Who Murdered Elvis?. Stephen B. Ubaney
Graceland and another candlelight vigil for the fallen idol.
The ceremony was almost an identical rerun of every major Presley-death anniversary, except for a startling set of interviews. These interviews, broadcast to a worldwide audience made no sense.
On this particular anniversary a reporter interviewed the members of Presley’s staff who were eye witnesses to the discovery of Presley’s body. One after another, the television captured short video clips and none of the stories were the same.
In fact, the witnesses couldn't even agree on the simplest of details – what color pajamas Elvis wore, where the body was found or even what time of day it was. I witnessed these interviews in disbelief. How could these “witnesses” be telling different stories, and why hasn't anyone investigated these accounts?
This book, for the first time, connects the disparate snippets of information into a final and believable event. Finally the world will know what happened. But before answers come questions. Exactly who was the real Elvis Presley?
The name itself flashes mental images of the glamor and excitement that embodies Americana. From curled lip to swiveled hip, no entertainer riveted his audience and changed the societal landscape like this one man. Men wanted to be him, women wanted to bed him and Hollywood lusted to invent anyone with such an intoxicating persona.
Born in the most impoverished of circumstances and the only remaining sibling of a stillborn identical twin, Elvis Presley's stature in life didn't look promising. This shy, sad and unattractive boy tip-toed his way through childhood, living an unpopular existence.
He was a mama's boy who looked different than the other kids and was bullied throughout his childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi. His popularity didn't improve when the family uprooted and moved to Memphis in 1948, where his flashy clothing and James Dean haircut offended everyone in his conservative “Brush Cut” community.
In Memphis, the adolescent Presley attended high school, worked nights and added to his gospel-music roots by watching black performing artists Arthur Crudup, Rufus Thomas and B.B. King. Elvis was unsophisticated, poor and an untrained musician who played entirely by ear.
High School was especially tormenting for the young Presley as classmates hurled insults, apples and eggs at the kid who dressed like a freak and played what they considered to be raunchy rockabilly music.
By 1953, Presley had gathered enough courage to saunter into Sun Records and try his hand at recording. Sun Records was a local recording studio that was owned by Sam Phillips who was always on the lookout for new music trends. Unfortunately Phillips was unimpressed and young Presley left with only the recording that he'd paid for and not much else, but what happened in the next few months changed the world.
Regardless of what claims have been made over the years, the person who discovered the greatest natural talent in music history was Marion Keisker, and she was the secretary at Sun Records. During that now famous first recording session, she understood that Elvis had the perfect blend of styles to fit what Sam Phillips was looking for.
More than a year passed before Phillips finally gave in to Keisker's repeated attempts to put him on Presley's trail. After all, Phillips was searching for a white kid who sounded black, and could merge the two profitable markets into one. Eventually Phillips agreed to give him studio time with randomly selected band members who had never met.
Phillips attempted to have Elvis sing a variety of old “staple” country songs that almost every artist at the time had done versions of, and the recordings were a disaster. Out of frustration everyone broke for lunch but Elvis remained in the studio. He picked up his guitar and sang a few of his favorite songs that Keisker had secretly recorded. When Phillips returned from lunch she played for him the tape that she had recorded and he was amazed at the difference. He soon realized that when Elvis did his own thing the sound was exactly what Phillips was searching for. After many musical tweaks, the second half of the recording session was a tremendous success and a star was born.
Those recordings led to local radio air time, and live appearances that created a public spectacle. By 1955 Presley’s act had caught the attention of Tom Parker, a savvy music-industry veteran since his promotion of Minnie Pearl, Hank Snow, Gene Austin, June Carter, Roy Acuff and Eddy Arnold in the early 1940s. Parker had many industry ties and had frequented Las Vegas when Sin City was a town of just 10,000 residents.
In 1945, Parker struck an exclusive managerial agreement with Eddy Arnold for a 25% cut of the profit, with Arnold paying the business expenses. This was a double-edged sword for Arnold. Parker was a good manager but he wanted to control and dominate every facet of Arnold's life. Parker was also was selling merchandise that Arnold didn’t get profits from and he was secretly managing other performers on Arnold's dime.
These side deals happened frequently with those in power at RCA Victor and although Arnold needed Parker’s management skills he knew that he was being exploited. While Parker transformed Arnold from a country bumpkin into a superstar with radio shows, movies and appearances in Las Vegas, the two men eventually loathed each other and their arrangement ended badly.
Elvis' mother, Gladys Presley, distrusted Tom Parker on sight and warned Elvis to stay away from him. A similar warning came from Eddy Arnold himself, but Elvis ignored them. The young Presley had stars in his eyes and pockets that were both tattered and empty. To Elvis, any deal that would launch his career and fill his wallet sounded good, so the deal was inked.
Parker agreed to represent Elvis for 25% commission on all monies, and charged Elvis for all business expenses. Parker also peddled Elvis buttons, posters and other souvenirs from his vendor's apron and would eventually conjure up huge side deals with RCA Victor that Elvis would never profit from. Their agreement was eerily similar to Eddy Arnold’s as every trick that Parker pulled on Presley he'd done to perfection years before. Amazingly, when Parker managed Roy Acuff he even gave him the moniker of "The King of Country Music."
From the first minute of Parker’s management over Presley, things would be different than they were under Sam Phillips and Sun Records. Parker never let Elvis do interviews and intentionally kept him away from TV talk shows which turned Elvis into an object of limitless fantasy. The control over interviews made Elvis more exotic, mysterious and obscure. It also forced fans to pay a handsome sum to see him, which was highly desirable.
By 1956 Elvis and Parker had signed a contract with the William Morris talent agency under the major recording label of RCA Victor and the worlds of race, culture and music had changed forever. It was not smooth sailing as Presley’s act outraged conservative America.
In late 1956, a Florida judge declared that Presley's music undermined the youth of America as his gyrations were viewed as “a self-gratifying striptease with clothes on”. In many cases, he was seen as a savage, depraved, sexual pervert and Colonel Parker knew it would only be a matter of time before Elvis Presley's life would be threatened, and it was.
Amazingly, the same FBI that had carefully monitored Presley's every move to protect the general public against this vulgar new star had now been called upon to protect him from assassination. The bull's-eye on Elvis became larger every day as a portion of society rallied against this obscene and radical new music that had hijacked the innocent American youth. Despite the attempts by judges, parents and the sensational tales planted by the FBI to vilify Elvis' character, it appeared that nothing could stop the rising star – a rise driven, in part, by Colonel Parker's behind-the-scenes manipulation.
Beyond the resistance of black disc jockeys who didn't want to play a record by a “white boy” because he'd been accused of "stealing" Negro rhythm-and-blues, and the full-scale rebuke of conservative adults who rejected the image of teenage rock-n-roll rebellion, other more sinister factors lay at work. Parker understood the sinister undertow of the music business and knew how to manipulate the players. In the same way that fight promoters owned the top contenders that other fighters must face to become a champion, the mafia owned the entire entertainment industry and the price tag attached to any climb toward