Baby, Let's Play House_ Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him - Alanna Nash [362]
In this setting—onstage—mistakes were simply not in his emotional vocabulary. He could bend and twist the audiences’ applause to rationalize whatever he did with his life. He was their king, and both sides, the stage and the audience, realized this odd reality. There, and only there, Elvis Presley felt whole, loved, and happy.
ENDNOTES
INTRODUCTION
xi “We heard a woman”: Jean Beaulne to author, 2009.
xii “There was a row of policemen”: Lew Allen to author, 2003.
xii “The men don’t know”: Lyrics, “Back Door Man,” by Willie Dixon.
xii “Nineteen fifty-six was a great year”: Scotty Moore, in the documentary “Elvis in Hollywood,” 1993.
xii “Elvis’s sexual history”: Robert Christgau, The Village Voice, June 10, 1997.
xii “attitude, sinking eyelids”: Jennings, Peter, and Brewster, Todd, The Century.
xiii “reached its lowest depths”: Guralnick, Peter, and Jorgensen, Ernst, Elvis Day by Day: The Definitive Record of His Life and Music.
xiii “a message so shocking”: Rodman, Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend.
xiii “recognized as a threat”: Ibid.
xiii “few rock and rollers”: Robert Christgau, The Village Voice, June 10, 1997.
xiii “One of the most childish expressions”: Elvis Presley to Paul Wilder for TV Guide, August 6, 1956.
xiii “What remains, unfortunately”: Miami Herald article as quoted in Osborne, Jerry, Elvis Word for Word.
xiii “Any answer to that one?” through “make the best of it”: Paul Wilder interview of Elvis Presley, TV Guide, August 6, 1956.
xiv “charm the pants off a snake,” Bobbie Ann Mason, “All Shook Up,” The New Yorker, March 14, 1994.
xiv “She touched my hand”: Truncated lyrics to “All Shook Up.”
xiv “He enjoyed the feel”: Alfred Wertheimer to Gary James, on the Web site classicbands.com, 2006.
xiv “His sneer was all-important”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.
xiv “wandering” uterus: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.
xiv Hippocrates and hysteria: Wikipedia.
xv “sexual savagery”: Matt Dellinger, “For the Young Elvis, a Brand New Accompaniment,” The New York Times, August 11, 2002.
xv “People wonder”: Kevin Eggers, quoted in “For the Young Elvis, a Brand New Accompaniment,” The New York Times, August 11, 2002.
xv “effeminization of the American male”: Chicago Tribune, as quoted by the Web site imdb.com.
xv “like k.d. lang”: Leigh Crow to Kerry Bashford, quoted in Polare, 2005.
xv “He was the total androgynous beauty”: k.d. lang as quoted in Elvis International Forum magazine, Vol. 11, #1, Spring 1998.
xvi “Elvis swims in our minds”: David Lynch, quoted in “Elvis Feared He’d Be Forgotten,” on the Web site abcnews.com, 2007.
xvi “For a dead man”: Rodman, Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend.
xvii “Bottom line”: e-mail, Kay Wheeler to author, 2009.
CHAPTER ONE
1 “She is always worried . . .”: Elvis Presley to Robert Carlton Brown, March 24, 1956.
2 “could make you laugh when nobody else could”: Annie Presley, quoted in Burk, Bill E., Early Elvis: The Tupelo Years.
3 “she would be carefully carried”: Whitmer, Peter O., The Inner Elvis.
3 “Bring a bucket”: Mertice Finley Collins, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.
3 “Just because you’re poor”: Billy Smith to author, 1992.
3 “lazy as a hog”: Lillian Smith Fortenberry, raw interview transcript, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.
3 “Old Dr. Hunt”: Janelle McComb to author, 2003.
4 “This tiny impoverished community”: Elaine Dundy, on the Web site elvisnews.com, October 6, 2004.
4 “It seemed like”: Dundy, Elaine, Elvis and Gladys.
4 “Everybody in that family”: Lamar Fike to author, 1992.
5 “getting a little”: Billy Smith to author, 1992.
5 “Aunt Gladys was a strong-willed individual”: Billy Smith to author, 1992.
5 “very highly strung”: Lillian Smith Fortenberry, raw interview transcript, Mississippi Room Collection, Lee County Library (MRC), probably from the papers of Elaine Dundy.