I am sure he sensed that.
No doubt his stars aligned at just the right time for him to bounded unto the scene of music. His timing musically may have been impeccable, but so was his time in his ‘arrival’, his birth (1935 making him ‘ripe’ for the coming explosion in music and culture, as you pointed out in the Hayride essay), he return from the military (while all of his equals were either no longer rocking and rolling or jailed – think Berry, Lewis, Richard, Holly). He had perfect timing for much that happened in his life and attribute some of his success to fortuitous. But also his upbringing — not just the warm and fuzzies from his mother, but also the desire to be better, the longing to want it — its probably hard to find someone with his background (abject poverty and being uprooted from home to home) and combine it with extraordinary talent — EXTRAORDINARY — but also with that uncanny sense of timing and drive — you cannot find those traits today in any person and have them do what he did. He paved that road, made it easier for those to follow so that innate desire that drove him to become so otherworldly cannot be found in anyone else. Plus, without going all political here, I think our society as a whole has quelled that intense desire to better ourselves. Being born into poverty today is not what being poor was when he was born in The Depression or even in the 50’s when he was soaring high above it all.
Great essay Sheila. Epic is the word. And while I know there’s absolutely no way to know what was really going on in that Nick Adams photo I have just enough memory of high school locker rooms and public school bus stops to say it looks an awful lot like the moment when–if somebody doesn’t apologize or explain himself real quick–there’s gonna be a fight….I mean Colonel or no Colonel, spy or no spy, just seeing that photo would make me think this relationship is never going to last! (And Nick Adams, I must say, here looks exactly like that guy we all knew in school who was always either sucking up or backing down.)
NJ – ha!! I love your take on that photo! I’m a girl, I just wouldn’t pick up on that male thing – so I love your analysis of it, and now I can totally see it.
yup: Elvis is clearly the alpha dog there, and Nick is the obsequious follower. Elvis is being patient, but also feels a bit cramped, like he can’t shake the guy.
I never want to take away from his accomplishments. I don’t like to talk about his “tragedy” because I don’t see the trajectory as inherently tragic. If you listen to his recordings right up to the end, you can see that he was always, always, in the zone of his work, and the excellence of it.
But still.
What happens when a genius emerges?
We are so proud of ourselves for being a part of it, we are so excited to say “we were there”, but then something else happens … and we are a part of that too. Elvis could not be allowed to do his own thing.
And perhaps if he had been allowed to “do his own thing” it would have been his ruination.
It still makes you think though.
It is difficult to overestimate the American appetite for destruction. It may be as limitless as Elvis.
The other day, out here in the land of the insane bumper sticker… I saw the most insane bumper sticker I have ever seen. It said: “Impeach Obama” Impeach Obama in an election year! Why not just vote against him?
If there is a movement to impeach Obama, they could organize and canvass to vote against him. By the time he would be impeached, if they are starting now, he’d be replaced… if they were organized. It was a pure expression of American ignorance and pain. It meant and hoped to inflict pain. It was malevolent toward process and a man. It was sincere expression plastered all over the back of that car. It was beautifully and professionally printed. It could have been funny, but it was so damn dumb and heartfelt that I couldn’t laugh. Elvis kept to the good side, but he had seen the truth.
hahaha I know – impeach? For realz??
The yearning for chaos, for destruction – to totally BEAT your enemies, as opposed to coexisting with them and working for change … that has always been with us. Our democracy is messy and I like it that way – but it certainly leaves a lot of room for the kooks.
One of the things that is amazing to me about Big E is that he was not “broken” by doing 31 movies he didn’t care about. When he was set free in 1968, he didn’t just come back blazing – he came back with such an indelible sense of danger and power that it still can be felt in the comeback special.
He actually could NOT be ruined.
Unfortunately, his health problems and the medication-cycle he was on took him down and he was so isolated at the end – a King surrounded by acolytes who needed him to keep being exactly the same way so that they could keep making a living. But that’s not the true Elvis. For almost 20 years, he kept himself untouched. Even a culture that wanted to destroy him – from the get-go – from 1956 on – couldn’t succeed.
It’s extraordinary and really quite a triumph when you look at it through another filter. This is why I am so against seeing his whole life as a tragic journey. That discounts so much of what he did – and, like you said, his gift for basic survival.
“he didn’t just come back blazing – he came back with such an indelible sense of danger and power”….even today, sometimes you have to watch that first show in small doses……very very intense! Once he got to “Tryin’ to Get to You” it was a lot to digest from there until he finished that show. Sometimes its just difficult to describe.
I love the pics with his mama. You can feel the love.
debra – totally.
And that last photo: Elvis is, what, 18 months there? Is that about right? It would be shortly after this photo was taken that Vernon would go to prison.
I’m obsessed with full-blown magnificent 70s Elvis now. For so many years I heard all the horror stories — Elton John talking about Elvis almost blind from drugs and with hair dye running down his face; Lisa Marie cloistered in their gated community, no one to talk to but Jesse Diamond, another celebrity kid on the other side of the fence; the drugs and the paranoia and the people who took advantage of Elvis. Or worse than the horror stories, the jokes.
And what I think this essay does, what all your posts are doing, is bringing back the realization that this was a strong man. He was beaten down, sure, but he wasn’t ALL beaten down, not even at the end. Elvis was everything to our culture, to US, and he carried the responsibility with Herculean strength and a grace none of us could possibly manage. So few people give him credit for that. I’m loving your series not just because you do give him credit, not just because of what we learned about Elvis, but what we’re learning about art, about celebrity, and about ourselves.
Stacia – what a beautiful comment. Thank you so much!! Yes: strength and grace.
It is hard to imagine how he could have handled it better. I guess not starting to take drugs in the first place – but it was 1960. They were prescribed by a doctor. Millions of other people were also “duped” in that era, and continue to be duped by the fact that these drugs are doctor-prescribed.
And I haven’t even mentioned the 70s MUSIC – which I think is totally under-rated. The myth that his art was in decline is flat out not true. One only has to listen to Promised Land to see how strong he was – and Moody Blue, too.
He just kept bringing it, kept giving it. His entire career is one long act of generosity. And he saw it that way, too. He always did.
Thank you again.
Love this photo essay. Lots of great shots here, but how do you narrow it down when so many incredible ones exist????
Bethann – I know. He was an excellent subject for photos/movies. One of those faces that seems more open the longer you look at it, while also remaining mysterious. One of the marks of a great star.
I have been giving this a bit of thought recently and just cannot put into words why, for as beautiful a man that this was, why is it so difficult to look at him? I have found myself almost embarrassed to look at him or even listen to his voice, be it 1953, ’55, 61, and throughout the remaining years of his short life. I always tease my daughter saying “You can’t look at the tv (if he is on) b/c it will hurt your eyes.” It’s a joke and mean nothing by it but it mvade me think about this strange thing going on. I feel an intense self-awareness whenever he is the topic, sound or view. And this just didn’t hapen recently. This has been the standard from when I was a child.
Sheila, given your acute and unique study of this creature, do you have any ideas about this oddity?
Well, bethann, I do have a take. This is merely from my own experience – with Elvis and others – so take it with a grain of salt. My friend Mitchell, who is gay, said that when he saw Grease at the age of 11, 12, and during the moment in Summer Lovin’ at the very end, when Travolta sort of squirms himself through the last note, and puts his arm up in the air … he told me that he felt something happen to him – inside of him – even at a young age … during that moment. In retrospect, he knew then he was gay. It was a burst of sexual response that was confusing, beautiful, life-affirming, and threatening – all at the same time.
Only the great stars can make us feel that – can make us go to that place, that dark place … where we want to bump and grind, dry-hump … whatever it is we want to do.
I think this is sometimes more acute for straight women (and gay people) – as opposed to straight men – because of the patriarchal society in which we live, like it or not, where women’s sexual desires are still seen as threatening, somehow “off” – we aren’t supposed to feel such things. We certainly aren’t supposed to admit to it. Men (straight men) live in a world that acknowledges their sexual desires – the entire world is set up for their eye-candy – there’s nothing weird or subversive about it … but women saying “I want to fuck that” is still seen as silly or threatening and Powers That Be still have a vested interest in shutting it down. It’s a man’s world, my friend, and women deciding, en masse, that something is attractive is seen as deeply threatening … Men want to dictate who we like, because they want our choices to validate THEM. When WE choose, they feel left out.
This is still sometimes the case with Elvis “scholarship” … the whole “women love him” factor is condescended to, dismissed – not realizing that women deciding “We want to fuck that guy” is one of the most powerful and primal forces in the world.
Women who feel that way about certain male figures – certainly Rudolph Valentino, Elvis, Frank Sinatra … women who admit to feeling those things … it’s like being undressed before a hostile audience. It’s like my friend Mitchell, sitting in a dark movie theatre, on the cusp of being a young man, and feeling something stir in him watching John Travolta. It wasn’t just that it was a “sexy” moment, because my friend Mitchell was too young to put a name on what he felt. It was that Travolta’s persona, and his connection with that persona, was so free, so deep – that it opened Mitchell up involuntarily. Mitchell was a child. But he felt pulled in a certain direction by the sheer magnetism of Travolta, and Mitchell describes feeling embarrassed and REVEALED.
It is my opinion that Elvis’ sexuality is so powerful, and yet so subtle – and so giving – that’s the key – it is not a SELFISH sexuality (at least in terms of performance and who he is onscreen) – that it acts as an agent for the females in the audience. It makes us want to touch ourselves, to lose ourselves, to fuck … he does that just by showing up. It is not a demanding sexuality – it is open enough and generous enough that it leaves space for us to imagine the dirtiest of things, where we are in control, where we know what we want, where we are not embarrassed about what we want, because HE is not embarrassed about what we want. He wants us to want that. It’s okay. He can take it. he is strong enough to allow himself to be objectified. He creates himself as an object of desire for us, and so our imaginations can go insane.
Somehow, he provided all of that. Without ever having to say a word.
I have often said that the greatest stars are those who have a certain element of blankness to them – blankness that acts as a movie screen for our own fantasies and desires. Elvis certainly had that in spades.
But it is confrontational to deal with … because we, as women, are not encouraged to flaunt our desires in such a way, it is confrontational to be in the presence of someone who needs so little from us, and yet who makes our minds roam to such a startling degree …
I think that’s one of the reasons why he is one of the most powerful and disturbing figures of the 20th century and continues to be so, even though the so-called “sexual revolution” has happened – and it is supposedly okay for women to admit that we love to get naked, we know how to get off, and we would love to use Elvis as a giant dildo for our own pleasure. Please forgive my bluntness. But I think that’s the realm we’re in with Elvis.
Such talk is often seen as silly. It is not silly at all. Female sexuality is important, suppressed, and beautiful when let out of the bag. Elvis helped provide that. He stood there, and provided that. He had that gift. He was blank enough to allow us to project onto him what we wanted to do to him, but – more importantly – what we wanted HIM to do to US.
It’s still confrontational.
It’s still scary.
Anyway. There’s my way-more-than two cents.
And, in my opinion, this is still what is missing in the dialogue about Elvis.
Female response is still not respected. It’s seen as silly, women going crazy throwing their bras at a rock star. Men dominate how such things are discussed, and while male writers do give Elvis’ impact on women its due historically – they can’t understand what it means … because they haven’t lived it. They can’t know what it means to have that essential part of you suppressed/scorned/derided … and then to have someone come along who seems to say directly to you, “It’s okay. You want to get off. I get that. I want it too. Let’s do it together thru this song. Everything’s going to be okay.”
And he devoted himself to that for his entire career. His devotion to his female audience is still (to some degree) scorned. Because a mainly-female audience is seen as inherently not as serious as a male audience.
Elvis, by saying, “Fuck that, I’m stickin’ with the ladies” was one of the greatest feminists of all time, even if he didn’t agree with feminism, and resented it. It didn’t matter. His persona was larger than the context of his current day. His persona was bigger than even he could know.
So I think all of that – and its laser-beam focus – can be quite confrontational – because it reveals you.
It’s not just about the music, although we love that too.
It’s that he reveals us to ourselves and you can count on one hand the performers who can do that.
and sorry about the blunt sex-talk. But I think it applies. I think that’s still the space in which Elvis-love operates. Which is why it is hard to talk about.
No need to apologize. I am not offended in any way, just a few theories I had never given thought to.
“Because a mainly-female audience is seen as inherently not as serious as a male audience”
Head hits nail…squarely.
Not to dismiss the wideness of his appeal and the love that men had for him too (and still do).
But it’s the screaming-female contingent that is sniffed at … and still is, with current day stars who “reduce” their female audiences to quivering puddles. It’s all seen as rather undignified and silly, as though women can’t possibly be a serious audience – when, to the contrary, a sexually charged woman is the most loyal customer ON. THE. PLANET.
I still think Elvis and “the girl thing” is still one of the reasons why his art doesn’t get his due. Because isn’t it a shame that he just played to those girls all the time.
As though those girls weren’t directly responsible for making him a legend in the first place.
Drives me nuts, but it’s certainly a common condescending view.
And this hang-up, if you will, does not discriminate either. Whether it be 1953 or 1973, it is still the same thing. And it doesn’t matter whether its the braggadocious or the crooner, the response is the same. I have harbored this feeling for so long but never given it much consideration. After reading your take on this persona, I wanted your thoughts. Blogs are so impersonal and having no idea where your readers come from, it probably makes you wonder if some (like me) aren’t crazy. Just let you know (if you were worried), I am not.
uhhh-huh
That is some kinda 2 cents. I just knew you would give me a unique perspective. Thanks. Some things I can certainly agree. Some things either don’t apply or haven’t given much thought about but will certainly enjoy reconsidering some of your theories.
But the idea that he is difficult to take in large doses in public, while sounding ludicrous, is very much real. Such a beautiful man like himself should be able to be viewed without reservation.
Elvis was and is a inspration to all people who have a dream that life can bring u down but, you have to keep possitive and believe there is more to life. God is there to guide u but, u have to and want to help ur self as well faith is what Elvis had and love and thats all he needed and God helped him cause he helped him self. Elvis made mistakes none of us is perfect are we?. Elvis had a gift and he used it to help and entertain people but,most of all he gave us joy!!!
Thank you for making me realize for the first time since the many years ago that it happened that as you said, “…. Anyway, I love this photo, even though Kay Wheeler is basically being sexually harassed by the young rock star.” But hey, you are so right ; and there was a lot more on other occasions when cameras were not around. This is maybe the one time on earth that I did not mind being “sexually harassed”. When Elvis realized I was not going to play the “groupie girl” game with him, he looked at me with a piercing look and said, “Honey, you are to smart for your own good.” Well, in retrospect, maybe he was right.
Kay – I am so thrilled that you found this post and left this comment! Love the image of Elvis being turned down by you and giving you a piercing look. Ha! Thank you so much. What a great experience, and thank you for sharing it here!
the girl in the white dress is the winner of “A Date With Elvis” contest and they were in a hotel lobby in Jacksonville Fl. He told the girl, lying down, who he was and she didn’t believe him. So, he showered her a pic of himself, in the paper, and…she fainted!! haha
I know this is an old post but I just love reading all your Elvis articles and this one has to be a favourite (among many others). It’s tough to choose a favourite picture but the one that always gets to me has to be the one in which Lisa Marie is sitting in his lap. When I see that photo I see everything, the essence of Elvis. The rings, the clothes, the (freaking!) cane, it’s like he’s already accepted his own myth. And most importantly, his cradling his daughter. And don’t even get me started on their expressions, especially Elvis’s. You can barely see his eyes but you can get a sense of what he felt in that moment.