THE FACE
THE
ICON ISSUE PRISCILLA PRESLEY - THE QUEEN OF ROCK & ROLL?
PRISCILLA PRESLEY: Where it all began.
In Germany, Priscilla would hang out at the Eagles Club, a place for eating and entertainment. According to Priscilla, she’d often just listen to the jukebox and write letters to her friends. One day, a man looking somewhere in his mid twenties approached Priscilla. His name was Currie Grant. He asked Priscilla, ‘How’d you like to meet Elvis Presley? My wife and I are good friends of his’. Of course Priscilla agreed, and the night she was to meet Elvis, she wore a white and navy sailor dress.
Growing up in a military based family must have been hard for a young Priscilla Beaulieu. Moving around from pillar to post meant that she couldn’t hold down a stable group of friends for too long. It was whilst she was living in Germany that she met her future husband, Elvis Presley. A romance that was so inspiring that it still captures the hearts of many people today. Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, born Priscilla Ann Wagner on May 24 1945, is an American model, author and actress and the only wife of Elvis Presley. Her biological father, James Wagner, was a pilot who was killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was just an infant. Her mother, Norwegian-American Anna Lillian Iversen, then married Paul Beaulieu, a United States Air Force officer. Beaulieu took over the raising of Priscilla and is known as her father. The Beaulieus were stationed in West Germany at the same time as Elvis during his stint in the United States Army. Priscilla was 14 years old when she met Elvis in Wiesbaden.
Elvis lived off base in Bad Nauheim. On the evening of Sunday, September 13, 1959, Currie, his wife, and Priscilla drove for forty minutes to get to Elvis’ house. Out of nervousness, Priscilla didn’t speak much. When she finally arrived, she made an instant impression on Elvis. He seemed to be that taken with her that he was very keen to impress, they hit it off instantly. After the first night of meeting Elvis, Priscilla couldn’t concentrate on her schooling. She didn’t tell her friends that she was at Elvis’ house just last night, who would believe her? She was living every teenage girls dream yet she seemed to take it all in her stride and treated Elvis like a person, not a movie star or the king of rock n roll. For the first time he felt safe, it was at a time where he was very vulnerable, he had just lost his mother Gladys, who he adored. Much has been made of the fact that Priscilla was only 14 when the pair was introduced, but the young girl was mature for her age, and Elvis was mindful of the implications of the situation. Elvis wanted to see Priscilla again, and so, she began visiting him regularly. return to the United States.
In a press conference on the day he arrived back at Graceland, Elvis played down his relationship with ‘the girl he left behind’. But in truth, though he was dating Anita Wood and several actresses, he seemed to have reserved a special place in his heart for ‘Cilla’. For the time being, Elvis went along with Colonel Parker’s belief that an all-consuming relationship would hurt his image and be bad for his career. Priscilla patiently waited for their reunion. During their conversations, Elvis would discuss his career, even his relationship with Anita Wood, causing Priscilla to wonder where she fit in. However, he also insisted that he wanted her to visit Graceland. Cilla just had to hang on. And she did for nearly two years, even amid newspaper and magazine articles linking Elvis to beauties such as Juliet Prowse and Tuesday Weld.
Becoming
Mrs Presley
In October 1962, while he was in Hollywood filming Fun in Acapulco, Elvis played host to Priscilla and her dad, and won over the senior Beaulieu with his charm and hospitality. After a few days, father and daughter flew to Memphis, where Captain Beaulieu and Vernon Presley enrolled Priscilla in the all-girl Immaculate Conception High School and moved her into the home that Vernon shared with his second wife, Dee. Once her father had returned to Germany, however, Priscilla seemed uncomfortable living with her future in-laws, and soon she was spending more and more time with Elvis’ grandmother at Graceland. Still, despite the company of Grandma Dodger, the maids, and the secretaries, Priscilla often seemed extremely lonely waiting for Elvis to return from filming.
One evening shortly before Christmas 1966, Elvis went down on one knee at Graceland and proposed to Cilla. Then he slipped a ring on her finger. Purchased from jeweler Harry Levitch, the ring featured a 31/2-carat diamond encircled by a row of smaller, detachable diamonds. Just over seven years after their first meeting Elvis and Priscilla were married.
The ceremony took place at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, in the small second-floor suite of the Colonel’s friend, owner Milton Prell. The nuptials were presided over by Nevada Supreme Court Justice David Zenoff and took less than ten minutes. In true Colonel Parker style, a press conference was held immediately afterward, followed by a breakfast reception for 100 guests, including many members of the press. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon in Palm Springs, and after a couple of days they returned to Memphis where, on May 29, they climbed back into their wedding attire and threw a reception at Graceland for all of their relatives, friends, and employees, as well as a few lucky fans.
Priscilla became pregnant shortly after the pair spent their honeymoon at Palm Springs. The pregnancy came as a shock to them both but each took to parenthood naturally and embraced this special time with open arms. Lisa Marie was born on February 1, 1968. Elvis was a doting father to Lisa Marie. Until the end of his life, Elvis adored Lisa Marie, spoiling her and showering her with jewels and gifts when she visited him, and rarely, if ever, disciplining her. As in many other aspects of his life, Elvis’ love for his daughter ran to excess.
February 1972, after almost six and a half years of marriage, they finally made the decision that they should separate. The divorce was finalized in October 1973. They both remained great friends after the split; they never fell out of love with each other.
A few years went by and Elvis seemed to be working so much harder, he was away for long periods of time, which led Priscilla to feel lonely and neglected by the husband she adored. She kept herself busy with various hobbies and past times, she was finally seeing more of the world and realized that she needed to see even more of it. Things just weren’t the same with her and Elvis as so much had changed over the years.
Marriage Parenthood Divorce
In 1973, after her split from Elvis, Cilla set up a joint venture with her friend and stylist Olivia Bis. Together they opened a clothing boutique in Los Angeles called Bis & Beau. Elvis was supportive of her venture, and even contacted several friends within publicity to help with promotion for the launch. In a 1973 interview to promote the opening of the store, Priscilla said, “After the separation, I had to make up my mind about what I wanted to do, and since I had worked with Olivia for such a long time on my own clothes, I decided to try it professionally. We both do the designing for the shop, and have people who sew for us. The shop was a very successful venture, with celebrity clients including Cher, Lana Turner, Barbra Streisand, and Natalie Wood shopping there regularly. The shop closed in 1976.
After Elvis’ death (1977), Vernon Presley served as executor of the estate choosing Priscilla as executor for Elvis’ only child, Lisa Marie (who was then only 11). Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Lisa Marie’s inheritance to only $1 million. Taxes due on the property and other expenses due came to over $500,000. Faced with having to sell Graceland, Priscilla examined other famous homes/museums. She hired a CEO, Jack Soden, to turn Graceland into a tourist attraction. Graceland was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. Priscilla’s gamble paid off; only four weeks after opening Graceland’s doors, the estate made back all the money it had invested. Priscilla became the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), stating she would remain in the position until Lisa Marie reached 21 years of age. Under Priscilla’s guidance, the enterprise’s fortunes soared and eventually the trust grew to be worth over $100 million.
HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED BLOGS:
Here are some of the blogs that I have chosen to be some of the best Presley related blogs online. They all spend a great amount of time sourcing images and articles so please take the time to check these guys out. All URL names are present on each ad, just take the main name and add “.tumblr.com�.
Fan Art Submissions
ILLUS TRATI YAZSIOUX.T
SION TUMBLR.COM
Yazmyn Lamzouri is a Graphic Design student from the midlands. She specialises in one off illustration pieces, often inspired by her passion for music and culture. She combines all aspects of design to create an image that speaks for itself, often by using a wide range of media. Much of her illustration work consists of portraits; some of these include hand rendered portraits of Priscilla and Elvis Presley. Over the past 12 months her blog has gained quite a lot of attention from the Elvis and Priscilla fandom, which has resulted in a lot of her illustrations getting positive responses and praise from people all over the world. Yazmyn has five years of experience in Design at a higher and further education level. She has spent one year studying at De Montfort University and two years living in Leicester whilst being involved in many creative projects which included; Film, Photography, Graphic Design, Tattooing, Illustration and also music.
y d n a e M e G c M Of... LADYPRESLEY Mandy runs one of the most successful Priscilla Presley blogs on tumblr, I would even go as far as saying that her blog is the best that’s online. She puts her heart in to finding and creating images that keep her followers wanting more. In my opinion she has the key to running a successful blog by keeping her followers happy with fresh images and also being incredibly helpful to those that want to ask her questions about all things cilla! She is truly dedicated to running her blog, it is just as visually pleasing as the images she posts. She makes her own “themes” and also creates high quality retouched images that you can’t find anywhere else. In her spare time she also creates computer generated vector portraits as well as hand drawn pencil sketches of Priscilla. Her attention to detail and total devotion to ‘delivering everything Presley’ to the world of tumblr, makes her even more worthy of the URL she uses for her blog.
l l o D er
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Cut me out... Just cut this little paper Pris out with a pair of scissors and attach your favourite outfit. You can even change her hairstyle to suit the occasion! Follow the colour key to colour in the outfits or alternatively, you could even colour them in with whatever colours you think would suit her best!
This is the beautiful wedding dress that Priscilla wore on her wedding day in 1967. The dress has delicate lace sleeves that join to make a decorative lace neckline. This dress is all in white add shade and tone with a pencil or pencil crayons.
This outfit is the one that Priscilla wore when she was leaving hospital after the birth of her daughter Lisa Marie in 1968. This is a mid length bright pink coat that would be worn like a dress. I don’t believe that this outfit had buttons or a zip; It’s hard to tell because all of the pictures of her wearing this outfit are of her sitting down. I guess that’s understandable seeing as she had just given birth.
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I AM EXTREMELY HONOURED TO OF MET THE QUEEN OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
3 TIMES! I am lucky enough to of had the opportunity to meet Priscilla and spend a bit of time with her. I went down to London on two separate occasions and instantly hit it off with her the first time. The second time I went down I took an illustration I had made of her and obviously made quite an impression so her security came and escorted me to meet her in private. We joked around and made each other laugh a lot. She is a lovely woman and by far the most down to earth celebrity that I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Meeting her was like a dream come true, and I count myself very lucky to of been given the opportunity to meet her.