LIFE OF ELVIS AND PRISCILLA

One of Elvis's love interests was Ann Margaret.  While filming a movie they were instantly attacked to each other and a relationship developed, which crushed Priscilla.  She tried to call Elvis for a visit, but each time he'd delay it.  Even after the film, reports were still everywhere.  Cilla couldn't take it any more, but Elvis would threaten to send her back to live with her parents, if she protested.  One day she threw a vase at the wall.  Elvis began packing her bags and telling Vernon (his dad) to set up the next plane flight back to her folks.  (that was so unfair, he could be with anybody he wanted, but if she complained, he would ship her back to her parents.) Later Elvis would apologize saying, "See...you needed this."  Eventually, Elvis and Cilla would just laugh it off.  Elvis decided that Priscilla was still the girl he wanted.  

The couple was married on May 1, 1967 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The newly weds spent their honeymoon in Palm Springs and after a couple of days they returned to Memphis, and on May 29 they climbed back into their wedding attire and threw a reception at Graceland.   Nine months to the day, after they became husband and wife, their daughter, Lisa Marie Presley was born in Memphis.  Elvis was a doting, loving father, but he didn't change diapers --- that wasn't a man's job --- and had a hard time watching the baby eat, due to inevitable drool.  He did however, buy Lisa Marie a fur coat when she was 3 and handed out $5 for lost baby teeth.  When he bought his own Jet in 1975, he Christened it the "Lisa Marie."

"With Elvis, my life was his life.  He had to be happy.  We never disturbed him, my problems were secondary.  Women gravitated to him, so I would be nervous when he had to go places alone.  I would even go with him to get his teeth cleaned.  I always had an eye on him because everyone in the world was after him.  I was always ready to greet him at the door and pampered him.  I loved taking care of him, very much.  We would baby talk, because you have to have your own language, when you have so many people around.  It was a good life.  It was different, but it was ours."

Elvis was a chronic cheater and eventually, Priscilla stepped out too.  She had a short lived liaison with the owner of a dance school.  Elvis and her renewed their vows in Hawaii, but she continued to experience the limitations of her marriage   Still unfulfilled she had another affair with her Karate instructor, Mike Stone.  When Elvis found out about her affairs he wanted to hire a hit man to kill her partners.  She tried to ignore what was happening for as long as she could.  She did know there was some finagling going on.  His prescription drug use became more and more of a problem.  He was a night person.  He was usually up all night, and slept all day.  That was very hard on normal people.  Priscilla told him to seek help for his dependency, and that touched a nerve. It got more and more frightening as time went on.  He was rebelling, Elvis had a temper and wasn't used to anyone telling him, no.  If he saw someone on TV he didn't like, he'd get his gun out and blow the TV up.  Then he would tell his daddy to go get another one.  

Priscilla told Larry King in 1999, she first saw Elvis at a very vulnerable time in his life.  He had just lost his mother.  He was grieving.  Elvis usually liked soft spoken brunettes with blue eyes.  She fit this image perfectly.  Priscilla wrote, "He wanted to mold me to his opinions and preferences, beyond her appearance."

Elvis briefly left Priscilla when she was pregnant with Lisa Marie.  He told her they needed a brief separation, because he was going through some things.  She said she didn't think Elvis really intended to leave her, that wasn't his style.  She later realized he too had questions about how a baby would effect his life.  Would his public accept him as a father?  He wasn't even sure whether his fans had adapted to his becoming a husband.  How loyal would they be?  After Lisa Marie was born, Elvis reportedly stopped being intimate with Priscilla.  She believes Elvis struggled with seeing her as a mother.  She discovered that Elvis didn't want to sleep with her after she had gone through childbirth.  He continued to sleep with other women though.  Before they were married he mentioned to her that he had never been able to make love to a woman that had a child.

Finally in 1972, Priscilla had had enough.  She told Elvis she was leaving him.  Elvis said their divorce came about, not because of another man or woman, but because of the circumstances involving his career.  He was traveling so much, gone to much, He didn't think that life was fair to her.  Priscilla said she didn't divorce him because she didn't love him. He was the Love of her Life.  She had to find her life in the world. Elvis joked about their $2 million divorce settlement, after which he gave her a mink coat --- and she gave him, he bragged, a $42,000 Rolls Royce.  "That is the type of relationship  we have, quipped Elvis." Their divorce was finalized on October 9, 1973 and was amicable.  They left the court room hand in hand. Priscilla was only 28. Priscilla and Elvis shared joint custody of Lisa Marie and regularly saw each other.  She told People, in 1978 that she continued to go to Graceland with Lisa Marie, as if we were never divorced. Elvis and I still hugged each other and still had love.  We would say, 'mommy said this, and 'daddy said that.'  This helped Lisa to feel stable.  There was never any arguing or bitterness. She went on to marry Marco Garibaldi in 1984.  They welcomed one son Navarone in 1987 and divorced in 2006.  

Elvis and Priscilla Presley, nee Priscilla Wagner Beuliu were together for 12 years.  Married only 6 years, from 1967 to 1973.  Priscilla said, "It started out really with his voice.  People loved his voice.  When he sang it was like he was singing to you.  He wasn't bad to look at either.  Every one had a crush on him. I used to look at him and go, 'Oh my gosh!' It was a good life."  There were a few years while they were still married, he stopped making appearances and touring.  When he began to appear and tour again, he was a few pounds heavier.  

Sadly, Elvis didn't get much older.  Hooked on pills, surrounded by yes-men and eating enough fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches to ensure that combination would always be referred to as "Elvis" ever after, his health started to deteriorate.  The day Elvis died, Priscilla was head out on an errand with her sister when their father called and told her Elvis' road manager Joe Esposito, was trying to get in touch with her.  The first thing she thought about was that Lisa Marie was visiting Graceland and was suppose to come home that day because school started.  "I was trying to rush home", Priscilla said, "I think I ran every red light.  I felt this urgency, so when I pulled into my drive way, my phone was ringing and I ran in and could hardly get the key in the door, trying to get to the phone. It was Joe and he told me the news, it was so devastating that I just went to my room and tried to contemplate how this happened, and just stayed there until they sent a plane for me."  When she arrived at the house, all the people --- especially Elvis's father, who she will, even to this day, remember him crying in such grief --- howling --- it still resonates the loss and the impact.

Elvis Presley was born January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. He began his actual career in Memphis, Tennessee in 1954 at the age of 18. He was an American singer, and actor.  He was dubbed as the King of Rock and Roll, and is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th Century.  He energized interpretations of songs and sexual provoca- tive performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.  He died of cardiac arrest on August 16, 1977 in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 42. His resting place is Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee.  He was only married once, to Priscilla Wagner Beaulieu on May 1, 1967, she divorced him in 1973.  She lived at Graceland about 6 years before they married.  They had one daughter Lisa Marie Presley born February 1, 1968.  

Long before Graceland was a museum it was a family home.  Elvis pur- chased it at the age of 22 for his Momma.  It was filled with life and laughter.  Priscilla remembers evenings spent in the piano room.  After returning from late nights at the movies, Elvis and Priscilla would go there and spend hours singing gospel music.  Graceland's dinning room also holds a special place for her.  Elvis and her would gather with a handful of the guys that worked for him. There was nothing but laughter.  So much so, there were times, Elvis would be on the floor laughing to tears.  Elvis life was surrounded in mystery.  He didn't fit the mold, he marched to him own drum.  Like a croupier finally revealing their cards, Graceland tells us not only Elvis Presley the super star, but also exposes the esthetic and material aspirations of the wider culture that spawned him.  Graceland is one of America's greatest homes.  Lisa Marie Presley became the owner of her father's Graceland Mansion and opened it up to tourists to be able to afford to keep the property.  Elvis's Graceland remains the second most visited Home in America.  Despite the passing of four decades, there has been no ebb in the steady flow of inquisitive tourists.  

After Elvis' death Priscilla took control of Elvis Presley Enterprises and
built it into the organization it is today.  There was no school for her, she observed others, including Elvis's long time manager Colonel Tom Parker.  She learned by trial and error.

The Rock and Roll Legend and King of Rock and Roll, is having a cultural resurgence at the moment thanks to a new movie coming out in June of 2023.  This film features Austin Butler as Elvis, Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley, and Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom  Parker.  Graceland was com- pletely recreated on set in Queensland, Australia.