Baby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him Description:
Nearly thirty-three years after his death, Elvis Presley’s extraordinary physical appeal, timeless music, and sexual charisma continue to captivate, titillate, and excite. Though hundreds of books have been written about the King, no book has solely explored his relationships with women and how they influenced his music and life—until now.
Based largely on exclusive interviews with the many women who knew him in various roles—lover, sweetheart, friend, costar, and family member—Baby, Let’s Play House explores Presley’s love affairs with, among others, Ann-Margret, Linda Thompson, Sheila Ryan Caan, June Juanico, Joyce Bova, Barbara Leigh, Cybill Shepherd, and Priscilla Beaulieu, as well as his friendships with actresses Raquel Welch, Barbara Eden, Mary Ann Mobley, Yvonne Craig, and Celeste Yarnall.
The book also spotlights important early girlfriends and the women who dared to turn him down, including Cher, Petula Clark, and Karen Carpenter, as well as two women—Kay Wheeler and Tura Satana—who taught him dance moves he used onstage.
Baby, Let’s Play House, named after the 1955 song that was his first to hit the national charts and his mother’s favorite Elvis recording, presents Elvis in a new light—as a charming but wounded Lothario who bedded scores of women but seemed unable to maintain a lasting romantic relationship. While fully exploring the most famous romantic idol of the twentieth century, award-winning veteran music journalist Alanna Nash pulls back the covers on what Elvis really wanted in a woman—and was tragically never able to find.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #9846 in Books
- Published on: 2010-01-01
- Released on: 2010-01-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 704 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780061699849
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Customer Reviews:
Fair, well-balanced and fascinating, if flawed.
I gave this five stars because, having read Nash’s earlier “Memphis Mafia” book, I feel she has grown exponentially as a writer and as a journalist. In BLPH, Nash doesn’t rely on one source for the retelling of certain events (such as how Elvis and Priscilla met), but presents opposing recounts from key witnesses and ultimately lets the reader decide whom to believe. This is a far leap forward from Peter Guralnick’s dry and myopic two-volume “biography” of Elvis, and I learned some shocking things in the process. Some so outrageous I wonder how she legally got them into print. (No spoilers here–I won’t go into detail.)
Ultimately, she has the benefit of much research and multiple interviews to pull from, and she does so freely. Unfortunately, she consistently returns to a single psychologist for repetitive views on Elvis’s “twinless twin” obsession as a motivator/syndrome throughout his life. No doubt the Jessie Garon connection had an effect, but this book pushes it into every area of Elvis’s psyche, and it’s too much. Same with his connection to Gladys: every woman was his mother, etc. I find that simple and dismissive, but it doesn’t detract from the overall presentation of material here. Given the state of book publishing these days, Nash had to find a “hook” upon which to build this book, so she has chosen to focus on his relationships with women as a backdrop to his life story. I have no problem with that; in fact, she does it rather well.
The downside for me was that, while there are numerous areas which explore a different side of Elvis the person, the book simply reiterates the age-old and, for my money, erroneous ideas regarding his career in the 1960s: the movies were all stupid, the music was terrible, Elvis hated doing them, he could have been a great actor, etc. On the surface, some of this is true, but a deeper exploration might have found a more believable answer. Nash repeatedly remarks how miserable Elvis was making these movies, and then reports (via quotes from co-stars) how happy and eager he seemed on the set. Listen to the outtakes from soundtrack recording sessions and you won’t hear a miserable singer–you’ll hear a vibrant personality having fun with songs like “You Can’t Say No In Acapulco.”
Personally, I don’t believe Elvis hated these movies or these songs. So many of them influenced his personal style: how he dressed after “It Happened at the World’s Fair” or enjoying the darker make-up he wore for “Harum Scarum.” Nash also reports that he enjoyed stronger ballads after leaving the army (i.e. “It’s Now or Never”). And many of the songs on his soundtracks reflect that style of music. Neither were they all bad. “They Remind Me Too Much of You” is eerily reminiscent of “These Foolish Things.”
Bottom line is the 1960s weren’t the 1950s. Nash quotes Raquel Welch asking why “they” had cleaned up this rebel so much? But even the Beatles appeared on TV in suits and ties. Marlon Brando made several classic films in the 50s, then dreck until “The Godfather” in the early 70s. I fully believe Elvis enjoyed only having to work for three weeks total on a movie while earning somewhere between $1 and $2 million on profit sharing and record royalties. He was young, he was gorgeous, and he was a star. Of course, I’m sure he hated the “bad” years, 1964-1968 (”Kissin’ Cousins” to “Easy Come, Easy Go”) when they movies became unwatchable and worse, unlistenable.
In any case, opinions aside, BLPH is a fascinating, well-rounded biography of Elvis with as much source material and information as you could hope to get. Painstakingly researched and documented, and all of it interwoven in a fine, mature writing style. Until someone else comes along to question the standard, status quo perception of his career, this will do just fine.
KAY WHEELER’S REVIEW–1ST ELVIS FAN CLUB PRESIDENT
Just when I thought that all of the Elvis books had been written–along comes “BABY LET’S PLAY HOUSE–The Women Who Loved Elvis.” Boy, I thought that I knew it “all” about him; however, the thorough research and actual interviews with the women involved (including myself) were stunningly revelatory! Nash is “beyond thorough” in her tedious research…tracking down every “live” specimen of a woman who had an association and/or relationship with lover boy Elvis. The book really tells a lot about what made Elvis “tick” when it came to women; however, in the final analysis it reveals–to the absolute delight of all his fans who love him–that “THE GREATEST LOVE OF ALL” IN HIS LIFE WAS HIS FANS–AND THE AFFAIR IS STILL GOING ON! We just can’t help falling in love with Elvis even after all this time; I guess there is nothing any sexier on the planet (and maybe never will be) than Elvis singing “Hunk of Burning Love” in a white leather, fringed jumpsuit. Whew! Yes, and most all the lucky gals who knew Elvis “close up” still cherish the experience and can’t quite “wipe that smile off their faces” when reflecting on their up close and personal experiences with him. Alanna Nash’s book has captured in enthralling, sexy detail their wonderful stories and present day reflective memories–all a marvelous, important part of the “mystery of Elvis.” This book is a treasure and a “must have” for every true Elvis fan and I’m delighted to have been featured in it (Kay Wheeler). She told my story exactly per our interviews in complete accuracy. Like the great screen idol, “Valentino” of days gone by, Elvis’ loves are intriguing and fascinating beyond measure. Real Elvis fans need to know EVERYTHING about him! Now we can all imagine and even almost believe that we are the “woman” that he needed; because obviously he never found her!Don’t miss this incredible book! KAY WHEELER –[google it)
Nash’s Trash
Alanna Nash’s new book “Baby Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him” should be titled “Baby Let’s Make Money: Elvis Presley and the People Who Profit Off Him - Myself Included.” This is the same Nash whose 2003 biography of Tom Parker entitled “The Colonel” suggested he committed murder. While I believe that Parker was a mercenary con-artist whose destruction of Elvis’ film career was only one of his many sins against Elvis, it takes more proof than Nash provides to label him a murderer - but he was dead so she could write anything. It is this same legal literary license which allows her to slander Elvis and sully his memory. Nash did this previously with her 1995 book “Elvis and the Memphis Mafia,” which was based upon the alleged recollections (fabrications?) of three cronies who sponged off Elvis while he was alive. The emphasis in that earlier book was on drugs while in this new book it is on sex. This book is typical of the type that sells today - yellow journalism containing some truth tainted by allegations, rumors and lies. The book is devoid of serious journalistic research and rambles along from one spicy claim to another while revealing the author’s tabloid perspective and pedantic writing ability.
Nash apparently thinks that she has the uncanny ability to burrow into Elvis’ mind; during an interview in the Fifties in which Elvis states, in response to why he shakes when he sings, that he is not trying to be vulgar but just enjoys what he is doing, Nash states omnisciently that he was lying (she uses the word “fib”) and writes that Elvis’s actions were deliberately sexual. This sexual theme pervades the book and since squalid sex sells, she exploits sensationalism. For instance, to include some particularly salacious passages, she gives credibility to ersatz celebrity and former Playboy bunny Sheila Ryan who probably hopes that her explicit sexual accounts (more fabrications?) of her trysts with Elvis will bring her back into the limelight she enjoyed decades ago due to her associations with famous men. Not coincidentally, Nash cites Playboy magazine and the pathetic Byron Raphael, whom she describes as “Elvis’s pimp,” as valid sources for a scurrilous rumor that accuses Elvis of lewd and illicit behavior at a 1957 concert. Though this has been proven to be a lie, Nash repeats it in all of its vulgarity and has the gall to use Albert Goldman’s infamously sleazy biography of Elvis to support the falsehood (Goldman made a fortune from his book, a fact not unknown to Nash.) Another dubious source is former Elvis “friend” - now known as turncoat - Lamar Fike (he is one of three people in whose name the copyright to Goldman’s book is registered) to explain Elvis’ alleged “hypersexuality.” And then there is Maxine Brown who should be ashamed of herself for the quote attributed to her.
If it isn’t already clear, this is not a biography of Elvis from the female perspective, which is what it is publicized to be, but instead is a distasteful collection of raunchy tales spread liberally throughout the book, though their veracity is questionable. Nash’s writing is frequently - and shamefully - so graphic that the question has to be raised as to whether she was aiming to gratify readers who vicariously salivate over such passages or whether she was doing her own salivating. To attempt to offset such coarseness and give her book some significance, she cites psychologist Peter Whitman, author of the book “Inner Elvis” (which he called a “psychological biography”) to support her “psycho-sexual” biography. Whitman, who is called an “expert on twinless twins,” uses every tired cliché to claim that Elvis was guilty of satyriasis, a condition marked by an “abnormal and uncontrollable sexual desire.” He also “wanted to be infantilized” and, due to the death of his twin brother and his relationship with his mother, was incapable of normal development. Nash (who perhaps believes that she is a psychiatrist, at one point “diagnosing” Elvis as paranoid and delusional) concludes that the loss of Elvis’ twin and the loss of his mother “with whom he had been lethally enmeshed since childhood” caused his lifelong suffering and his inability to have a lasting relationship with a woman. Such psychobabble is supposed to legitimize the foul odor that permeates almost every page of this fetid book but it doesn’t work. The book ultimately emerges as worthless trash, though it probably will be enjoyed by Elvis-haters and consumers of sleaze.
In contrast to this rubbish, among the best biographical studies of Elvis are Peter Guralnick’s “Last Train to Memphis” and “Careless Love,” Jerry Hopkins’ “Elvis” and “Elvis: The Final Years,” Patsy Guy Hammontree’s “Elvis Presley: a Bio-Bibliography,” Elaine Dundy’s “Elvis and Gladys” and Dave Marsh’s “Elvis.” As testaments to his musical genius, you can’t top Robert Mathew-Walker’s “Elvis Presley: A Study in Music,” Ernst Jorgensen’s “Elvis Presley: A Life in Music” and Jorgensen and Guralnick’s “Elvis: Day By Day.”
From Publishers Weekly
Nash culls reminiscences from long-term girlfriends, starlets like Ann-Margret and Cybill Shepherd, and assorted strippers, showgirls and groupies for this gossipy, besotted biography of rock’s original sex god. They attest to the allure that had females lining up for access to the young Elvis’s bed: devastating looks, pelvic gyrations and a bad-boy sneer combined with a romantic soul, sublime kissing technique and a courtliness that lulled parents into handing over their underage daughters. (He was attracted to 14-year-old brunettes, Nash argues, like future wife Priscilla.) And there’s the indefinable magnetism—i.e., celebrity—that kept them coming through the drugs and debauchery, the bizarre monologues and random gunplay, the impotence and incontinence and vomit and bloat of the King’s declining years. Nash’s mix of breathless melodrama (his voice was soft and sensuous, and he had a mischievous grin on his face, and he was looking straight at her) with rote psychoanalysis (Elvis could never really let go of [his mother] Gladys) often reads like a fan magazine. Her shallow but vivid portrait nonetheless manages to evoke much of what made Elvis so enthralling. (Jan. 5)
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Review
“Deliciously gossipy but never mean, revealingly intimate but never leering, Baby, Let’s Play House is a masterwork of psycho-sexual history neatly disguised as celebrity journalism.” (David Hajdu, author of Positively 4th Street, music critic for The New Republic, and professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism David Hajdu, author of Positively 4th Street, music critic for The New Republic, and professor at Co )
“A major new contribution to Presley lore…[Alanna Nash’s] focus on Presley’s relationships with women takes us on a long and often fascinating journey…It’s a welcome and well-crafted addition to our understanding of his strange, triumphant and tragic life.” (The Globe and Mail )
“In this astounding look at the King’s unstoppable pursuit of women from his elementary school days until his untimely death at 42, hundreds of girls and women pass through the revolving doors of Elvis’ love life.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution )
“The most comprehensive work ever on how the women in Presley’s life…influenced him and his music.” (New York Newsday )
“By far the best study of Elvis Presley I have read. ‘The King’ emerges more clearly from this mosaic of his troubled love life than from any linear biography to date.Impressively researched, written–and felt.” (Philip Norman, New York Times bestselling author of John Lennon and Shout! )
“Alanna Nash…turns her eye toward The King’s other women in a psychological history …Among those who loved him tender - Ann-Margret and Cybill Shepherd. Those who turned him down include Cher and Karen Carpenter. And of course, there’s plenty on the No. 1 woman in his life - Mom Gladys Presley.” (New York Post )
“What’s left to say about Elvis? Plenty, if Alanna Nash is on the case. She rips the satin sheets right off the King, resulting in the most entertaining Elvis book ever. Ann-Margret! Raquel Welch! Barbara Eden! Tura Satana! This is very funny book.” (Jimmy McDonough, New York Times bestselling author of Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography )
“Un-put-downabble.” (Jezebel.com )
“Alanna Nash’s long look at Elvis’ bizarre history with women…collect[s] all the madness, badness and sadness of the Elvis myth in one exhaustive and embarrassingly tempting volume.” (New York Times )
“An exhaustive and penetrating work that functions as an intimate personal profile, a family study and a psychosexual investigation of one of the 20th century’s true cultural icons.” (Memphis Commercial Appeal )
“Alanna Nash meticulously documents and explores all the relationships Elvis had with women that were ‘extremely special,’ as Ann-Margret so delightfully (and euphemistically) phrases it. I was delighted to see my stepmother, June Carter, make an appearance, as she always became uncharacteristically silent when Elvis’ name came up in conversation. Nash belongs in the pantheon of great music writers, and this book is a fascinating study (Rosanne Cash )
“If anything, Baby, Let’s Play House heightens the heartbreaking aspects of Presley’s life.” (Los Angeles Times )
“New girls slip between [Elvis’] satin sheets on nearly every page…Combine that with an absorbing snapshot section, and [Baby, Let’s Play House] will leave you all shook up.” (BettyConfidential.com )
About the Author
Winner of the 2004 Country Music Association Media Achievement Award, Alanna Nash is the author of six books, including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley, winner of the 2004 Belmont Award for the best book in music; Dolly: The Biography; Behind Closed Doors: Talking with the Legends of Country Music; and Elvis and the Memphis Mafia. She also coedited the Belmont Award-winning Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America, and is the recipient of the 2009 Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism. She has written about music for such publications as the New York Times, Vanity Fair, People, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, Ladies’ Home Journal, USA Weekend, TV Guide, and Reader’s Digest, where she was a contributing editor from 2004 to 2008. Nash, whom Esquire named one of the “Heavy 100 of Country Music,” was the first journalist to see Elvis Presley in his casket. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
