Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [112]
When Natalie Wood arrived at the Beverly Wilshire about nine o’clock on the night of September 10, she found more than a dozen people in the living room, ranging from Elvis’s cousins and their dates to the young girls he’d invited up from the fan huddle downstairs. Elvis had just gotten out of the shower after heavy petting with one of the more willing fans, and he was wearing a white smoking jacket with the letters E.P. embroidered in gold. He immediately gave Natalie a hug and asked if she’d like to see some of the dailies from the film. She said yes, recognizing the code, and they disappeared into the bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, Byron was surprised to see a furious Natalie storm out the door. “What’s the matter with your boss?” she demanded, glaring at him. “Doesn’t he know how to screw? He’s all hands and no action.” Byron fumbled for excuses, but Natalie kept raving. “I thought he was supposed to be the king of the sack! But he doesn’t want to screw me!”
Elvis’s guests began to scramble, leaving only Gene sitting there as Natalie continued her rant. “What’s Elvis going to do, tell his buddies I’m not sexy enough for him?” Byron assured her Elvis wouldn’t do any such thing. Natalie glanced back at Gene with a smirk on her face and taunted him. “I think all you guys are homos,” she said.
Then, to Byron’s amazement, the Hollywood star propositioned the agent-in-training, and he took her up on it. Suddenly, he was on top of her, frantically pulling off her pedal pushers as she worked to remove his pants. She guided him into her, and he pumped fast and furiously, and she did, too. In seconds, they were both glistening with sweat. But she criticized his performance, and he worried that he hadn’t used a rubber. Natalie pushed him out of her and quickly dressed.
“You’re okay,” she said matter-of-factly. “But tell Elvis if he wants to go out with me again, I want to go all the way. You can also tell him I’m the best fuck in town.” And then she left. Byron glanced over at the bedroom and saw Elvis standing in the doorway. He didn’t know how much he’d witnessed, but the singer simply closed the door and never mentioned it. Later, Elvis made a crude remark to the guys about Natalie’s feminine odor—and began exhibiting more tendencies toward voyeurism.
A sexpot like Natalie naturally would have intimidated a man as sexually immature as Elvis, but there was another reason he had not had intercourse with her. Aside from his deep romance with June Juanico and his serious relationship with Barbara Hearn (he was also getting cozy with a female wrestler, Penny Banner), he had fallen hard for Debra Paget, his physical ideal. “She’s the most beautiful girl in the world,” he told Photoplay magazine.
Many accounts of his infatuation with Debra hold that he couldn’t get to first base with her, that she found him the “moron” she alluded to in print, and that his love was unrequited. But in truth, they both fell in love.
Debra, reserved and quiet, found him sweet, kind, and funny. And Elvis was entranced with more than just her perfect cheekbones and fragile beauty. She had two more qualities he admired—she was religious, from a Jewish background, and a virgin. Because Gladys told him to end up with a girl who was pure and untested, “He always said he’d marry a virgin,” Debra remembered.
But like Elvis, Debra had a strong, unbreakable bond with her mother, Marguerite Gibson, who was also heavyset and redoubtable like Gladys. The similarities were obvious to both Elvis and Debra, and Elvis even saw a facial resemblance between Debra and the youthful Gladys. To Elvis, who was looking