Elvis Presley: Caught in a Trap

Seeing Elvis in the Rearview Mirror

On August 16, 1977, I was driving down the Garden State Parkway with my girlfriend, looking forward to our first vacation together. I was meeting her family in her native Atlantic City, where she had grown up.

We were both Newsday reporters at the beginning of our careers. Before leaving I had just finished a 2,000 word cover story for the Sunday, August 21, entertainment section. The story was about Elvis Presley, a deeply reported essay about his career to date. It was timely, known in newspaper parlance as an "advance," since Elvis was coming to Nassau Coliseum the day after the story ran: Monday, August 22. I had the tickets in my wallet.

Presley had been in the news again, and not just because he was starting the next leg of his tour. There were books being published that pierced the controlled bubble established by manager Colonel Tom Parker and his bodyguards and go-fers known as the Memphis Mafia. In fact, three members of that Memphis Mafia--Sonny West, Red West, and Bill Heble…