Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [192]
“Now, gentlemen,” he announced in mock seriousness, “I have called you here to discuss a very important matter.” Everybody laughed. He swiveled some more, looked down, dealt with his emotions.
“I just can’t get it in my mind that I’m here,” he said, looking almost dazed. And then the questions flew: about the music, about the movies (he had three to do that year, and would soon start G.I. Blues), even about his tonsillitis. And then they got down to business.
“How about any romance . . . did you leave any hearts, shall we say, in Germany?”
Elvis, clearly uncomfortable, grinned, glanced away, and looked altogether like a man who’d just been caught doing something he shouldn’t. Then he laughed and broke out in nervous titters as he attempted to answer the question. “Not any special one, no. There was one little girl that I was seeing quite often over there. Her father was in the air force. Actually, they only got over there [a few] months before I left. I was seeing her and she was at the airport when I left. And there were some pictures made of her [laughs]. But it was no big . . . it was no big romance. I mean the stories came out, ‘The Girl He Left Behind’ [laughs], and all that. It wasn’t like that, I mean [laughs]. I have to be careful when I answer a question like that [laughs].”
Soon, it was over. “You’ll never know how happy I am to be here,” he said, his voice full of feeling. “Somebody asked me this morning, ‘what did I miss about Memphis?’ And I said, ‘Everything.’ ”
That evening, he saw Anita, who he’d asked to wait at his cousin Patsy’s house, so they could have a private reunion, apart from his family. “There’ll be no one else in the room but just us,” he’d told her. But he couldn’t stand not seeing her and had her come on out with everyone there anyway.
“He was standing right there in the doorway of the music room where the piano was. He said, ‘Little . . .’ And I just ran over there to him. I was glad to see him. [And] I guess he was glad to see me. We just embraced for a while. Quite a while. It was a really good time, happy time.”
In a month, she would dye her hair black to match his, using his new color, Miss Clairol 51 D, “Black Velvet.” And he would buy her a diamond necklace. But still, he could not be entirely faithful. He was already seeing nineteen-year-old Bonnie Bunkley, who had come to the house with her voice teacher, collecting money for a benefit for Whitehaven High School.
It seemed to be a compulsion for him, and Elisabeth Stefaniak could not stand it a minute longer. He had bought a yellow Lincoln for her to use, and even gave her driving lessons himself. He had taken her for motorcycle rides and ensconced her in Graceland to help with the incessant flow of mail. But he had also visited the Holiday on Ice show to see the female skaters he had met in Germany, and then invited the whole cast home. And she had covered for him with Anita about his behavior in Germany. However, she could not be his occasional girlfriend, not when there would always be so many others. She was still in love with him, but she needed someone who wanted only her.
On March 15, barely two weeks after her arrival, Elisabeth left Graceland, saying she was going to Florida to see her family. Instead, she went to meet Rex’s parents. Secretly, she and Rex had decided to marry. It had been Rex who had introduced Elisabeth to Elvis, and now it was Rex who was taking her away.
The suggestion had come largely from Minnie Mae, back in Germany. Rex knew better than to hit on one of Elvis’s girls, but Grandma had said, “I want you to do it.” It showed her love for both of them and her disdain