| HOME | CONTENTS |

"All Techniques Into One"
Elvis Presley: An Alternative and Unofficial Biography 8 January 1935 - 16 August 1977

This biography emphasises aspects of Elvis's life and character which do not feature strongly in official biographies, namely: his spiritual search and the controlling influences in his life. Elvis had to undergo various trials and tribulations on his journey through life.
Childhood	Attends Assembly of God church. Enjoys black gospel and southern gospel music, country and western music, blues, and rhythm and blues. Elvis's father, Vernon, and his Uncle, Travis Smith, go to prison for forgery (altering a cheque by a relatively small amount) when Elvis is age 3. Elvis suffers from sleep disorders, including nightmares and sleepwalking. His mother, Gladys walks him to school daily, even when he is a teenager, much to his embarassment. She is over-protective of Elvis because: He was her only surviving child He was a sickly child He was bullied at school She wanted him to have better opportunities through completing his education. She didn't want him to play truant, so she made sure he got to school. Elvis graduates from high school at age 18.
1955	Signs with RCA Records under manager "Col." Tom Parker. Parker is interested in hypnotism and mind control. During Elvis's career, Parker repeatedly tells Elvis "Without me you are nothing", reinforcing Elvis's sense of insecurity and dependency. He manipulates Elvis psychologically. Because, as a child, Parker was giving a beating by his father in front of other children, he gains satisfaction from humiliating others publicly.
1956	This is the year Elvis shoots to fame. It brings with it controversy. Adverse criticism of Elvis's performances as sexually provocative starts in April and escalates after his June 5 appearance on the Milton Berle show. He is denounced by at least one preacher as evil for singing black music and moving in an uninhibited fashion. The police film his shows and he is only televised from the waist up. The intensity of the hostility is distressing to Elvis and his parents.
1956 July 1	Steve Allen tries to humiliate Elvis publicly on his show by having him dress in a tuxedo and sing to a hound dog wearing a top hat. (This was possibly suggested to Allen by Parker.) Elvis carries it off well, also showing kindness to the dog.
1956 July?	Start of spiritual journey. Girl friend June Juanico gives Elvis Gibran's publication "The Prophet".
1956	Through paid spy and informer Nick Adams, "Col." Tom Parker sets out to break up Elvis's relationship with June Juanico, probably thinking that a stable relationship and marriage would be bad for the image of a pop star. More importantly, he doesn't want anyone beyond his control to have influence over Elvis. He encourages Elvis to "play the field" rather than have a stable relationship with one woman.
	When Elvis resists diction lessons to improve his speech for the movies, "Col." Parker threatens to tell Elvis's mother Gladys about his sexual activities.
1957	Filming of Jailhouse Rock. As Technical Adviser, "Col." Parker has a hand in the film. Elvis re-lives the trauma of his father going to prison - there seem to be some subtle parallels in the script. Elvis is reluctant to do this film. The emotional strain causes alternate fits of rage, despair, arrogance and withdrawal. Sleep disorders get worse again. Indeed, many Elvis movies have undercurrents in the text hinting at skeletons in the family closet (such as his father's jail term, the presence of an underage girl at Graceland, his mother's drinking problem) which the Presley family wouldn't want publicly known. Was this a kind of blackmail? In the movies, Parker also includes recurrent themes of incidents or aspects in Elvis's life which caused him embarassment, distress or humiliation, such being a surviving twin, having a dead mother and weak father, singing to animals, or being represented over and over again as a not very bright womaniser.
1958 - 1960	Army years
	Elvis starts taking pills in the army.
1958 August 14	Death of mother, Gladys, age 46. Because she hid her age when she was married (she was three or four years older than Vernon), her actual age was thought by some to be 42 at the time of her death.
1961-1969	Movie years
1963	Co-actress Dolores Hart enters a convent.
1964	Filming of Kissin' Cousins. "Col." Tom Parker pokes fun at Elvis's Southern rural roots by depicting a comical hillbilly family. Elvis is so embarassed by this bad movie that he sometimes won't come out of his dressing room for long periods of time.
1964 May	Larry Geller becomes Elvis' hair stylist / spiritual adviser. Geller gives Elvis Joseph Benner's "The Impersonal Life". Elvis reads widely. He becomes interested in a range of religious and spiritual matters, Eastern religions, reincarnation, yoga, mysticism and alternative medicine. He takes armfuls of books to movie rehearsals, much to the dismay of his entourage who are there for the perks - women and "fun times". He reads theosophical and philosophical tracts at parties.
1964 Aug 17	"Col." Parker enrages Elvis by accusing him of being on a "religious kick".
mid 1960s	Several times Elvis tries to break away from "Col." Parker, but is allegedly blackmailed over some home movies of sexual activities filmed in the late 1950s, and maybe also with threats to reveal family secrets and economic blackmail. Another source claims that the early sex movies were not of Elvis, but of his father Vernon, an alleged womaniser, and whom he wanted to protect. A recurrent theme in the earlier movies is the 50/50 singer/manager partnership. Parker took a 25% fee earlier on, but if the original agreement (verbal or otherwise) had been 50%, Parker might well have threatened to send in an invoice retrospectively for management fees previously unclaimed. Elvis's attitude towards money and his father's lack of financial management ability meant that Elvis did not accumulate savings and is unlikely to have been able to pay.
1965	Elvis decides to abstain from sex; reads religious passages to Priscilla, who is not interested. Delays returning to Hollywood and the bad movies - in this instance, Clambake.
1965 Mar 5	Elvis experiences a vision of faces in clouds over the Arizona mountains; his bus catches fire. He wants to give up the depressing Hollywood contract and become a monk. Elvis' generosity towards others increases as he becomes more spiritually aware. This worries those around him, particularly his father, who is his business manager.
1965 Dec 26	First, and (according to two sources) only, experiment with LSD. This was before LSD became an illegal drug.
1966 Sept-Oct	Filming of Easy come, easy go. "Col." Parker mocks Elvis's interest in yoga. He adds the song "Yoga is as yoga does" during which Elvis has to tie himself in knots. Elvis goes along with it, but feels humiliated and furious afterwards. Elvis's lack of assertiveness and inability to stand up to authority figures generally result in later outbursts of powerless rage. The Memphis Mafia take the brunt of this. They harbour resentments and petty jealousies which fuel they way they speak about him after his death.
1967 Mar 8/9	Elvis "trips over an electrical cord" and hits the back of his head (Larry Geller forms the impression that Elvis thought he might have been hit) . "Col." Parker isolates Elvis for about a week and brainwashes him to get him under control, possibly using hypnotism and hallucenogenic drugs. The pretext is probably to "unbrainwash" him from the influence of Larry Geller. Elvis's heavy prescription drug use seems to start from this point. He had already been regularly taking, among other things, sleeping pills for insomnia and pills to wake him up.
1967 Mar 12	Marty Lacker is given other duties, leaving Joe Esposito as sole foreman. Geller's house is trashed (did "Col." Parker already have mob connections by this stage?) and he is forced to leave. Elvis's mail and visitors are censored from this point. Letters from unapproved people and religious sources, such as Larry Geller, the Self Realization Fellowship and later also, Steve Binder (who produced the 1968 Comeback Special but didn't do it "Col." Parker's way) are not allowed through.
1967 May 1	Elvis is pressured into marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu (to keep him worldly?). Even so, he genuinely loves her and tries to remain faithful to her until he finds her with her dancing teacher. Later, she has an affair with her karate teacher.
1967 May?	The Burning Of The Books. Elvis is persuaded to burn his religious books.
1968 Feb 1	Birth of Lisa Marie. One of the happiest moments of Elvis's life.
1968 Apr 4	Dr Martin Luther King Jr is assassinated in Memphis. Elvis takes the news hard. The song "If I can dream", sung as the climax to the 1968 Comeback Special, expresses his feelings about this. There are parallels between the words of this song and Dr King's famous speech "I Have a Dream", delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.
1968 Comeback Special	Manager "Col." Tom Parker tries to sabotage the improvisational session of the Comeback Special by not promoting it or distributing tickets because Elvis and Steve Binder did not follow his plan for a Christmas show.
1969-1977	Las Vegas years During the Las Vegas years, the Mafia allegedly forcibly inject Elvis with cocaine and other illicit drugs to bring him under control, compromise him and destroy his credibility. They influence decisions about his career and private life, threatening Lisa Marie's life if he does not comply. (Here was a fine stud whom many women would pay money to sleep with. Did the mob try to use him as a sex slave? After all, the mob has always made money from drugs, gambling and prostitution.) Sources differ over whether Elvis became physically and/or psychologically addicted to cocaine as a result of forcible injections. Manager "Col." Parker is encouraged to build up massive gambling debts to keep him under the thumb of the Mafia. Elvis receives several death threats. He collects guns and police-force badges. He has his private telephone line recorded, probably to collect evidence against the Mafia for the FBI. He employs a musician who is an undercover narcotics agent to assist in the war against drugs and organized crime.
1969 July 31	Performances start at Las Vegas' International Hotel. 5-year $1 million per year contract - Mafia stand-over tactics possibly start from this point, although another source puts the starting point earlier. The Mafia allegedly infiltrate his management and entourage.
1971 May 12	Elvis attends the Self Realisation Fellowship overlooking Pasadena.
1972	After separation from Priscilla, Elvis returns to his search for spiritual development. He delivers spiritual dissertations to his entourage and their families. After performances, Elvis sings gospel music, often all night. If he has females alone in his room (according to some), it is often to read philosophical and religious tracts with them and to save them from the Memphis Mafia. He is less interested in meaningless sex and more interested in relationships and ideas. The Memphis Mafia assume that Elvis behaves as badly as they do, although they don't know what goes on behind his bedroom door.
1973	Divorce negotiations. In May, Priscilla pushes for more settlement money. During the year, Elvis cancels some shows because of pneumonia, pleurisy, enlarged colon, hepatitis. Prescription drugs are also involved.
1973 Sept 3	Elvis fires Manager "Col." Parker after a shouting match over Elvis's on-stage criticism of the Hilton Hotel management. Parker sends a massive contract severance invoice to Vernon (calling in the 50% management fees in arrears?). Parker is re-hired after nearly two weeks.
1973 Oct 9	Divorce comes through.
1973 Nov 15	Elvis is hospitalised following acupuncture treatments in California which included Demerol and cortisone injections. Conjecture is that the drugs were administered to give Elvis a bad experience with acupuncture and dissuade him from turning to alternative medicine. The purpose is to keep control over him.
Final years	Elvis's health deteriorates, probably from a hereditary disorder which causes enlarged organs, liver damage, inflamed and dilated digestive tract, subcutaneous inflammation, fluid retention, high blood pressure and internal bleeding. The condition is exacerbated by drug use which damages an already susceptible liver. Elvis believes he has terminal bone cancer, and is on strong pain killers.
1977 late June	Probably under pressure from the mafia over his gambling debts, manager "Col." Tom Parker arranges the CBS-TV special "Elvis in Concert" performances although Elvis isn't in a fit state of health to appear publicly. This is another public humiliation of Elvis by others for greed. It is almost a public martyrdom.
1977 Aug 16	Elvis dies, supposedly at Graceland, although there are some contradictions and strange aspects to the official story, such as the facts that none of his usual bodyguards watched over him, Ginger Alden "found" him but only after being fully groomed and possibly phoning her mother and a member of the press, and the room was thoroughly cleaned before any forensic investigation could begin. If resuscitation was applied at Graceland, it was to a corpse already going into rigor mortis, because Elvis had been dead since about 9 am. The reason was probably to create confusion about the actual time of death and sequence of events. The Memphis Mafia have stated that they had contingency plans to get Elvis secretly back to Graceland if he died in the air or on the road. If that had happened, we wouldn't have been told. If Elvis did die, say, on a plane, as some rumours suggest (on the way back from a dying dash to see his lawyer in Los Angeles - he was purportedly seen in Orange County California on the day of his death), and was posed as found, this would surely be the ultimate humiliation done to him by others. Either way, his "friends" let him be found in a humiliating position. Elvis was only 42 at his death. His mother and various family members on her side died in their 40s, probably with health problems exacerbated by the same genetic condition. Maybe this condition was also the cause of the death of Elvis's twin brother Jesse.

GO TO TOP

e-mail: M Files

| HOME | CONTENTS |

THANKS TO ELVICITIES