Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [291]
If, indeed, one of the world’s most desired men flew around the country looking for girls, it speaks not only to his insatiable need for female companionship—and particularly the companionship of women who all dressed alike, as in twinship—but also to his desire to be the aggressor in relationships, since women had been literally fainting at his feet for decades. Soon he would start sending out for hookers in Vegas, but mostly for the guys, Joe says.
“We were so jaded by this point that it had become too much trouble to go out and look for women.” They’d switch girls as the night wore on, but according to Joe, only on occasion would Elvis disappear in his room with one, saying he’d rather watch. His preference was almost always two women together. “Elvis romanticized sex. Paying by the hour grounded it all too well.”
In Houston, reporters asked him if he still planned on making films. “I hope to,” he said, and then laughed. “I’d like to make better films than I made before.” But as far as he knew, there was nothing planned. He then deferred to the Colonel. “Is there anything in the workings?”
“I can’t commit myself,” the crafty manager dodged. But in exactly one month, Parker closed a half-million-dollar deal with Kerkorian, the new owner of MGM Studios, for Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, a documentary to chronicle his 1970 summer engagement at the International. The Colonel had sought twice that much, as the film would have a theatrical release. But with Oscar-winning director Denis Sanders on board, it was still a prestige project.
“He loved it,” says Jerry. “He must have seen it ten times.” Elvis was particularly proud because the staging worked. He’d gotten so much opposition from the Colonel about having so many musicians and singers right around him, instead of hiding the band and sticking the singers way off to the side. He wanted it all out front, cocooning him, the way he liked to work in the studio. It was comforting. It was human touch, almost, what he always desired the most.
When Elvis finished his superstar engagement in Houston, he was off to California to play family man again, spending extended time with Priscilla. Despite the shakiness of the marriage, they went house hunting in Palm Springs, and in early April, they found one to their liking at 845 Chino Canyon, making a $13,000 down payment and signing a mortgage for $85,000.
Priscilla’s husband seemed to be trying, she thought, but even though he threw her a surprise twenty-fifth birthday party in May, she still felt “I was always a little girl to him.” When it came to selecting furniture for the Palm Springs house, they moved some of what they had in storage. But then Elvis chose the rest, and it was big and masculine and not her style at all.
At the end of the year, as part of creating her own life, she would pick a new home in Los Angeles as well, spending $339,000 for a more private residence at 144 Monovale Drive, in the Holmby Hills section of Beverly Hills. She decorated it herself with a more feminine touch, while keeping the big couches and modern furniture that pleased her husband. Now that they had Lisa, she felt they had outgrown the Hillcrest house, and on Monovale, there were five bedrooms, with two more bedrooms in the guesthouse—room to stretch out or accommodate the entourage and their spouses.
She looked back at her former self and could hardly believe how she had lived. “If he said, ‘That’s a terrible color on you,’ I’d change my clothes immediately. For years, I was self-conscious that my neck was too long because Elvis always told me to wear my shirt collars up. Now I realize . . . You know all those pictures where he had his