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Elvis Aaron Presley, the King of Rock n’ Roll, would have been 74 years old today were it not for a bad night on the toilet in 1977. Even after all these years, there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding the King, so for his birthday let’s take a look at some of the myths that persist.
Was Elvis a DEA Agent?
Elvis was more straight-laced than the controversy surrounding his gyrating hips would lead you to believe. He hated the hippie drug culture and longed to become a “Federal Agent at Large” for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), a predecessor to the Drug Enforcement Agency. At a 1970 meeting at the White House with President Richard Nixon, Elvis offered to become an undercover agent and “infiltrate hippie groups” for the government. Nixon was unsure if an arrangement could be worked out, but made Elvis an honorary agent and gave him a badge. While Elvis never conducted any official BNDD business, he was, in some small way, a narc. A drug-addled narc, but a narc nonetheless.
Are Elvis and (insert name here) related?
Southerners like Elvis are often the butt of jokes about family trees that don’t fork, but Elvis’ family branches out in some surprising directions. Genealogical research has placed Elvis as a descendant of Abraham Lincoln’s great-great grandfather, Isaiah Harrison and a sixth cousin once removed from Jimmy Carter (both their family lines go back to Valentine Preslar, a German who came to New York in 1709).
Was Elvis one of a kind?
There can only be one Elvis, but he did have a (Elvis believed identical) twin brother, Jessie Garon Presley, who was stillborn. Jessie, older than Elvis by a few minutes, was buried in a pauper’s grave without a headstone in Priceville Cemetery near Tupelo, Mississippi.
Elvis’ mother told him when he was young that when one twin died, the one that lived got the strength of both. Elvis got something else from his twin, too. When he was born, his parents chose “Aron” as his middle name, a non-traditional spelling similar to Jessie’s middle name (birth records listed it “Aaron,” and an older Elvis decided to use the traditional spelling.)
Did Elvis “shoot” Robert Goulet?
The story goes that Elvis was watching TV one night when Goulet appeared on the screen. Elvis pulled a .357 out of his boot, shot the TV and supposedly said, “Get that @$*% outta’ my house!”
Whether that’s just some crazy story depends on who you ask. James Warner, the former Elvis expert at allexperts.com, has said that the incident stemmed from a time when Elvis was dating a woman who worked with Goulet. When Elvis was stationed in Germany while serving in the military, Goulet supposedly sent him a letter saying he’d “take good care of Anita” while Elvis was gone and the King held a grudge.
Goulet himself said that Elvis’ associates told him that TV shooting was a common occurrence and Elvis didn’t mean anything by it. In fact, he said in an interview that he and Elvis got along well (Goulet called him “charming and delightful”) and described an encounter the two once had backstage. The singers were talking and at one point, Goulet commented on one of Elvis’ rings. Elvis took it off his finger and put it on Goulet’s, who kept it until it was stolen (he suspected his housekeeper).
Is Elvis still alive?
I haven’t seen him, but if you have, now is the time to share.
If you’ve got a burning question that you’d like to see answered here, shoot me an email at flossymatt (at) gmail.com. Twitter users can also make nice with me and ask me questions there. Be sure to include your name and location (and a link, if you want) so I can give you a little shout out.
Comments (14)
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Ah, January 8th his birthday also my dad’s. Elvis is not bad but defintely an interesting article. Good job. Crazy how Elvis wanted to be a narc should call him the KING of Contradiction.
posted by Mike on 1-8-2009 at 10:57 am
Elvis and I share today as a birthday. And he was born in 1935 which makes him 74 today when you run into him at the grocery store…
posted by theYerg on 1-8-2009 at 11:12 am
I once went to a forensic lecture about the effects of cocaine. It turns out the lecturer was also the coroner who did the elvis autopsy.
someone in the audience jokingly asked “isn’t it true that you faked elvis’s death”
The lecturer, taking it in stride responded “if elvis wasn’t dead before the autopsy, he was most certainly dead afterwards”
posted by csimemphis on 1-8-2009 at 12:16 pm
When I was 5, my family went down to Memphis, TN to visit some family friends who had moved there. After taking in stock car races, corn dogs & fireworks, me, fuzzy, & bubba rode in the back of the pick up truck over to Graceland (at like 2 in the morning no less) and sat around on the lawn of Graceland. We kids mostly tried to catch bull frogs, but all the parents & such were waiting for Elvis to come out. He never did, but I think the curtains twitched a bit.
God, what an f*ed up childhood I had, huh?
posted by qt314159265 on 1-8-2009 at 12:41 pm
When I was in high school, I worked in a grocery store. There were, of course, lots of tabloids reporting on various Elvis sightings, and I used to joke with the customers about them. One day, joking, I told a woman that Elvis was alive and living in Ohio. She just went off. She said she was an ER nurse and worked in the hospital that Elvis was brought to. She said she saw him and he was dead, dead, DEAD!!!!
Kinda scared me a little.
posted by Anthony on 1-8-2009 at 12:42 pm
I saw Elvis in Las Vegas. He was standing outside the hard rock with a bunch of other Elvis guys. It is kind of like Santa – you see him almost everywhere in December. So I guess Elvis is still alive in spirit just like Santa! Cheesy.
posted by TCB on 1-8-2009 at 1:12 pm
Never been a big fan of his music, but this was very interesting! What a strange guy. Just goes to show what fame and the isolation that goes with it does to people.
posted by bzzyb on 1-8-2009 at 1:13 pm
Elvis died before I was born, but my mom used to tell me that whenever Elvis came on the TV or radio, I would stop whatever I was doing (including nursing) to listen to him.
I guess I was born with an appreciation for him.
Interesting facts on Elvis.
posted by Shelly on 1-8-2009 at 1:49 pm
Elvis and Rick Nelson sure look a lot alike. That third fact about his middle name clears up that second “A” on his headstone. But why isn’t he buried beside his mother?
posted by Sara on 1-8-2009 at 2:13 pm
In Charlaine Harris’ book, “Dead Until Dark”, the books that the show True Blood are based on, Elvis is now a vampire in Louisiana that goes by the name Bubba.
posted by bet on 1-8-2009 at 2:27 pm
i’ve never been crazy about elvis, before my time i guess. but lately we’ve been going to a club that has impersonators every week. i’ve seen the elvis guy 3 times now (once was a show where he did rick nelson and buddy holly as well), super entertaining! i have a new appreciation for the king!
posted by tiffany on 1-8-2009 at 4:13 pm
Elvis is not dead, he just went home.
posted by nobody on 1-8-2009 at 4:54 pm
dang it, change the name on above to “K”
posted by nobody on 1-8-2009 at 4:55 pm
Sara-
Elvis is buried beside his mother as well as his father, grandmother, and brother.
He was originally buried in another cemetary here in Memphis but the tourist traffic was so bad that after a few months they moved him to an area by the pool at Graceland that they now call the Meditation Garden. I’ve been to Graceland twice…once while it was decorated for Christmas and once last March during the one weekend a year it snows here. It’s quite an experience even for us that weren’t even born when he was alive. I would definitely recommend going as long as you don’t mind some tacky 70s style decor :)
posted by CB on 1-9-2009 at 10:32 am