PART II: WHY ELVIS?
CHAPTER THREE: VERNON AND GLADYS
Among the valuable primary sources was Works Progress Administration Records, Lee County, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson. Also useful was Lee County Courthouse, General State Docket 2, May 21, 1935–November 27, 1948, page 20. This document is in the spacious attic of the Lee County Courthouse. In the 1990s and the 2000s the attic was richly filled from knee-high to shoulder-high with original documents dealing with the official actions of the county government. I found useful the Warranty Deed Record, Book 4, D159–385, D159-568. Also, from the same source, I consulted Warranty Deed Record, Index Book B, D357–272. Also useful from Lee County Courthouse were the General State Dockets, 2, 5, 21, 35–11, 27, 43, various pages, indexed under P, State 2756. For some details about Vernon’s imprisonment, see, Works Progress Administration Records, Lee County, Department of Corrections, subgroup 1: penitentiary, mf 17: convict register, pages 307–9. The Parchman Farm Records are in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Other primary sources useful for this chapter were Pontotoc County Courthouse, Court Records, Pontotoc, Mississippi; the Census of 1900, Lee County, Mississippi; and the Census of 1920, Itawamba County, Mississippi. Newspaper issues of interest were Tupelo Daily Journal, November 17, 1937, et seq.; Tupelo Daily News, April 16–18, May 27–28, 1938.
Elaine Dundy provides a rich tapestry of Elvis’s family life in her Elvis and Gladys (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985). This is certainly one of the most thorough studies of the relationships among family members, including the extended family. Pages used were 6–7, 10, 12, 57–64, 67, 70, 72–85, 93, 101–2. David M. Oshinsky has explored the prison system where Vernon was imprisoned in his “Worse than Slavery”: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice (New York: Free Press, 1997). Pages used were 109, 110, 137, 143, 145, 147, 153–54, 162. Several other secondary sources proved useful. I used pages 14–16 from Alanna Nash, with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker, and Lamar Fike, Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (New York: HarperCollins, 1995); pages 267–80 from Frank E. Smith, The Yazoo River (New York: Rinehart, 1954); pages 3–21 and 25 from William F. Holmes, The White Chief: James Kimble Vardaman (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1970); and page 93 from Columbus B. Hopper, Sex in Prison: The Mississippi Experiment with Conjugal Visiting (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1970). Several of these sources explore the conditions of imprisonment in the South. As always, Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis: Day by Day (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999) proves useful for details. See especially page 2. A useful source for examination of the culture of the era in the Deep South is the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. This volume was edited by Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris, with Ann J. Abadie and Mary L. Hart as associate editors (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989). The encyclopedia summarizes some pertinent findings by the scholar Steven Kasse, a 1973 UNC doctoral student. See page 1330. Kasse’s dissertation was published by the UNC Press in 1989.
CHAPTER FOUR: EAST TUPELO AND TUPELO
Elaine Dundy’s scholarly and perceptive study of the family provides rich details from this period. Her Elvis and Gladys (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985) provides a look at family interactions in this transitional period of Elvis’s life. Pages used were 86–87, 89–91, 93–95, 97, 102–7. Memphis journalist Bill E. Burk provides insights also into Elvis’s personal life. I used pages 19–20 of Burk’s Early Elvis: The Humes Years (Memphis: Propwash, 1990, 2003). Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994) is very useful in this, as in other, chapters. Pages used were 16–17. Pages used from Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis: Day by Day (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999) were 3, 4, 6–7.
CHAPTER FIVE: MEMPHIS
Among the sources most useful in following various activities of the Presley family are the Memphis City Directory of the period and various telephone books over the years. The Hume High School Herald, a yearbook, also proved useful, especially for the year 1953. The Elvis Presley Collection in the Memphis Public Library is a rich resource for following early Elvis. One of the insiders, Bill E. Burk, has written a revealing picture of the high school student in his Early Elvis: The Humes Years (Memphis: Propwash, 1990, 2003). The 2003 edition includes a superb collection of photographs taken at Hume High School. I drew also on my research about William Faulkner, who grew up in Oxford, a culture with some similarities to Tupelo, East Tupelo, and Memphis. See Joel Williamson, William Faulkner and Southern History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
Elaine Dundy’s Elvis and Gladys (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985) proved very useful. Pages used were 131–32, 134–35, 136, 139, 141–43, 145, 148–50, 151, 152–53. The detailed tracing of Elvis’s total life by Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis: Day by Day (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), proved helpful in sorting out dates and events. Pages used were 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15. Also useful was another book that details Elvis’s life, Michael Gray and Roger Osborne, The Elvis Atlas: A Journey Through Elvis Presley’s America (New York: Holt, 1996). Pages used were 28, 32, 33. Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994) addressed the issue mentioned in chapter 5 about which song—there was a question—Elvis sang in one of his early public performances. Guralnick suggested Elvis sang “Till I Waltz Again with You,” but there are other possibilities. Pages used were 32–33, 44, 49, 52, 53. Some of those who were to work with Elvis for all or a significant part of his career began to make personal observations in these years. See Alanna Nash, with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker, and Lamar Fike, Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), especially pages 22–23.
CHAPTER SIX: DIXIE LOCKE AND SAM PHILLIPS
In this chapter on women and Elvis, I drew background from my own William Faulkner and Southern History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). Pages used were 186–87, 193, 213–14. Other sources that provide insight into the role of gender in this South were Tammy Wynette and Joan Dew, Stand by Your Man—An Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979) and, for the part played by Elvis, Scotty Moore, That’s Alright, Elvis: The Untold Story of Elvis’s First Guitarist and Manager, Scotty Moore, as told to James M. Dickerson (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997). Pages used of Moore were 4–32, 35–48, 51, 53–57, 58–62, 63–65. For a look at other artists in the same general period, see Lyle Leverich, Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams (New York: Crown Publishers, 1995), pages 150–53. For a look at the evolution of Elvis’s musical success, see Elvis’s 100 Greatest Hits (Milwaukee: Leonard, 1978), page 55. Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis: Day by Day (New York: Ballantine Books, 1997) provides photographs of Elvis’s Memphis employment office record. See pages 7, 10, 12, 15.
As in other chapters, especially those that explore family and personal dynamics, Elaine Dundy provides many details in her Elvis and Gladys (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985). Pages used were 108, 112, 160, 162–63, 171–73, 175–76, 178, 179, 180–81. The pages after page 112 provide photographs of key friends in these years. Useful here, as elsewhere, is Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994). Pages used were 5–6, 42–43, 57, 60, 65, 67–74, 75, 83, 84, 85, 93–103, 106–7. Providing more insight into the high school influence was Bill E. Burk, Early Elvis: The Humes Years (Memphis: Propwash, 1990, 2003). See pages 109, 111–12.
CHAPTER SEVEN: A GIRL IN THE BED
I benefited from conversations with a number of people in understanding the Elvis of these years. This chapter reflects a conversation I had at dinner with Mrs. Robert Stoller, a source on Elvis, in her home just off Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and not far from UCLA, where I was giving talks in 1999. Parchman Farm records in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, and the Memphis Press-Scimitar provided background details
on some aspects of Elvis’s activities or activities of the larger family, including his parents, Vernon and Gladys. Priscilla herself provides details about her marriage, and the long periods before and after, in her Elvis and Me (New York: Berkley Books, 1986), written with Sandra Harmon. Her book contains a photographic record of their years together. Pages used were 48–54, 55–61, 62–64, 65–66, 184. Another look at Elvis and Priscilla’s relationship is Suzanne Finstad, Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (New York: Harmony, 1997). Pages used were 40, 45–66, 184. One of Elvis’s intimates, Joe Esposito, with Elena Oumano, published Good Rockin’ Tonight: Twenty Years on the Road and on the Town with Elvis (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994). The useful pages are especially 181–82. Another acquaintance, Scotty Moore, provides some insights into this early transitional phase of Elvis’s life in his That’s Alright, Elvis: The Untold Story of Elvis’s First Guitarist and Manager, Scotty Moore, as told to James M. Dickerson (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997). Pages used were 3, 92–93, 95. Charlie Hodge, another friend close to Elvis in this period, provides insights in his Me ’n Elvis (Memphis: Castle Books, 1988), written with Charles Goodman. The pertinent pages are 1–4, 10–13.
Several dependable sources provide details about Elvis’s years in Memphis and in the army, and the transition, under the direction of Colonel Tom Parker, to a film career. See Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1994), pages 38–39, 47–48, 66, 77, 78, 107–11, 114, 115, 150, 154–64, 184–85, 197–99, 200–201, 206, 220, 221, 348, 356–57, 422–23, 427, 447–80. Pertinent insights are revealed in Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little, Brown, 1999). Pages used were 10, 12–19, 22–24, 29–30, 37–44, 49, 56–59, 76–77, 107, 113–14, 116, 131–32, 206, 247, 261–65.
Also see Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis: Day by Day (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), pages 10, 49, 178, 182. Family dynamics and personal-life details are covered in a sensitive and scholarly fashion in Elaine Dundy, Elvis and Gladys (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), pages 148–49, 171, 174, 223, 227, 232, 233, 237, 242, 292–94, 305–6, 321–23, 326. We have seen sometimes a realistic view of Elvis from some of those who worked close to him, such as in Alanna Nash, with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker, and Lamar Fike, Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (New York: HarperCollins, 1995). See the preface, xv–xix, and pages 81–82, 89–92, 101–3, 108–20, 143, 157, 158, 160–66, 163, 174, 183, 185, 186, 195–96, 282, 358, 480–82, 564–65. Albert Goldman’s study of Elvis was published only a few years after Elvis’s death and provides a balanced look at Elvis’s entire life. See Albert Goldman, Elvis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), pages 207, 209–24, 252–54.
PART III: COMEBACK AND DIE
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE COMEBACK SPECIAL
The theatrical and television films are available, and this chapter draws on the CBS-TV film Elvis, known as “the Comeback Special,” which highlighted Elvis’s return to live performances, this time before mature nightclub audiences that included the girls, now women, who had squealed about two decades earlier. This is available from the New York Museum of Television and Radio. The lyrics of Elvis’s music are likewise available via various sources. This chapter particularly draws from “If I Can Dream,” with words and music by Walter Earl Brown. The Inventory of the Elvis Presley Estate, County Courthouse, Memphis, Tennessee, also provides some materials of the accomplishments of various aspects of Elvis’s career. I drew from earlier research, Joel Williamson, William Faulkner and Southern History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), especially pages 322, 325–28, 340, including the photographs opposite page 249. Jerry Hopkins, as always, provides a more personal look at Elvis. See his Elvis (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971), especially pages 335–51, 431. The same personal look is evident in Scotty Moore, That’s Alright, Elvis: The Untold Story of Elvis’s First Guitarist and Manager, Scotty Moore, as told to James Dickerson (New York: Schirmer Books, 1997). Pages used were 145–48. The more intimate look at Elvis’s life here, as elsewhere, is provided by Alanna Nash, with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker, and Lamar Fike, Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (New York: HarperCollins, 1995). See pages 401–2, 449, 452–54, 459, 465, 468–70, 477, 479, 626–27.
Peter Guralnick’s Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little, Brown, 1999) focuses especially on the disintegration of Elvis’s career. See pages 185, 282–83, 294–304, 307–8, 311–15, 317, 343, 391, 443, 444. Another biographer, Albert Goldman, provides useful insights and facts into these transitional years in Elvis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), especially pages 337, 403–39, 447, 531. You can follow the daily flow of Elvis’s life in the period covered here in Peter Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis: Day by Day (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), pages 174, 207–8, 236, 237, 240, 242, 245–57, 259, 261, 266, 275, 277, 370–71, 431–33, and in Michael Gray and Roger Osborne, The Elvis Atlas: A Journey Through Elvis Presley’s America (New York: Holt, 1996), pages 138–39, 181–83. Insights into Elvis’s fading relationship with his wife, Priscilla, emerge from Suzanne Finstad, Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (New York: Harmony, 1997), page 213 and elsewhere. On Graceland see Karal Ann Marling, Graceland: Going Home with Elvis (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996), page 184 and elsewhere.
CHAPTER NINE: GIRLS AND GUNS
Priscilla’s book, with Sandra Harmon, Elvis and Me (New York: Berkley Books, 1986), provides many insights from her perspective. See especially pages 253–54, 259, 298, 299–300. Also revealing Priscilla’s point of view is Suzanne Finstad, Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley (New York: Harmony, 1997), especially pages 184, 213–14, 216, 227, 231, 235–40. Many people who knew Elvis or Priscilla wrote books about him or her, such as members of the Memphis Mafia, the Graceland security team, or friends. Among those friends was Michael Edwards, Priscilla, Elvis, and Me (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988). Edwards mostly knew Priscilla. See especially pages 210–13. Joyce Bova, who was supposed to become Elvis’s wife after Priscilla, contributed a book of her own reflections. See Joyce Bova, as told to William Conrad Nowels, Don’t Ask Forever: My Love Affair with Elvis (New York: Pinnacle Books, 1994), pages 69–89, 166–71, 173, 192, 235, 247, 284, 295–96, 332, 362, 393–94, 401–2. Another Memphis woman who knew Elvis intimately, and seemed deeply interested in his welfare, was Kathy Westmoreland, who with William G. Quinn wrote Elvis and Kathy (Glendale, CA: Glendale House Publishing, 1987). Westmoreland was a singer with Elvis for a period. See especially pages 57–58. Other insiders, here as elsewhere, provided perspectives of those around Elvis and his various female friends. See Alanna Nash, with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker, and Lamar Fike, Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), especially pages 204, 439, 486, 490–92, 500–502, 507, 508, 523–24, 526, 528, 532–33, 537–41, 571, 582, 583, 595, 632, 633, 638, 639, 658. Members of the Memphis Mafia contributed their version of Elvis with girls and guns. See Red West, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler, as told to Steve Dunleavy, Elvis: What Happened? (New York: Ballantine Books, 1997), especially pages 88 and 89. See Jerry Osborne’s Elvis: Word for Word (New York: Harmony Books, 1999, 2000), especially pages 221, 230, 232–34, 237, 239, 242, 249, 252, 268, 288–89, 296. Another more personal view is provided by Charles Hodge with Charles Goodman, Me ’n Elvis (Memphis: Castle Books, 1988), page 3 and elsewhere. This chapter draws on the television films Elvis (“the Comeback Special”) and Elvis on Tour.
Peter Guralnick’s detailed look at Elvis’s public and private life is Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994). See pages 389, 394–97, 401, 403, 408–12, 418–28, 433, 434, 438, 446, 451–56, 462, 471–73, 489–90, 526, 535–37, 540–41, 544, 551, 568–78, 581. Guralnick includes Kathy Westmoreland’s words during an interview, pages 395–97. Guralnick and Ernst Jorgensen provide details about Elvis’s
activities in this period in their Elvis: Day by Day (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999), pages 215, 239–40, 280, 283, 285–87, 298, 300, 301, 316, 317, 350–51, 353. Also see Michael Gray and Roger Osborne’s The Elvis Atlas: A Journey Through Elvis Presley’s America (New York: Holt, 1996), especially page 151. Also see Albert Goldman, Elvis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), especially pages 489–90.
PART IV: THE FALL
CHAPTER TEN: THE BODYGUARD BOOK
It is not surprising that Elvis tried to prevent the book the Memphis Mafia wrote from being published. Despite telephone calls and implicit bribes, the book appeared. See Red West, Sonny West, and Dave Hebler, as told to Steve Dunleavy, Elvis: What Happened? (New York: Ballantine Books, 1977), especially pages 1–6, 292, 322–32. The year of publication, 1977, was the year of Elvis’s death. This book presents both a good and bad side of life behind the scenes. More looks at the darker side of Elvis can be found in Alanna Nash, with Billy Smith, Marty Lacker, and Lamar Fike, Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia (New York: HarperCollins, 1995). This book came long after Elvis’s death but provides details of this period. See pages 318–19, 355, 456, 478, 557–58, 587, 668–69, 675, 677–82, 686, 687. See David Stanley, Life with Elvis (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1986), page 157, and Jerry Osborne, Elvis: Word for Word (New York: Harmony Books, 1999, 2000), pages 305–17, for more details of this period. On her former husband, see Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, with Sandra Harmon, Elvis and Me (New York: Berkley Books, 1986), pages 198–205, 231–34. Newspapers provided information and perspectives on all aspects of Elvis’s public life. This chapter makes use of the August 30, 1977, issue of the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
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