Another American Dream - The King

Okay, this is another late eulogy - well, only 28 years and one day late.

Elvis Aaron Presley was born in a two-room house in East Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935 and died in his mansion, Graceland, Memphis on August 16, 1977.


In 1957 I was ten years old and first heard an Elvis song, "Hound Dog." I immediately did not like him although I was impressed when he went into the Army in 1958. By the time he released his first gospel album in 1960, "His Hand in Mine," I was already in Catholic Marist Brothers' boarding-school and would eventually to join the Marist Brothers.

For the next 20 years I heard no more of Elvis (and pretty much forgot that he existed) so I did not know how beautiful his voice was. Fortunately I also missed all of his awful movies although I do remember my sister (who was a devoted Elvis fan) telling me about a movie, "G.I. Blues," that he made with the South African actress, Juliet Prowse.

Here's a still from that movie.

When I finally did hear his singing after so many years I understood immediately why he was called "The King." He had a very pleasant baritone and knew how to use it.

Last night I heard him singing "Don't pull your love out on me baby." At first I had no idea that it was Elvis as I had never heard the song before. Andy and I were driving back from the neighbors' farm (after doing the milking, feeding and bedding down of all their animals) when the song was played on the car radio.


I was so turned on by the driving rhythm that I sat in the car after we arrived home and listened until it was over. I asked Andy who it was and he told me it was Elvis.

PS Juliet Prowse was actually born in Bombay, India to South African parents.

When she was still a child her parents moved to London where she studied to be a dancer but, by the time Juliet was 14, she was deemed too tall (nearly six feet) to enter the world of ballet. She signed as a chorus dancer with the London Palladium and then pursued a career as a dancer in European nightclubs.

While dancing in Paris, she was spotted by Hollywood choreographer Hermes Pan and signed to a role in the movie "Can-Can" in 1960 with Frank Sinatra.

While rehearsing for the movie, Soviet Premier Khrushchev was invited to watch the then unknown Prowse and others rehearsing their steps. The next day, he denounced the dance as immoral and it was Prowse's photo that accompanied the news across newspapers worldwide. An instant celebrity, Juliet shot to stardom with her acting and dancing and the tabloids filled with her romance with star Frank Sinatra to whom she was engaged in 1962. (Supposedly her affair with Elvis was broken up by Frank, who confronted the King in a Vegas dressing room -- Frank and his two bodyguards somehow compelled Elvis to stop seeing her.)

In 1965 she made her only South African movie, "Dingaka," directed by Jamie Uys (who made the two "The Gods must be Crazy" movies.)

After her movie career faded, she did TV shows and was a ballroom dancing hostess for many years.

She died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles, California, in 1996.