Elvis
Ross, Mitchell S.
which revolved around the Shah's figure was unlikely to remain intact after his departure and negotiate as an institution with the opposition. If Sullivan was to " o r c h e s t r a t e "...
...you'll love VERBATIM, The Language Ouarter~' ly, dealing with all aspects of language...
...ELVIS Albert Goldman / McGraw-Hill / $14.95 Mitchell S. Ross Not long ago, in search of a basketball game, I flipped the television dial and found myself facing a celluloid image of the late Elvis...
...Such is popular culture in the Republic that we are blessed with many talents both unique and marketable...
...These two books alongside the embassy papers released in Iran do provide some...
...An artist...
...But somewhere along the way Elvis developed an honest and original girl for song...
...I cross the Seven Seas to ask you, the Great Guru, the Meaning of Life, Vic Gold, author o f PR as in President, lives in Washington...
...You mean," he asked plaintively, ' 'Life ISN'T a Circle ?" You've heard the joke, now read the book...
...Presley was doped from head to toe...
...But things did not work out that way...
...Elvis...
...I switched off the television set...
...The Colonel knew all too well that he himself lacked the polish to handle the Hollywoodians, and so he took care to arrange respectable alliances...
...Why...
...Back to the dreadful diction, the awesome idiocy...
...There are second acts, and third acts, and fourth acts...
...That Life is a Goddamned Circle ?" The Great Guru was much perplexed...
...A superstar is selling soda pop...
...Back to Elvis...
...Magic Mitchell S. Ross is author o f The Literary Politicians and An Invitation to Our Times...
...And yet, I was unprepared for the sheer awfulness of Elvis the actor...
...His most ardent admirers may indeed be mere hinds recently graduated from hookworm...
...Such characters are as common in this country as hugely successful messes...
...Back to Bach...
...This virtually guaranteed that Elvis would exist in circumstances of unrelieved depravity, and so it was...
...With his control established, Colonel Parker proceeded to swing a long series of deals which, however lucrative they may have been for Elvis and the Colonel, were absolutely ruinous to the integrity of Elvis as a man and as an artist...
...Why, yes, of course...
...Colonel Parker had the power to freeze Elvis with a s t a r e , and he did not h e s i t a t e to exercise this power...
...Are there any answers, then, to our questions concerning the information American diplomats possessed and the actions they took during the Iranian Revolution...
...Back to Elvis...
...I hear a snicker...
...Are there no second acts in American lives...
...From time to time he would show signs of some interest in the world beyond drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll...
...I believe it was James Thurber who, asked why so many great American authors have been ruined by alcohol, answered that once the authors become great they can afford to buy whiskey by the case...
...Here was a man utterly out of place...
...His movements were awkward...
...mere burps would have been as eloquent as speech from such a source...
...THE FATE OF THE EARTH Jonathan Schell / Alfred A. Knopf/$11.95 Vic Gold "Tell me," the Seeker of Ultimate Truth asked the Great Guru, "what is the Meaning of Life...
...The Great Guru sat silent, then slowly framed his reply: "Life," he intoned, "is a Circle...
...My arrival at the game was delayed...
...If Sullivan was to " o r c h e s t r a t e " the turmoil as his colleague Stempel envisaged, the only baton he held as conductor was the armed forces...
...The game was good...
...Aided by sensitive, intelligent management, he might well have crooned his way into old age, with wrinkled beauties from Biloxi swooning at his every warble, much as grandmas from Hoboken now sit dreamily beside the slot machines in contemplation of Frank Sinatra...
...The trouble is that those who are unique tend to get marketed, and, once marketed, they cease to be unique...
...In the case of Elvis, not only did the talent cease to be unique...
...Married life was for Elvis an impossibility, as the King of Rock 'n' Roll could not stand the idea of sexual relations with a married woman, let alone with a mother...
...Then t h e r e was a timeout, a commercial, a n d . . , behold...
...Curiosity caught me...
...I had a short time earlier read the biography in question here, and so was familiar with the swinish maneuvers of Colonel Thomas Parker, who moved Elvis into movies a f t e r he had attained early success as a singer...
...J. ],JLYJ" ESSEX...
...Alas, he dropped the baton before the overture...
...A really f i r s t - r a t e psychiatrist might have helped Elvis...
...A woman here, a swami there: These t h r e a t e n e d to make a new man of Elvis, but soon the iron hand of Colonel Parker would reach out and seize back the controls...
...That be said, and nothing more...
...CT 06426 U S A .~B J o h n s o n ' s turning Seven-Up...
...He was obese--not after the fashion of Santa Claus or Luciano Pavarotti, in whom f a t n e s s of body encloses largeness of spirit, but in the manner of one who has lost all self-control, and is beyond caring...
...or $8.50 (elsewhere) for a one-year I subscription, starting with the current issue...
...Shortly thereafter, Priscilla left Elvis for a karate instructor...
...it ceased e n t i r e l y to exist...
...Money back if not pleased...
...Switch stations...
...1 "Jr ;]_~ "1'~ .~ ' I', q" k\ ,4, Post OFFICE BOX 668 -1.MJ JL-Jl'~J )'Z...
...Naturally, the Seeker of Ultimate Truth, having wandered the Earth to find the Great Guru, was nonplussed," not to mention, a trifle angry...
...Instead he became a m o n s t e r - - spendthrift, drug-crazed, orgiastic, incapable of love...
...Elvis was a hugely successful mess...
...Well, why not...
...that Elvis had never displayed the slightest aptitude for dramatic or film acting...
...A 1976 CIA study found among the embassy papers is in fact remarkably p r e s c i e n t about the Shah's f a t e . What the American diplomats posted to Iran failed to do was grasp the trend of events until it was too l a t e , develop a coherent strategy in response, or remember the role that accidents and personalities play in any revolution...
...Such people proliferate in the United States of America, where success is more highly valued than character...
...Send I $7.50 (U.S...
...By the end of his 42-year stay on this p l a n e t , the late Mr...
...I knew that this had been done for reasons of greed...
...Once their child was born, Elvis and Priscilla P~esley ceased sleeping together...
...he said...
...Allow 6 weeks...
...that his movies were never highly esteemed by any intelligent person...
...not even a Paganini...
...Indeed, it can fairly be argued that not only the talent ceased to exist, but the human being, too...
...It did not help, of course, that the various sharks of the e n t e i t a i n m e n t industry picked up where Colonel Parker left off...
...indeed, any authoritative male who could have rivaled Colonel Parker might have helped Elvis...
...And that partly, but only partly, explains the replacement of the penguins by crows, who incidentally thrive in deserts...
...the failure, personal...
...But in the case of messes such as Elvis and the author of this famous, erroneous observation, F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are often only two acts--wild success followed by abysmal failure~ The success is professional...
...According to the l i t e r a r y legend that accompanies this Sublime Tract, its author, an ec]itor for the New Yorker, invested no less than half-adecade in contemplation of our post36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1982...
...The Colonel made of Elvis a great success, and Elvis made o f h i m s e l f a phenomenal failure: a sad story, thoroughly American...
...It was E l v i s ' s fortune to fall into the hands of Colonel Parker, a very fat, Mephistophelean fellow with a bit of the air of Barnum about him...
...In this long book, exhaustively researched and execrably written, Albert Goldman exhumes the corpse for public inspection...
...My thoughts avoided Elvis for several minutes...
...and THAT's your answer...
...I watched for a few minutes, and then I could not stand it any longer, t switched the dial, found my game, and settled down...
...The problem was not a lack of information...
...He was no Beethoven...
Vol. 15 • July 1982 • No. 7
