Cat in a Jeweled Jumpsuit (65 page)

Wisely, Elvis disliked and avoided liquor, except for
brief experimental periods, and disdained
"recreational"
drug
use even as he escalated into massive doses of pre
scribed uppers and downers. He had no more knowledge
than anybody then of the addictive dangers of mood-
altering medications. He educated himself in the medi
cations' side effects so he could prescribe for himself
with authority. The seeds of his psychological and phys
ical downfall were not only genetic and familial, but
rooted
so early in his performing career as to make his "unmaking"
inevitable, which is where the word "tragic" enters his saga.

Because of lifelong sleeping problems, including
nightmares
and sleepwalking incidents, he slept with his
mother
until the age of twelve. He had never slept away
from home until he went on the road in his late teens,
to perform. This extended maternal closeness drove
him into a confused sexuality: women he became truly close
to became mothers, and the sexual side of the
relation
ship became nurture and
caretaking rather than passion
ate. Elvis always had "other
women," often actresses or
groupies,
whom he pursued for shallow sexuality, but
were more often needed as bedtime companions rather
than lovers.

Through
many books, the first reference I found to his
using "uppers" was when he was given Dexedrine by
other soldiers to stay awake on night guard duty
in
Ger
many
. He came home with massive jars of the pills for
the
whole entourage. Although he'd made a few movies
by then,
Hollywood
's
tendency to medicate stars doesn't
seem to be the culprit in his case.
Then I found a reference
to Gladys,
self-conscious at the media attention Elvis's
stardom drew to her. She took diet pills and Elvis bor
rowed them
at the very brink of his career. Diet pills then were amphetamines,
"speed" prescribed readily by family
doctors. They depressed the appetite center in the brain,
which also interfered with the sleep center. They
make
you sleepless, but give you
energy to burn. Minds on
speed will run in creative circles, inventing
all sorts of
ambitious projects, but the
impulse rarely produces any
thing
concrete. When the effect wears off after a few
weeks, takers need to
increase the dosage to get the same effect.

Performers draw on superhuman amounts of adrena
line to enthrall their audiences, and stay awake hours
after
performing to come "down." Speed would have aggravated Elvis's
naturally hyperactive metabolism and
performer's
lifestyle. He was soon also taking downers
to sleep, the typical
Hollywood
doctor cocktail. The two medications create a
manic/depressive roller coaster.
Everything
excessive that Elvis became had its roots in
his impoverished youth, but
was later enacted with the grandiose extravagance of a speed addict. The vampirish
hours of a rock star made him into a man who
reversed
day and night, sleeping at
dawn and rising to start the
day at dusk. It was convenient for everyone
around him, including women, to follow the same schedule, so Elvis
enthusiastically converted them to the wonder pills too.

He was an overprotected mama's boy, a shy and sen
sitive soul ripe for loneliness, ostracizing, and
bullying. He found identity in embracing his differences, in dress
ing
like the black musicians who made
Memphis
's
Beale
Street a musical legend. Like many an
outcast teenager,
he took on a protective aggressive coloring. He hid
his
vulnerabilities behind the accoutrements
of a fifties
"hood," those black-leather-clad urban bad boys
with the
greaser hair, sideburns, and
attitudes. He even dyed his
hair and
eyebrows black, covered his blond eyelashes
in mascara. He ached to play
football, but his over-
protective mother forbid him to. The coach hated
his
long hair and wouldn't let him
play without a buzzcut
anyway. Years
later, Elvis organized his Memphis Mafia
into a football team. He was
quarterback, of course.

An only child, he often gave the rare toys, a wagon or
toy
car, his family could ill afford to other children. As a
wealthy and famous adult, he became famous for
dispens
ing Cadillacs and other luxury cars by the dozen to friends
and strangers, perhaps 280 in all. His impulses
were al
ways generous. Beneficiaries could be girls after only one
date, poor workers on his one-time ranch,
strangers,
members of the Memphis Mafia. Jealousy swirled around
Graceland
when Elvis was on a buying jag: who would
get the gravy? It wouldn't always be whoever most
de
served the extra calories. His
donations to charity were
less quixotic and his generosity was inbred,
not merely a
speed-assisted profligacy. He
arranged a liver transplant
for one of his record producers, for
instance.

Of course his music, the synthesis of white hillbilly
and black blues music that got him attention, developed
during his teen years on "lonely street," which
was
broader than Beale
Street in Memphis, and included the
"race
music" on the radio and the gospel music in the
church
Gladys and Vernon attended.

When the Jaycees named him an outstanding young
man of 1971, Elvis Presley reveled in the achievement
because it was more than another performing bench
mark. It was a testimony to character and personal
worth.
He was already outstandingly indentured to pre
scription
medications by then, and Priscilla would leave
him in a year. It was already the beginning of the end,
but a proud moment. As he said in his acceptance
speech,
he'd fulfilled every dream he'd had as a child
worshipping comic book heroes who would doff their
impotent
ordinariness, don a gaudy jumpsuit, and fly to everyone's rescue.

That
was the problem, he had fulfilled every dream.
Only the nightmares were left.