Elvis and Me is a 1985 biography written by Priscilla Presley

[catt's x Files]

Elvis and Me is a 1985 biography written by Priscilla Presley (with
ghostwriter Sandra Harmon). In the book, Priscilla talks about meeting
Elvis, their marriage, and the factors that led up to the couple's
divorce.[1] The book rights were purchased in 1987, and in 1988 it was
made into a television movie written by Joyce Eliason, directed by Larry
Peerce, and starring Dale Midkiff as Elvis and Susan Walters as
Priscilla.
Memphis: Elvis' family and Graceland
Priscilla Beaulieu Presley writes that Elvis did not approve of his
father's relationship with divorcee Dee Stanley and did not attend their
wedding. After the marriage Elvis bought a home on Dolan Drive in
Memphis where Vernon Presley and his new wife resided. On the rare
occasions Dee Stanley-Presley came to Graceland, Elvis did his best to
at least be civil towards his stepmother.
Priscilla describes how her father reluctantly allowed her to live in
Memphis, Tennessee to be near Elvis. The initial arrangement was that
Priscilla would live with Vernon Presley and his wife while attending a
Memphis school. Contrary to this arrangement, Priscilla gradually moved
in with Elvis.
[edit] The nights with Elvis
Her descriptions of the nights she spent with Elvis before their
marriage suggest that the star was not overtly sexual towards her. The
couple kissed and engaged in petting, but Elvis always stopped the make
out sessions before it led to actual intercourse.
While describing a "cleansing period" in Elvis's life, Priscilla claims
that "Any sexual temptations were against everything he was striving
for, and he did not wish to betray me, the girl waiting for him at home
who was preparing to be his wife."
According to her account, Elvis told her that they had to wait until
they were married before having intercourse. He said, "I'm not saying we
can't do other things. It's just the actual encounter. I want to save
it." Priscilla adds, "Fearful of not pleasing himâ€"of destroying my
image as his little girlâ€"I resigned myself to the long wait.
Instead of consummating our love in the usual way, he began teaching me
other means of pleasing him. We had a strong connection, much of it
sexual. The two of us created some exciting and wild times."
[edit] Daily life with Elvis
Priscilla notes that prescription drugs were present from the first time
she visited Elvis Presley in America. He took placidyls to get to sleep
in ever increasing doses. Elvis would wake up at his normal time around
4:00 in the afternoon, but would be groggy and irritable for a few hours
from the heavy dose of pills. He then began taking Dexedrine in order to
wake up.
Elvis liked old movie classics revolving around family or struggles to
survive in the world such as Les Misérables, Wuthering Heights,
It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Skeffington, Miracle on 34th Street, Letter
from an Unknown Woman and his favorite, The Way of All Flesh the story
of a self-sacrificing father.
Priscilla's book describes several episodes involving Elvis' explosive
temper and his jealous nature; including how he went into a rage and
threatened to fire a male employee who supposedly acted too "friendly"
with Priscilla.
[edit] Affairs with other women
Conversely, she writes about Presley's double standard for his own
behavior. His promiscuity with other women led to several
confrontations. Priscilla says she was aware he had been dating Anita
Wood, a girl from Memphis, when they first met in Germany and that he
had continued the relationship for nearly two years following his
discharge from the army. When he asked Priscilla to move to Memphis he
told her the relationship with Wood was over, but she describes later
finding a packet of love letters from Wood in the attic at Graceland.
However, according to Elvis's own words, he did not make love to Anita
Wood the whole four years he was with her. "Just to a point," he said,
"then I stopped. It was difficult for her too, but that's just how I
feel."
Presley admitted he had a number of affairs with some of the women who
co-starred in his films, but all the relationships were before he met
Priscilla and "meant nothing." Nevertheless, she understood these
affairs were going on while he was professing love to Anita Wood.
In a televised interview on January 14, 2005, with Larry King on CNN's
Larry King Live, Anita Wood said that following media reports of a
girlfriend in Germany, Elvis "had me believing that she (Priscilla
Beaulieu) was just a friend and her daddy was in the Army with him, and
there was nothing to it whatsoever."
[edit] The Ann-Margret affair
Of the many women involved with Elvis Presley the one who worried
Priscilla Beaulieu most was actress/singer Ann-Margret, who co-starred
with him in the film Viva Las Vegas. In her book, Priscilla devotes four
pages to the subject (175 to 178). There was a lot of publicity about a
romance between Elvis and Ann-Margret during the 1963 filming, and in
the following weeks when Presley returned to record music and prepare
for his next film. Despite his denials of an affair, Beaulieu went to
Los Angeles and stayed with him. Aware Priscilla was there, Ann-Margret
took matters into her own hands and suddenly announced to the Los
Angeles press that she was engaged to Elvis Presley. The news was picked
up by every major newspaper in America and Elvis informed Priscilla that
he and Colonel Tom Parker thought it best for her to "go back to Memphis
till it calms down." Beaulieu picked up a vase and hurled it across the
room, screaming that Ann-Margret should "keep her ass in Sweden where
she belongs." But desperate to please him, she went back to Graceland
the next day. Elvis returned two weeks later, admitted to the affair,
but promised it was over. Of all the movie stars Elvis Presley worked
with, Ann-Margret was the only one to attend his funeral.
The very next line of Priscilla's book says that after the Ann-Margret
ordeal she soon suspected there were other women. She began traveling
with him but says she would still "get crazed with worry." She was
afraid that the moment she was away from him, another woman could slip
in. Priscilla relates how her insecurities would lead her to imitate the
other woman's appearance (changing her clothes, hairstyle and makeup),
to hopefully please him.
If she forcefully challenged Presley on her suspicions he would threaten
to send her home to her parents. One such confrontation led to a
screaming match where he told her to get out. Bags packed, chauffeur
ready to take her to the airport, Elvis changed his mind at the last
minute and she willingly stayed. Priscilla writes that it was years
later before she realized his tactics were part of a need to control
her. This pattern began before they were married, but in her 2005
made-for-television documentary titled Elvis by the Presleys, she
admitted he had affairs with other women during their marriage.
[edit] The Beatles' shadow, mysticism and drugs
By 1965 The Beatles had overwhelmed the music industry and
Presley’s record sales declined noticably. Uncertain about who
he was and where his career was going, Elvis turned to spiritualism,
dragging an uninterested Priscilla with him. He had not performed live
for several years and labeled most of his movies a joke. By the time
filming was to begin on Clambake (released 1967), Presley's growing
distress with the quality of his films led to a despondency accompanied
by overeating and his normal 170 pound (77 kg) weight ballooned to
200 lb (91 kg). The movie studio ordered him to lose the weight in a
hurry, marking the introduction of diet pills to the already excessive
regimen of placidyls and Dexedrine which would eventually kill him.
In his search for a "higher state of consciousness" Presley became
fascinated with the occult and metaphysical phenomena. During his
spiritual quest everyone around them saw Presley's personality change
dramatically from vibrant and playful, to passive and introverted.
Presley went through a period of celibacy, in keeping with the teachings
of an Indian guru. "He was going through a cleansing period, physically
and spiritually . . . . He loved me and deeply wanted to be faithful to
me but never felt certain that he could resist temptation. It was a
persistent battle, and it even got to the point where he felt he had to
resist me." For the next few weeks, Elvis felt the need to withdraw
himself from the temptations of sex. He said, "We have to control our
desires so they don't control us. If we can control sex, then we can
master all other desires." When they were in bed, "he took his usual
dose of sleeping pills, handed me mine, and then, fighting off
drowsiness from the pills, pored over his metaphysical books." Priscilla
was not interested, and recalled Elvis saying "Things will never work
out between us, Cilla, because you don't show any interest in me or my
philosophies."
When this phase of his life passed, she and Elvis had a bonfire and
burned the stacks of magazines and books he had accumulated on the
subject. They tried marijuana during this time, but did not like it as
it made them ravenously hungry. Although Presley abhorred street drugs,
Priscilla tells how they used LSD. While they both thought it had been
an "extraordinary experience," they were afraid of it and experimented
that one time only.
[edit] Marriage, family, and the Nancy Sinatra factor
Priscilla Ann Beaulieu and Elvis Presley were married on May 1, 1967 in
Las Vegas, Nevada. She wrote that being called Mrs. Elvis Presley
sounded better than live-in Lolita, teen heartthrob or the other labels
given her in the past by some of the press. After the wedding ceremony
Frank Sinatra's private jet flew them to their Palm Springs, California
home. Romantic that he was, Elvis carried his new bride across the
threshold singing "The Hawaiian Wedding Song", then carried her straight
to the bedroom.
After a second wedding reception at Graceland for friends and Memphis
locals, Priscilla and Elvis went to his ranch near Horn Lake,
Mississippi where they locked themselves away for several days of much
needed privacy. However the press and the curious lined a fence on the
property's perimeter and stood on the tops of cars to take photos.
While they planned on having children, they had hoped to wait awhile,
and Priscilla was not prepared for her pregnancy. She considered an
abortion, in part because Elvis had made derogatory comments in the past
about "women using pregnancy as an excuse to let themselves go." Feeling
insecure, she dieted to the point that by the time she gave birth, she
then weighed less than she had before getting pregnant. During her
pregnancy they had made love passionately until she began hearing rumors
about Elvis and his co-star on the set of the film Speedway. When
Priscilla Presley asked her husband about the stories he dismissed them
out of hand, telling her she was being overly sensitive due to her
"condition." However, six months into her pregnancy, Nancy Sinatra
telephoned Priscilla and said she wanted to give her a baby shower.
Priscilla was apprehensive about such a request coming from a woman she
hardly knew, but Elvis convinced her to accept the offer. Priscilla went
along with it and she and Sinatra got along well together. Everything
seemed fine until a week or so later, when Elvis informed her he needed
time to think and wanted a trial separation. Numb, all she could say
was: "You've got it. Just tell me when to leave." She lived in agony for
days, but he changed his mind without ever saying a thing. Two months
later, their daughter Lisa Marie was born in Memphis on February 1,
1968.
[edit] The '68 Comeback Special to the end
Free to shape his own career after the MGM motion picture contract
expired in 1968, although still required to complete two more films,
Presley accepted an offer from the NBC network to do a television
special. NBC executives offered "open development" along with a young
director named Steve Binder, who was receptive to presenting Presley in
a way he could be himself. Elvis Presley's '68 Comeback Special was an
enormous success, the highest-rated television special of the year and
his closing song titled "If I Can Dream" became his first
million-selling record in several years.
The television special motivated Elvis and he began recording at the
American Sound Studios in Memphis owned by Chips Moman. Filled with new
energy, he recorded so many songs, that RCA Records needed a year and a
half to release them all. Included in these sessions were hits such as
"Suspicious Minds" which went to No.1 on the Billboard Charts, "In the
Ghetto" and "Kentucky Rain." He was signed on to perform for a month at
the new International Hotel in Las Vegas. Every show was sold out with
thousands turned away at the door. This success led to a five-year
contract for appearances twice a year, with the largest fee ever paid to
any singer in history. Unfortunately, his renewed popularity brought a
large increase in the number of death threats, requiring a significant
increase in personal security.
After years of personal unhappiness due to the state of his career, for
a time his triumphant return to a live stage brought new vitality to
their marriage. However, the renewed stardom, with regular touring
around the United States and appearances in Las Vegas, meant he was away
from his family more, and renewed the problem of other women in his
life. When Elvis suggested Priscilla cut back on her visits to see him,
it only added to her anxieties. Things grew worse when she returned to
their Palm Springs home and found a number of letters from girls showing
they had obviously been there.
Priscilla Presley admits she had two affairs of her own, and the up and
down marriage was irreparably broken down by 1972. The last straw came
when Elvis, possibly having learned of the second affair with her karate
instructor, forced himself on her in his Las Vegas hotel room, telling
her, "This is how a real man makes love to a woman."
Separated on February 23, 1972, the Presleys divorced amicably on
October 9, 1973, mutually agreeing to share custody of their daughter.
Elvis had made another televised special called Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii
in January 1973, but after not seeing him for several months prior to
the actual court hearing, Priscilla was bewildered by his physical
appearance. She remarked on how swollen his hands were when she held
them in hers. Less than four years later, Elvis died. After his death,
his father Vernon agreed to have Elvis's body reburied to deter thieves.
[edit] A different view in Suzanne Finstad's book
In Suzanne Finstad's book, Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla
Beaulieu Presley (1997),[3] a completely different account of Priscilla
Presley's life, painted her in a rather negative light and described her
as a "wild child" and "sexpot". The sources of this book are several
people who knew Elvis and Priscilla well, among them: many friends from
Priscilla's childhood and adolescence, Elvis' stepbrother Rick Stanley,
Mike Edwards, Elvis' ex-girlfriends and the wives of the Memphis Mafia
men. The author writes that Priscilla promised sexual favors in exchange
for meeting Elvis with Currie Grant, a married, 27-year-old former Army
buddy of the singer, and that she was not a virgin on her wedding night,
as she and Elvis had slept together on their second date. The book also
says that Priscilla did not want to come to live with Elvis, but that
her marriage was part of a mastermind for fame hatched by Priscilla and
her mother, and that she never loved Elvis. Finstad takes many quotes
that Priscilla has made and calls them a web of lies.
Priscilla denied Currie's allegations and successfully sued him for
defamation.[4] She won more than £46,000 in the lawsuit. She had
wanted £6m from Grant.[5] Finstad, "too, had been threatened with
suits from Priscilla Presley and her church (of Scientology)."[6]
Notwithstanding, neither Finstad nor her publisher was a party to the
lawsuit.
[edit] Personal Jesus
The song "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode (#368 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of "The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" [1]) was
inspired by Elvis and Me [2].
"It's about how Elvis was her [Priscilla Presley's] man and her mentor
and how often that happens in love relationships," [Martin] Gore said.
"How everybody's heart is like a god in some way."