Oh my gosh I haven’t checked my inbox in FOREVER! Thank you so much Amanda! Sending you so much love back! I miss you and hope to see you soon! Sending this cutie pie to you, I thought you might like him🤭

Just saw this on Instagram 👀

oh my goddd, this man was too much I cannot handle it- thank you for sharing because this just became my new favorite еlvis anecdote

I absolutely love that he refused to show affection like a normal person, I want Elvis Presley to gnaw and bite at me like a shark 😩 !!

(excerpt from Elvis and the Memphis Mafia)

And I wanted to come in here and thank you for allowing us to escape in your writing from Mrs. Elaine Presley to Gigi — all presentations of happy lives the man deserved and nothing less. He was a southern, mama’s boy with a God given talent but he was so much more to the world. I know we’re all currently on different inspirational kicks lately but I also hope so badly we find our way back to our Elvis world of inspiration some day and continue honoring him ♥️

Bri!!

thank you very much for this ask ꨄ︎!!

I have indeed read "Child Bride” and as for its’ accuracy I wouldn't go as far to say it's entirely inaccurate but I do have several bones to pick with Suzanne Finstad as a biographer as I believe she has let her bias (obviously not liking Priscilla) get in the way of her better judgment, which in turn, has corrupted the overall validity of her book. For example, giving Currie Grant a platform to tell his version of events regarding Elvis and Priscilla in Germany, including a claim so egregious that I truly have trouble understanding why so many in this fandom praise this book 😭

I think a lot of Elvis fans consider/recommend “Child Bride” as the antithesis to Priscilla’s “Elvis and Me” which is fair considering Finstad highlights some very valid criticisms against Priscilla i.e her hiring a second, much more aggressive, lawyer to get more money out of Elvis, and her introducing her family (Lisa Marie and later on Navarone) to the “church” aka cult of Scientology etc. etc.

- however -

The book as a whole comes at the expense of Elvis and what I mean by that is that Suzanne Finstad is not someone who has his best interest at heart (I mean look at what she has said in some of these recents documentaries about Elvis) and in order to push her narrative that Priscilla was some fourteen-year-old s*xual deviant, she has made some incredibly inflammatory statements about their relationship, and it literally starts with the title of her book (referring to Priscilla as Elvis’ “child bride”)

And the main reason as to why I cannot comprehend how fans praise this book is that Finstad goes with the story that Currie Grants tells, which includes him saying that Elvis (24) and Priscilla (14) were having penetrative intercourse after their 3rd or 4th date ⬇️

excerpt is from “Child Bride” by Suzanne Finstad

So this is why I tend to cringe when I see other fans praise this book… I know it’s not their intention but they are inadvertently promoting a falsehood that says Elvis was committing statutory r*pe against a fourteen year old Priscilla

Not only does that go against what Priscilla and others have said about the physical relationship she had with Elvis in Germany, but it goes against the pattern that Elvis followed for almost every single (long-term) relationship prior to Priscilla and even after

A girl that Elvis deemed “special” or in other words- good enough to marry- was not a girl that Elvis was going to have penetrative s*x with, especially not when he had the more worldly starlets of Hollywood and the showgirls of Germany and Paris at his disposal

PRISCILLA PRESLEY: “In the past, he said that he wanted a virgin (to marry)”

DEBRA PAGET: “He always said he’d marry a virgin”

LAMAR FIKE: “Elvis respected virginity. He used to tell Alan, “I’ll never break a virgin. There are too many whores around”

We saw this with Dixie Locke, we saw this with June Juanico and Anita Wood, all of whom, in their many years of dating him never had penetrative s*x

We even saw this with women like Linda Thompson and Ginger Alden who he waited several months with before consummating

So because of that I have an incredibly hard time believing that Elvis would abandon his morals after just 3 or 4 dates with Priscilla, especially when he was having s*x with age appropriate girls like Elizabeth Mansfield, who often took Priscilla’s place in Elvis’ bed after she left

Another issue I have with “Child Bride” is that she has often either misquoted people, or written things that contradict what they have said to other biographers- basically many things haven’t added up when cross referencing between books

I have mentioned this one before but it is just so blatant, that I feel compelled to mention it again ⬇️

So here we have Joe Esposito re-telling a throwaway comment about Priscilla made by Elvis

excerpt is from “Good Rockin’ tonight” by Joe Esposito

And then here we have Suzanne Finstad’s retelling of that comment, where she has misquoted Esposito in order to make Priscilla out to be the s*xual aggressor

excerpt is from “Child Bride” by Suzanne Finstad

Instances like this give me extreme pause when determining if a biographer could be trusted or not- and when I was reading through her book again this comment about Sheila Ryan nearly made me bust out laughing

excerpt is from “Child Bride” by Suzanne Finstad

“Sheila never had an orgasm when she was with Elvis”… like are we talking about the same Sheila Ryan or-? ⬇️

excerpt is from “Baby let’s play house” by Alanna Nash

All in all, “Child Bride” definitely makes for an interesting read (mainly the second half of the book) but it’s one that I will probably never pick up again as I cannot get over Currie Grant’s involvement, especially his claims about Priscilla and Elvis that are completely unfounded

Scandal sells quite frankly and I no longer underestimate what people will say for money, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Elvis- I mean look at the claims made by Dee Stanley who got a whopping $100,000 from the National Enquirer to tell stories about a woman she never even met (Gladys)

So I would not be surprised in the least if Currie has been handsomely compensated for selling his stories to biographers like Finstad, because again, scandal sells, and him approaching Priscilla first isn’t nearly as page-turning as Priscilla offering up s*x in order to meet Elvis

I see what you mean! even though the majority of his photos from Germany are in black and white, he still manages to look so glowy (?)

which I’m not surprised about it considering they made this man work and sleep outside for almost 180 days out of the year due to his job in the military 😭

“The outfit I was in had quite a bit of field duty, we stayed in the field six months out of the year”

interview with Elvis on March 7, 1960

it’s giving a Toby Kwimper in Florida level of tan ⬇️

sigrid schutz was really outside that man’s home every day and I’m jealous!!

also what a contrast to these professional photos taken of him in 1959 where he looks like a literal marshmallow

hello and thank you very much for sending in this ask ꨄ︎!!

I’ve always been too distracted by that absolute unit of strawberry-blonde hair on Priscilla’s head to notice her expression but after closer observation I think you’re completely right in your assessment of her mood- sis was looking like she would rather be anywhere else 😭

after a quick google search and finding out that these photos were taken in April (sometime after the 23rd) of 1966, her expression started to make all the more sense

and not only is the date important for the context of these photos, but that unit of hair could also be very important

just a quick disclaimer: since Priscilla herself hasn’t spoken on these photos anything I say below is merely my own speculation as to why she may have looked upset on that day

To begin, according to Peter Guralnick's "Careless Love”, Elvis had just finished filming for his 22nd picture Spinout, in California, when he returned to Memphis with Priscilla on April 23rd. And so by knowing that they were photographed together in the meditation garden sometime in April, it’s safe to assume it was likely after the 23rd as they were in California for the weeks before

The film Spinout is relevant in this as 1. His costar was Shelley Fabares who he had a crush on 2. One of Elvis’ and Priscilla’s biggest arguments occurred during the filming of Spinout while they were in California and the cause of their argument was reason number one… Shelley Fabares

Both the Memphis Mafia and Shelley herself have confirmed that the relationship never went beyond anything platonic as she was faithful to her partner but nonetheless Elvis and her spent a lot of time together and formed a close bond

Naturally, Priscilla became suspicious that an affair was taking place and so she expressed to Elvis that she wanted to meet Shelley which then led to the first time that he had ever threatened get rid of her ⬇️

(read from left to right + click photos to see full text)

excerpt is from “Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley

(I believe this argument will appear in the upcoming film as Jacob Elordi says the line “I don’t have a goddamn thing to hide” in the recently released trailer)

No exact day was given for when this argument took place, it could have been the first week of filming or it could have been the last, but I would imagine having Elvis tell you to get all your things and leave would cause a lasting sort of sadness and have you questioning just how important you were to him even after going back to Memphis/Graceland

And this kind of thing actually happened a few times while they were together. Sonny West once said that Elvis’ greatest defense was offense meaning that if you were to approach him about something i.e Priscilla approaching him about his infidelities, Elvis’ response would be to turn the tables and put the pressure on you i.e telling Priscilla that he wanted her gone ⬇️

excerpt is from “Elvis: What Happened?” By Sonny and Red West, along with Dave Hebler

Another instance ⬇️

excerpt is from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash

Tbh as much as I love Elvis this is why I do hold a lot of sympathy for the friends and women in his life (even the ones I don’t personally like) because he tended to give ultimatums as a way to get what he wanted

“If you don’t like this, then leave… if you don’t want to do this, then leave…” and he did that because he knew most people would choose to stay

Now, the significance of that unit of strawberry blonde hair is purely speculative, but I'm wondering whether Priscilla started dyeing her hair that color to resemble Ann Margret as Elvis was quite melancholic over the fact that Ann and her boyfriend Roger Smith were spending so much time together during that time, infact, they were engaged just 2 months later in June of 1966

The affair between Ann Margret and Elvis lasted only a year after they met while filming Viva Las Vegas, so it doesn't make much sense that Priscilla would start dying her hair strawberry-blonde 3 years later (although she did try to emulate Ann in 1963) but it could be possible, and knowing that Elvis was still thinking about Ann Margret in April of 1966 would definitely be enough to make her upset at the time

What do y’all think?

hello, thank you so much for the ask ꨄ︎ !!

tbh the first time I watched “girl happy” and saw that scene my immediate thought was~ how did y’all convince Elvis to wear that ?

and then my second thought was what would be Elvis’ drag name because he was rocking that dress a little too good

(please share your drag name idea for Elvis if you have one lmaoo)

as for your question I unfortunately couldn’t find anything specific like a comment by Elvis about having to wear a dress for the scene but knowing that he was prideful, especially about his image, I would imagine he likely wasn’t too thrilled about it although probably never voiced any opposition about it either

by that time in his film career he had made so many of the same kinds of pictures, requiring him to do so many humiliating things, that I think he became almost desensitized to the material. He knew he had no choice in what would be asked of him and so he just did the best with what he got

MARTY LACKER: “Elvis was ruined by the Colonel and by Hal Wallis, they didn’t let him develop… About ‘64 or ‘65, Elvis started saying ‘Colonel, I’m tired of doing the same old damn movies’. The turning point was “Girl Happy”, when the script was so lame and the songs, like ‘Do the Clam’ were so obnoxious. When he had to film the scene where he sings ‘Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce’, he went around the whole day ranting”

(excerpt from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash)

but honestly when thinking of all the things that he had to do for the sake of “comedy” in his films (like the god forsaken yoga scene in easy come, easy go) having to wear a silly little dress seems far more preferable 😭

from what I have read it actually seems like he was far more bothered by having to wear a blond wig in “kissin’ cousins”

(excerpt from “Elvis” by Jerry Hopkins)

idk something that I’ve always admired about Elvis was how he was able to persevere despite everything that was thrown at him, especially during his film career; he was unhappy with the movies he was making, unhappy with the songs he had to sing, unhappy with the costumes, and yet he always showed up to set on time, he always took studying his lines seriously, and he was always willing to do 40 takes or more of those songs just to get them perfect

look at him picking up his script for “double trouble” so that he could start studying it 😭

I will forever be frustrated about how the Colonel completely sabotaged Elvis and his love for acting… we truly got something great in “King Creole” and not only was the film great but Elvis was proud of it and that is what I love about it most of all

and on a random side note please enjoy some photos of Billy Smith, Elvis’ cousin, donning a woman’s blouse and some fake breasts when he acted as Anne Helm’s body double for “follow that dream” bc he also makes a pretty woman 💀

hello and thank you very much for the ask <3!!

and tbh if I ever had the privilege of meeting Elvis I would have gone in for a hug and buried my face into his neck just so I could take the deepest inhale, the man looked like he smelled good 😩

anyways- to begin with the colognes/perfumes he used, I've heard a few different brands named such as Old Spice, Lenel, and Canoe, but the most frequently mentioned is definitely Brut, which I've seen people describe as warm, spicy, woodsy, with hints of herbs like lavender as well. Overall a really classic and “masculine” kind of barber shop smell

“He didn’t smell, though, because he loaded up on deodorant and cologne—Brut” - ( quote taken from “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia” by Alanna Nash )

According to Ginger Alden, Elvis used a cologne called Zizanie in the late 1970s, which has also been described as warm, spicy, woodsy, and earthy, with patchouli and sandalwood as its main notes

“He used a cologne called Zizanie and Neutrogena face soap; even today, those scents make me think of him” - ( quote taken from “Elvis and Ginger” by Ginger Alden )

And here pictured below is Elvis’ personal bottle of Brut ⬇️

( photo taken from “Elvis by the Presleys” )

As for other hygiene products, Neutrogena, like Ginger mentioned, has been named as his preferred brand of soap all across the board

“If he was in the shower, he had me talk to him from outside the curtain as the steam wafted the scent of his Neutrogena soap into the bathroom around me” - ( quote taken from “A Little thing called Life ” by Linda Thompson )

Nancy Rooks, Elvis' maid at Graceland, also stated that he used Aqua Velvet aftershave lotion, Colgate toothpaste, and confirmed that Brut was his favorite cologne ⬇️

( quote taken from “Inside Graceland” by Nancy Rooks )

Just from reading a few reviews I've seen many people, like Nancy, say that they really didn't like Brut, so I'm curious if any of you guys happen to have a bottle and could say whether you liked it or not 👀

I've been so tempted to buy a bottle of Brut, but I'm honestly scared that I'll get it and then hate the smell 😩 ... because I got the perfume “White shoulders” after reading that Elvis liked it on girls (mainly in the 50s), and I've been trying to force myself to like it, but it's not working so far lmaoo

it smells like flowers and face powder but not in the best way 😭