Elvis: The Last 24 Hours

Rating:
Summary: Excellent and Honest Research---A Great Book!
Review: Albert Goldman was an esteemed scholar with a stirling reputation among other writers and researchers. Goldman's objective, well-documented research confirms that Elvis Presley was basically a functional illiterate, drug addict, sexually-perverted human being whose marginal talent was exploited by the shrewd sheister Tom Parker. This comes as little surprise to those who've heard Presley's simple-minded comments and monosyllabic speech patterns in interviews. Nor is it shocking to those of us who've viewed Presley's infantile, formulaic B movies. Finally, Elvis's own closest friends, female companions, and relatives confirm that the man was an undisciplined, self-indulgent hillbilly with a sickly Oedipal relationship with his obese, smothering, unhygenic mother. Albert Goldman has been lambasted by Presley worshippers (which is a sick thought in itself---that any human being would feel so worthless as to worship another human being)simply because his research depicts Presley as he really was---a joke. Through sex orgies, pill-popping, voyuerism, sexual relations with minors, gluttoness hedonism, etc. If the truth is ugly, that's just too bad. Undisciplined, self-indulgent, backwoods hillbillies who have mother fixations and drug habits should not be made into Saints simply because ignorant, self-loathing slobs want to believe in fantasy. There always have been a small number of saintly people in this world, but Elvis Presley certainly wasn't one of them. And the good name of Albert Goldman shouldn't be dragged through the mud simply because uneducated, beer-guzzling, tattoo-wearing Elvis worshippers want to protect their delusional image of a less than virtuous human being of little genuine talent and even less class. Only in America could a semi-literate hillbilly named "Elvis" be hailed as a "god." Ttis phenomena has resulted from mass ignorance, unsophistication, and a need on the part of so many to idolize something----anything---that adds some meaning to their empty lives. Presley fulfilled this need for so many people who were as uneducated and unsophisticated as he was---a "hillbilly Christ." These idolaters are the deranged human beings, lacking any self-worth. Not Albert Goldman---all he was was honest. The slobs who idolize a spoiled, slobbish hillbilly who was allergic to bathing as well as to music that had more than three chords per song---they're the deranged ones. You want to call someone king? Try "Jesus Christ." You have a compelling need to worship a truly great and noble human being? Try Albert Schweitzer or Mother Theresa or Jonas Salk. The mere mention of "Elvis" in the same breath with these moral paragons and humanitarians is a sacrilege that reflects the degeneration of an empty, shallow, mindless society. Don't shoot the messenger because you can't accept the truth contained in the message.

Rating:
Summary: perversely entertaining
Review: Elvis fans probably won't like this short, blunt and to-the-point dissection of the King's final days, penned by the most infamous man who ever typed the word "rock." This is essentially an addendum to Albert Goldman's earlier biography of Presley, but while that book was appallingly funny, this one leaves you feeling rather sad, even if you don't agree with its author's brutal indictment of his subject. After being contacted by Presley's stepbrother, David Stanley, who was at Graceland the day Elvis died, Goldman wrote a new account of Elvis's death which turned on the startling theory that the King committed suicide. The evidence Goldman presents seems overwhelming at first, but it basically depends on whether or not you believe David Stanley, who claims to have pocketed the drug envelopes and syringes that he found in Elvis's bathroom. Supposedly Elvis saved up his sleeping pills and demerol injections and took them on an empty stomach when he was alone in his bathroom on the morning of August 16, 1977. Since it took Stanley over a decade to come out with this information, one feels more than a little skeptical.

The real interest of the book, however, isn't in its thin argument for the suicide but in its grimly fascinating portrait of the King's final days. Shut up inside his air-conditioned bedroom, overweight and hopelessly addicted to prescription drugs, Elvis had nothing to look forward to but another season of dreary shows in Las Vegas. He was also distressed over a recent tell-all book, which he feared would turn his fans against him. He spent most of his days bombed out of his mind on drugs, often remarking "I'd rather be unconscious than miserable." What makes this book shocking is that Goldman shows very little sympathy for Elvis, instead suggesting that he brought all of his problems on himself. "Elvis Presley never stood for anything," he writes in the afterword. "He made no sacrifices, fought no battles, suffered no martyrdom, never raised a finger to struggle on behalf of what he believed or claimed to believe. Elvis was a profoundly specious character, a false messiah. Even in his earliest years, he spoke about his career with the cynicism of a jaded old hack. He always went for the money and then blamed the sellout on his manager. Essentially, Elvis was a phony." One senses that this passage - and possible the entire book - reveals more about Goldman than it does about Elvis, but it's a perversely entertaining read anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Not Hard to Believe
Review: I must admit, I am not much of an Elvis fan. Never have been. I have always thought that Elvis-mania was the product of clever marketing by Col. Tom Parker rather than any truly overwhelming talent on Presley's part. But, leaving aside the merits or lack thereof of Elvis the performer, I can say that it's not hard to believe that Elvis the man had a lot of inner pain. And that this inner pain may have caused him to take his own life. Therein lies the thesis of the book.

I found this little book to be immensely compelling. It's a detailed accounting (based mostly on information from Elvis's stepbrother, David Stanley) of the last 24 hours of Elvis's life. The basic theme of the book is to correct errors from Goldman's previous book (the controversial 1982 biography, Elvis). In the 1982 book, Goldman had posited that that Presley died of a massive heart attack caused by years of drug dependency and eating like a glutton.

Now in this later book, Goldman claims that there were inaccuracies in his previous accounting of Presley's death, and he wants to set the record straight. Now, says Goldman, new evidence (again, mostly provided by David Stanley) indicates that Presley did not die of natural causes, but instead killed himself by overdosing on a stash of drugs that he stockpiled. Supposedly David Stanley, not wanting to see Elvis's name tarred with the brush of suicide, got rid of the needles and drug packets near Presley's body before the paramedics arrived.

The idea that Presley committed suicide is, of course, not hard to believe. Goldman is not the only Presley biographer who wrote of Presley's disturbed state of mind at the end of his life. It is pretty much common knowledge that Presley was depressed, drug-dependent, grossly overweight, and had many regrets about his life and career. And when a person is that despondent, it's no surprise that their thoughts can turn to suicide.

Naturally, diehard Elvis fans detest Goldman and maintain that this book, and the prior book he wrote about Elvis, are (in no particular order): inaccurate; mean-spirited; biased (many claim that Goldman disliked Elvis personally and his dislike for his subject caused him to always present Elvis in the worst possible light).

However, not a single word of either book has been disproven. Goldman is an academic, and his research is thorough, based on interviews who are "primary sources" - in other words, with people who knew Presley best - "the Guys" (a.k.a. his handlers/bodyguards who were with him 24 hours a day). Indeed, a number of the Guys were actually related to Presley in one way or another, and knew him well, from childhood.

So riddle me this: why is it so difficult for fans to believe that their hero was not a god, but rather a deeply flawed human being who battled his inner demons, and unfortunately lost the battle? If Elvis was a depressed junkie who just didn't want to live anymore, why is that something to be appalled at? Again, given what is well-known about Elvis's state of mind at the end of his life, it's actually quite believable.

And...believe it or not, Goldman may actually have written this not because he enjoyed Presley-bashing, but because it was the truth and he called it as he saw it, based on the facts. That is possible.

Rating:
Summary: Can't make up my mind!
Review: Like it or not, this book was at times pretty entertaining,sad and shocking. I love Elvis(been to Graceland)and i don't like him portrayed as a pathetic man.Reading this book made me sad more than anything else.I don't believe that Elvis committed suicide, he was so sick he didn't need to.I also don't have any faith in the sources Goldberg uses throughout the book. I liked the picture of the floorplan of Graceland in the middle.So, make up your own mind.

Rating:
Summary: LAWDY, LAWDY, LAWDY It's Gaudy!
Review: To quote Shakespere, the uproar this book caused was "Much ado about...." you guessed it. Okay, here's the story- Albert Goldman, a man who disliked Elvis intensely, wrote this acid account detailing The King's most intimate eating, dating, and bathroom habits. Just how Mr.Goldman acquired this information, I leave to one's own imagination. For good measure, he throws in descriptions of Graceland, Elvis' relationship with his mother- in short, his OPINIONS about Elvis Presley. However, through the years the book has taken on a life of its own. People in the "Memphis Mafia" and other inner circles who cooperated with its publication were scorned and cursed as "Judas" by die hard fans, and are to this day. Albert Goldman's book jacket picture was actually fashioned into a bull's eye by outraged Elvisphiles for the throwing of darts. Reading "THE Book", is akin to sacrilege for the Elvis-is-my-life fan, and Goldman is likened to Satan. My opinion? Whether you love Elvis, are indifferent to him, or could care less, this book is like chocolate- you hate yourself for consuming it, but you do it anyway. I was an Elvis fan before I read it, and after. Don't be afraid to challenge your idols. If they're as great as you say, they will stand up to it and it won't shake your admiration. Actually, the book itself is nothing earth shattering, and it certainly isn't one of your timeless classics. It's what it was meant to be- a trashy, dishy gossipfest. It's gotten more attention than it's worth, in my humble view, and so did its author, who, incidentally, was found dead,in his bedroom, bloated and under mysterious circumstances, an irony that was not lost on me.

Rating:
Summary: Goldman Wrote the Truth---Elvis Was A Big, Fat Waste
Review: To those of us who realized all along that an uneducated, filthy-looking, pseudo-voiced hillbilly became a millionaire because of crafty public relations on the part of a sheister---thank God for Albert Goldman. He spoke the truth, plain and simple. All of the nitwit Presley fans who wish to remain in denial can do so---losers never recognize their own stupidity. They can recognize a six pack, a pack of cigarettes, and a wrestling match, however. That's about the mentality of idol-worshipping lowlifes. Bravo, Mr. Goldman!