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Baby, Let's Play House

Page 87

by Alanna Nash


  380 “We had to do”: Allan Weiss to author, 2001.

  380 “worthless movies”: “Nashville Skyline: Elvis, Hank, Michael: Killed by Fame,” by Chet Flippo, the Web site CMT, July 2, 2009.

  380 “That kid”: Anne Fulchino to author, 1998.

  381 “She had jet-black hair”: e-mail, Jacque Carter Parsley to author, 2009.

  381 “Elvis expected her to be totally loyal”: Billy Smith to author, 1994.

  381 “Somebody said, ‘Jim Morrison’ ”: Siouxzan Perry to author, 2009. Seventeen-year-old actress Lori Williams, another of the Russ Meyer girls, was one who dated him. She says their “courtship was not some bizarre story. It was very sweet and Elvis was the perfect gentleman.” See Lisanti, Tom, Drive-In Dream Girls: A Galaxy of B-Movie Starlets of the Sixties, 2003.

  381 “He did not want me in Hollywood”: Priscilla Presley, quoted in Elvis by the Presleys: Ritz, David, editor.

  382 “I would average”: Priscilla Presley, “An Interview with Priscilla,” by Bill E. Burk, Elvis World magazine, no. 23, based on the RUR show on Veronica TV in Amsterdam, Holland, probably 1992.

  382 “the place lit up”: Priscilla Presley, quoted in Elvis by the Presleys: Ritz, David, editor.

  382 “Pow! I still feel”: Priscilla Presley, quoted in Ladies’ Home Journal, July 2003

  382 “If I looked up”: Priscilla Presley, quoted in “No Angel,” by Peter Conrad, The Observer, May 22, 2005.

  382 “I was someone he created”: Ibid.

  382 “finally making love to me”: Presley, Priscilla, with Harmon, Sandra, Elvis and Me.

  382 “his femme fatale”: Priscilla Presley, quoted in “No Angel,” by Peter Conrad, The Observer, May 22, 2005.

  383 “While my classmates”: Presley, Priscilla, with Harmon, Sandra, Elvis and Me.

  383 “You’re June, aren’t you?”: June Juanico to author, 2007.

  384 “Elvis Presley”: Ann-Margret quoting George Sidney in Ann-Margret, with Gold, Todd, Ann-Margret: My Story.

  385 “The minute”: Joe Esposito to author, 2009.

  385 “Rusty”: Ann-Margret quoting Elvis Presley in Ann-Margret, with Gold, Todd, Ann-Margret: My Story.

  385 “Everybody on the movie set”: Joe Esposito to author, 2009.

  385 “on a bicycle built for double takes”: People magazine, August 18, 1997.

  385 “Ann-Margret really was the love of his life”: Patti Parry to author, 2009.

  385 “it blew our minds”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.

  386 “When I like someone”: quoted in Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1965.

  386 “aggravated the shit”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.

  386 “It was a very strong relationship”: Ann-Margret, quoted on the Web site Elvis Australia.

  386 “he was very circumspect”: Yvonne Craig to author, 2009.

  387 “If someone else”: Colonel Tom Parker, quoted in Nash, Alanna, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley.

  387 “There was no cut of Ann-Margret”: Joan Deary to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcription from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.

  387 “They hold hands”: Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.

  387 “Is there anything to it?” Presley, Priscilla, with Harmon, Sandra, Elvis and Me.

  388 “That one affected her tremendously”: Joe Esposito to author, 2009.

  388 “she’d stand”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.

  388 “She went down to the auditorium”: Marty Lacker to author, 1993.

  388 “What’s going on here?” Presley, Priscilla, with Harmon, Sandra, Elvis and Me.

  389 “It’s too expensive to shoot it over”: Yvonne Craig quoting Sam Katzman to Jerry Hopkins, from the Jerry Hopkins Collection, Special Collections, the University of Memphis.

  389 “He hated that blond wig”: Cynthia Pepper to author, 2009. All Cynthia Pepper quotes come from this interview.

  390 “I’ve only seen that”: Yvonne Craig to author, 2009. All Yvonne Craig quotes in this section come from this interview.

  391 “Not a bit of warmth there”: Anonymous source to author, 2007.

  391 “I always felt worn out”: Priscilla Presley, “Viva, Priscilla!” by Kevin Sessums, Vanity Fair, July 1991.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  393 “Man, she’s as pretty as Anita”: Marty Lacker to author, 1993.

  394 “We were rather attracted to each other”: Phyllis McGuire in the documentary The Definitive Elvis: The Many Loves of Elvis.

  394 “there was a little situation there”: “Interview with Sonny West,” by Scott Jenkins, on the Web site Elvis Australia, May 13, 2005.

  395 “Elvis always said there’s room for everybody”: “Interview with Red West,” on the Web site Elvis Australia, May 29, 2008.

  395 “They never go to bed”: Anonymous MGM spokesman, Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1965.

  395 “When he made movies”: Felton Jarvis to author, 1977.

  395 “because doing an Elvis movie”: Sue Ane Langdon, quoted in “Everyone Enjoyed Working with Elvis,” by Trevor Cajiao, Elvis: The Man and His Music, issue 66, 2004.

  396 “completely gaga”: Raquel Welch to author, 2007. All Raquel Welch quotes come from this interview. Portions of the Raquel Welch material previously appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal, August 2007.

  397 “He had a blond wig on”: Gail Ganley Steele, in the documentary The Definitive Elvis: The Many Loves of Elvis.

  397 “I couldn’t stand it anymore”: Gail Ganley Steele quoting Elvis Presley in Brown, Peter Harry, and Broeske, Pat H, Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley.

  397 “careful with his hands”: Gail Ganley Steele, quoting Brown, Peter Harry, and Broeske, Pat H, Down at the End of Lonely Street: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley.

  397 “Elvis made me feel like I was a queen”: Gail Ganley Steele, in the documentary The Definitive Elvis: The Many Loves of Elvis.

  398 “I had to ask Elvis”: Ibid.

  398 “Of all aspects of male sexuality”: e-mail, Peter O. Whitmer to author, 2009.

  399 “I was styling Johnny Rivers’s hair”: Larry Geller to author, 1998. All Larry Geller quotes come from the author’s extensive interviews and e-mails with Mr. Geller, 1998 to 2002, and 2009.

  401 “Elvis’s infatuation”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.

  401 “I’ll give you”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.

  401 “She sat in one of those director’s chairs”: Chris Noel to author, 2009. All Chris Noel quotes come from this interview.

  402 “He’d say the P in the song”: “Interview with Charlie Hodge,” on the Web site Elvis Australia, April 9, 2005.

  402 “We never had any kind of romantic association”: Mary Ann Mobley to author, 2007. All Mary Ann Mobley quotes come from this interview. Portions of the Mary Ann Mobley material previously appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal, August 2007.

  403 “Elvis was very much into all this unknown stuff”: Joe Esposito to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.

  403 “You missed your calling, Larry”: Larry Geller quoting Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1998.

  403 “messing up Elvis’s head with all that nonsense”: Anonymous source to author, 2009.

  404 “There was something wrong with the lights”: Francine York to Andrew Hearn, Essential Elvis magazine, no. 10, 2000.

  404 “The woman spun around”: Schilling, Jerry, with Crisafulli, Chuck, Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley.

  405 “I can never forget the longing”: Elvis Presley to James Kingsley, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, March, 1965.

  405 “The money is so big”: Anonymous source, quoted in the Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1965.

  406 “Elvis could have demanded changes”: Joan Blackman, quoted in Elvis World magazine, no. 58.

  406 “sooner or l
ater”: Colonel Tom Parker, quoted in the Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1965.

  406 “He was so strong”: Jo Smith to author, 1993. All Jo Smith quotes come from this interview. Portions of the Jo Smith material previously appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal, August 2007.

  406 “We’d be sitting around the house”: Rex Mansfield, quoted in Elvis World magazine, no. 65.

  409 “a fifty-fifth cousin to P. T. Barnum”: Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.

  409 “When he was doing”: Patti Parry to author, 2009.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  411 “I am a child-woman”: Priscilla Presley, in “Viva, Priscilla!” by Kevin Sessums, Vanity Fair, July 1991.

  411 “Priscilla has a remarkable interior gyroscope”: Jack Soden, Elvis Presley Enterprises, in “Viva, Priscilla!” by Kevin Sessums, Vanity Fair, July 1991.

  412 “It became like the First and Second Family”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.

  412 “and then after they took them”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.

  412 “He was going to play around”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.

  412 “We had to haul”: Marty Lacker to author, 1993.

  413 “he didn’t try to date her”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.

  413 “never really taxed”: Sue Ane Langdon, quoted in “Everyone Enjoyed Working with Elvis,” by Trevor Cajiao, Elvis: The Man and His Music, issue 66, 2004.

  414 “a very detrimental effect”: Letter, Hal Wallis to Colonel Tom Parker, Hal Wallis Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, the Academy of Motion Pictures.

  414 “That goddamn old fucking bitch!”: Marty Lacker quoting Elvis Presley to author, 1994.

  415 “a show business phenomenon”: Marianna Hill, quoted in Doll, Susan, The Films of Elvis Presley.

  415 “We talked a lot about religion”: Suzanna Leigh to Joe Krein, June 26, 2007, on the Web site Elvis 2001.

  416 “This won’t do your career any harm, baby!” Elvis World magazine, no. 69.

  417 “he did not dig it that [Wallis] was there”: “Donna Butterworth, “Won’t You Please Come Home?” by Bill Bram, in Elvis: The Man and His Music, issue 68, 2005.

  417 “classy and quiet”: Donna Butterworth to Joe Krein, May 1, 2008, on the Web site Elvis 2001.

  417 “How can Elvis”: “Donna Butterworth, Won’t You Please Come Home?” by Bill Bram, in Elvis: The Man and His Music, issue 68, 2005.

  418 “Those guys are still down there”: Schilling, Jerry, with Crisafulli, Chuck, Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley.

  418 “Do tell me all about Elvis Presley”: Suzanna Leigh quoting Queen Elizabeth, Elvis World magazine, no. 69.

  418 “There was a silence”: Larry Geller to author, 1998.

  418 “We all walked”: Ibid.

  419 “Jo laughed like crazy, man”: Billy Smith to author, 1994.

  419 “would succumb that October:” Bill Black died October 21, 1965. Elvis told the Commercial Appeal that Bill “was a great man and a person that everyone loved. This comes as such a shock to me that I can hardly explain how much I loved Bill.”

  419 “In the very beginning”: Joan Deary, Deary to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcription from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.

  420 “Priscilla began sobbing”: Geller, Larry, and Spector, Joel, with Romanowski, Patricia, If I Can Dream.

  420 “The black was so deep”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.

  420 “He called her ‘Ma’ ”: Billy Smith to author, 1994.

  421 “like getting hit”: Deborah Walley, in the documentary The Definitive Elvis: The Many Loves of Elvis.

  421 “We had a very close relationship”: Deborah Walley, quoted in Elvis International Forum magazine, vol. 8, no. 2, Summer 1995.

  421 “was a turn-off”: Deborah Walley to Andrew Hearn, Essential Elvis magazine, no. 13, 2000.

  421 “Whew! He spun her head around”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.

  421 “he didn’t talk much about her”: Deborah Walley to Andrew Hearn, Essential Elvis magazine, no. 13, 2000.

  421 “Every time we’d stop”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.

  422 “It’s not so much”: Doll, Susan, The Films of Elvis Presley.

  422 “He insulated himself”: “Priscilla Presley: Surviving Elvis,” by Sheila Weller, McCall’s magazine, May 1979.

  422 “Roger Smith calls her”: Marty Lacker quoting Elvis Presley to author, 1993.

  422 “Elvis never would have had a superstar as a wife”: Joe Esposito to author, 2009.

  423 “He was just so sensitive”: Ann-Margret to Charlie Rose, The Charlie Rose Show, Februrary 11, 1994.

  423 “What the hell is wrong with your boss?” Marty Lacker quoting Ann-Margret to author, 1993.

  423 “Both of us knew”: Ann-Margret, quoted in People magazine, August 18, 1997.

  423 “He got real upset about it”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.

  423 “Our relationship was extremely special”: Ann-Margret to Charlie Rose, The Charlie Rose Show, February 11, 1994.

  424 “I’d just come to work for RCA”: Felton Jarvis to author, 1977.

  424 first Grammy: Elvis won three Grammy Awards, all for his gospel recordings—in 1967 for the album How Great Thou Art, in 1972 for the LP He Touched Me, and in 1974 for a live rendition of “How Great Thou Art.”

  424 “I’ve never seen a performer”: Schilling, Jerry, with Crisafulli, Chuck, Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley.

  425 “Everyone else”: “Interview with Charlie Hodge,” on the Web site Elvis Australia, April 9, 2005.

  425 “He was way too out of control”: Joe Esposito to author, 2009.

  425 “Every night”: Joe Esposito to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.

  426 “We talked, smoked grass”: Esposito, Joe, with Oumano, Elena, Good Rockin’ Tonight.

  427 “radically wrong”: Letter, Hal Wallis to Colonel Tom Parker, September 6, 1966, Hal Wallis collection, Margaret Herrick Library, the Academy of Motion Pictures.

  428 “Now, just a minute”: Elvis Presley, quoted in Doll, Susan, The Films of Elvis Presley.

  428 “Soon, he was stopping at every pay phone”: Marty Lacker to author, 1993.

  429 “My happiest memories”: “Priscilla Presley: Surviving Elvis,” by Sheila Weller, McCall’s magazine, May 1979.

  429 “ ‘Satnin,’ we’re going to be married”: Presley, Priscilla, with Harmon, Sandra. Elvis and Me.

  429 “There was still love there”: “Interview with Sonny West,” by Scott Jenkins, on the Web site Elvis Australia, May 13, 2005.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  431 “he’d put a scarf around his neck”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.

  432 “The happiest we ever saw him”: Ray Walker to author, 1977.

  432 “You couldn’t read the letter”: Patsy Presley, quoted in Elvis by the Presleys: Ritz, David, editor.

  432 “Family talk”: Ibid.

  433 “How are you going to break it to the guys?” Marty Lacker quoting Elvis Presley to author, 1993.

  433 “He started to get very philanthropic”: Larry Geller to author, 1998.

  434 “He had a couple of months”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.

  435 “He ate out of depression”: Jerry Schilling to Jerry Hopkins, the Jerry Hopkins Collection, Special Collections, the University of Memphis.

  435 “He went above and beyond”: Barbara Klein Bauer to Andrew Hearn, Essential Elvis magazine, no. 64, 2009.

  436 “He was healthy then”: George C. Nichopoulos to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1995.

  436 “We will have”: Letter, Colonel Tom Parker to Marty Lacker, quoted in Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.

  436 “Oh, man”: Larry Geller quoting Elvis Presley to author, 1998. The dialogue that follows is based on his account.
r />   437 “a couple of men in suits”: Larry Geller to author, 1998.

  437 “Goddamn you guys!” Marty Lacker quoting Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.

  437 “Here’s the way it is”: This dialogue is based on what Marty Lacker told the author, 1994.

  438 “It was like taking my arm off”: Larry Geller to author, 1998.

  438 “I threw in maybe two or three books”: Larry Geller quoting Elvis Presley to author, 1998.

  439 “There were many times”: George C. Nichopoulos to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1995.

  439 “He was a private person”: Shelley Fabares, Elvis International Forum magazine, August 1992.

  439 “He went after her”: “Interview with Sonny West,” by Scott Jenkins, on the Web site Elvis Australia, May 13, 2005.

  440 “He’s a clean-cut”: Sam Katzman, quoted in Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1965.

  440 “was absolutely petrified”: Judge David Zenoff, Life magazine, February 10, 1995.

  440 “Our little girl”: Paul Beaulieu, quoted in Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.

  441 “as we raced”: Presley, Priscilla, with Harmon, Sandra, Elvis and Me.

  441 “I was making a motorcycle movie”: “Interview with Sonny West,” by Scott Jenkins, on the Web site Elvis Australia, May 13, 2005.

  441 “just doing what he always tried to do”: “Interview with Charlie Hodge,” on the Web site Elvis Australia, April 9, 2005.

  441 “We should”: Joe Esposito to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.

  441 “Well, somebody finally caught him”: Kay Wheeler, e-mail to author, 2009.

  442 “Our eyes met”: Ann-Margret with Gold, Todd, Ann-Margret: My Story.

  442 “This is the greatest thing”: Elvis Presley, quoted in Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.

  442 “Elvis was always talking”: Priscilla Presley, quoted in “No Angel,” by Peter Conrad, The Observer, May 22, 2005.

  443 “Did you come yet?” Nancy Sinatra quoting Elvis Presley in Goldman, Albert, Elvis.

  443 “He just got very quiet”: Ibid.

 

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