by Richard Skelly » Tue Aug 14, 2018 4:35 pm
My tv was broken at the time. So I mourned by the radio. Over the years, however, I've heard media analysts comment that most major networks were caught flat-footed without proper feeds as the crowds of mourners ballooned outside Graceland and the nation grieved. Some have said compensating for that gaffe has inexorably led to the current overly-obsessive "celebrity culture" that arguably goes a long way to explaining why the current occupant of the White House resides at that address.
A couple of Saturdays ago, Coast to Coast AM featured Steven Ubaney who has written a book positing that Elvis was murdered. At first I rolled my eyes. Must confess Ubaney brought up a lot of inconsistencies in the timeline--for example, Elvis apparently signing for a courier delivery at a time when authorities deemed he was dead--and the pajamas-around-the-ankles pose of the corpse. According to Ubaney, the PJs pose is a favourite of mob hits where extra humiliation is accorded the victim. Elvis's enthusiasm to be a "deputized" drug agent, something President Nixon accorded him, resulted in him being a witness for pending criminal trials...a possible motive for rubbing him out. He also claimed Colonel Tom Parker was so indebted to the mob that he was shopping Elvis's contract in hopes of raising quick cash. Most importantly, Ubaney asserted Graceland was virtually empty that day as many staff and hangers on had decamped for Portland, Maine where Elvis was scheduled to start the next leg of his tour later that week.
All in all, a provocative two hours...substitute-hosted by Coast's Canadian contributor, Toronto-based Richard Syrett. I came away saddened that, if the Parker claim is true, no takers emerged to quickly buy Elvis's management contract and start setting things right for The King. In all likelihood, the cumulative effects of obesity, chronic constipation, insomnia, terrible diet and prescription drugs were what did Elvis in. Unlikely those afflictions could have been reversed on a dime. Elvis's mother died relatively young so perhaps there was also a genetic predisposition to early death.
Can't help but wonder, though, if a super-Presley fan like Bruce Allen could have set up a financing syndicate to buy the contract, how different history might have been. Imagine Elvis realizing he finally had a manager who really cared about him and his music. I dimly remember that Bruce and one or two members of Bachman Turner Overdrive actually met Elvis, possibly in Las Vegas or Palm Springs. Elvis was such a fan of Taking Care Of Business that it inspired him to have belt buckles and other paraphernalia inscribed with TCOB, an acronym of the song's title.
RIP Elvis Presley.