Elvis Presley

It appears to be decidedly unclear with regard to the love life of Elvis Presley. Evidence has come to light that he was reluctant to become intimately involved with female acquaintances for a number of reasons. His devotion to his mother, Gladys, may lay at the heart of this reluctance, although it seems to be far more complicated than that alone. The fact that Elvis shared her bed until his early teens is a well- known fact, although this probably stemmed from their dirt-poor financial situation that produced only a single bedroom house for the family to dwell in. Gladys’s early death in August 1958 hit Elvis especially hard. It was said that he sobbed for days.

Gladys Presley

His first sweetheart was fifteen year-old Dixie Locke Emmons and occurred during his Sun Records time. While still a rising star, he had a relationship with June Juanico, said to be the only girlfriend his mother ever approved of. In the girl’s own words, however, she ‘never had sex with Presley’ for fear of getting pregnant. Gladys stated that the likes of Natalie Wood, Judy Tyler, Shelley Fabares and Connie Stevens dated Elvis, all assignations arranged by his manager Colonel Tom Parker for purely publicity purposes. When Wood was questioned about details, she replied: ‘He can sing but he can’t do much else.’

Elvis & Natalie Wood

Several authors have written that ‘Elvis busied his evenings with various girlfriends, or that ‘his list of one-night stands would fill volumes’, but there is a lot of conjecture over this. Actress Anne Helm stated that ‘Elvis really liked sex. I had fun and it was special.’ She added that he often gave her pills after having sex with her. Her recollections, however, appear not to stack up alongside those of numerous others who recalled little or no intimacy with him. It still remains unclear whether Elvis actually had sexual intercourse with most of the women he dated. Many vowed they merely filled sisterly roles for him. Author Albert Goldman speculated that Elvis preferred voyeurism over normal sexual relations with women. He wrote about the singer’s military service, stating: ‘Elvis had discovered prostitutes and picked up the intense fear of sexually transmitted diseases, which led to a morbid fear of penetration.’ Alanna Nash, in her book, wrote that ‘young Elvis was a flop with girls and super-religious.’ Playboy star June Wilkinson dined with him at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, after which he gave her a tour of his suite. ‘He sat me on the bed in his bedroom and sang to me for two hours. That was it.’ Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, says she knew Presley for only one night, and all they did was talk. Actress Cybill Shepherd has tried to convince everyone that she initiated Elvis into the art of oral sex, but those who knew him are skeptical. She even includes such information in her night-club act. It is generally felt that she is dining out on the intimate details she reveals.

Cassandra Peterson aka ‘Elvira’

Elvis & Ann-Margret

Even Presley’s relationship with Ann-Margret, said to be ‘the love of his life’, may not have been consummated, despite a massive romantic publicity campaign during their making of Viva Las Vegas in 1963. That said, she remained close to the singer for the remainder of his life and also attended his funeral. According to Alan Fortas, an Elvis bodyguard, ‘Elvis needed someone to baby more than he needed a sex partner…Elvis befriended some of the young girls who used to cluster adoringly in his driveway, or outside the fence…Some of the girls were as young as fourteen…They also slipped into his bedroom for rambunctious pillow fights…Often they would all lie down together and cuddle. But what went on was horseplay, not foreplay… Although they offered to do things for Presley, ‘he wasn’t really interested. What he liked to do was to lie in bed and watch television and eat and talk all night.’

Marriage to Priscilla

Elvis met Priscilla Beaulieu in 1959 while he was stationed in Germany in the US Army. She was fourteen. As a perpetual youth, Elvis was attracted to young women because he was insecure and felt threatened by women who were older. In her autobiography, Priscilla says that she and Elvis did not have sex until their wedding night. Their daughter, Lisa Marie, was born nine months later. Elvis and Priscilla separated in February 1972 and divorced in October 1973. Six months after Priscilla departed, Presley dated Linda Thompson. Ginger Alden was his last serious girlfriend and his fiancée prior to his death.

With Juliet Prowse in G I Blues (1960)

Dancer Juliet Prowse openly spoke of having an intimate relationship with Presley during the time they co-starred in G I Blues in 1960. Her description of their relationship’s intimacy, of consummating it in his apartment, may well be true. It might also be part of her strategy to land Frank Sinatra as a potential husband. Only she knows, but since all three individuals are now deceased, the chances of the truth becoming known one day are long gone.

Elvis & his pal Nick Adams

Elvis reportedly spent days and nights with his male friends, his entourage affectionately dubbed by the media as ‘the Memphis Mafia’. He could not go anywhere without his phalanx of boyhood friends. ‘Those guys were always around’, said many of the women the singer dated. Hollywood was just an open invitation to party all night long. Actor Nick Adams was Presley’s closest friend: ‘He and Elvis would go motorcycle riding late at night and stay up until all hours talking about the pain of celebrity’, wrote Kathleen Tracy. Speculation has existed for some time that the two men were involved in a gay relationship, but it would appear to be entirely groundless.

Elvis and Ginger Alden

Presley was found dead by his girlfriend Ginger Alden. He had given her a diamond engagement ring and it is presumed that he intended to marry her. Perhaps, he had at last come to terms with the sexual demons that had haunted him since childhood. We shall probably never know.