“Today’s the day!”: “The Town Rocks Today,” St. Petersburg Times, August 7, 1956.
“I look back now”: Billy Watkins, “Arthritis Silences Notes, but Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley’s First Guitarist, as Sharp as Ever.” www.clarionledger.com, July 20, 2013.
“Dressing him up”: Anne Rowe, “Hey Cats! Elvis the Pelvis Presley Rockin to Town,” St. Petersburg Times, August 7, 1956.
“We were the first in line”: Anne Rowe, “Elvis Came, He Sang and He Conquered,” St. Petersburg Times, August 8, 1956.
“Champion Presley pursuers”: ibid.
“We want Elvis!”: ibid.
“Is that your wife”: Elvis Interview, August 7, 1956, www.youtube.com.
“That’s my wife yes”: ibid.
“Now Joanne will be the envy”: ibid.
“We do three, four shows a day sometimes”: ibid.
“Pat Boone is one of the nicest guys I know”: ibid.
“I believe that I won”: ibid.
“Non-Southerners don’t understand”: Moore, 106.
“I never was a lady killer”: Paul Wilder, interview of Elvis Presley, www.youtube.com, August 6, 1956.
“The startling impact”: Alan Hanson, “Record 100,000 Paid Tribute to Elvis in 1956 Florida Tour,” www.elvis-history-blog.com.
“He was the most beautiful”: Juanico, 198.
“I can’t stand still”: Rowe, “Elvis Came.”
“Had he been travelling with black entertainers”: Jerry Blizin, “Elvis Concerts Showed 1956 Racial Divide,” www.tampabay.com, September 7, 2010.
“Integrated music just didn’t happen”: ibid.
“I can’t stand it”: Rowe, “Elvis Came.”
“I hope we never”: Alan Hanson, “Profile of an Elvis Crowd,” www.elvis-history-blog.com.
“These men have faced”: ibid.
Chapter 15. Just for You: August 8, Orlando
“He takes his banjo”: Jack Kerouac to Helen Weaver, Selected Letters: 1957–69 (New York: Viking, Penguin, 1999).
“We had a certain little game”: Elvis Australia, interview with Red West, www.elvis.com.au, May 29, 2008.
“Take his shoes off”: ibid.
“One of the craziest guys”: ibid.
“How long do you think you’ll stay”: Jean Yothers, “Elvis Makes ’Em Shriek, Yell, Jump,” Orlando Sentinel-Star, August 9, 1956 (hereafter cited as Yothers).
“I wish I knew ma’am”: ibid.
“He’s going into movies”: George Miller, “I Hear ya Knockin’,” Orlando Evening Star, August 9, 1956 (hereafter cited as Miller).
“He can spend”: ibid.
“Elvis, in a bright red sport coat”: ibid.
“Style of singing and his flashy clothes”: Yothers.
“My mother was there”: Randi Russi, correspondence with the author, August 2014.
“The rubber busted”: Moore, 81.
“Elvis was certainly an original thinker”: Moore, 82.
“Half and Half”: Miller.
“His large eyes”: ibid.
“We want Elvie”: ibid.
“He’s really wound up tight”: ibid.
“Play one”: ibid.
“Ladies and gentlemen”: ibid.
“A delighted squeal”: Yothers.
“Real nice kid”: ibid.
“I egged him on”: ibid.
“I’ve been working on something new”: Juanico, 198.
“He sang beautifully”: ibid., 199.
“That special afternoon”: ibid.
“The service station”: author’s interview with Roy Brand, September 2014.
“My God that’s Elvis”: ibid.
“What do you boys do?”: ibid.
“A little good ol’ boy talk”: ibid.
“That’s great, that’s great”: ibid.
“So here he is”: ibid.
“He was free”: ibid.
Chapter 16. Boiling Over: August 9, Daytona Beach
“Everyone in the show was on edge”: Moore, 116.
“It was one of those God awful”: ibid.
“All I remember”: ibid.
“It was a pretty good fight”: ibid.
“We drove for miles”: Juanico, 199.
“The colonel’s been on my ass”: ibid., 200.
“We had a nice picture of Elvis”: Joy Keener-Borreson, feedback to www.scottymoore.net.
“I remember sitting by a woman”: Marsha Connelly, quoted in www.scottymoore.net.
“We cried so hard”: ibid.
“Touch me Elvis”: Drew Murphy, “Summer of ’56, The Pelvis Packs Peabody—Twice,” Daytona Beach Morning Journal, August 10, 1956.
“Is there some special girl somewhere?”: ibid.
“It’s pretty busy here in the dressing room”: Ed Ripley, interview with Elvis Presley, www.youtube.com.
“Peggy”: ibid.
“Uh, do you like the girls”: ibid.
“I have another one”: ibid.
“That’s neat”: ibid.
“Uh, someone just broke a window”: ibid.
“A couple months yet”: ibid.
“Actually, the Tennessee Troubadour”: Dotti Einhorn, “Yes, Elvis Did it Again,” Daytona Beach Morning Journal, August 10, 1956.
“There were three cops”: ibid.
“Elvis Presley, whose tortured moans”: Max Norris, “Waiting, Waiting, for Their Elvis,” Daytona Morning News, August 10, 1956.
“A nice boy”: ibid.
“Marsha!”: Gary Corsair series, Villages Daily Sun, June 2008.
Chapter 17. The Morals of Minors: August 10–11, Jacksonville
“American Cool”: Ann Greer, “American Cool at the National Portrait Gallery,” Washington Post, June 6, 2014.
“Elvis had the ability”: ibid.
“Achieved a new low”: “Elvis Presley Jacksonville, FL,” quoting Robert Gray in Life, www.elvispresleymusic.com.au, August 10, 2011.
“An obscene burlesque dance”: Ron Wolfe, “Nation’s Only Atomic Powered Singer,” www.elvis-collectors.com.
“To put him straight”: ibid.
“Gooding used the threat”: Moore, 116.
“I would say he was certainly”: Graham.
“He was kind of on the leading edge”: ibid.
“The fans were screaming”: ibid.
“That was my belief”: ibid.
“I knew when we went”: interview with Ardys Bell, August 2013.
“Our parents thought he was going”: ibid.
“I don’t know what I’m doing”: Eddie Deezen, “Elvis Presley’s Strangest Concert,” www.mentalfloss.com.
“Wait a minute, I can’t do this”: ibid.
“Everybody got the biggest charge”: ibid.
“They had me convinced”: ibid.
“Fuck you very much”: ibid.
“I showed them sons of bitches”: Juanico, 201.
Chapter 18. Presley and Sinatra TV Special: March 1960, Miami
“Memphis Mafia”: around 1960 this nickname was given to Presley’s group of yes-men due to the fact that they often wore black suits.
“Except members of his entourage”: Moore, 132.
“Tom Parker had us”: ibid.
“It was like Elvis was kidnapped”: Moore, 133.
“He was so full of energy”: Peter Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1999), 21.
“I made it just like everybody”: Osborne, 110.
“Everybody would just get in his car”: Guralnick, Careless Love, 61.
“Here, these’ll keep you awake”: ibid.
“I’m not exactly worried”: Osborne, 122.
“It was all about power”: Binder.
“The kid’s been away two years”: Guralnick, Careless Love, 62.
“You’d never know Elvis”: “Elvis in Miami,” Flashback Miami, Miami Herald, March 26, 2014.
“I loved him for the early years”: Moscato.
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��A cookie-cutter thing”: Gurley.
“Some were just silly”: ibid.
“I didn’t like ’em”: Bell.
“It was fun going to Miami”: Moore, 150.
“It was just one of the many”: Axton, 266.
“Sammy took over”: ibid.
“I reassured him”: ibid., 267.
“Two years in the Army”: “Television: One of the Worst,” Time, May 23, 1960.
“A Vaseline halo”: ibid.
“Pretentious and dull”: ibid.
Chapter 19. Follow That Dream: July–August 1961
“I believe that there is as much”: www.elvisinfo.net.
“Many friends I know”: ibid.
“I think that this is a great story”: ibid.
“Maybe they’ll have a screen credit”: Erskine Johnson, column, Hollywood Today, August 21, 1961.
Chapter 20. Crystal River
“I remember when I tested”: author’s interview with Anne Helm, Presley’s Follow That Dream co-star, December 2014 (hereafter cited as Helm).
“Southern enough”: ibid.
“When I found out I did get the role”: ibid.
“Boy this is really a beautiful place”: “Elvis Arrives—So Do Crowds,” Suncoast Sentinel, August 13, 1961.
“Presley’s villa at Port Paradise”: ibid.
“Somebody’s over there”: Helm.
“You know he’s checking”: ibid.
“There he was”: ibid.
“I didn’t know”: ibid.
“He was so sweet”: ibid
“There was something very surreal”: ibid.
“He was caged”: ibid.
“Elvis has been dating”: Louella Parsons in Hollywood (column), “Elvis a Spender,” July 25, 1961.
“Don’t worry”: Anthony Violanti, “Ocala Residents Remember the Day Elvis Came to Town,” Ocala.com, August 12, 2007. (hereafter cited as Violanti).
Chapter 21. Weall House, Inglis, and Commercial Bank and Trust, Ocala
“Finally someone yelled”: “Elvis Comes to Yankeetown,” Tampa Tribune, July 16, 1961.
“Elvis’ interest in leading lady”: ibid.
“I’ve got someone you have to meet”: author’s interview with Betty Larson, September 2013.
“It was very hard to believe”: ibid.
“They started to leave”: ibid.
“The Colonel made him a star”: Debbie Shafer, “Local Folks Remember When Elvis Was Here in ’61,” Ocala Star-Banner, August 17, 1977.
“I got my name on”: Michael Hall, “Life Among the Stars Is Surprisingly Hard Work,” Edinboro Independent, August 10, 1961 (hereafter cited as Hall).
“I thought he was pulling my leg”: author’s interview with George Langdon, September 2013.
“I was blessed”: author’s interview with Louise Sherouse, High’s daughter, February 12, 2014 (hereafter cited as Sherouse).
“We arrived at the bank”: Hall.
Chapter 22. A Fella Who Wiggled
“I was eleven years old”: Bill Dean, “Tom Petty’s Life Changed When He Met Elvis,” www.gainesville.com, August 16, 2007 (hereafter cited as Dean).
“I could feel so clearly”: author’s correspondence with Paul Zollo (hereafter cited as Zollo).
“My Aunt pulls in the drive”: Dean.
“I’ve always thought”: Tom Petty as told to Paul Zollo, in Zollo, Conversations with Tom Petty (London: Omnibus Press, 2005, hereafter cited as Petty to Zollo).
“He was known to me”: Petty to Zollo.
“There was a huge crowd”: ibid.
“And suddenly I go”: ibid.
“These are my nieces and nephews”: “When the King Came to Ocala,” www.williammckeen.com.
“It was like a religious feeling”: Zollo.
“He had on a pair of jeans”: author’s correspondence with Jeremiah Wesley.
“I just enjoyed the music”: ibid.
“That is one hell of a job to have”: Petty to Zollo.
“Ya’ll will sell them”: Bill DeYoung, “Lights, Camera, Action,” Gainesville Sun, September 22, 1992 (hereafter cited as DeYoung).
“I just loved music”: Petty to Zollo.
“A little abused child”: Andy Greene, “Tom Petty’s True Confessions,” Rolling Stone, October 22, 2015.
“I have stuff here”: DeYoung.
“To Aunt Evelyn”: ibid.
Chapter 23. Hot Times Inside
“Curious crowd”: Hall.
“It’s hot, tiring”: ibid.
“What’s it going to take”: Violanti.
“He was human”: ibid.
“Every time we watched Andy Griffith”: author’s correspondence with Bonnie Benningfield.
“I was crazy”: ibid.
“I wouldn’t trade”: Sherouse.
“Here, let me hold him”: ibid.
“All I could find”: ibid.
“My Dad came to really like Elvis”: ibid.
“Elvis was a good actor”: Gordon Douglas, quoted in Ronald L. Davis, Just Making Movies (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005).
“It was a fantasy”: author’s correspondence with Linda Longo.
“He began to twist and shake”: Violanti.
“He liked cops”: ibid.
“It’s all part of doing business”: ibid.
“Hillbilly”: ibid.
Chapter 24. Yankeetown
“It was big excitement”: Jeff Kunerth, “When Elvis Came to Yankeetown,” Orlando Sentinel, August 14, 1987.
“Every day they would pick us up”: ibid.
“I tell you the honest truth”: John McKinnon, “The King,” St. Petersburg Times, January 8, 1985.
“He doesn’t need it”: John Keasler, “My Man Elvis Don’t Need Yo Money,” Miami News, August 4, 1961.
“Would take a second look”: Martin Waldron, “Made Us Look Cheap,” St. Petersburg Times, August 2, 1961.
“Florida has been guilty”: ibid.
“I will put you in jail”: John Keasler, “The Saga of Bird Creek Bridge,” Miami News, August 13, 1961 (hereafter cited as Keasler).
“I have the backing”: ibid.
“What the sheriff didn’t know”: Random Pixels (blog), “For Elvis Fans Only,” randompixels.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-elvis-fans-only.html, March 21, 2011.
“There he is”: Keasler.
“Teen aged girls rushed”: ibid.
“Have you ever heard”: ibid.
“Anyway”: ibid.
“Seemed to be under the impression”: ibid.
“And you can see”: ibid.
“Is that definite”: ibid.
“The sting and the agony”: ibid.
“How’s it going”: ibid.
“Glad to be here”: ibid.
“I mean there was not much use”: ibid.
“two additional cups of coffee”: ibid.
“Friend”: Anne Rowe, “Elvis Wants to Be Alone,” St. Petersburg Times, July 14, 1961.
“The car is his home”: ibid.
“It’s like coming home”: ibid.
“Sometimes around dusk”: Keasler.
“I sort of went along”: Helm.
“We had to prop ourselves up”: ibid.
“There was an innocence”: ibid.
“We were sent to diet doctors”: ibid.
“Atrocious”: ibid.
“I can’t sit back”: ibid.
“He might have won”: ibid.
“Elvis was very loyal and naïve”: Binder.
“Bored with his life”: interview with Red West, www.elvisaustralia.au, May 29, 2008.
“I think we have to take responsibility”: Binder.
Chapter 25. Weeki Wachee and the Mayor’s Daughter
“First date”: Helm.
“I was always separated”: ibid.
“I was really overwhelmed”: ibid.
“Okay Girls—Get Set”: “Elvis Coming Out Sunday,” St. Petersburg Evening Independent, July 27, 1961.
“Spending the afternoon with Presley”: Lynn Chadux, “Elvis Presley Kissed Me Four Times,” St. Petersburg Times, July 31, 1961 (hereafter cited as Chadux).
“Are you Miss Florida”: ibid.
“That day we got along”: ibid.
“Elvis Presley Underwater”: Bob Moreland photograph.
“Oh Elvis do you remember me”: Chadux.
“Elvis IS famous”: ibid.
“That’s my daughter”: Michele Marie Moreland Self, in Elvis Presley, Summer of ’61, (FTD Books, 2013), 176 (hereafter cited as Summer of ’61).
“It was magical”: ibid.
“I was ‘all shook up’”: ibid.
“‘He would call me’”: Chadux.
“I bet you’re a cheerleader”: Summer of ’61, 292.
“I had a visitor”: ibid.
“You what?”: ibid.
“Red Level”: ibid.
“I want you to come over”: ibid.
“Oh my God”: ibid.
“I remember them playing”: ibid.
“For them it was like”: ibid.
“Whatever possessed me to do this”: ibid.
“All these guys were partying”: ibid.
“Do you want to go out”: ibid.
“Little lady”: ibid.
“I can’t believe that just happened”: ibid.
“My Dad is Citrus County”: ibid.
“Then I think the best thing”: ibid.
“Do come in and sit”: John Keasler, “The Saga of Bird Creek Bridge (part 2),” Miami News, August 14, 1961.
“How much does it cost”: ibid.
“Well, every time”: ibid.
“Every time what?”: ibid.
“I sell another ad”: ibid.
“No sense writing a book”: ibid.
“I made one million prints”: ibid.
“He smiled to his secret angels”: ibid.
“When passing time”: ibid.
Chapter 26. Inverness Courthouse
“Necessary business was conducted”: “Movie News,” Citrus County Chronicle, August 10, 1961.
“We came all the way”: ibid.
“The scene, which lasts”: Summer of ’61.
“Want to go out?”: ibid.
“I didn’t say anything”: ibid.
“His shoes”: ibid.
“Wayward football allegedly thrown”: St. Petersburg Times, November 19, 2000.
“One day Elvis started playing”: Bill Bram, interview with Miss Mary Brent, cited in Summer of ’61.
“Sorry Miss B.”: ibid.
“I had a long talk”: ibid.
“Big no talent”: ibid.
“Elvis was very good”: ibid.
I think he really identified”: Helm.
Elvis Ignited Page 23
