Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [133]
However, one afternoon of pleasantry could not make up for the fact that the Presleys did not fit in on Audubon Drive. Soon, the neighbors bonded in a public discussion, offering to buy them out, and Elvis politely offered to buy them out. A nuisance suit was threatened. It was clear that the Presleys would be more comfortable elsewhere, and a chance meeting between Gladys and a young real estate agent named Virginia Grant outside of Lowenstein’s department store led to the ideal place.
In early March 1957, Elvis wrapped filming on Loving You, and on March 17, the day he was to leave Hollywood by train, Virginia drove Gladys and Vernon to see a large home she thought might be suitable. But when the Presleys said they needed a bigger lot, the agent remembered an estate in the Whitehaven area, just before Highway 51 south eased into Mississippi. Called Graceland, and built in 1939 for Dr. and Mrs. Thomas D. Moore, the property comprised about fourteen acres of towering oaks and farmland, with the undulating grounds buffering the house from unwanted visitors.
To the Presleys, who had never forgotten their sharecropping days in Mississippi, it must have seemed like Tara from Gone With the Wind. Vernon and Gladys called their son and excitedly told him about it, and Elvis was so eager to please them that without even seeing it, he told them they would have it. The Presleys gave Virginia a $1,000 deposit, and the deal, with an asking price of $90,000, was as good as done.
On March 18, en route home, Elvis sent a telegram to June Juanico, asking her to meet him in New Orleans during his brief layover there. They had barely kept in touch since Christmas, but in January, he’d recorded Faron Young’s “Is It So Strange” just for her. All the craziness of Hollywood had gotten him thinking about what was real and what wasn’t, and he wanted to start over with her again, at Graceland.
But June had a surprise for Elvis, too. She’d been dating a man named Fabian Taranto. His cousin, Salvadore, played in the band Elvis replaced at the Slavonian Lodge the first time he played Biloxi. Fabian was a good man, and he needed her—unlike Elvis, she thought—and she’d convinced herself that he was the one. Earlier that month, Fabian had asked her to marry him, and June had said yes. Elvis had a big selection of women. Let him take his showgirls and shove ’em.
Yet when she saw him, she couldn’t bring herself to tell him right away. Now Elvis was standing in front of her and smiling so brightly that he almost glowed. He scooped her up and kissed her and then put her down, and he took her to a second train that had been waiting for his arrival. He climbed the steep steps, and then pulled her up into his arms and carried her to his private car. There, he kissed her again.
“He wanted me to come to Memphis with him. He said, ‘Mama can’t wait to see you, and I got a surprise for you. You’re not gonna believe what I bought for you! Wait until you see what it is!’ ”
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell you. I’ll have to show you. You’ve gotta come home with me.”
June stammered and tried to clear the cotton from her throat. “But I didn’t bring any clothes with me.”
“You don’t need any clothes. You don’t need anything. I’ll buy you all new clothes when we get home.”
He was still holding her, but she shook her head and pulled away from him. “I can’t go with you, Elvis. I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“I’m engaged to be married.”
His face fell, and he stared at her in disbelief. Then he slumped down on the couch and held his head in his hands, not wanting to believe it was true.
“You’re kidding me, June. This is just to get even with me, right?”
“No, Elvis. I’m not kidding. I