Elvis and the Memphis Mafia by Nash Alanna

Author:Nash, Alanna
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781845137595
Publisher: Perseus Faber
Published: 2005-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 35

“RIDE ’EM, COWBOY!”

In the midst of the squabble about Bernie Grenadier’s bills and the pressure to marry Priscilla, Elvis found respite on 150 rolling acres of land across the Tennessee border in Walls, Mississippi. The original owner had given it the quaint, and slightly fairyland, name of Twinkletown Farm—something Elvis would change to the Circle G [for Graceland) Ranch and eventually to the Flying G when he learned the name was already taken by a rancher in Texas.

Almost immediately, the Circle G became a symbol of Presley’s increasing spending sprees, which he was now using, like drugs, for escape. The tremendous expenditure, which grew daily with Elvis’s improvements on the land, may have spurred Vernon to bond with the parsimonious Priscilla in hurrying up the wedding, in hopes that Elvis would quickly abandon his folly.

“The happiest we ever saw Elvis was when he first bought that ranch,” remembers Ray Walker, of the Jordanaires. “He had some horses down there, and he was exercising, and he looked great, and he felt great. As I remember, he even let his hair go back to its natural color for a while. He walked in one day, and he had a tan, and we couldn’t get over how good he looked. We just stood there and stared at him. Finally, he broke into a smile and said, ‘Shall we dance?’”

MARTY LACKER: The ranch was a natural evolution, you might say, of other things that were going on at Graceland in ’66. It started when Elvis bought Priscilla a four-year-old black quarter horse, Domino. But she complained that she didn’t have anybody to ride with, so Elvis bought himself a palomino. Rising Sun, which Jerry found for him somewhere. One day, he saw everybody standing around watching them ride, so he went wild and bought everybody a horse, even Vernon. I didn’t want a horse. But he outfitted all the guys, arid their wives or girlfriends, in chaps, and boots, and hats. Billy says it was like a Roy Rogers–Dale Evans look-alike contest when everybody got together, and I guess it was.

Elvis would go out in the barn every day and every night. This barn, which he called House of the Rising Sun, a pun on the name of his horse, hadn’t been used in years. He fixed up a little office for himself and wrote the names of the horses on the stalls with a big red marking pen. He’d write notes to himself like “What I’m Going to Buy Tomorrow” and “What I’m Going to Do Tomorrow.” And he would clean up the barn and buy new tack. He just loved it.

BILLY SMITH: Elvis would go at everything in a big way. And when he got the horses, it was no different. That’s why we bulldozed the house back of Graceland, to make a little riding area.

MARTY LACKER: Graceland was only thirteen and three-quarter acres, and the neighbors complained. It really was too small for all those horses. Red accidentally ran Elvis down one day on horseback and dislocated some cartilage in his chest.

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