Column Chronicles: Elvis elegy ensues, part 2

Elvis elegy ensues, part 2

Frank Cotolo
August 8, 2024

The myths collecting in the story of Elvis Presley stack high as the decades pass. Here are some mutating legends as they emerge.

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Elvis is born among quintuplets on Jan. 8, 9 and 10, 1935. His mother Gladys realizes she must cook more to keep her family fed. Papa Vernon reminds her that four of the quintuplets are dead and the only one alive is Elvis. She's happy Elvis is the one that left because she loves that name.

In March 1948 the Presley family moves to Nashville, Tennessee. Papa Vernon buys his 14-year-old son a guitar and Elvis learns to play it in six minutes. Gladys makes Elvis swear only to play songs already written. Elvis agrees.

In January, 1954, Sun Records producer Sam Phillips lets Elvis sing songs in his studio. A guitar player named Carl Perkins plays along with Elvis and Elvis swaps hair styles with him. Phillips records the songs without Carl and another guitar player, Johnny Cash, shows up and fights with Carl. Later they hug.

In 1955 a carnival bum named Colonel Tom Parker becomes Elvis's manager and Elvis goes on tour with Carl and Cash and Jerry Lewis, who quits a comedy team with Dean Martin to join the tour.

In 1960 Elvis releases his tenth album and titles it ELVIS THE TENTH. Manager Parker hates the title and sues Elvis to get more money out of him. Elvis loses the lawsuit and Parker buys four new Cadillac convertibles.

In 1964 Elvis hires five guys as bodyguards. They are paid to stand close to him for the rest of his life with the exception of his bathroom visits. Elvis moves into a mansion in Memphis and calls the place Gladysland, after his mother, Gladys. His father Vernon is sad the property is not named VernandGladysland but says nothing to Elvis because he cannot get through the five guys.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.