Baby, Let's Play House

by Alanna Nash

  Joe then called Sheila Ryan. She didn’t ask what had happened. She knew: Elvis had died of a broken heart. “I turned the world off—the television, the radio. I wouldn’t go to the store. I couldn’t deal with it.”

  Now it was all over the media.

  Joyce Bova was driving on I-95 with a friend, Carolyn Russo, while Janice was in another car with their mother. Janice heard it on the radio, and pulled up beside her sister blowing her horn and yelling for her to turn on the news. “The first thing I heard was a deejay announcing, ‘The singer of this song is dead today.’ ” Her heart sank when Elvis’s voice wafted out. “I couldn’t even react. I was just in shock.” The family pulled over, got out of their cars, and made a circle, hugging Joyce on the shoulder as traffic whizzed by.

  Ann Ellington heard it in a Nashville doctor’s office on the loudspeaker. “I was absolutely devastated.”

  Raquel Welch was in rehearsal for a Vegas show when somebody came running into the room and said, “Elvis is dead!” And “everybody went numb. It was the end of an era.”

  Suzanna Leigh had just awakened from a dream in which Elvis told her good-bye. Then she got a call from CBS News, wanting comment.

  And down in Biloxi, June Juanico was just getting up from a nap. “When I came out of my bedroom, my mother was looking at me really strangely. Finally, she said, “ ‘June!’ And she came over, and she was holding me at arm’s length, and she had tears in her eyes. She said, ‘I just heard on the television that Elvis Presley has died.’ I looked at her and said, ‘That can’t be! That can’t be!’ I went over to the television and just fell to my knees in front of it. All I could do was make grunting sounds. I couldn’t breathe. I honestly think if my mother had not been with me, I might have died. In my heart, I always thought that Elvis and I would be together again, somewhere down the road.”

  EPILOGUE

  Nearly thirty-three years after his death, Elvis Presley still holds sway, his musical talents shaping the seminal years of an entire genre, his songs (“Love Me Tender,” “Viva Las Vegas”) serving as touchstones for American culture, his legacy a cautionary tale of unbridled excess, combined with too little self-knowledge and too much fame.

  His tragedy is not simply that he died too soon, without breaking his dependence on prescription drugs and realizing the enormity of his talent in projects that fed his creative muse, but that he was forever trapped in a loop of dissatisfaction and suffering, stemming from the loss of his twin and the premature death of his mother, with whom he had been lethally enmeshed since childhood. Her passing amounted to a “double death,” in that it forever cut his immediate tie with Jessie Garon, and brought about an acute anguish that he had never dealt with on a conscious level. When Gladys died, he wildly grieved for both his twin and his mother, and his bereavement opened a chasm of sorrow that he was never able to close.

  His symptoms—a preoccupation with his losses, an intense yearning for the departed, persistent thoughts about death, guilt, and unmanageable sieges of sadness—fit what is clinically known as complicated grief, or prolonged grief disorder. Psychiatrists formerly called it “stuck grief,” and link it to higher incidences of substance abuse, suicide attempts, and social problems. For Elvis specifically, his debilitating trauma compounded his heightened need for human contact, and stunted his ability to cope and deal emotionally with adult problems and responsibilities. His normal grief symptoms gradually faded, but in time, his prolonged grief grew worse, particularly in the wake of his divorce.

  Complicated grief is still being researched, but mental health professionals estimate that it affects more than a million people a year, or 15 percent of the bereaved. It is currently under consideration for addition to the DSM-V, the American Psychiatric Association’s handbook, which is used in diagnosing mental disorders.

  “Simply put,” Dr. M. Katherine Shear, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, told the New York Times, “complicated grief can wreck a person’s life.”

  Elvis would demonstrate varying degrees of prolonged grief throughout his life, but perhaps the most constant manifestation was his interaction with women. Because he could not separate or individuate from his twin and then from his mother, his ability to relate intimately with others was already intricately, neurologically, psychologically, and inexorably established. No room was left for others.

  Even when he attempted to replicate his level of intimacy with Gladys and Jessie Garon, as he did with scores of women throughout his life, he could never find a long-lasting, romantic, sexual bond. In looking to one or even two concurrent women or adolescent girls as substitutes who might make him feel complete, Elvis put himself—and his female friends—in an impossible situation.

  Still, there were times, particularly with Ann-Margret and Linda Thompson, when he broke through his psychological chains and got close to realizing an ideal relationship. But his extreme addiction to drugs and rampant sexual conquests—grounded in the promiscuous behavior of his father and grandfather, though escalating far beyond what either of those two men could have imagined—amounted to self-sabotage of the first order, and further set him up for romantic failure and continued emotional disappointment. Yet he never seemed to learn from his mistakes, which remained unexamined as he moved on immediately to the next woman, just as he went from doctor to doctor for another supply of pills without investigating ways to quell his urges or take control of his life.

  Finally, his parents’ directive that he was “special,” having survived when Jessie Garon did not, gave him license to indulge in increasingly dangerous behavior without fear of repercussion or death, and encouraged his messianic tendencies as a conduit of a higher power. In allowing him to compartmentalize and build walls, it also left him with no real boundaries as to how to treat other individuals, especially monogamous women who expected a faithful mate, and lovers who he insisted share his drug protocol.

  However, Elvis knew full well how to deal with the masses, for it was the unconditionally adoring fans who shored up his fragile sense of greatness, and allowed him the fleeting perception of fulfilling his psychological imperative to “live for two.” With this once-in-a-lifetime system of support, Elvis, a once-in-a-lifetime performer, was propelled to feel as he thought he should. But only while onstage.

  “One time in Las Vegas,” reports über-fan Robin Rosaaen, “it was so funny. This woman threw her bra and Elvis put it on his head and pretended he was an airline pilot and it was his helmet. He liked that spontaneity with the fans, because he felt that if he was pleasing them and they were having fun, they were going to please him back.”

  In this setting—onstage—mistakes were simply not in his emotional vocabulary. He could bend and twist the audiences’ applause to rationalize whatever he did with his life. He was their king, and both sides, the stage and the audience, realized this odd reality. There, and only there, Elvis Presley felt whole, loved, and happy.

  ENDNOTES

  INTRODUCTION

  xi “We heard a woman”: Jean Beaulne to author, 2009.

  xii “There was a row of policemen”: Lew Allen to author, 2003.

  xii “The men don’t know”: Lyrics, “Back Door Man,” by Willie Dixon.

  xii “Nineteen fifty-six was a great year”: Scotty Moore, in the documentary “Elvis in Hollywood,” 1993.

  xii “Elvis’s sexual history”: Robert Christgau, The Village Voice, June 10, 1997.

  xii “attitude, sinking eyelids”: Jennings, Peter, and Brewster, Todd, The Century.

  xiii “reached its lowest depths”: Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.

  xiii “a message so shocking”: Rodman, Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend.

  xiii “recognized as a threat”: Ibid.

  xiii “few rock and rollers”: Robert Christgau, The Village Voice, June 10, 1997.

  xiii “One of the most childish expressions”: Elvis Presley to Pau
l Wilder for TV Guide, August 6, 1956.

  xiii “What remains, unfortunately”: Miami Herald article as quoted in Osborne, Jerry, Elvis Word for Word.

  xiii “Any answer to that one?” through “make the best of it”: Paul Wilder interview of Elvis Presley, TV Guide, August 6, 1956.

  xiv “charm the pants off a snake,” Bobbie Ann Mason, “All Shook Up,” The New Yorker, March 14, 1994.

  xiv “She touched my hand”: Truncated lyrics to “All Shook Up.”

  xiv “He enjoyed the feel”: Alfred Wertheimer to Gary James, on the Web site classicbands.com, 2006.

  xiv “His sneer was all-important”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  xiv “wandering” uterus: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  xiv Hippocrates and hysteria: Wikipedia.

  xv “sexual savagery”: Matt Dellinger, “For the Young Elvis, a Brand New Accompaniment,” The New York Times, August 11, 2002.

  xv “People wonder”: Kevin Eggers, quoted in “For the Young Elvis, a Brand New Accompaniment,” The New York Times, August 11, 2002.

  xv “effeminization of the American male”: Chicago Tribune, as quoted by the Web site imdb.com.

  xv “like k.d. lang”: Leigh Crow to Kerry Bashford, quoted in Polare, 2005.

  xv “He was the total androgynous beauty”: k.d. lang as quoted in Elvis International Forum magazine, Vol. 11, #1, Spring 1998.

  xvi “Elvis swims in our minds”: David Lynch, quoted in “Elvis Feared He’d Be Forgotten,” on the Web site abcnews.com, 2007.

  xvi “For a dead man”: Rodman, Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend.

  xvii “Bottom line”: e-mail, Kay Wheeler to author, 2009.

  CHAPTER ONE

  1 “She is always worried . . .”: Elvis Presley to Robert Carlton Brown, March 24, 1956.

  2 “could make you laugh when nobody else could”: Annie Presley, quoted in Burk, Bill E., Early Elvis: The Tupelo Years.

  3 “she would be carefully carried”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  3 “Bring a bucket”: Mertice Finley Collins, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.

  3 “Just because you’re poor”: Billy Smith to author, 1992.

  3 “lazy as a hog”: Lillian Smith Fortenberry, raw interview transcript, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.

  3 “Old Dr. Hunt”: Janelle McComb to author, 2003.

  4 “This tiny impoverished community”: Elaine Dundy, on the Web site elvisnews.com, October 6, 2004.

  4 “It seemed like”: Dundy, Elaine, Elvis and Gladys.

  4 “Everybody in that family”: Lamar Fike to author, 1992.

  5 “getting a little”: Billy Smith to author, 1992.

  5 “Aunt Gladys was a strong-willed individual”: Billy Smith to author, 1992.

  5 “very highly strung”: Lillian Smith Fortenberry, raw interview transcript, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.

  5 “dark things”: Dundy, Elvis and Gladys.

  5 “fast”: Pid Harris, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.

  6 “Gladys got herself”: Dundy, Elvis and Gladys.

  6 “Conversion hysteria”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  7 “she could not move”: Annie Presley, quoted in Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  7 “Back in them days”: Annie Presley to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript.

  7 “Just a roof”: Annie Presley, quoted in Burk, Bill E., Early Elvis: The Tupelo Years.

  7 “In all of our church services”: Reverend Frank W. Smith, quoted in Burk, Bill E., Early Elvis: The Tupelo Years.

  8 “Gladys was in and out”: Annie Presley to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript.

  8 “Your belief in God”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  8 “Gladys didn’t like my attitude much”: Vester Presley, as quoted on the Web site Elvis Australia.

  9 “When Mertice”: e-mail, Roy Turner to author, 2009.

  9 “She was a very strict disciplinarian”: Joseph Presley, as quoted in Dundy, Elaine, Elvis and Gladys.

  10 “When that was gone”: Annie Presley to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript.

  10 “Was he being stingy”: Tony Stuchbury to author, 2009.

  10 “When he’d get off of work”: Annie Presley to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript.

  11 “Roses are red”: Elvis Presley’s poem, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.

  12 “Vernon thought he was a stud”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.

  12 “I think it’s time”: Gladys Presley, as quoted in Burk, Bill E., Early Elvis: The Tupelo Years.

  12 “Jessie, drunk out of his mind”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.

  13 “more than half dead”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  13 “Some of the congregation”: Janelle McComb, quoted in Clayton, Rose, and Heard, Dick, Elvis Up Close.

  14 “nobody really knows”: Joe Savery, quoted in Clayton, Rose, and Heard, Dick, Elvis Up Close.

  14 “When I stumbled on”: e-mail, Roy Turner to author, 2009.

  14 “I was doing a documentary”: Ibid. Roy Turner to author, 2009.

  14 “People say”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.

  15 “Gladys had”: Unnamed cousin of Gladys Presley, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.

  15 “Gladys ruled her house”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.

  15 “My mother”: Elvis Presley, press conference titled “Press Interview with Elvis Presley.” Brooklyn, N.Y. Source: “Elvis Sails” EP, September 22, 1958.

  15 “It sounded like”: Magnolia Clanton, quoted in Dundy, Elaine, Elvis and Gladys.

  16 “The services”: Annie Presley, quoted in Burk, Bill E., Early Elvis: The Tupelo Years.

  17 “After about three hours”: Roy Turner to Piers Beagley, Elvis Information Network, May 2008.

  17 “It was a small church”: Elvis Presley, quoted in the Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1965.

  17 “Gladys used to laugh”: Harold Loyd, quoted in Clayton, Rose, and Heard, Dick, Elvis Up Close.

  17 “While pregnant”: Peter O. Whitmer to author, 2009.

  18 “uttering a forged instrument”: Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.

  18 “They were drinking”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.

  18 “Maybe J.D. thought”: Ibid.

  19 “The warden made him a trustee”:This is not precisely clear. A penitentiary record dated February 6, 1939, the day of Vernon ’s release states, “Sergeant Day says his record is good; not a trusty [sic], but nothing against his record. Maude.”

  19 “action nightmares”: Unnamed Presley relative, quoted in “The Boy Who Would Be King,” by Steve Dougherty, This Is Elvis: Special Collector’s Edition of TV Guide, August 2002.

  CHAPTER TWO

  21 “The money was repaid”: Orville Bean, letter to Governor Hugh L. White, December 16, 1938.

  Orville Bean’s letter, which was found in the Parchman Penitentiary archives in 2008, also provides the clearest picture of the crime. “An application of Vernon Presley for pardon,” as Bean termed it, the letter reads in full:

  Dear Governor:

  This young man plead [sic] guilty at the May Term, 1938, of the Circuit Court of Lee County, Mississippi, on a charge of forgery, and was sentenced to serve three years in the State Penitentiary. This young man, who is twenty-three years of age and was raised here, has never been in any trouble whatever until this came up.

  I bought a hog from Mr. Presley and gave him a check for it and he allowed two other young men to see the check and copy the signature and the other men forged checks on
me and I understand they paid Presley about $15.00 of the money they got on the forged checks for allowing them to copy the signature of the legitimate check I gave him, and not saying anything about it, but when Presley was asked about the matter he told the whole truth at the very beginning.

  This young man has a wife and one small child that are in financial distress, and they need him very badly. He is not a bad man and has never been. The money was repaid to me and this man realizes the mistake he has made and I believe he has been sufficiently punished. He is a splendid young man and if given a chance I confidently believe he will make a good and useful citizen and for these reasons I respectfully ask you to grant him a pardon.

  Yours very truly,

  O.S. Bean

  21 “he has never even been drunk”: Gladys Presley and Minnie Mae Presley, letter, October 29, 1938.

  21 “My health is bad”: Gladys Presley, letter, November 25, 1938.

  22 “He wouldn’t wait”: Annie Presley to Peter O. Whitmer, raw interview transcript.

  22 “Aunt Gladys”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.

  22 “crying his eyes out”: Unnamed Presley relative, quoted in “The Boy Who Would Be King,” by Steve Dougherty, This Is Elvis: Special Collector’s Edition of TV Guide, August 2002.

  22 “After [Vernon] went to prison:” Unnamed Presley friend, quoted in “The Boy Who Would Be King,” by Steve Dougherty, This Is Elvis: Special Collector’s Edition of TV Guide, August 2002.

  22 “He’d run up to you”: Annie Presley, quoted in Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  23 “Twinless twins”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  23 “Elvis was just learning”: Lillian Smith Fortenberry, raw interview transcript, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.

  24 “Given what is known”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.

  24 “a real condensed round”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.

  24 “Elvis would rip”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.