Elvis Presley by Williamson Joel

Author:Williamson, Joel
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780199863174
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

Sheila Leaves

Elvis was compelled to feel that he was a generous man, but Sheila Ryan had difficulty expressing unbounded gratitude for Elvis’s gifts. Joe tutored her. She had to understand that Elvis felt a great need to give things to people, he lectured, and people had to express great gratitude for the things he gave. Sheila was not materially minded. She was twenty-one and never owned anything in her life, she said. She did not know what to make of this man giving her a brand-new Corvette. She just said, “Thank you.” Slowly Sheila learned to say, “Oh, God, it’s beautiful, I love it.” She felt so phony, but she did it.

Sheila found that her relationship with Elvis was not a matter of exchanging heavy sex for favors. “You gave and you got,” she said, but not for sex. “I’ve read bits and pieces about his sexual behavior, and how perverse and bizarre it was, and it really wasn’t. It was innocent … Adolescent innocence was what it was all about.” Sheila concluded that Elvis “was just this guy who had this wonderful charisma and things got blown way out of shape. He was just this innocent little guy.” It was really not as complicated as it seemed.

After the run in Las Vegas was over in early September, Elvis stayed on for a few days, going to shows with Sheila. Then he went to Los Angeles and flew back to Memphis with Linda.

Sheila was increasingly unwilling to go on tour with Elvis. She just wasn’t much interested in Elvis, she concluded, and his interest in her was limited. “There wasn’t much at stake. I was his friend, I was his little pal.” She was relieved when he took Mindi Miller, a model and dancer, with him for the first part of his tour that began in Macon, Georgia, on April 4, 1975.

Elvis wanted Sheila to go with him for his third tour in 1975, seventeen days that began on July 8. Joe couldn’t find her, so Elvis brought along the reigning Miss Georgia, Diana Goodman, whom he had previously picked out of a tour group at the gates of Graceland. When Joe did reach Sheila, she confessed that she was practically living with actor James Caan, so they agreed to tell Elvis that she had an ear infection and could not fly. Elvis responded with an offer to hire a low-flying plane to bring her to him. Sheila declined. Elvis seemed to understand and accept the end of their relationship. He said he would call after the tour.

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