Elvis: The Legend shares facts and anecdotes about Elvis Presley’s life and career. Mixed in with the text, the book contains photos of Elvis and documents of interest like telegrams and receipts for his clothing.
The information is shared by topic rather than chronologically, which I found a little annoying, but I got over it.
“At the end of his set, Elvis had teasingly announced ‘Girls, I’ll see you all backstage,” then found himself being chased across the field by a pack of screaming teenage girls, who followed him into the locker room and tore off his jacket, shirt, and shoes.” pg 29
Readers will find nothing very controversial in this book- perhaps because it is the “authorized book from the Graceland archives”. I picked it up because I recently watched the Baz Luhrmann film about Elvis and I wanted to know if he had to enter military service because of a run-in with the police about his dancing, which the film implied.
That did not seem to be the case. But again, this book isn’t a true biography, so maybe I should look somewhere else.
A fact the film glossed over that this book shares is while Elvis was stationed in Germany, he met his eventual wife Priscilla Beaulieu when she was only 14 years old. They didn’t marry until she was a respectable 21, but I found that initial meeting surprising.
“Then, on September 24, 1959, Elvis met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, who had been brought to 14 Geothestrasse by a mutual friend.” pg 52
I suppose things were done differently back in the day.
Recommended for Elvis fans looking to know more about Presley. Those searching for a biography should look elsewhere.
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The Help Desk Book Blog 
Hi; I wrote this book. EPE had previously overseen a book called The Elvis Treasures, by Robert Gordon, which had facsimile memorabilia you could pull out and look at. Years later they wanted to do a new version of the book. They wanted to make it different from the previous one, hence the decision to go thematically, rather than a straight chronology, though the chapters are mostly arranged chronologically…the Sun period, the 50s success, the army, the 60s films, etc. It’s a biography, general overview, but a biography nonetheless. I esp enjoyed writing about specific albums in depth, the movies, and Elvis and Hawaii.
Yes, it was an approved Graceland/EPE product. The plus was getting access to the archives, hence the great pictures. The first edition was called Elvis Remembered, and came with facsimile memorabilia. It’s been reissued w/o that feature and a name change to the book.
You might enjoy my book Return of the King: Elvis Presley’s Great Comeback, about the 1968-70 period.
Thanks for the review.
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