Elvis Week 2020: Despite being linked with numerous young women, Elvis was always looking for his mother Gladys
Elvis Presley was known for many things, most notably, being the 'King of Rock and Roll'. But aside from his musical pursuits, Presley was widely known for one other thing: being quite the ladies man. Given how many of the music industry's artistes have spoken about their childhood interactions with Presley, including a fifteen-year-old Sharon Sheeley, it's not hard to imagine why so many view Presley as a player and, in some cases, a predator who went after underaged girls. The most notable relationships in the singer's life, however, reveal his attachment to teenage girls was most likely linked to his relationship with his mother, Gladys.
Presley was described by his classmates as being a "mama's boy." The singer himself was extremely open about how much she meant to him. But their relationship wasn't as peachy as it may sound, owing largely to the family being so poor that Presley was still sleeping in his mother's bed well into his teens. The bond that developed between the two was one of intense dependency, with Gladys having severe difficulty allowing anyone else to touch her son. Speaking to Peter Guralnick for his biography 'Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley', the singer shared, "My mama never let me out of her sight. I couldn't go down to the creek with the other kids."
But as Presley's career grew, Gladys' health failed. She wanted nothing more than for her son to succeed, but when she realized it meant he would be apart from her, she grew increasingly depressed and lonely. So heavy was her pain, she soon neglected her health, descending into alcoholism. By the late '50s, she was diagnosed with liver problems and admitted to a hospital while Presley was fulfilling his military obligations at Fort Hood, Texas. He secured an emergency leave and flew to her side on August 12, 1958. She died on August 14. Presley was inconsolable.
Presley's penchant for being a bit of a player began in his early teens. As author and music critic Greil Marcus noted in his book 'Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession', "Whatever his mother might have thought," Presley spent his time "as a teenager in Memphis's black neighborhoods, having sex with black girls." For the most part, however, the singer spent his time being rebuffed by the girls he went after. That is until he met his first sweetheart, fifteen-year-old Dixie Locke, when he was nineteen years old and just about starting his music career. Following Locke, Presley met 17-year-old June Juanico, supposedly the only girl Gladys ever approved of, and the two dated for some time, though Juanico has repeatedly insisted the she "never had sex with Presley." This statement was echoed by many of Presley's early girlfriends, including Judy Spreckels, who was two years older than Presley when they met and described their relationship as being like two kids in love who spent their time at amusement parks riding bumper cars and going on adventures to escape fans.
By 1956, Presley had already gained recognition for being a ladies man. But some accounts, including ones from Juanico, indicated that much of this was drummed up to keep the 'Elvis' persona going. One notable rumor was that Presley was involved with actress Natalie Wood. His mother was certainly not a fan of this relationship, declaring Wood was trying to "snare" her song "for publicity purposes." Wood herself denied they were together, responding to questions about Presley with a simple "Not right now. But who knows what will happen?" Her opinion on Presley was not necessarily positive, however, as she was also reported to have stated, "He can sing but he can't do much else." Not much was made of this remark, but the more people found out about Presley's romances, the more apparent Wood's meaning becomes.
Presley spent his evenings in the company of an ever-changing lineup of women. Actress Anne Helm, Elvis' leading lady in the film 'Follow That Dream', would chalk his habits up to Presley's love for sex. But it was one detail she revealed that caught some people's attention: Presley loved the yellow baby-doll nightie he bought her. This wasn't however, a regular occurrence for Presley. Despite what the press had to say, most of the women in Presley's life were friends who often took on a more sisterly role.
Author Albert Goldman was one of the few who began to speculate that perhaps Presley's attachment to young teenage girls was less about a sexual attraction, concluding he preferred voyeurism. Journalist Alanna Nash painted a slightly different picture, one that saw Presley as taking on a fatherly role with the girls he spent time with, giving them makeovers, and never engaging in sexual acts with them. Brent D. Taylor's observations were similar, with the author noting, "Elvis's closest female relationships were usually with young girls of around 13 or 14, ending as they reached late teens. He didn't have sex with these young girls, but had pajama parties, pillow fights, and indulged in 'girl talk', just as he did with Gladys."
Presley's bodyguard Alan Fortas also once stated, "Elvis needed someone to baby more than he needed a sex partner. He craved the attention of someone who adored him without the threat of sexual pressure, much as a mother would." Fortas also revealed that many of Presley's underaged fans hoped to develop their relationship with the singer into something much more, but it only ever got as far as pillow-fights and discussing his stuffed-animal collection. As Fortas put it, "What went on was horseplay, not foreplay." These revelations would open up another can of worms: one which would lead from speculation about Presley preying on teenage girls to him pseudo-adopting them, and from him having an arrested development that necessitated the care of young girls all the way to him having a foot fetish.
But amidst all the media frenzy around Presley's sex life, his alleged girlfriends all told very innocent tales. His 'Paradise Hawaiian Style' co-star Julie Parrish recalls him being oblivious to how he was perceived when he took her to his trailer to help tend to an injury in her side. Playboy star June Wilkinson fondly remembered him giving her a tour of his suite before serenading her for hours and then ensuring she got to her flight on time, never to cross paths with one another again. Others told the same story: Cassandra 'Elvira' Peterson revealed all they ever did was talk, Ann-Margret called him her 'soulmate' but limited her revelations to him buying her a bed, while Peggy Lipton would take her tales a step further, declaring Presley was impotent owing to his drug abuse.
Presley's kindness and gentle attitude were not, however, always on full display. When Joan Crawford's daughter Christina splashed a cocktail on his face, he proceeded to drag her by the hair and toss her out of his room. His supposed boyishness and impotence were also disputed by accounts from actresses like Cybill Shepherd, who described their affair as being quite amorous, even going so far as to claim she "taught him the joys of oral sex," something his other lovers have denied. Perhaps the largest contributor to Presley's womanizing persona was the PR relationships he participated in. Seventeen-year-old Lori Williams was one of many, pointing to a "sweet" courtship with a "perfect gentlemen" in between the making of Presley's 1964 films 'Roustabout' and 'Kissin' Cousins'.
The one relationship Presley would actually take forward, beyond 'horseplay' or needing a motherly or sisterly figure, was with fourteen-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu (later Presley). Just as with his other relationships, Presley kept his time with Priscilla non-sexual. The two wed after Priscilla turned 21, with her insisting they never had sex prior to their wedding night. Though their marriage was initially happy, Presley's addiction to prescription drugs and fascination with the occult would take him from boyish and playful to highly introverted and cause a rift. Priscilla would later claim Presley became a different person following their separation in 1972, indicating he may have forced himself on her at some point after, though she would later say she regretted her choice of words.
After their split, Presley would move on with beauty queen Linda Thompson. The two reportedly engaged in "marathon love-making sessions in Vegas hotel rooms," but again, Thompson herself denied such a relationship, instead stating they consummated their relationship months after they began dating, with the actress eventually moving into Graceland in 1972 and the two staying together for over four years. But despite their deep connection at the start, their romance "disintegrated into a sexless and gloomy existence" with Thompson claiming "he was very, very difficult. There was a lot of heartache and he exhibited a lot of self-destructive behavior, which was very difficult for me, you know, watching someone I loved so much destroy himself." Presley moved on to Mindi Miller in 1975, and then Ginger Alden in 1976. Alden, to whom Presley reportedly gifted an engagement ring, would be the singer's last real relationship, as well as the person who would find his unresponsive body the day he died.