by Joe Bensam
Elvis with his last girlfriend, Ginger Alden
Linda was soon unable to cope with the situation any longer, and she left Elvis after four years as his companion She was soon replaced by Ginger Alden, who remained his girlfriend to the end. Elvis asked Ginger to marry him early in 1977, and they hoped to marry the following year. However, Ginger did not have enough influence to stop Elvis sliding into further drug-driven despair.
Elvis’s father, Vernon, was naturally very concerned to see his son’s health take such a turn for the worse, and Parker was also very worried. So the pair hired a private investigator to find out who was supplying Elvis with these extreme drugs. Even though the investigation succeeded in cutting off this supply line, it didn’t do much good. With plenty of money to splash around, Elvis soon found other doctors to supply the drugs he wanted.
As if he didn’t have enough health issues already, Elvis was also plagued by obesity problems. Having been brought up in the South, Elvis was used to fat-heavy fried food meals, and he was not inclined to change his diet to a healthy one. During the early 70s, he found it increasingly difficult to keep his weight down, and went he went on stage, the bulges in his rhinestone suit became obvious.
Despite his worsening health, Elvis continued to tour. On 26 June 1977, he set off for what would become his final live performance in Indianapolis. He arrived in a very unhealthy state, and had to be taken directly to his hotel for a rest. Before the show commenced, RCA presented him with a plaque to commemorate the pressing of the two billionth Elvis record. The concert was a success, but Elvis returned home to Graceland feeling sick and unwell.
Back at home, he planned to have some time to recuperate, and to spend time with Ginger and Lisa Marie. Elvis had recently arranged for Lisa Marie to spend more time with him, making up for the times they had been apart, and with hopes of building a stronger relationship in the future. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
Chapter 10 - The King is Dead
On 16 August 1977 at Graceland, Elvis had been up for most of the night, as usual. He finally went to bed at 6.00am, taking eight sleeping pills of different brands in a random mixture. However, he was still not able to sleep, so he called Dr. Nick’s office to see if there was any other medication they could send over to him. He spoke to a nurse in he office, almost certainly the last person he spoke to in his life.
Ginger awoke at 2.00pm to find that Elvis was not in bed with her, as he normally would be at that time of day. When Elvis didn’t return to bed after a few minutes, she got up to check on him. She found him slumped on the floor of the bathroom floor, and immediately called for help. An ambulance rushed him to the Baptist Memorial Hospital, where doctors attempted frantically to revive him. But it was too late, and at 3.30pm, he was pronounced dead.
It was an ignominious end for a King. Elvis had been sitting on the toilet, but had then fallen off, crashing to the floor in a pool of his own vomit. The official cause of death was "cardiac arrhythmia," but in reality this was a fudge to cover the real cause of death - a lethal cocktail of drugs that no sane doctor would ever prescribe in such doses. They included:
● morphine
● Demerol
● Chloropheniramine
● Placidyl and Vailum
● codeine
● sleeping pills
● Quaaludes
● barbituates
Some sources say that the following drugs were also found in his system:
● Diazepam
● Amytal
● Nembutal
● Carbrital
● Sinutab
● Elavil
● Avental
● Valmid
Whatever the combination, it was a cocktail that was almost certain to kill. Elvis had been flirting with death for a long time, taking potentially lethal combinations of whatever drugs he currently had in his private store. Who knows how many times he came close to death, but somehow survived. This time, however, his luck had run out. He had finally checked out of Heartbreak Hotel for good.
***
Most people who were adults in 1977 remember the moment when they heard that Elvis had died, in the same way that people remember exactly what they were doing when Kennedy was assassinated, when John Lennon was murdered, or when Princess Diana was killed. The man who represented a whole generation through his music was gone for ever.
The news of his death was suppressed until his father had been informed, but after that it could be contained no longer. At first, local reporters were suspicious about the story, as many false rumours had emanated from Graceland over the years. But when the reality sunk in, the news traveled fast - spreading around the world and stopping people in their tracks everywhere. Before long, thousands of people gathered outside Graceland, holding a silent vigil for the star they had idolized. Many thousands shed tears for a man they had never met, but who had been part of their lives for twenty years.
Elvis makes his final journey at Graceland
The next day, the King’s body was put on display in Graceland, and over 20,000 people took the opportunity to file past his coffin. Sheriff deputies and Air National Guard sentries stood in the driveway as an honor guard, and family and friends came to pay their respects privately. On 18 August, a private funeral was held at Graceland, amongst some 3000 floral tributes sent by well wishers worldwide. Afterwards, a motorcade of 17 white limos escorted the casket along the route to Forest Hills Cemetery, where his body was buried. By this time, every florist in Memphis wascompletely out of stock, and flowers had to be shipped in from other states.
Elvis was gone, but his career was by no means over. In fact, his death signalled a massive rise in the sale of Elvis-related products, from music to merchandising. Colonel Parker was quick to see the opportunity, and within 24 hours of Elvis being pronounced dead, he had signed a new deal for the marketing of all kinds of Elvis paraphernalia, pulling in $150,000 up front. But he was no longer content with taking a mere 25% - on this deal, Parker took 50%, with the remainder going to the Presley estate.
RCA were also quick to catch on, and within days, the shops were full of just about every record Elvis had ever recorded. No fewer than 14 Elvis songs hit the charts for the second time around, with Way Down reaching number one - representing Elvis’s first number one single for seven years.
Despite this fresh source of income, Elvis had not left his estate in very good shape financially. Although his income had been huge over the years, a hefty chunk of this had been taken by Parker in contracts that often took up to 50% of the proceeds of whatever came in. The sale of his back catalog had deprived his estate of royalty income, and his expensive lifestyle had drained a good deal of the rest.
Elvis’s father, Vernon, served as the executor of the estate, but when he died two years later, ex-wife Priscilla became the executor, as Elvis’s only heir - Lisa Marie - was still only 11 years old. If Priscilla was expecting to find an estate worth millions of dollars, she was to be disappointed. Only $1 million remained out of the vast fortune that Elvis had accrued in his lifetime, and even that was already ear-marked. Graceland cost $500,000 a year to run, and taxes and other costs were eating up another half million dollars. Initially, it seemed as if the only two options were to sell the property or face bankruptcy.
Fans hold a candlelit vigil at Graceland
However, Priscilla had other ideas, and decided to open Graceland to the public. In June 1982, Elvis’ home opened its doors for the first time, and within a month enough money had been earned to repay the initial investment. Priscilla remained the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley enterprises - the company that controlled Graceland - until Lisa Marie reached the age of 21. Today, Graceland receives over 600,000 visitors a year, making it the third biggest tourist attraction in the United States. By the time Lisa Marie inherited the business, it was worth over $100 million.
A week after Elvis’s funeral, four people attempted to steal Elvis’s body. As a precauti
on, the body was removed and buried in an area of Graceland which is now known as Meditation Garden. Today, Elvis rests there along the with remains of his mother, father. and grandmother.
Every year on the anniversary of his death, fans meet outside Graceland for a candlelit vigil, gathring round the gates. They stand for hours, listening to Elvis music and swapping stories. Then at 11.00pm, the gates are opened, and the group is led up the drive by employees carrying a torch - lit from the eternal flame at Elvis’s graveside. the procession of fans file past the grave site, with each person carrying a candle. It often takes many hours for the whole procession to walk past the grave.
Chapter 11 - The Legend Lives On
For some time after Elvis’s death, not too many questions were asked about how he died. The results of the autopsy were accepted, and his passing was seen as little more than a tragic accident. This changed in 1979 when journalist Geraldo Rivera started investigating further, producing a TV news report called The Elvis Cover-Up. However, it proved to be impossible to get hold of a copy of the autopsy, despite a long legal battle. Nevertheless, this activity brought Elvis’s death under closer scrutiny than ever before.
Eventually, Dr Nick - real name Dr. George Nichopoulos, was required to present himself before the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners. He was accused of several charges of over-prescribing drugs. Most extraordinary, however, were the revelations about his relationship with Elvis, and the quantity of drugs prescribed. It turned out that Elvis had been prescribed over 12,000 pills and drugs in less than two years, and that on several occasions he had to be taken to hospital because his entire body was swollen through drug abuse. Even more amazingly, Elvis carried three suitcases full of drugs wherever he went on tour, to supply both his personal needs, and those of his entourage.
In 1995, Dr Nick’s license was finally and permanently revoked.
There is little doubt that Colonel Parker had intended to rake in another fortune after Elvis’s death, but this dream was brought to a quick conclusion when the Presley estate took him to court. Having examined the contracts that Parker had drawn up - especially in recent years when Elvis was too drug-addled to know what he was doing - the executors of the estate felt that Parker had mismanaged his client’s career to an extreme degree. They sued for redress. At this point, Parker revealed for the first time that he was not actually Tom Parker, or even a US citizen, but actually an illegal immigrant from Europe. His contention was this made him stateless, and therefore immune from prosecution.
Eventually, the matter was settled out of court, with all rights to the Elvis name and likeness reverting to his estate.
***
Even decades after his death, Elvis continues to make headlines. In 1988, he was one of the first people to be inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, and was credited with having ‘launched the rock and roll revolution with his commanding voice and charismatic stage presence.’
But that’s not all. Since 1977, there have been persistent ‘Elvis is alive’ rumors that have spread on many different occasions, encouraged by the tabloid press who know that any Elvis story is good for ratings and circulation. Elvis has apparently been spotted everywhere from trailer parks and fast-food restaurants to the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. While the stories have diminished gradually over the years, they still surface from time to time...and probably will for many years to come.
In one sense, however, Elvis is definitely still alive and performing on stages across the world. Elvis impersonators abound, and remain as popular as they were in 1977. The are even female Elvis impersonators, Asian ones and African-American ones. It has been estimated that there may be as many as 250,000 Elvis impersonators worldwide.
The Elvis stamp was a huge success
In 1992, the American public was invited to vote on their preference for the design of an Elvis stamp. They were given the option to vote for the young rock ‘n roll Elvis, or for the later Vegas Elvis. The younger Elvis won. In the year that the stamp was issue, the United States Postal Service posted a record profit of $31 million. The Elvis stamp is still the most popular stamp ever released.
These oddities and peculiarities aside, Elvis the singer and musician lives in through his extraordinary influence on music today. It is fair to say that no other single person in modern history has had such a major impact on the way that music has developed. Other major influencers, such as the Beatles and Buddy Holly, all acknowledged that without Elvis, music would be very different. john Lennon once said: ‘before Elvis, there was nothing.’ While Elvis didn’t invent rock ‘n roll, he gave it a public face and single-handedly turned it into a force that transformed a generation.
Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis may be gone...but he has not left the building. His legacy lives on for us all to experience and enjoy for many years to come.
