PiersEIN
09-08-2006, 04:54 PM
Hi Gang,
I had the pleasure of interviewing Elvis author/biographer Pamel Keogh this week.
Having EPE's backing she was lucky enough to spend nearly a week at Graceland and in their secret Elvis Archives....
Oh how I wish I was her!!!!
In her interview she tells this very insightful story ....
EIN - What new insights did you get of Elvis?
PK - What actually stuck me, or surprised me about Elvis was his intelligence. You don?t get to operate at that level without being really, really smart. You might get 15 minutes of fame but you don?t get to be a legend without an innate intelligence. I think a lot of people under-cut Elvis? intelligence and his spirituality. When I was writing the book, I felt the weight of what was asked of him -- his power, his loneliness. It was extraordinary...
EIN- How many photos did you look through? Did you have any help with the photos?
PK ? I was really lucky as I spent an entire weekend going through the archives at EPE. I was driven to the super-duper top-secret archives. It?s like a giant airplane hanger ? it?s gigantic! And apparently, there?s one for Elvis, one for The Colonel and one (I think) for Priscilla. It was the wildest thing -- it was like being at The Smithsonian all by yourself! It was just me, trailed by 3 archivists. And I would just point at what I wanted to see, and they would pull it out for me.
Can I tell you something really moving that I saw? And I had no way of getting it in the book, unfortunately. But on a giant, long table, there was a gold lamp, very groovy, late 1960?s with a telephone at its base. Very sort of Vegas, cool. And next to it, on the same table was a battered trunk. Not very large, just a few feet across, wooden, maybe two feet high. So, of course, I asked, ?could you open it?? And the archivist did. And inside, was a cardboard, sort of a simple children?s game, like tic tac toe printed on it, and a box of crayons. And wow, god, that was amazing. Because it was Elvis? obviously, these very simple little, just little games a child would play. And his mother (like most mother?s who love their son?s) kept everything of his, thank goodness.
And I was so moved by it, these simple little children?s games, nothing fancy at all. At the bottom of a trunk. From looking at it, I figured out that it was a trunk that you get when you go in the army? but it was an older box, like WWII, or something. And Vernon was never in the army, so then I thought, maybe a relative or friend loaned it to Vernon when they had to pack up their stuff to move from Tupelo to Memphis.
And the thing that struck me ? other than the fact that probably no one would ever get a chance to see something like this except, maybe, Peter Guralnick, was the arc of Elvis? life. His simple, very humble beginnings ? that very few Americans of this age can even imagine ? and how far he went. From that simple box to the glitzy gold lamp/phone thing.
So when I meet fans, or I read that people judge him, I just think ? you have no idea what was asked of him. How far he was asked to go? and largely by himself! It?s not like he had his twin brother around to help him, or he was part of a band?
Hope you think this was worth posting..
For the full article go here Pamela Keogh Interview (http://www.elvisinfonet.com/interview_pam_keogh.html)
Cheers
Piers
I had the pleasure of interviewing Elvis author/biographer Pamel Keogh this week.
Having EPE's backing she was lucky enough to spend nearly a week at Graceland and in their secret Elvis Archives....
Oh how I wish I was her!!!!
In her interview she tells this very insightful story ....
EIN - What new insights did you get of Elvis?
PK - What actually stuck me, or surprised me about Elvis was his intelligence. You don?t get to operate at that level without being really, really smart. You might get 15 minutes of fame but you don?t get to be a legend without an innate intelligence. I think a lot of people under-cut Elvis? intelligence and his spirituality. When I was writing the book, I felt the weight of what was asked of him -- his power, his loneliness. It was extraordinary...
EIN- How many photos did you look through? Did you have any help with the photos?
PK ? I was really lucky as I spent an entire weekend going through the archives at EPE. I was driven to the super-duper top-secret archives. It?s like a giant airplane hanger ? it?s gigantic! And apparently, there?s one for Elvis, one for The Colonel and one (I think) for Priscilla. It was the wildest thing -- it was like being at The Smithsonian all by yourself! It was just me, trailed by 3 archivists. And I would just point at what I wanted to see, and they would pull it out for me.
Can I tell you something really moving that I saw? And I had no way of getting it in the book, unfortunately. But on a giant, long table, there was a gold lamp, very groovy, late 1960?s with a telephone at its base. Very sort of Vegas, cool. And next to it, on the same table was a battered trunk. Not very large, just a few feet across, wooden, maybe two feet high. So, of course, I asked, ?could you open it?? And the archivist did. And inside, was a cardboard, sort of a simple children?s game, like tic tac toe printed on it, and a box of crayons. And wow, god, that was amazing. Because it was Elvis? obviously, these very simple little, just little games a child would play. And his mother (like most mother?s who love their son?s) kept everything of his, thank goodness.
And I was so moved by it, these simple little children?s games, nothing fancy at all. At the bottom of a trunk. From looking at it, I figured out that it was a trunk that you get when you go in the army? but it was an older box, like WWII, or something. And Vernon was never in the army, so then I thought, maybe a relative or friend loaned it to Vernon when they had to pack up their stuff to move from Tupelo to Memphis.
And the thing that struck me ? other than the fact that probably no one would ever get a chance to see something like this except, maybe, Peter Guralnick, was the arc of Elvis? life. His simple, very humble beginnings ? that very few Americans of this age can even imagine ? and how far he went. From that simple box to the glitzy gold lamp/phone thing.
So when I meet fans, or I read that people judge him, I just think ? you have no idea what was asked of him. How far he was asked to go? and largely by himself! It?s not like he had his twin brother around to help him, or he was part of a band?
Hope you think this was worth posting..
For the full article go here Pamela Keogh Interview (http://www.elvisinfonet.com/interview_pam_keogh.html)
Cheers
Piers