Friday, January 13, 2023

Someone Turned the Lights Out There in Memphis

 


I've read several biographies of Elvis Presley, and one thing that all these books make clear is that at some point the King of Rock and Roll eventually came to see his throng of admirers as something of a burden. Oh, sure, he liked that they loved him--who doesn't like being loved? --but he found himself overwhelmed by fans whenever he went out in public, a situation he could only rectify by turning day into night, renting movie theaters and even amusement parks after closing hours, when the regular patrons of such places were at home in bed. Elvis' daughter Lisa-Marie, a celebrity in her own right but not so much so that she couldn't go out when the sun was still up, never felt she had to run away from her father's fans, at least not on what would have been his 88th birthday, telling the crowd at Graceland "you're the only people that can get me out of my house," and, after the official ceremony was done with, staying to mingle a bit. Two days later she was back in Hollywood at the Golden Globes, flanked by her mother Priscella and Jerry Schilling, a member of her father's fabled Memphis Mafia, i.e., his entourage. Two days after that she died of what's being reported in the media as a cardiac arrest. I remember seeing Lisa-Marie on talk shows some fifteen years ago promoting her first album, and thinking she had a kind of melancholic air about her. Call me weird, but that actually made me like this young woman when I was prepared not to, as it had seemed like she may had made this particular career choice only because, well, because she was Elvis Presley's daughter (in fact, the song I heard on the radio turned out to be pretty good.) Nevertheless, you may wonder exactly what someone born in the lap of luxury would have to feel melancholic about. Well, Lisa-Marie took a few nasty falls from that lap. The first came when she was nine years old and saw her cardiac-arrested father face down on the bathroom floor. That's the melancholy that informed those talk show appearances I spoke of. The second fall came just two years ago when Lisa-Marie's 28-year-old son, Benjamin Keough (who, had he died his hair black and combed it into a ducktail, would have looked just like his grandfather), put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. At the risk of jumping to conclusions, it would seem depression runs in this family (it runs even in the extended family, as an ex-husband of Lisa-Marie's, one Michael Jackson, died from too much chemicals in his system, just like the posthumous father-in-law he often emulated.) Of course, these kinds of things happen to poor and working- and middle-class people too. But because they're not celebrities, it happens anonymously, lending a cloak of invisibility to a mental health crisis. I wish Lisa-Marie and Elvis and Benjamin and Michael hadn't died at the young ages they did, but at least it removes, however temporarily, that cloak.

14 comments:

  1. Her death was rather sad to hear about, especially because she wasn't very old. After I heard yesterday, I checked out her children and although there are heaps of photos of her son online, I didn't pick up that he had suicided until the evening tv news. All quite tragic.

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    1. Andrew, that's why "the only people that can get me out of my house" comment jumped out at me. She's apparently been a shut-in for the past few years since her son's death. The public appearances she made in the past week--Graceland, a Hollywood party, the Golden Globes--were her first in a long time.

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  2. I also felt that melancholy when I saw her interviewed and grew to respect her and feel for her.

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    1. Mitchell, it so odd, and so misleading, to think that we "know" these celebrities that we've never met, but I do indeed feel that way about Lisa-Marie, based on just a handful of interviews.

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  3. Elvis' mother died at 46, Elvis died at 52, and now Lisa-Marie has died at 54. They don't seem to be a long-lived bunch.

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    1. And now Lisa-Marie will join her father and grandmother (who she never knew) at Graceland, Debra.

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  4. Hi, Kirk!

    Our friend The Reaper is going nutzoid, good buddy. It made me sad to learn that Lisa Marie died yesterday and died young, same as her legendary father and other members of the clan. I wasn't at all familiar with her singing career, only her famous name and star status.

    Thanks for sharing what you know and remember about Lisa Marie along with tidbits I was unaware of regarding the lengths to which Elvis went in an effort to avoid flocks of fans and live a private life in seclusion. It's depressing enough to read about such a life. I can't imagine living that way for an extended amount of time.

    Thanks for doing a Reaper report on Lisa Marie Presley, another big name in our lives gone too soon. This is the final day of my current post that's been running all week, Kirk. I cordially invite you to come on over to Shady's Place Music & Memories!

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    1. Shady, in one of those biographies I mentioned, possibly Peter Guralnick's (which I highly recommend), there's a story about Elvis and his preparation for the 1968 TV event that's come to be known as the Comeback Special. Elvis' career had ebbed somewhat at that point, and the producer of that special, Steve Binder (who had previously done the T.A.M.I. Show) was looking for ways to make the singer relevant in the era of Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. He persuaded Elvis to take a walk down Sunset Boulevard in broad daylight. Elvis balked, claiming he would get mobbed by fans, but in the end he agreed. As it turned out, none of the Hollywood hipsters milling around that day paid even the slightest bit of attention to Elvis, which came as a quite a shock to him. As we all know, the special was a huge success, Elvis was relevant once again, and from then on couldn't walk on Sunset or any other boulevard in broad daylight again for the rest of his days.

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  5. I always enjoy Lisa Marie Presley. I think she had a good life, but I wonder if she was happy. In many, many past pictures, she doesn't seem to smile a lot. That being said, I don't always smile in pictures either, because my smile looks weird to me, but I am indeed happy, so who knows. I always liked her style.

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    1. Maddie, that's why I chose the picture I did at the top of this post, which was taken just this past Sunday. She's smiling for a fan's selfie.

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  6. I think there may have been something seriously wrong with her life to marry Michael Jackson, though. . He was such a very very damaged person, that I wonder what she wanted out of the relationship, although of course it is impossible to tell.

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  7. Hard to say, Jenny. Maybe she thought she could save him.

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  8. I heard clips of one of her songs and it was quite good. I think she could sing. May she rest in peace. And you are right, mental health is so cloaked and hidden away. Even when a celebrity passes and the cause is somehow tied to a mental health issue, we talk about it for awhile and then once again, it gets shelved.

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    1. JM, I mentioned mental health issues that may have run in that family because, having read several Elvis Presley biographies (my mother was a big fan and passed the books along to me) that's what came immediately to mind. But that family also had a history of heart disease, so that shouldn't be discounted. Meanwhile the LA medical examiner has "deferred" the cause of death, meaning it needs to be investigated more. That makes it hard not to speculate.

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