Last Train to Memphis
Page 68
“There’s plenty of room for all of us”: Tacoma News Tribune, September 2, 1957.
He had heard that geese: Shelley Ritter interview with George Golden, 1993.
“I was still living across from Humes”: Interview with George Klein for Elvis in Hollywood, 1993.
“She was at the peak of success”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, July 5, 1957.
At the end of the night: Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 14, 1957.
After that they kept almost constant: 1987 BBC television documentary Presley—“Cut Me and I Bleed.”
They drove all around on his motorcycle: Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 14, 1957.
Buzzy Forbess from the Courts came by: Interviews with Buzzy Forbess, 1991, 1994.
“George didn’t drive”: Interview with Alan Fortas, 1990.
One night, Alan recalled in his memoir: Alan Fortas, Elvis: From Memphis to Hollywood, p. 61.
Alan didn’t think much of the cousins: Ibid., p. 56.
One night he came by the house at three: Robert Johnson, “These Reports True,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, summer 1957.
One night the great rhythm and blues singer: Interviews with George Klein, Barbara Pittman, Quinton Claunch, and Bettye Berger.
“He is very spiritually minded”: Mike Hellicar, “Elvis Sings Spirituals Like a Negro, Says Ivory Joe Hunter,” New Musical Express, c. May 1961.
The rumor had been circulating: Louie Robinson, “ ‘The Pelvis’ Gives His Views on Vicious Anti-Negro Slur,” Jet, August 1, 1957.
“It was like a magic spell”: Interview with Bettye Berger, 1989.
a trio of fourteen-year-old girls: Albert Goldman, Elvis, pp. 252–254.
a couple of months was much too early: New York Journal-American, September 11, 1957.
“It never got wild at Graceland”: Fortas, Elvis, p. 58.
“She never did go nowhere”: Interview with Lillian Fortenberry, 1988.
“I’m the most miserable woman in the world”: Elaine Dundy, Elvis and Gladys, p. 292. In Dundy’s book the visit is dated earlier, but Corinne Tate, the Richardses’ daughter, told me that it took place just after Judy Tyler’s death.
“sitting by the window”: Fortas, Elvis, p. 79.
Every so often she’d have a beer: Interview with Cliff Gleaves, 1990.
It was all right, she told Lamar: Interview with Lamar Fike, 1988.
Toward the end of the summer: Interview with Freddy Bienstock.
The scene at the train station: Memphis Press-Scimitar, August 28, 1957.
“A chunky, effeminate-looking man”: Tacoma News Tribune, September 2, 1957.
“A gang moved into our town”: Vancouver Province, September 3, 1957, as cited in AP report, September 3, 1957.
the harmonies of the Statesmen: Jerry Hopkins interview (MVC/MSU) and 1992 Peter Cronin interview with Gordon Stoker.
Freddy tried to sneak in a song: Interview with Freddy Bienstock.
“It was horrible”: Interview with Millie Kirkham, 1989.
Scotty, D. J., and Bill were watching the clock: This articulation of Scotty and Bill’s feelings, and their subsequent playing out, is based on stories that ran in the Memphis Press-Scimitar on September 13 and 14, 1957, as well as numerous interviews with Scotty Moore, Bobbie Moore, Evelyn Black, Reggie Young, Glen Glenn, D. J. Fontana, Alan Fortas, and George Klein.
“squeezed us for a matter of dollars”: Interview with Scotty Moore, 1989.
Elvis read the letter, shook his head: Interview with George Klein, 1990.
a ring to signify his feelings: Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 11, 1957.
He called Scotty the following day: Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 14, 1957.
“[Elvis] promised us”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 13, 1957.
the lead editorial in the paper: Tupelo Daily Journal, September 27, 1957.
It didn’t feel right: Interviews with D. J. Fontana, 1991, and George Klein, 1990.
“Elvis Presley and his one-man band”: Interview with George Klein, 1990.
WALKING IN A DREAM
All quotes from George Klein, Cliff Gleaves, and Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller are from the author’s interviews, unless otherwise noted.
“Rock ’n’ roll smells phony and false”: Frank Sinatra, as quoted in Linda Martin and Kerry Segrave, Anti-Rock, pp. 46–47.
And what was Elvis Presley’s response?: Press conference, as reported in the Los Angeles Times, New York Post, New York Journal-American, New York Herald-Tribune, October 29–30, 1957.
“wiggled, bumped, twisted”: Jack O’Brian, “L.A. Outraged at Presley,” New York Journal-American, November 8, 1957.
including actors Alan Ladd and Walter Slezak: Carla Phillips, “My Story of Elvis,” fan club publication.
What was Elvis’ reaction?: New York Post, October 30, 1957.
even seventeen-year-old Ricky Nelson showed up: Joel Selvin, Ricky Nelson; Philip Bashe, Teenage Idol, Travelin’ Man; Albert Goldman, Elvis.
One week later he sailed for Hawaii: Interviews with George Klein, Cliff Gleaves, and Vince Edwards, in addition to press coverage in the Honolulu Star Bulletin.
“I’m as horny as a billy goat”: Tempest Storm, The Lady Is a Vamp, p. 168.
After the Easter service: Bill E. Burk, Early Elvis: The Humes Years, p. 118; also Alanna Nash interview with the Reverend James Hamill; Steve Turner’s Hungry for Heaven, pp. 33–34; and Yvonne Lime, “My Weekend with Elvis,” Modern Screen, 1957.
“I never expected to be anybody important”: Louis Larkin, “God Is My Refuge,” Photoplay, July 1957.
He visited Lansky’s: Interview with Guy Lansky, 1990.
this music was “the real thing”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 7, 1957.
About ten days before Christmas: Robert Johnson and Thomas N. Pappas, “Army, Navy Recruiters Make Offers to Elvis,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 1957; additional Memphis Press-Scimitar articles, December 1957; interview with George Klein, 1993.
Elvis dropped in at the Sun studio: Interview with Jack Clement, 1989.
“We were at Graceland”: Interview with George Klein for Elvis in Hollywood, 1993.
James Page, a Press-Scimitar reporter: Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 21, 1957.
He left for Nashville that same night: Nashville Tennessean, December 22, 1957; also Nashville Banner, December 21, 1957.
Gordon Stoker came out: Interview with Gordon Stoker, 1993.
How were things going?: Interview with T. Tommy Cutrer, 1990.
Jimmie Rodgers Snow, too, came by: Interview with Jimmie Rodgers Snow, 1993.
On Tuesday, December 24, Elvis wrote: Memphis Commercial Appeal, December 28, 1957.
He concluded by wishing: Alan Levy, Operation Elvis, p. 14.
Jimmie Rodgers Snow arrived: Interviews with Jimmie Rodgers Snow, 1990, 1993.
an increasing dependence on pills and alcohol: Interviews with Jimmie Rodgers Snow, 1990; Jimmy Snow, I Cannot Go Back, pp. 57–58ff.
“She just couldn’t cope”: Interview with Lillian Fortenberry, 1988.
“I was working for my father”: Interview with Alan Fortas, 1990.
Elvis had read the book: Both Alan Portas and George Klein spoke in separate interviews of Elvis’ unusual preparations for the role.
He got together with his new friend Kitty Dolan to run lines: May Mann, Elvis and the Colonel, pp. 47ff.
“You just didn’t have a lot of fooling”: Interview with Jan Shepard, 1992.
“I almost hesitate, I creep up to the sentence”: BBC interview with Walter Matthau, as quoted in Gerry McLafferty, Elvis Presley in Hollywood.
In Carolyn Jones’ observation “he was always”: Joseph Lewis, “Elvis Presley Lives,” Cosmopolitan, November 1968.
Jones suggested: Interview with Cliff Gleaves, 1991.
One Sunday when he was feeling blue: Interview with Jan Shepard.
It was in the fourth night: Memphis Press-Scimitar, January 14, 1958.
; He saw Pat Boone: Interview with Jan Shepard.
Toward the end of February: Ibid.
“Hal Wallis loved locations”: Interview with Alan Fortas.
He wasn’t worried about the army: Vernon Scott, “Elvis at Home, Awaits Clippers,” New York World-Telegram, March 15, 1958.
the Colonel had a big bunch of balloons: Interview with Trude Forsher, 1993.
Elvis posed politely for pictures: Levy, Operation Elvis, p. 21.
He was met by a Commercial Appeal reporter: James H. White, “Elvis Back in Town, with Sideburns Clipped and the Army on His Mind,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, March 15, 1958.
“PRECIOUS MEMORIES”
On Monday he met Dewey: Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 18, 1958.
“no fewer than twelve beautiful girls”: Alan Levy, Operation Elvis, p. 22.
“I screwed everything in sight”: Larry Geller and Joel Spector, “If I Can Dream,” p. 236.
He had “fed them”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 18, 1958.
“It was just ‘So long’ ”: Interview with Scotty Moore, 1989.
he was dreading the army: BBC interview with Anita Wood.
To Barbara Pittman, who had known him: Interview with Barbara Pittman, 1989.
(“Girls come and go”): Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 24, 1958.
“We pulled in to the drive-in”: Interview with George Klein for Elvis in Hollywood, 1993.
“he got in and out”: Vince Staten, The Real Elvis: Good Old Boy, p. 139.
“Overnight,” he said, “it was all gone”: 1972 interview.
He showed up at the draft board: Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 24, 1958; additional sources are Alan Fortas’ Elvis: From Memphis to Hollywood; Levy’s Operation Elvis; and Elvis the Soldier by Rex and Elisabeth Mansfield.
not before Anita got special permission: New York Post, March 24, 1958.
The picture of him in Life: Life, April 7, 1958.
“Elvis recalled that in the days”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 24, 1958.
The army provided a box lunch: New York Post, March 24, 1958.
refusing only to sign autographs: New York Journal-American, March 25, 1958.
“Start a loan company”: Levy, Operation Elvis, p. 51.
He spotted a phone booth: Ibid., p. 52.
“No, sir. If I wore a string tie”: Ibid., p. 54.
Hy Gardner wrote a column: New York Herald-Tribune, March 28, 1958.
After being chased for more than two hundred miles: Levy, Operation Elvis, pp. 61–63.
At Fort Hood things were under substantially: Ibid., pp. 59ff.
recruit instructor Sergeant Bill Norwood, who befriended him: Albert Goldman, Elvis, pp. 278–279.
“I didn’t ask for anything”: 1972 interview.
a Waco businessman named Eddie Fadal: Interview with Eddie Fadal, 1993.
Elvis approached Rex Mansfield: Mansfield, Elvis the Soldier, pp. 16–18.
Someone turned on a tape recorder: This has been available on a number of bootlegs over the years, starting off with An Evening with Elvis (Memphis Flash 92447).
“The treatment which I received”: Mansfield, Elvis the Soldier, pp. 20–21.
“Well, I know the papers had us engaged, married”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, June 3, 1958; UPI reports, June 3; Levy, Operation Elvis, p. 69.
He went with his parents: UPI report, June 14, 1958.
“[Elvis] tried to throw me every way”: Jerry Hopkins interview with Ray Walker (MVC/MSU).
By the time that Rex returned: Mansfield, Elvis the Soldier, pp. 22–23.
Anita, too, had returned by now: Levy, Operation Elvis, p. 71; “Anita Wood Reveals—Why Elvis and I Couldn’t Marry,” fan magazine article excerpted in Bill DeNight et al., eds., Elvis Album; and UPI report, June 14, 1958.
Elvis brought his parents over: Interview with Eddie Fadal.
(“I just can’t see myself over there”): Goldman, Elvis, p. 280.
A DJ named Rocky Frisco: Bill E. Burk, “Rocky Road Led to Meeting Elvis,” Elvis World 20, June 1991.
Vince Edwards and Billy Murphy detoured: Interview with Vince Edwards, 1990.
She called her doctor in Memphis: Interview with Dr. Charles Clarke, 1989. Dr. Clarke’s account of his forcefulness with army authorities is supported by news clippings of the time.
She was in better spirits: UPI report, August 14, 1958.
“we got off the elevator”: Interview with Lamar Fike, 1988.
When reporters came to the house at mid morning: UPI report, August 14, 1958.
“Tears streamed down his cheeks”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, August 14, 1958.
“When Mama was feeling bad”: UPI report, August 14, 1958.
Hundreds of fans had assembled: This account of Gladys’ “waking” draws on news accounts, Goldman’s Elvis, and Elaine Dundy’s Elvis and Gladys, as well as interviews cited.
When Dr. Clarke arrived at the house: Interview with Dr. Charles Clarke.
“Elvis was in a daze”: Fortas, Elvis, pp. 91–92.
Junior picked up Eddie Fadal: Interview with Eddie Fadal.
“They couldn’t get him to stop”: Dundy, Elvis and Gladys, p. 325.
In the evening Sam and Dewey Phillips: Colin Escott and Martin Hawkins, Good Rockin’ Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll, p. 90.
“Come on in, Little”: BBC interview with Anita Wood.
“When I went in the room”: Interview with Dixie Locke, 1990.
“All we have now are memories”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, August 16, 1958.
Every time they finished a song: Interview with J. D. Sumner, 1990; also interviews with James Blackwood, 1988, 1991.
The Reverend Hamill preached: Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 15, 1958.
“He went over to the casket”: Interview with James Blackwood, 1991.
“I didn’t mean to see him that night”: Interview with Dixie Locke.
“He’d cry all day”: Shelley Ritter interview with George Klein, 1993.
On Saturday he returned once again: Red West et al., Elvis: What Happened?, pp. 153–154.
“After a near emotional breakdown”: Memphis Press-Scimitar, August 18, 1958.
his friends tried to cheer him up: Interview with Eddie Fadal; Fortas, Elvis, p. 93.
“He rolled his window down”: Interview with George Blancet, 1989.
Toward the end of the week his dentist: Interview with Lester and Sterling Hofman, 1989.
It was, as Red described it: West et al., Elvis, p. 155.
Things were never again the same: Mansfield, Elvis the Soldier, p. 29.
(“Heavenly days, I just can’t imagine it”): New York Journal-American, August 28, 1958.
Elvis and Eddie attended an r&b revue: Interview with Eddie Fadal.
a Johnny Horton show in Temple: Interviews with Jerry Kennedy, 1990, and Eddie Fadal; also 1993 interviews with Galen “Corncob” Christy, who promoted the show and played on it, and Tillman Franks, who managed Johnny Horton and played bass in Horton’s band.
Christy did not remember the exact date of the concert but thought it was just before he went into the army himself, in mid September. His recollection was of asking Elvis how things were going. “ ‘It’s like prison,’ ” said Elvis, who had met Christy at the 1955 DJ convention in Nashville. “He said, ‘I tried to go to church the other day, and I disrupted the church service.’ He thought that was not right: that a human being would disrupt the worship of the Lord.”
The last weekend that he was at Fort Hood: Kitty Dolan, “I Shared Elvis’ Love,” TV and Movie Screen, March 1959.
“At two A.M. we said good night”: May Mann, Elvis and the Colonel, p. 68.
he asked Eddie: Interview with Eddie Fadal.
The train took about an hour: Interview with George Klein, 1990.
One of his fellow soldiers gave Elvis a book: Elvis named the book, and the poem “Should You Go First,” at his pre-embarkation press conference. He said that he ha
d read several other poems, and I have taken the liberty of guessing which ones. He said that he preferred poetry to short stories.
Charlie was “bound and determined”: Mansfield, Elvis the Soldier, p. 33; also interview with Charlie Hodge, 1989.
It was a scene worthy of P. T. Barnum: The scene is fully audible in recordings of the press conference—and visible to a degree as well in film clips. It is particularly well described in Ren Grevatt’s “On the Beat,” Billboard, September 29, 1958.
“Come on,” said the Colonel: New York Journal-American, September 28, 1958.
“I think I’m talking for all the guys”: Ibid.
“He was resigned”: Interview with Anne Fulchino, 1993.
Why don’t you come along, too?: In West et al., Elvis: What Happened?, Red has Elvis asking both him and Lamar at this point, but since he had already announced in the press conference that Lamar would be accompanying him, this is my best guess at the actual scenario.
Bibliography
REFERENCE
Cotten, Lee. All Shook Up: Elvis Day-by-Day, 1954–1977. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Press, 1985.
——. Shake, Rattle & Roll: The Golden Age of American Rock ’n’ Roll. Vol. 1, 1952–1955. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Press, 1989.
Dellar, Fred, Roy Thompson, and Douglas B. Green. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music. New York: Harmony Books, 1977.
Elvis: Like Any Other Soldier. Reprint of the 1958 2nd Army Division Yearbook. Port Townsend, Wash.: Osborne Productions, 1988.
F.B.I. Files for Elvis A. Presley. Released under the Freedom of Information Act.
Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration. Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State. Golden anniversary ed. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1988.
——. The WPA Guide to Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986.
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