Recently, a lot of folks have been coming to this blog to read about Elvis’ grandchildren.  If you think they are interesting, wait until you hear about his ancestors.

The more recent Elvis genealogy charts reveal that his surname changed from the Germanic Pressler to the anglicized Presley several centuries ago.  In fact, if you go back through nine generations of Elvis’ family, you can pinpoint his Pressler ancestor who crossed the Atlantic in 1710 to start the whole bloodline here in America.  His name was Johann Valentine Pressler.

Entertainment critics regularly panned Elvis early in his career, particularly in 1956, when he burst onto the national scene.  Over the years, Elvisblog has contained prime examples of these unfavorable reviews from the New York Times, the Las Vegas Sun, and Time magazine.  However, the very first press report mentioning Elvis was in his hometown newspaper, the Memphis Press-Scimitar.

It appeared on July 28, 1954, in a column titled “Front Row,” written by the Press-Scimitar movie columnist Edwin Howard.   It was the result of a rushed interview Elvis had with him during Elvis’ lunch hour (Elvis kept his truck-driving job at Crown Electric until October).  The interesting thing about the interview is that Howard didn’t want to do it.  He reluctantly agreed as a favor to an old friend he knew from their days in local theater.  The persistent friend was a lady named Marion Keisker.  Does that name sound familiar?  Sure it does, Marion Keisker worked for Sam Philips at Sun Records.

In fact, she was at the front desk in 1953 when Elvis first showed up to cut a record for his mom.  Some folks think Marion is the person who actually discovered Elvis, because she had the foresight to turn on the master tape recorder while Elvis sang “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.”  She also got his name and address on a 3x5 card and added the note: “Good ballad singer, hold.”  Marion was the gatekeeper at Sun Records and Elvis passed the test that day.  It was another year before she got him back to sing for Sam Phillips, and Phillips may never have seen Elvis if not for Marion Keisker.

It has been duly noted that Elvis, Scotty, and Bill recorded his first song, "That's All Right," on July 5, 1954.  Once they recorded a second song, “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” on July 8, Sam quickly produced a 45 record.  Soon, local disc jockey Dewey Phillips was giving “That’s All Right” heavy airplay, enabling Scotty to get the group booked at the Bell Air club.  They played on two consecutive Saturday nights, July 17 and 24, and their sets consisted of two songs -- the only ones they knew.

Then, Sam Phillips convinced Bob Neal, promoter of the upcoming “Hillbilly Hoedown” show, to add Elvis to the bill.  The show was held in the Overton Park Shell on Frida,y July 30, and the headliner was Slim Whitman.  This concert appearance is of historical note because it is when Elvis first started shaking his legs and where girls first started screaming for him.  This was a big break for Elvis.

Marion Keisker must have foreseen the concert’s potential to aid his career, so she not only arranged the press interview for Elvis, she took him to it.  She correctly saw it as a chance to promote both his new single and his upcoming live performance.  She even came armed with stats to show how well “That’s All Right” was selling. 

In spite of his friendship with Marion Keisker, critic Howard considered the interview a distasteful chore.  When he saw Elvis, he was instantly turned off.  Howard is quoted saying, “He walked in there looking like the wrath of God.  Pimples all over his face, Ducktail hair.  Had a funny looking thin bow tie on.”  Howard forced himself to ask Elvis a few questions, and Elvis gave a crummy interview.  Howard later said, “About all I could get out of him was yes and no.”

So, how bad was Elvis slammed in Howard’s column the next day?  Howard opened with a section about the Ringling Bros. Circus coming back to Memphis after a two-year absence.  Elvis definitely wasn’t going into the lead of the column.  The Elvis item was brief, and the nicest thing Howard could manage to write was: “This boy has something that seems to appeal to everybody… equally popular on popular, folk and race record programs.”  Howard obviously tossed off the piece without any rereading and editing, or else that terrible “popular on popular” jam-up would have been fixed.

So, just three weeks after Elvis recorded the songs for his first release, he was mentioned in an entertainment article in the local paper.  It’s nice that Elvis received press coverage so quickly after starting his career, but it probably didn’t matter.  The important thing was that there were teenaged girls at that hillbilly concert, and they saw something special up on that stage.  It started the ball rolling.  From that point on, Elvis always had plenty of bookings.

Believe it or not, the disparaging sentiment above came from a Newsweek magazine review of an Elvis show in Las Vegas.  How could this be?  Elvis was synonymous with Las Vegas and performed to sold-out crowds at more than 700 shows there in the 70s.  The explanation for this incongruity is that Newsweek was actually reviewing Elvis’ 1956 performances at the New Frontier Hotel.

Newsweek wasn’t alone in its ridicule of Elvis’ New Frontier shows.  Bill Willard of the Las Vegas Sun ended his review of the show with this:  “His musical sound… is uncouth, matching to a great extent the lyric content of his nonsensical songs.”  Elvis bashing was a popular pursuit among entertainment critics in 1956, but there is more to this story.  Elvis actually bombed in his first appearance in Las Vegas. 

It’s my opinion that Col. Parker made one of his few mistakes managing Elvis’ career when he set up the shows.  Instead of booking Elvis as the headliner in a smaller venue, Parker booked him to be the “extra added attraction” at a long-running show featuring Freddy Martin and his orchestra.  Also on the bill were comedian Shecky Green, the Venus Starlets and a cast of 60 performers who made up a typical Vegas entertainment package.

Freddy Martin was a popular name in big-band music, and his shows regularly drew large crowds of middle-aged fans.  For some reason, Col. Parker must have thought Elvis would appeal to these folks.  Parker couldn’t have been counting on filling the venue with Elvis’ fan base of screaming teenagers, because they were in short supply in Las Vegas in 1956.  Unfortunately, the older crowd didn’t like Elvis at all.  Another quote from Bill Willard’s review sums it up perfectly.  “For Teenagers, the long tall Memphis lad is a whiz; for the average Vegas spender or show-goer, a bore.”

Elvis was well aware that the audiences ‘didn’t’ get it.’  Three years later, he recalled, “After that first night I went outside and just walked around in the dark.  It was awful…. I wasn’t getting across to the audience.”  After causing near-riots everywhere else he performed, it must have been a hard thing for him to handle. 

Other Las Vegas Sun reviewers were able to say some nice things about Elvis.  Bud Lilly wrote, “Here is a young man who has an inherent ability to arouse mass hysteria wherever he goes, yet is unassuming and completely untouched by the fabulous success he has achieved almost overnight… His avid fans have elevated him to a plane reached only by a few singers of our time.”

Elvis on Stage at the New Frontier Hotel

When I saw the first television news report of Robert Goulet’s death, I leaned over to my wife and said, “Did you know Elvis shot a TV once because Robert Goulet was on?”  She’s usually unimpressed with my knowledge of Elvis trivia, but this time she asked, “Why?”  That told me this would make a good Elvisblog story.  My instincts were confirmed when almost all Internet news sites I checked mentioned the Elvis TV incident in their coverage of Goulet’s death.

The answer to the question of ‘why?’ is clearly explained in a quote by old Elvis buddy Marty Lacker in an interview he did with www.elvisinfonet.com: “Elvis harbored some bad feelings about Goulet from back in the late 50s when he was in the Army.  Elvis’ girl friend Anita Wood was a singer and she did shows with Goulet and Buddy Hackett.  Anita would often write Elvis in Germany, and one time Goulet added a postscript to one of them telling Elvis in a sly way that he was personally taking care of Anita.  Elvis didn’t like that and he never forgot, so when he saw Goulet on TV, he shot the TV out.”

No wonder Elvis got mad.  He’s overseas in the Army and gets a letter from his girlfriend back home, but slimy Robert Goulet writes on the bottom something like, “Don’t worry, Elvis, I’ll take care of Anita while you are gone.”  To fully understand why this would enrage Elvis, go back to the Elvisblog story on February 26, 2006.  It contains quotes from a letter Elvis wrote to Anita Wood in November 1959, including:  “I can’t explain to you how I crave you and desire your lips and your body under me, darling.”

So, Elvis was serving his Army time in Germany, sustained by thoughts of Anita Wood, and then he gets Goulet’s snide postscript.  Not only was Elvis mad, he carried that grudge against Robert Goulet for years.

All the way to 1974, when Elvis finally got some mental satisfaction by nailing Goulet on TV.  It occurred while Elvis was working at the International Hotel in Las Vegas.  He was in his top-floor suite when he saw Goulet on TV.  Elvis took out his gun, shot the TV, and (according to Allexperts.com) said, “Get that s**t outta my house!”

It’s no surprise Graceland has a different spin on all this.  In a March 2006 music.yahoo.com article, Graceland spokesman Kevin Kern is quoted, “There was nothing Elvis had against Robert Goulet.  They were friends.”  I don’t think so.  Marty Lacker’s story sounds more believable.  He was in the Memphis Mafia, and he was there.

The quote from Graceland’s Kevin Kern came at the opening of their new exhibit at Elvis After Dark on March 20, 2006.  Guess what was there?  A 25-inch RCA TV that Elvis shot out.  Spokesman Kern also told the press, “Elvis just shot out things on a random basis.  This is the only surviving television or appliance that Elvis shot out.”  Appliance?  Did Elvis shoot toasters and coffee makers, too?

According to an AP report on the exhibit opening:  “Entertainer Robert Goulet was performing on TV when Elvis Presley blasted the 25-inch RCA that’s part of the exhibit called Elvis After Dark.”  (Italics added for emphasis)

So, after thirty-two years, the Goulet TV shows up at Graceland.  How did it get there?  Allexperts.com reports:  “The TV is currently on display at Graceland.  It was found a few years ago in the attic above his father’s office.”  Sure.  Doesn’t everybody lug a huge shot-up TV to the attic to store for lengthy indefinite periods?

Let’s think about this.  Elvis blasts the Goulet TV in Vegas in 1974, and then has it crated up and shipped back to Memphis so it could be stored in his dad’s attic.  After thirty-two years, it is discovered and put on display at Graceland.

Could that improbable chain of events have actually happened?  Sorry, it’s almost easier to believe Elvis is still alive.

©  2007   Philip R Arnold   All Rights Reserved   www.elvisblog.net

When I started Elvisblog two years ago, I knew sooner or later I would write about the late night flight Elvis took to Denver just to satisfy his craving for a special sandwich.  This is one of the most classic of all the stories in Elvis lore, a prime example of why I like writing about him so much.  Elvis was one unique guy.

Recently, I stumbled on to a link to the website for Maxim magazine, which I had never heard of.  Now I know it’s a men’s magazine featuring “hot girls, sex, sports, games, technology, and everything cool.”  I guess the last category is where they would put the article I linked to: “Dumbest Rock Star Extravagances.”

Guess what was #1?  Just ahead of Mick Fleetwood spending $8 million on cocaine and Elton John spending over $410,000 on flowers, is Elvis Presley flies to Colorado to pick up sandwiches.  Here are the details of the story.

After a mid-seventies concert in Denver, Elvis visited a restaurant called the Colorado Gold Mine Company.  He ordered the house specialty, a sandwich named Fool’s Gold (because of it's outrageous price of $49.95).  It was large enough to cut up and feed six or eight people, but legend has it that Elvis ate the whole thing – and loved it.

On the evening of February 1, 1976, Elvis was entertaining two lawmen from Denver in the Graceland Jungle Room.  That’s not as surprising as it sounds, because Elvis went through a period of extreme interest in law enforcement.  (Remember the collection of police and sheriff badges on display at Graceland?)  Anyway, the subject of the Fool’s Gold sandwich came up. One of the men remarked, “Boy, I wish I had me one of them now.”

That was all Elvis needed to hear.  He replied, “Let’s go get ‘em.”  Elvis made a couple of phone calls.  He placed an order with the restaurant owner for 22 of the special sandwiches, and he instructed his pilots to get his personal jet Lisa Marie ready to go.

At Midnight, Elvis, the two lawmen, and two Memphis Mafia buddies took off for Denver.  Although the Lisa Marie was always stocked with a variety of food and drink, Elvis had nothing but a Pepsi.  He was saving room for the mouthwatering treat.  At 1:40 AM the plane landed at Stapleton Airport and taxied to a private hangar. The restaurateur and his wife were waiting with the 22 Fool’s Gold sandwiches (served on silver trays), a case of champagne, a case of Perrier, and a chest of cracked ice.

After everyone gorged themselves, the group flew back to Memphis.  The tab for the feast came to $3,387, but total expenses including the round trip flight came to over $16,000. 

So what is a Fool’s Gold sandwich?  A large loaf of Italian white bread is slathered with butter and baked at 350º for about 15 minutes until well browned.  The loaf is sliced lengthwise and part of the interior is scooped out to make room for the filling.  This consists of one jar of Skippy creamy peanut butter, one jar of Smucker’s grape jelly, and one pound of lean bacon fried crisp.  The calorie content of this monster sandwich is estimated at 42,000.

Do you think Maxim magazine got it right?  Was this the dumbest rock star extravagance ever?  I don’t think so, but it is a great example of what made Elvis special.  You don’t do things small when you are the King of Rock and Roll.

© 2007   Philip R Arnold   All Rights Reserved   www.elvisblog.net  

Last week, we discussed how you can now go to Graceland and see 72 Elvis jumpsuits, 58 of them housed in the new Elvis Jumpsuits: All Access exhibit.  I hope the exhibit signage and the catalog give proper credit to the men who created them.

Yes, I said men.  Although many fans immediately think of Bill Belew when Elvis jumpsuits are mentioned, there is more to the story.

Bill Belew started his connection with Elvis by designing the famous black leather suit Elvis wore in the 68 Comeback Special.  Belew next created the earliest two-piece Karate-style outfits, designed to allow freedom of motion for kicks and other moves.  Soon, he created a series of increasing intricate one-piece rhinestone-studded jumpsuits.  Belew came up with the first large flashy belts, and he originated the capes at Priscilla's suggestion.  A few of the more famous Belew designs are Powder Blue, Burning Flame of Love, and Red Dragon.

Belew also designed costumes for dozens and dozens of other entertainers and for theatrical productions, the Grammy Awards, television shows and specials, movies, and the New York City Ballet.

By 1972, Belew’s career was booming, and he was in big demand, so he started farming off the Elvis work to Gene Doucette.  Doucette had made some noise at Pzazz Designs, but he stayed in the background while Belew continued to be synonymous with Elvis costumes.   The names of some of Doucette’s best-known jumpsuits show the variety of his imagination:  Peacock, Sundial, Tiger, Aloha, and American Eagle.  He is considered a wizard for his intricate embroidery.

Both Belew and Doucette are now associated with B & K Enterprises, one of several companies that will come up when you Google Elvis jumpsuits.  How much do you think really classy reproductions of Elvis’ most famous outfits go for?  Here’s a sample from B & K:

Gold Lamé suit                 $1900

Powder Blue Jumpsuit       $1700

American Eagle                $2800

Sundial                            $4100

68 Comeback                   $1300

Aloha                               $3300

If you go to www.b-k-enterprises.com/costumes.html, you can spend a lot of time just looking through the 57 Elvis costumes they offer.  You get front, side, and back views on some suits, front and back on the rest.  There are close-ups of many capes and a few outrageous belts.

Gene Doucette had a couple of memorable quotes on Elvis and his jumpsuits:  “I had the world’s greatest easel in front of me.”  “If you took any one of these suits to the farthest ends of the Earth, …they’d know whose it was.”

Bill Belew said, “You could be daring as a designer and put anything on Elvis and he could make it work.”

I am certainly looking forward to seeing the work of Bill Belew and Gene Doucette in Memphis this summer at the Elvis Jumpsuits: All Access exhibit.  Again, I applaud Graceland for the insight to present this exhibit, and for the good sense to charge us only $7 to see it.

A friend e-mailed me the other day.  He had seen an Elvis question on a trivia page and wanted to know if I knew the answer.  I did.  Let’s see how you do.  Elvis did only one commercial in his lifetime for what product?  Give yourself an A if you knew it was donuts.  I could not remember the name of the donuts.  Give yourself an A+ if you knew they were Southern Maid Donuts (before reading the title of this article).

Elvis’ association with Southern Maid Donuts started when he began regular appearances on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, LA in October 1954.  Elvis frequented The Southern Maid Donut store in town, getting an early foundation for his well- publicized lifetime affinity for donuts.

Southern Maid Donuts began in Dallas, Texas in 1937, and the total of company-owned and licensed stores now exceeds 100.  The Southern Maid name came about because the founders wanted a name that encompassed humble southern traditions, memories, and feelings.  The Louisiana Hayride was a perfect venue for marketing their product, and Southern Maid Donuts provided large sponsorship on the show’s radio broadcasts for several years.  The radio spots featured a strange little jingle that deserves some explanation.

One of Southern Maid Donuts claims to fame is the sign above their stores with giant red neon letters lighting up the night sky  -  HOT, HOT, HOT.  The stores sell donuts, éclairs, bear claws, apple fritters and other goodies all day long, starting at 6AM.  But after 4PM, you can order a box of twelve glazed donuts made especially for you and served to you piping hot.  Southern Maid Donuts have no preservatives.  They are made to be eaten HOT, not saved for later.  Hot, light-textured donuts that literally melt in your mouth.

So, it follows that their radio jingle was: “You can get them piping hot after 4PM, you can get them piping hot, Southern Maid Donuts hits the spot, you can get them piping hot after 4PM.”  A number of Louisiana Hayride performers sang the jingle, including Minnie Pearl, Johnny Cash, and Johnny Horton.  Elvis’ version aired on November 6, 1954.

To my knowledge, there is no remaining copy of Elvis singing the Southern Maid Donut jingle.  I wonder what that would be worth if it ever did surface.  For some reason, the Johnny Cash version of the jingle was preserved, and it can be heard on the CD, The Best of the Louisiana Hayride, Volume 4. 

“You’ll never know

What heaven means

Until you’ve been down

To New Orleans.”

Well…  maybe not right now, but that sentiment probably fit back in 1958 when Elvis sang those lyrics. The song is “New Orleans,” one of eleven in Elvis’ fourth movie, King Creole.  It was the first movie that involved any filming on location, and Elvis got to spend nine days in “The Big Easy.”  He and his growing entourage stayed on the tenth floor of the Roosevelt Hotel. A Google internet search reveals that it is now called the Fairmont Hotel; it is near Canal Street, just one block from the French Quarter and a short walk to the Convention Center.  Nothing on the web indicates what shape it is in after the flooding from Hurricane Katrina.

Some of the New Orleans locations used for the filming of King Creole were a local high school, Lake Pontchartrain, Bourbon Street and several other streets in the French Quarter, and the Vieux Carre Saloon.  A web search for this saloon brings up a site, but the pictures show it to be an 1100 square foot conference room in the Iberville Hotel, so the original is probably gone now.  Interestingly, Vieux Carre, or Old Quarter, is the name of one of the highest sections of New Orleans, and it has underground electric lines that still function.  So, it is one area where the residents are now resisting forced evacuation after the hurricane.

Elvis made three stops in New Orleans prior to the filming of King Creole, all in 1955.  In February, he performed at the Golden Cadillac Club.  In May, he did two shows at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium.  And in September, he was part of a “Hillbilly Jamboree” at Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park.  20,000 people showed up that day to see Elvis and possibly one of the other features, the “Miss Hillbilly Dumplin’” competition.

Although Elvis did extensive touring throughout the country in the 70’s, he never returned to New Orleans to perform again.  Today, it is doubtful how many of the displaced residents of the city will ever return.  Let us hope this unique city will recover and rebuild, so that everyone will again, as Elvis sang, know what heaven means when they've been down to New Orleans.

© 2005  Philip R Arnold

I went the dentist this week to have a permanent crown put on a lower molar.  As the assistant struggled to remove the temporary cap, it popped off and landed at the back of my mouth.  My throat closed reflexively, so I did not swallow the crown, but there were a few scary seconds while she fished it out.

Once the crown was safely back in her hand, I told her I was so glad I hadn’t swallowed it and mentioned that Elvis had done that once while filming a movie.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember any of the pertinent details, so later I scoured through my library of Elvis books to find the facts.

According to Elvis Presley – Unseen Archives, by Marie Clayton, Elvis did a rehearsal of the famous “Jailhouse Rock” dance routine with such abandon that he swallowed a temporary crown.  It lodged in his lung and had to be removed by surgery. 

Unfortunately, there was no description of what the surgery entailed. Another reference said he spent just one night at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for this, so it must not have been too bad.  Still, I’m glad I didn’t swallow my crown.

© 2005  Philip R Arnold

The first half of the CBS special Sunday night was pretty good.  Jonathan Rhys Meyers did a creditable job as Elvis, and Randy Quaid was an inspired choice to be Col Parker, except he could have played him even darker.  I also liked the performances by the actors playing Vernon and Gladys.

Did you notice the short scene in the backyard of the Audubon Dr. house where we could clearly see clothes hanging on a line?  A few minutes later, Elvis said something like this to Gladys, "Those neighbors nearly drove us out because of the clothes you hung in the yard.”  Here’s a good story about the hostile attitude of these neighbors toward Elvis and family.

There were several reasons why Elvis lived at the Audubon Dr. house for only eleven months before moving to Graceland.  For one thing, the house was too small, with one bedroom completely full of stuffed animals from the fans.  But the big reason was the snooty treatment the neighbors gave Elvis and his family. 

After the move to Graceland, a Memphis candy and gum manufacturer offered a premium price for the Audubon Dr. house, but his plan was to chop it into little pieces and give them to anyone who mailed in five wrappers for his gum.  According to author, Karal Ann Marling, Vernon was in favor of this because it would serve the hostile neighbors right.  But, here's the kicker.  They couldn't do the deal because Colonel Parker had already sold the candy rights for Elvis products to another manufacturer.  You've got to love these old Elvis stories.

There are many good stories about Elvis out there, but I’ll try to pass on ones that have a source attribution and are probably true.  Here’s one of the best.

One night in 1957, Elvis reserved the Rainbow Skating Rink in Memphis for a private party.  About 150 people showed up, and for the first two hours nothing of note happened.  Then, Elvis walked in and joined the group.  After a few minutes, all the girls left the rink, and the boys split up, half on one side, half on the other.  Rink employee, Will McDaniel, had no idea what was going on, but he wanted to join the action, whatever it was.  He lined up with the group on the ice at the opposite end from Elvis. 

Then he learned the rules of the game -- charge the other side and try to knock somebody down.  Elvis blew the whistle, came right for Will, and literally knocked him out.  When Will woke up and regained his composure, he was ready for a second try against Elvis.  The whistle blew again, and both sides surged toward the other.  This time, Will slammed Elvis hard to the ice.  In his own words, “I dodged his moves and laid him out.”  

The flush of victory was fleeting as Will realized the trouble he might be in for harming the “King”, so he quickly got off the rink and hid under a table.  Fortunately, Elvis wasn’t hurt, and the evening of fun continued.  Lots of folks have stories to tell about meeting Elvis, but not many of them can top this one.

© 2005  Philip R Arnold