And the Rest Is History (25 page)

Another person who was not pleased was Maria, and the paparazzi awaited her volcanic meltdown. Callas prepared for the performance of her life. With her heart shattered, she dressed in diamonds and gown and attended the seventy-fifth-anniversary party for Maxim's, the famous French eatery. Her dazzling presence eclipsed even that of fellow attendee Elizabeth Taylor. When the press questioned her about the wedding, she replied, “Mrs. Kennedy did well to give a grandfather to her children. Onassis is as beautiful as Croesus.” After the party she went into seclusion in her Parisian apartment. Reviewing her life, she stated, “First I lost weight, then I lost my voice, and then I lost Onassis.”

A week after his wedding to Jackie, Aristotle was whistling outside Maria's apartment, begging to be let in. When she relented, he told her she was the only woman he had ever loved, to which she replied that he had a very original way of showing it. He was grateful for her forgiveness, especially when Alexander was killed while piloting his plane. Maria took him into her arms, understanding all too well the bottomless grief of losing a son.

Onassis was planning a divorce when he was taken ill and opted to enter a Paris hospital to be in the same city as the woman he loved. The only possession he took with him was his red Hermes blanket, Callas's last gift. On her final visit to him, he told her, “I loved you, not always well, but as much and as best as I was capable of. I tried.” Before the Grim Reaper came for him, he clutched the red blanket.

The gods, to punish Prometheus, attacked his liver, the price he had to pay for his theft. The gods, to punish Onassis, attacked his heart, the price he had to pay for his hubris.

29

1959

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I
t is ironic that the King of Rock and Roll, who sang some of the most achingly romantic songs in the history of music, was doomed to lose the woman whom he wanted to love him true till the end of time. However, although they went their separate ways, in the words of the King, she remained always on his mind.

Priscilla Beaulieu grew up on army bases throughout the United States; her father, Captain Paul Beaulieu, was an Air Force officer. Priscilla received a staggering emotional shock when she stumbled upon a family skeleton in a closet. Rummaging through a box, she found a photograph of a man who bore a striking resemblance to her. When she confronted her mother, Ann, she discovered that her biological father had been killed in a plane crash and her birth surname had been Wagner. Once the secret was out, Ann gave her daughter a gold locket her first husband had given her; Priscilla wore it for years, believing that her departed dad was her guardian angel.

A second emotional storm erupted when Paul received a transfer from Texas to West Germany. Priscilla, who had just been crowned queen of her junior high, felt her world crashing down. Little could she have envisioned that an unimaginable meeting in Europe would lead her to a crown far greater, and far heavier, than the one bequeathed by her Austin classmates.

Priscilla's destiny, Elvis Aaron Presley, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a two-room house built by his father, Vernon. The tragedy of his birth was that his twin was stillborn, an event that traumatized his mother, Gladys Love. When Elvis was three, Vernon was sent to jail for writing a bad check, and his now-homeless wife and son moved in with relatives. With her husband in prison, with no money, Gladys turned all her attention on her only son; it was a bond that would make him a poster boy for the Oedipal complex. The family later relocated to Memphis; at school he was teased by his classmates as the trashy mama's boy who played hillbilly music.

Upon graduation Presley became a truck driver and wore his hair in a pompadour, the current truck driver style, along with long sideburns. However, his greatest wish was to become a famous entertainer, and it was granted in 1956 when RCA recorded his song “Heartbreak Hotel,” which became a number one hit. With his devastating good looks of bedroom blue eyes, thick black hair, pouty mouth, and slim physique, coupled with his angelic voice and overtly sexual presence, female fans literally wanted to kiss his blue suede shoes. He took to performing in elaborate jumpsuits; he eschewed jeans because they were all he could afford in his hardscrabble youth.

With his newfound wealth, he purchased a pink Cadillac for his mother and bought an eighteen-room Memphis mansion, Graceland, where he promptly installed Gladys and Vernon. Adoring fans lined the estate at all hours, desperate to catch a glimpse of their idol. With his film debut in the film
Love Me Tender
and his appearance on
The Ed Sullivan Show
, where he was filmed only from the waist up because of his gyrating hips (hence his nickname “Elvis the Pelvis”), he was crowned the King of Rock and Roll.

Throughout his life, only two groups adored Elvis unconditionally—his mother and his fans—and both became hysterical when Presley was drafted into the army in 1958. While Elvis was in training, Gladys passed away from a heart attack, an emotional blow that knocked Elvis's world from its axis. A few months later he was stationed in Germany, where he was to meet the girl who would one day share his throne.

In Germany Priscilla was once again, as a military brat, alienated and isolated. To compound the situation, she was living in a country where she did not speak the language, and because of the scarce and expensive housing, the Beaulieus were forced to rent an apartment in a brothel. She was thrilled when she discovered the Eagles Club, a place where Americans could socialize. She would go there after school, listen to the jukebox, and write depressed letters to friends back in Austin. In the club she made the acquaintance of Currie Grant, an American recruit, who told her he knew Elvis and could arrange an introduction. When she learned he really could make it happen, Germany, rather than being the far corner of the earth, became its center.

The first time Priscilla met Elvis was on September 13, when the fourteen-year-old, clad in a blue-and-white sailor dress, walked into his living room at his off-base home in Bad Nauheim, Germany. Elvis was wearing a red sweater and tan slacks, and sitting in an armchair, a cigar dangling from his lips. When Presley saw Priscilla, he jumped up as if he had been sitting on a hot plate. Her cameo face was a powerful draw to the old-fashioned Southern boy, much more so than the half-clad Bridgette Bardot picture displayed on one of the walls. Moreover, she struck a chord of resemblance to Gladys when she had been young. A few moments later he walked to his piano and played for Priscilla (whom he called “Cilla”) “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” Afterward they went to the kitchen where his grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, made them some bacon sandwiches.

Later Priscilla recalled that he was lonely; he missed Memphis and most of all he missed his mother. He later told her that from the night he met her, he knew she was his “twin soul,” his destiny. As her car sped home along the Autobahn, a feeling of unreality hung over the evening. A few days later she was summoned back; however, this evening ended in Elvis's bedroom, as would all her subsequent visits during Elvis's five remaining months in Germany. Considering she was only fourteen and the news spread of their relationship, it is surprising that he did not compose “Jailhouse Rock” from firsthand experience. However, he would not have full intercourse with Priscilla, though she wanted to, as he told her that special moment had to be reserved for their wedding night; virginity was something Gladys would have required of Elvis's bride. When Elvis returned to the States, Priscilla was devastated; all she prayed for was becoming the beloved of Elvis. They found separation painful; he burned up the long-distance wires and she sent love letters in pink envelopes.

Despite the headlines that Presley was having affairs with the most sought-after stars of the era, when Priscilla was sixteen he persuaded her parents to allow her to move with him to Graceland, promising them she would attend a Catholic girls' school. He arranged for her auburn hair to be dyed to match his black pompadour, and her makeup was heavy on Cleopatra-style eyeliner.

Over the years Priscilla and Elvis's love ever deepened. However, though she was envied by Elvis fans worldwide, she once more felt the pain of being the army brat; with Elvis's constant performances and movies, she was often alone and alienated once more. And when he was home, he was always surrounded by the “Memphis Mafia,” a group composed of his flunkies. To compound her situation, after she graduated from high school Elvis did not allow her to pursue a career. He claimed he always needed her to be around when he wanted her. Equally painful, he engaged in numerous affairs; Priscilla was far from pleased when she discovered a letter from a woman who signed herself “Lizard Tongue.” To add to Priscilla's problems, Elvis's behavior had become increasingly erratic with his escalating drug and food abuse. He also fired shots at his innumerable televisions when he did not like their programs. Priscilla was in dire need of her guardian angel.

Nevertheless, in 1966, still madly in love, Priscilla accepted his proposal, which was accompanied by a 3.5-karat diamond ring, and they were married in the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas on May 6, 1967. They were flown to their Palm Springs honeymoon on Frank Sinatra's Learjet, the
Christina
, and Elvis carried his bride over the threshold singing “The Hawaiian Wedding Song.” Priscilla was overjoyed that the love of her life was now her husband and she would now have the respect due Mrs. Presley, something she was always denied when the press dubbed her “Elvis's Live-In Lolita.”

Nine months later Lisa Marie Presley was born. Although her birth brought them together, it also helped contribute to the demise of their marriage. Elvis had a Madonna complex; he no longer sexually desired the woman who had given birth to his child. By 1976, Priscilla had washed the makeup from her eyes; Cilla could no longer exist. No longer able to live happily in the world of Graceland, Priscilla made the most difficult decision of her life—she began an affair with her karate teacher and moved out of the mansion that had become her prison. Although she would forever love Elvis, she could not live with him. To do so would have meant her emotional demise. She knew she could not save the King; all she could do was save herself. Overcome by his misery, Elvis sat down in a Las Vegas suite and wrote a prayer asking God to forgive him for anything he might have done to hurt Priscilla and his little girl. Sequined and stoned on stage, Elvis serenaded his audience, though the songs were for the woman he had lost: “Hurt,” “Separate Ways,” “Always on My Mind.”

While a single Priscilla blossomed, Elvis's life spiraled ever further out of control. With the loss of the trinity of the only women he had ever loved, Graceland became his Heartbreak Hotel.