Baby, Let's Play House Part 40

On one of her last nights with him, he was just about to slip away, the pills taking him under, when he mumbled something about not having much time left to get his message out. He was terrified of growing older, worried that "it won't be long until I'm forty, and that could be too late."

It was already too late for Joyce. One afternoon when she awoke, he was still sleeping. The room was cold, the way he liked it, and she shivered from the chill. She dressed, packed, and finally, pulled off the gold ring with the little diamond he had given her when they first met, and laid it on the nightstand. Then she kissed his cool cheek and closed his door for the last time.

Things were slipping away from him in triplicate now, not just in singles or in pairs. The Colonel had rewritten his management contract to give himself a bigger cut of Elvis's live performances, even as he would soon renegotiate his client's Vegas contract for more money: $130,000 a week for the next two engagements, and $150,000 a week for the following three. And Priscilla, in town for the close of his run that February 23, 1972, had something she wanted to formalize with him, too: In between shows, she told him she was involved with Mike Stone.

He already knew for certain now, knew it when he sent Red down to the hotel's Italian restaurant to bring her up to the suite. But hearing it from her own lips outraged him. He told her she was crazy, that she had everything a woman could want. But she didn't back down. In fact, she wanted a divorce.

Elvis had Sherry Williams in town for consolation. But he'd had two women walk out of his life within a matter of hours, and now he did the unimaginable: He raped his wife.

Priscilla never termed it "rape," but she told Red's wife, Pat, that Elvis forced her to have s.e.x. As she wrote in her memoir, Elvis and Me, Elvis and Me, "He grabbed me and forcefully made love to me. It was uncomfortable and unlike any other time he'd ever made love to me before, and he explained, 'This is how a real man makes love to his woman.' " "He grabbed me and forcefully made love to me. It was uncomfortable and unlike any other time he'd ever made love to me before, and he explained, 'This is how a real man makes love to his woman.' "

After the second show, he called all the guys in and said, "Another man has taken my wife." He was seething, but a river of sadness ran through him, too. When somebody said, "I thought you wanted to get rid of her," his voice was shaky. "Not that way, man."

"It wasn't so much that she was having an affair," Sonny says. "It was that she was going to actually leave him for Mike. If Elvis hadn't known Stone, it wouldn't have been as bad for him."

"Elvis was very upset about the divorce," seconds Joe. "Here he is, the s.e.x symbol of the world, and he's losing his wife to another man. It was really an ego killer for him. He wouldn't admit that to us, but we all knew it was hurting him, and he was affected tremendously by it."

He found solace with Barbara Leigh, who listened as "he cursed Priscilla and Mike on a daily basis, since no one leaves the King. But that was good-it helped him process the hurt and the embarra.s.sment of being left."

When Marty went out to California on business in March, Elvis was still coming to grips with it. He said he had a "problem," that Priscilla was leaving him. He'd just been to the Monovale house and found she had moved out.

"I'm sorry, man," Marty said.

"What am I going to do?"

"Let me ask you a question. Are you going to change?"

"h.e.l.l, no. I ain't doing that for n.o.body."

For his next recording session, later in March, he chose songs of heartbreak and regret: "Separate Ways," and "Always on My Mind." He poured himself into his work, including a second doc.u.mentary film, Elvis on Tour. Elvis on Tour.

After a period in the early 1970s in which he lost his discipline in some of the Vegas shows, "lying down on stage and talking into the mike and laughing," Joe Moscheo remembers, Elvis revitalized himself for the fifteen-city tour and filming. A young Martin Scorsese supervised the montage editing.

While Elvis on Tour Elvis on Tour would share a Golden Globe award with would share a Golden Globe award with Walls of Fire Walls of Fire as the best feature doc.u.mentary, some critics believed it lifted no veils on Elvis's private life. But a posthumous theatrical release, as the best feature doc.u.mentary, some critics believed it lifted no veils on Elvis's private life. But a posthumous theatrical release, This Is Elvis, This Is Elvis, contained footage which was originally shot for the earlier doc.u.mentary. When Elvis is asked in the limousine if he saw the Apollo 16 rocket launch, he implies he was too busy to see it: "I was buried in a beaver." And in a later scene from Greensboro, North Carolina, Elvis references another s.e.xual episode to Jerry. contained footage which was originally shot for the earlier doc.u.mentary. When Elvis is asked in the limousine if he saw the Apollo 16 rocket launch, he implies he was too busy to see it: "I was buried in a beaver." And in a later scene from Greensboro, North Carolina, Elvis references another s.e.xual episode to Jerry.

"You know that girl I was with last night?"

"The dog?"

"Oh, man," Elvis says. "She gave great head, boy . . . Hey, Joe, that chick last night gave the greatest head I ever had in my life." The last line was later overdubbed for a TV and home video version, euphemistically becoming "could raise the dead."

Bragging about c.u.n.n.i.l.i.n.g.u.s and f.e.l.l.a.t.i.o may have simply been a cover-up for what was really going on with him. "He loved cuddling and petting more than he did the actual s.e.x anyway," one woman noted. "But when the drugs entered the picture, they took over his body and his s.e.x drive took a nosedive, too. I saw the changes starting to happen to him in 1972. It was showing as early as that."

Despite the early stages of his physical deterioration, Elvis could still summon the full strength of his artistry when the Colonel offered him a challenge.

In June 1972 Elvis became the first performer to sell out four consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden, grossing $730,000 over three days. He had never played New York City before, as the Colonel always believed Elvis appealed more to a rural and small-town fan base than urban sophisticates. Now Elvis was apprehensive, though he tried not to let it show. When his new opening act, comic Jackie Kahane, was essentially booed off the stage opening night, Elvis went to him in his dressing room. "Mr. Kahane, they're animals out there. Don't let them bother you. You go out there tomorrow and you kick a.s.s."

When Elvis emerged to the billowing strains of Also Sprach Zarathustra, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Joe Guercio remembers, a great roar echoed through the fabled building, and "so many flashbulbs went off that the Garden was almost lit for a second." Joe Guercio remembers, a great roar echoed through the fabled building, and "so many flashbulbs went off that the Garden was almost lit for a second."

The New York Times, New York Times, in a rave, recognized it as a legendary performance. Chris Chase's review headlined ". . . A Prince from Another Planet." The writer saw Elvis as a one-of-a-kind talent, "a special champion [like] a Joe Louis . . . a Joe DiMaggio, someone in whose hands the way a thing is done becomes more important than the thing itself. . . . He stood there at the end, his arms stretched out, the great gold cloak giving him wings . . . the only one in his cla.s.s." in a rave, recognized it as a legendary performance. Chris Chase's review headlined ". . . A Prince from Another Planet." The writer saw Elvis as a one-of-a-kind talent, "a special champion [like] a Joe Louis . . . a Joe DiMaggio, someone in whose hands the way a thing is done becomes more important than the thing itself. . . . He stood there at the end, his arms stretched out, the great gold cloak giving him wings . . . the only one in his cla.s.s."

During their four-and-a-half-year love affair, Linda Thompson was as much Elvis's nurse and mother subst.i.tute as girlfriend. The Memphis Mafia believes he would have died three years earlier had she not been there. (Robin Rosaaen Collection) (Robin Rosaaen Collection)

Chapter Thirty-One.

Buntin'

The success of the Madison Square Garden engagement buoyed Elvis for a time, but he was still shaken by the divorce. On July 26, 1972, Elvis and Priscilla legally separated, and the world at large learned about Mike Stone. Elvis's lawyer, E. Gregory Hookstratten, drew up the papers and worked out the terms of the settlement, which Priscilla readily accepted: a lump sum of $100,000, plus $1,000 per month for her own expenses and $500 child support. Even though she would reopen the divorce in 1973, seeking more money, they would still walk out of divorce court arm in arm and remain close, in part for Lisa's sake. he was still shaken by the divorce. On July 26, 1972, Elvis and Priscilla legally separated, and the world at large learned about Mike Stone. Elvis's lawyer, E. Gregory Hookstratten, drew up the papers and worked out the terms of the settlement, which Priscilla readily accepted: a lump sum of $100,000, plus $1,000 per month for her own expenses and $500 child support. Even though she would reopen the divorce in 1973, seeking more money, they would still walk out of divorce court arm in arm and remain close, in part for Lisa's sake.

"It was like we were never divorced. Elvis and I still hugged each other, still had love. We would say, 'Mommy said this,' and 'Daddy said that.' That helped Lisa to feel stable. There was never any arguing or bitterness."

Elvis recklessly roared around town on his motorcycle, looking terrible, his face unnaturally round and seeming distorted. Twenty-year-old Mary Kathleen "Kathy" Selph, an exotic dancer and singer at the Whirlaway Club and another Priscilla look-alike, was often seen on the back of his Harley-Davidson, her hands around his waist. On June 30, the Commercial Appeal Commercial Appeal photographed them at the corner of South Parkway and Highway 51 South, which had been renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard a year earlier. Her mother saw the picture, and reprimanded her daughter for dating a married man, later learning that Elvis and Priscilla were separated. photographed them at the corner of South Parkway and Highway 51 South, which had been renamed Elvis Presley Boulevard a year earlier. Her mother saw the picture, and reprimanded her daughter for dating a married man, later learning that Elvis and Priscilla were separated.

But in less than a month, it was all over. Just before three o'clock on the morning of July 18, 1972, Kathy, whose father, E.B. Selph, was the deputy fire chief, was killed in a single-car accident, when her vehicle struck a cement pillar on eastbound I-240 near Elvis Presley Boulevard. She was alone in the car. The Press-Scimitar The Press-Scimitar a.s.sumed she was driving home from work, but perhaps she was en route elsewhere. a.s.sumed she was driving home from work, but perhaps she was en route elsewhere.

"There was a real nice spray of flowers at her funeral from the Presley family," her mother, Peggy Selph Cannon told the paper in 2000. "And there was a huge orchid at the funeral. I always felt it came from Elvis."

Earlier that month, Elvis had begun seeing twenty-two-year-old Linda Thompson. She would become not only the most important of his postdivorce girlfriends, but he would also build a stronger and deeper bond with her than he'd ever had with Priscilla. She was his best hope yet for a long-lasting and meaningful relationship with a woman.

Predictably, Linda was the winner of a beauty queen t.i.tle-Miss Tennessee Universe, representing the state in the Miss Universe pageant-but she did not precisely fall in line with his ideal type, despite her brown eyes. At five foot nine, she was tall, not pet.i.te, and refused to darken her long, blondish mane to make Elvis happy. Like Joyce Bova and June Juanico before her, she was an independent thinker. Furthermore, she was educated, having attended Memphis State. But she was a virgin.

Most of all, she would nurture him, seeing that "Elvis needed more love and care than anybody I ever met, probably more than anyone in this world, because of who he was and what he had done." She found him "intensely lonely at heart."

One day Linda was having lunch at a Memphis restaurant with Jeanne LeMay, a former Miss Rhode Island USA who had shared a hotel room with Linda at the Miss USA pageant in Puerto Rico. They had become instant friends, and after the pageant, Jeanne moved to Memphis to live with Linda, the two thinking they might become flight attendants together. That day at lunch, Linda ran into an acquaintance, Bill Browder, who worked in record promotion and would later become a country singer known as T. G. Sheppard. He invited the two of them to Elvis's movie marathon at the Memphian that night, July 6.

"I thought Elvis was still married," Linda remembers, "so I didn't have any kind of designs on him. But I found out he wasn't when I got to the theater."

It was George Klein who actually introduced the two. Elvis appreciated her southern girl beauty and personality, as well as her sense of humor, and asked her to come back the following night.

When Linda then left for three weeks on a family vacation, Elvis turned to another Memphis belle, Cybill Shepherd, the 1966 Miss Teenage Memphis and later the national Model of the Year. Cybill had just made a terrific splash as Jacy Farrow, the small-town Texas temptress in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show. The Last Picture Show. Elvis didn't know the cla.s.sically beautiful twenty-three-year-old was involved with the older director and that she had broken up his marriage. But her provocative scenes in the film reminded him of his s.e.xual awakening with real-life Texas beauties on the Hayride. Elvis didn't know the cla.s.sically beautiful twenty-three-year-old was involved with the older director and that she had broken up his marriage. But her provocative scenes in the film reminded him of his s.e.xual awakening with real-life Texas beauties on the Hayride.

He had George call her when she was home from New York, and they followed the usual M.O.: Would Cybill like to come to the Memphian?

"I said, 'Well, I'll come and meet him, but I want to bring my best friend, and my brother, and his best friend.' "

When they arrived, Elvis wasn't there yet, and she tried to concentrate on the movie until he made his grand entrance, everybody to the right of her getting up and moving one seat down. "He was still looking fabulous. And he smelled great." They dated a month, and "if he had smelled bad, it probably would have ended sooner." Things got rolling when he invited her to Graceland for chicken-fried steak, a meal after Jacy's heart.

Just as Elvis and Priscilla had fallen in love with myths, he and Cybill were attracted to each other for all the wrong reasons. He was entranced with a celluloid image that reminded him of his youth, and she had grown up in Memphis hoping to catch sight of the hometown boy who became a G.o.d.

If Cybill had been interested enough in Elvis, Linda Thompson might never have been anything but a two-night date. But Cybill, though fourteen years Elvis's junior, ran in far more sophisticated circles, and as with Peggy Lipton, it doomed them from the start. Still, they gave it a try. But like so many women before her, Cybill found his lifestyle stultifying.

In her autobiography, Cybill Disobedience, Cybill Disobedience, she described a weekend in Palm Springs: she described a weekend in Palm Springs: "The house was luxurious in a rental sort of way, sprawling and devoid of personal taste. Everything had a metallic glow. All the King's men . . . spent the afternoon competing to see who could make the biggest splash into a murky swimming pool. The guys raced dune buggies three or four abreast while shouting into walkie-talkies, or sat around a long table with a thick top of beveled gla.s.s, eating their favorite deep-fried sandwiches."

Today, she sees that she and Elvis actually had a lot in common, that fame and beauty "can cause you to be emotionally underdeveloped. People do things for you. There were a lot of times . . . where I just didn't get a chance to grow and learn."

But in 1972, she simply couldn't get over the control. Elvis wanted to take her shopping-he didn't like her jeans and tie-dyed mirrored vest-and he demanded she ditch Bogdanovich, who continued to pursue her. She chose to be with Peter, and when Elvis showed up on an unexpected late-night visit, "I don't think it had sunk in that I had already ended it."

What finished them was the drugs. In a replay of Joyce Bova's experience, Elvis insisted that Cybill join him in his nightly ritual of sleeping medication. "He said, 'Here, take these,' and he had pills in his hands. I said, 'Aren't you going to take some of them?' And he said, 'Well, I've already had mine.' He was almost already asleep, and I went and flushed them down the toilet, returned his emerald-and-diamond ring, and just said, 'Thank you, but I can't.' "

Though brief, their s.e.x life ran the gamut. In an interview with E! television, she labeled him "a wonderful lover, very s.e.xy," but later spoke of his b.u.mbling technique. "Let's put it this way: I think before I met him he was [s.e.xually] conservative, trapped in a stupid macho thing." Her much-quoted declaration that it was she who taught him oral s.e.x brought hoots of derision from other of his lovers, who knew that by the time Cybill arrived "it was just a shuttle-one came in the door as another was flown back to Vegas."

That's precisely what happened when Elvis opened there on July 31, 1972. During his three days of rehearsals, he flew Linda to Los Angeles and then brought her to the Hilton for most of his engagement. As soon as she left, Cybill came in. "The Elvis that I got to know in Memphis was very different than the Elvis that I got to know in Las Vegas. He was unavailable in a way. And then years later, I would find out he had two other women there at the same time."

Elvis followed Raquel Welch into the Las Vegas Hilton showroom that summer, and she had someone call the Colonel to ask if she could come see the show. He arranged for her to sit in Elvis's booth, and she sat there agog at what she terms his third transformation. Despite costumer Bill Belew's best intentions, Raquel thought "Elvis looked almost like Liberace or one of those apparitions, dressed all in white, with rings on every finger."

Reviewers noted that he seemed more subdued during his engagement and spent less time interacting with the audience between songs. When Raquel went to his dressing room after the show, "he was very sweet, very nice, and he showed me all his jewelry." But he didn't seem to be really happy, and she couldn't get the show out of her mind. "He had a whole basket of blue scarves, and he must have thrown fifty of them into the audience. It was so carnival. He was almost like a windup toy."

His most devoted fans, including Robin Rosaaen of San Jose, California, saw him otherwise. "Once he was onstage, it was like somebody flipped a switch. Just pure s.e.x energy filled that showroom." Robin had been attending all of Elvis's Vegas engagements since 1970, and in 1972, he gave her the first of eight kisses and thirteen scarves she would receive over seventy-two shows in six and a half years. "Elvis was like a drug," she says. "Once you saw him, you had to see him again."

She earned that first kiss by holding up an I WANT YOUR BODY I WANT YOUR BODY b.u.mper sticker, a promotional item from the health spa where she worked. It caught his attention and lured him over to where she sat at the edge of the stage. b.u.mper sticker, a promotional item from the health spa where she worked. It caught his attention and lured him over to where she sat at the edge of the stage.

"He said, 'You got it, baby,' and I pulled the scarf off from around his neck, and it was hot and sweaty, and he smelled wonderful. I had my ring hand up through his hair, and he was looking in my eyes, and he kissed me with those lips that were like big, soft, warm, puffy pillows. I thought, 'Oh, my G.o.d, I wonder what this would be like for more than just a split second?' "

He winked at her then and went on to the next song. "That's when I realized a couple of his hairs were stuck in my ring. I wrapped them in a tissue and stuck them in my bra, and when I got home, I put them in a Gerber's baby food jar, where they've been ever since."

In time, he came to recognize her face, and one year, he pointed her out to the crowd and officially dubbed her "Rockin' Robin." She felt they knew each other then, and so she grew bolder. One night she tried to walk her fingers up his jumpsuit, hoping to tweak a hair off of his leg. "He just looked at me like, 'What are you doing doing?' "

Uh-oh, she thought. Busted.

As a contributor to the book All the Kings Things, All the Kings Things, she became an internationally recognized expert on Presley collectibles and formed a family with other serious fans. Some of them ran to the extreme: "I've known women who went to so many Elvis concerts that they got divorced over it. Their husbands said, 'It's either me or Elvis,' and the women said, 'I'll take Elvis.' " she became an internationally recognized expert on Presley collectibles and formed a family with other serious fans. Some of them ran to the extreme: "I've known women who went to so many Elvis concerts that they got divorced over it. Their husbands said, 'It's either me or Elvis,' and the women said, 'I'll take Elvis.' "

s.e.x and love was a topic Elvis and Larry Geller discussed many times, particularly with Larry's return to the camp in August 1972. During one engagement, they stepped outside on the balcony of the Hilton about five one morning as the sun rose over the desert. They were talking about his struggles, and indirectly, his loneliness, and the difference between personal and impersonal love.

"Elvis looked at me and said, 'I want you to put yourself in my shoes. Do you realize I can never know if a woman loves me or Elvis Presley?' And trying to be my philosophical self, I said, 'Elvis, as far as I am concerned, you have had only one real true lasting love in your whole life.' He looked at me and he said, 'Who?' I said, 'The world. Your fans.' He said, 'You're right, man. That's the truth. And that's a heavy price to pay.' "

On September 4, 1972, Colonel Parker and RCA President Rocco Laginestra held a press conference in Las Vegas to announce Elvis's next big record-shattering event, "Aloha From Hawaii," a live concert to be delivered worldwide in January 1973 by satellite technology. The show, staged in Honolulu with some of the proceeds going to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund, would reach 1.4 billion viewers. But the "live" label was largely ballyhoo, as both Europe and America would receive a delayed signal. press conference in Las Vegas to announce Elvis's next big record-shattering event, "Aloha From Hawaii," a live concert to be delivered worldwide in January 1973 by satellite technology. The show, staged in Honolulu with some of the proceeds going to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund, would reach 1.4 billion viewers. But the "live" label was largely ballyhoo, as both Europe and America would receive a delayed signal.

"It's very hard to comprehend," Elvis said, repeating himself over and over, crumpled in a chair at the press briefing. For many who witnessed it, the more perplexing thought was why Elvis's speech was slurred, and why he perspired so heavily, wiping his upper lip. His eyes, visible through tinted gla.s.ses, seemed dull and dazed.

On some days, Elvis appeared clear, lucid, and largely unaffected. But other times, particularly after the divorce action was entered on August 18, his use of sedatives, or downers, was obvious to all. One night, a boy came up to Jackie Kahane after a show. "Mr. Katane," he asked, misp.r.o.nouncing the comic's name, "Elvis wasn't drunk, was he?"

At the time, Lamar Fike reports, Elvis's usual pattern was to take a Valium, a Placidyl, a Valmid, some Butabarb, and codeine simultaneously. But now, after a sprained ankle took him to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis that July, he began adding Percodan and liquid Demerol to round out his potent and potentially lethal c.o.c.ktail.

Dr. Nick later learned that "he began getting acupuncture three times a week with Demerol and Novocain in California. He felt so good afterward that he just went more and more."

Considering the severity of his client's drug use, the Colonel might have been expected to speak with Dr. Nick about how to handle it. But he never did.

"He would ask a direct question at a particular moment when something was happening, but we never sat down and talked about any of Elvis's health problems or what needed to be done. It seemed like his main concern was how many shows we could get in that year."

One reason Elvis was excited about the satellite show was what it would say about his "potency," particularly to Priscilla, whose approval he still sought and needed. Dr. Nick remembers that he always had tremendous performance anxiety before any of the shows, that he was "a basket case . . . he'd worry whether he was going to be 100 percent, and want something for his nerves, some Ritalin or amphetamines." If he could perform to most of the planet planet on his own, without any kind of artifice, it would free him. He could boast he didn't need Priscilla, he didn't need drugs, he didn't need anything. He'd even take off his heavy, jeweled cape and throw it in the audience, a symbolic rebirth. on his own, without any kind of artifice, it would free him. He could boast he didn't need Priscilla, he didn't need drugs, he didn't need anything. He'd even take off his heavy, jeweled cape and throw it in the audience, a symbolic rebirth.

Elvis also hoped the "Aloha" special would impress his new girlfriend. Already he could tell Linda was different from the rest. She was almost always by his side, adored him beyond description, and didn't try to change him, other than to try to temper the drugs. When she went to Dr. Nick and asked him how she could get Elvis off pills, he advised her to simply leave. Instead, she chose to stay.

From the outset, she realized he was a paradoxical man, and that theirs would be a complex relationship that would both exceed and fall short of normal expectations. She wanted to give him plenty of room to explore it and make it whatever he wanted.

"I think it's wonderful if you can be all things to each other, and he and I were. He called me 'Mommy,' and I was like his mother at times, and he was like my father at times, and we were like children, like brother and sister. And we were like lovers at times. That's a full rich relationship when you can do that."

But her most constant roles were caregiver, nurse, and hand holder. The first time he took her to Vegas, Elvis pa.s.sed out with food in his mouth and started to choke. Linda cleared it out of his throat and turned him on his side to get him breathing again. "I felt a responsibility to his mother to take care of him, and actually to the world, too, because so many people loved him."

She had always felt maternal, and "he was like my little boy." Her nickname for him was "Buntin'," short for baby bunting, after the popular nursery rhyme and lullaby. Elvis called her "Ariadne," for three-year-old Ariadne Pennington, a character in his 1962 film Follow That Dream. Follow That Dream.

"We both just naturally talked baby talk. That was a big part of our relationship." She was the only girlfriend who truly understood the secret language and used it. A Mailgram she sent him when he was away in California demonstrates her prowess: Baby gullion, you are just a little fella. Little fellas need lots of butch, ducklin', and iddytream . . . Grit. Chock. Chock. Shake. Rattle. Roll. Hmmmmm . . . Hit. Hit. Pinch. Bite. Hurt. Grit. Whew. My baby don't care for rings . . . Pablum lullion (in or out of the hospital). P.S. Foxhugh [the poodle] will bite sooties if you say iddytream again. Grit. Grit. [Signed] Ariadne Pennington The two rarely fought. Linda even tolerated Elvis seeing other women when she wasn't around, though for the first year and a half, he was largely faithful. When he did fool around, "it hurt her," Marty Lacker saw. "But her att.i.tude was, 'What am I going to do about it? Say, "Hey, Elvis, you can't do that or I'm going to leave?" He would have said, 'Adios.' "

For Christmas that first year, Elvis gave her what all grown-up girls want, a fur coat. And all year round, she gave him what he wanted, too-she allowed him to regress to an infantile state, to start the full journey back to Gladys.

The irony was that the more childlike Elvis became, the more he treated Lisa Marie as an adult, showering her with the same gifts he gave his girlfriends. The four-year-old spent Christmas at Graceland that year, and she got a fur coat, just as Linda did. Elvis loved to buy Lisa things, including a big, round bed. It was tacky-fake fur, with a round mirror on top and a built-in radio-but he often slept in it when she was with her mother.

He'd been thinking a lot about the first girl to whom he gave a round bed, as that September, Ann-Margret tragically fell twenty-two feet from a platform in Lake Tahoe, breaking her jawbone, and shattering her face, arm, and knee. She required extensive reconstructive surgery, but was back performing in Vegas in late November, and Elvis, who had already sent her flowers, went to talk with her.

One night, as she and Roger entertained friends in the suite, he dropped by unexpectedly. "It was so easy for us to lapse into the closeness we'd always shared," she wrote, and they monopolized each other until it became awkward with the other guests.

Late that night, the phone rang in her bedroom while Roger was in the living room next door. She knew who it was before she answered. Elvis started out saying how wonderful she looked, and that his prayers for her health and healing had been answered. Then his tone shifted. He was lonely, he said, and wondered if she would see him.

"You know I can't," she told him.

"I know. But I just want you to know that I still feel the same."

As the "Aloha" "Aloha" concert neared in January 1973, Elvis "was so pumped up he could concert neared in January 1973, Elvis "was so pumped up he could have hit the ceiling," Marty says. He worked hard to get in shape, losing twenty-five pounds on a crash diet consisting of six hundred calories a day and what Marty remembers as "injections of urine of a pregnant woman." He worked closely with Bill Belew on the design of what would become his favorite jumpsuit, featuring the American eagle, and exercised enormous discipline in staying off his drug protocol. have hit the ceiling," Marty says. He worked hard to get in shape, losing twenty-five pounds on a crash diet consisting of six hundred calories a day and what Marty remembers as "injections of urine of a pregnant woman." He worked closely with Bill Belew on the design of what would become his favorite jumpsuit, featuring the American eagle, and exercised enormous discipline in staying off his drug protocol.

"Aloha from Hawaii" would be his last great triumph-the alb.u.m would stay on the Billboard Billboard charts for thirty-five weeks, and become his first number one chart-topping LP in nine years-and many of his old friends came to Honolulu to share the excitement. Felton Jarvis was there, though still weak from an Elvis-financed kidney transplant. And Patti Parry caught a plane at the very last minute ("Get over here, now!") after Elvis looked at a tape of the rehearsal and decided he needed his hair styled. charts for thirty-five weeks, and become his first number one chart-topping LP in nine years-and many of his old friends came to Honolulu to share the excitement. Felton Jarvis was there, though still weak from an Elvis-financed kidney transplant. And Patti Parry caught a plane at the very last minute ("Get over here, now!") after Elvis looked at a tape of the rehearsal and decided he needed his hair styled.

It was a remarkable performance and earned the highest ratings ever in j.a.pan, where it was broadcast live. The feedback, all glowing, boosted Elvis's spirits. The night after the show, he bought diamond-and-emerald rings for all the wives and gave each of the guys a thousand dollars.

He'd stayed straight for two weeks now, and everyone prayed that Elvis had turned a corner. But just before he went on, he'd asked for a shot of vitamin B-12 mixed with amphetamines.

The next morning, they were all supposed to go to the U.S.S. Arizona Arizona Memorial. Marty banged on his door at the Hawaiian Village Hotel, and n.o.body answered. "Finally, Linda came, and she just made a face and shook her head. Elvis was sitting on the balcony, on the top floor of the hotel, stoned out of his gourd. He was sweating profusely, with a towel around his neck, and he could hardly talk. He'd gone right back into it." Memorial. Marty banged on his door at the Hawaiian Village Hotel, and n.o.body answered. "Finally, Linda came, and she just made a face and shook her head. Elvis was sitting on the balcony, on the top floor of the hotel, stoned out of his gourd. He was sweating profusely, with a towel around his neck, and he could hardly talk. He'd gone right back into it."

When the special was broadcast in America on April 4, 1973, 57 percent of the television audience watched it, including Joyce Bova. It stirred her emotions, and she called Charlie, just wanting to share the experience with someone close to him. When Elvis himself called back on the "hotline," the private phone he'd had installed in her home, her palms began perspiring. But it was a sweet call. "I miss you," he said. "I want you to come to California. Call me in a couple of weeks." She said yes, and for a second she meant it. Before they hung up, he asked for a copy of a photo of himself with both Joyce and Janice taken in Vegas. She sent it, but she didn't call. "I couldn't have gone back to that. I didn't want to. It wasn't good for me."

Elvis watched the show with Linda and Jerry, sitting at home in the Monovale house in Los Angeles. But over the next few weeks, Jerry felt as if Elvis were distancing himself from him. The younger man had become infatuated with a girl who was often part of the Palm Springs weekends, and he knew his marriage to Sandy was coming apart. He and Elvis hadn't discussed it. Then on another trip to Palm Springs, Elvis said, "Jerry, there's something I've got to tell you."

Jerry braced himself for a lecture but instead, he got a confession: Elvis had slept with Jerry's girlfriend. It had only been a one-time thing, he said, one night when Jerry had fallen asleep early. Jerry knew he was in no position to be self-righteous, but it stung. Elvis had broken the cardinal rule of the brotherhood.

Soon Jerry's marriage to Sandy collapsed, and he would eventually marry Myrna Smith of the Sweet Inspirations. But that, too, would unravel.

Hanging with Elvis was rough on a marriage. Joe and Joanie would be divorced by the end of the year, but Joe soon meet a smart and energetic blonde named Shirley Dieu, an Oklahoma transplant who had grown up in San Diego.