Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [197]
All the time Elvis was phoning Priscilla to discuss his insecurities about his film and music career, his father’s new bride, and all his other extremely adult concerns, “this child,” says Finstad, “and she was a child, really wanted to be out on a motorcycle with Tom. She was having normal and very intense relationships with boys her age, and she was infatuated with them.”
Her parents objected to the relationships—not just because some of the boys were negative influences on their young daughter, but also because the Beaulieus were now reserving her for Elvis. The boys who came to call told Finstad they got the distinct impression that Priscilla’s family didn’t want them there. Al Corey, who she saw during a brief breakup with Tom, remembered that when he turned up at the Beaulieus, “The parents would say, ‘Our daughter is with Elvis Presley; you need to find someone else.’ ”
Priscilla, then, was getting pressed from both sides. When Elvis would phone, he used language that was similar to what he had written to Anita. He repeated to her what he had told her on their last day in Germany—he was expecting her to remain “untouched.” If she didn’t, he told her, the next time he saw her, he would know.
Often after he hung up with Priscilla, Elvis would turn around and call Anita at Graceland (“I stayed with Grandma a lot when he was gone”), where he would spend time with her between movies. Often, too, he would bring her out to Hollywood to keep him company after a long day of shooting. But when that happened, she tended to cramp his style. Better to leave Anita home most of the time. He was running wild, parsing out his heart, being true to nothing and no one.
Lamar Fike sees it a little differently—that few women complained or left him over his promiscuity. “There was a lot to go around. He wanted to keep everybody happy. It was the lure.”
On August 1, 1960, Elvis began preproduction work on Flaming Star. Directed by Don Siegel for Twentieth Century-Fox, the film, based on Clair Huffaker’s novel, The Brothers of Broken Lance, appealed to him. After G.I. Blues, he was back to a serious dramatic role, playing Pacer Burton, a half-breed caught between the feuding worlds of his Kiowa Indian mother and white father. But Elvis was disappointed in the decision to place four songs in the film, and director Siegel backed him.
To Colonel Parker’s chagrin, only two songs remained in the final cut. The title number appeared over the opening credits, and Barbara Eden, who played the ingénue, remembers the other song, “A Cane and a High Starched Collar,” as little more than “Elvis playing guitar and me hopping around the table.”
Eden was aghast at the Colonel, who set up a desk just inside the soundstage to sell Elvis records and memorabilia to the cast and crew. (“I watched and I did a double take. I couldn’t believe it.”) But she was impressed with Elvis, who wore dark makeup for the role.
“God, what a talent he was!” Not only was Elvis “a natural on a horse, but like a lot of country entertainers, he had a path to emotional truth. He immediately became that character. He believed what he was doing, and he cared so much about doing a good job. He wanted to please. He had his friends and cousins from Memphis around him on the lot, and his father was there. They sat around in chairs and on boxes and sang a little of this and a little of that. It was very pleasant. Everything was easy with him.”
They also discussed personal things, beginning with their weight. “We were both watching what we ate. I said, ‘Well, you don’t have a problem. You’re very lean.’ And he said, ‘No, no, my mama was heavy, and I take after her. It shows in my face, so I have to be really careful.’ ”
But what Elvis wanted to know was how Barbara and her actor husband, Michael Ansara [Broken Arrow], were able to blend marriage and their careers.