External links
| Studio albums |
|
|---|---|
| Soundtrack albums | |
| EPs | |
| Live albums | |
| Budget albums | |
| Compilation albums |
|
| Box sets |
|
| Biographical media |
|
| Documentaries | |
| TV specials |
|
| Stage shows | |
| Related people |
|
| Related articles |
|
The FBI files on Elvis Presley consist of records kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning Elvis Presley. These records consist of 683 pages of copies of letters from members of the public commenting on his performances, newspaper clippings, and documents reporting that Presley was the target of extortion attempts.
As rock singer Elvis Presley was a very popular star, J. Edgar Hoover's FBI had many files on him copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and today archived on CD-ROM. According to Thomas Fensch, [1] the texts from the FBI reports dating from 1956 to 1981 represent a "microcosm [of Presley's] behind-the-scenes life." For instance, the FBI was interested in death threats made against the singer, the likelihood of Elvis being the victim of blackmail and particularly a "major extortion attempt" while he was in the United States Army in Germany, complaints from outraged persons about his public performances, a paternity suit, the theft by larceny of an executive jet which he owned and the alleged fraud surrounding a 1955 Corvette which he owned, and similar things. The files do not collect anything investigational toward Elvis Presley. [2]
The files deal with the moral panic of the time of sexual drives of the American youth being aroused beyond normality by Elvis Presley. In a letter to J. Edgar Hoover dated May 16, 1956, for instance, a purported former member of the Army Intelligence Service states that Presley is a "definite danger to the security of the United States" because he had driven girls and boys mad. The letter says that Elvis's "actions and motions were such as to arouse the sexual passions of teenaged youth. One eye-witness described his actions as 'sexual self-gratification on stage,' – another as 'a strip-tease with clothes on.' The author further criticizes Elvis's "motions and gestures, like those of masturbation or riding a microphone," and adds that "Indications of the harm Presley did...were two high school girls (...) whose abdomen and thigh had Presley's autograph...It is known by psychologists, psychiatrists, and priests that teenaged girls from the age of eleven, and boys in their adolescence are easily aroused to sexual indulgence and perversion by certain types of motions and hysteria, – the type that was exhibited at the Presley show. There is also gossip of the Presley Fan Clubs that degenerate into sex orgies..From eye-witness reports about Presley, I would judge that he may possibly be a drug addict and a sexual pervert." [3]
Ten days after Presley met with President Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970, the singer was granted a private tour of FBI headquarters. The FBI memo recounts Presley's visit and that he would like to advise FBI director Hoover "that The Beatles laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are having with young people by their filthy unkempt appearances and suggestive music while entertaining in this country during the early and middle 1960s." In Presley's opinion, the source for the disaffected youth of the day owed to the existence of "the Smothers Brothers, Jane Fonda, and other persons in the entertainment industry of their ilk" because they had "poisoned young minds by disparaging the United States in their public statements and unsavory activities." [4] However, unlike Nixon, Hoover refused to meet with Presley, who he described as "wearing of all sorts of exotic dress." [5]
According to one of the best-documented files, Elvis Presley was the victim of Laurenz Johannes Griessel-Landau of Johannesburg, South Africa, a swindler and blackmailer who represented himself to be a medical doctor and skin specialist.
On 27 November 1959 Griessel-Landau was hired by Presley in Bad Nauheim, Germany, when the star was in the military service, to make skin treatments. However, during these treatments in December 1959, which involved Presley's shoulders and face and took place in the singer's quarters, the man had made several homosexual passes at the singer's friends from the Memphis Mafia and, according to Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick, at Elvis himself. According to the FBI files, Griessel-Landau
This drove Griessel-Landau into rage and he decided to extort sums of money from the singer or to ruin his career. The case was referred to the FBI. Elvis "was interviewed on 28 December 1959 concerning his complaint that he was the victim of blackmail..." According to the FBI files, Griessel-Landau "threatened to expose Presley by photographs and tape recordings which are alleged to present Presley in compromising situations." An investigation determined that Griessel Landau was not a medical doctor.
Presley didn't take the matter to court. According to the FBI files,
Because things did not turn out the way he expected, Griessel-Landau endeavored to play the case down in letters he wrote on 27 and 28 December claiming that he sympathized with Elvis and that he had decided not to take action against the singer. The FBI files say that finally,
Then the blackmailer departed Rhein-Main Air Field, Frankfurt, Germany at 16.00 hours, 6 January 1960 on Flight 491, British European Airway for London...He is alleged to be seeking entry into the United States. No contact between Presley and Griessel-Landau has been reported since 5 January.
| Studio albums |
|
|---|---|
| Soundtrack albums | |
| EPs | |
| Live albums | |
| Budget albums | |
| Compilation albums |
|
| Box sets |
|
| Biographical media |
|
| Documentaries | |
| TV specials |
|
| Stage shows | |
| Related people |
|
| Related articles |
|
Elvis Aaron Presley, also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.
John Edgar Hoover was an American law-enforcement administrator who served as the final Director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). President Calvin Coolidge first appointed Hoover as director of the BOI, the predecessor to the FBI, in 1924. After 11 years in the post, Hoover became instrumental in founding the FBI in June 1935, where he remained as director for an additional 37 years until his death in May 1972 – serving a total of 48 years leading both the BOI and the FBI and under eight Presidents.
"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being given also to Presley. A newspaper article about the suicide of a lonely man who jumped from a hotel window inspired the song. Axton presented the song to Presley in November 1955 at a country music convention in Nashville. Presley recorded it on January 10, 1956, in a session with his band, the Blue Moon Boys, the guitarist Chet Atkins and the pianist Floyd Cramer. "Heartbreak Hotel" comprises an eight-bar blues progression, with heavy reverberation throughout the track, to imitate the character of Presley's Sun recordings.
Priscilla Ann Presley is an American businesswoman and actress. She is the ex-wife of the late American singer Elvis Presley, as well as the cofounder and former chairperson of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company that turned Graceland into one of the top tourist attractions in the United States. In her acting career, Presley costarred with Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun film trilogy and played Jenna Wade on the long-running television series Dallas.
Thomas Andrew Parker, commonly known as Colonel Parker, was a musical entrepreneur, best known for being Elvis Presley's manager.
Elvis Meets Nixon is a 1997 Canadian-American mockumentary film directed by Allan Arkush and starring Rick Peters, Bob Gunton, and Alyson Court. It is an embellished account of the true story of American singer Elvis Presley meeting President Richard Nixon on December 21, 1970.
Elvis Presley was an American entertainer who achieved great initial success as a singer and stage performer. He publicly expressed an early career goal of following in the footsteps of his role models James Dean and Marlon Brando to become a top dramatic actor. His manager Colonel Tom Parker's persistent lobbying of William Morris Agency president Abe Lastfogel for a Presley screen test paid off on March 26, 1956, when the singer auditioned at Paramount for a supporting role in The Rainmaker. Although not chosen for the part, he signed a contract with Paramount producer Hal Wallis on April 25 that also allowed him to make films with other studios.
Jack Northman Anderson was an American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the founders of modern investigative journalism. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret U.S. policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In addition to his newspaper career, Anderson also had a national radio show on the Mutual Broadcasting System, acted as Washington bureau chief of Parade magazine, and was a commentator on ABC-TV's Good Morning America for nine years.
Albert Harry Goldman was an American academic and author.
"Don't Be Cruel" is a song that was recorded by Elvis Presley and written by Otis Blackwell in 1956. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2004, it was listed #197 in Rolling Stone's list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Elvis on Tour is a 1972 American concert film starring Elvis Presley during his fifteen-city spring tour earlier that year. It is written, produced, directed by Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
June Juanico is a woman from Biloxi, Mississippi, whom the famous rock 'n' roll singer Elvis Presley dated in 1955 and 1956, for instance, when he took three weeks of vacation after having recorded his songs "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" in the studio in New York City.
Elvis Is Back! is the fourth studio album by American singer Elvis Presley, released on April 8, 1960 by RCA Victor. It was Presley's first album of new material since 1958's King Creole soundtrack, as well as his first to be recorded and released in stereophonic sound. The album marked Presley's return to music after his discharge from the U.S. Army.
Elvis Presley had many close relationships throughout his career. The strongest of all his personal relationships, by far, was that he had with his mother Gladys, as described below.
Since the beginning of his career, American singer Elvis Presley has had an extensive cultural impact. According to Rolling Stone, "It was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international language of pop." The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll describes Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who single-handedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s". His recordings, dance moves, attitude and clothing came to be seen as embodiments of rock and roll. His music was heavily influenced by African-American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country. In a list of the greatest English language singers, as compiled by Q magazine, Presley was ranked first, and second in the list of greatest singers of the 20th century by BBC Radio. Some people claim that Presley created a whole new style of music: "It wasn't black, wasn't white, wasn't pop or wasn't country—it was different." As most singers in his time created music geared for adults, he gave teens music to grow up with.
Welcome Home Elvis is a 1960 television special on the ABC Television Network starring Frank Sinatra and featuring Elvis Presley in his first televised appearance following his military service in West Germany. The special, commonly known as Welcome Home Elvis, was officially titled It's Nice to Go Traveling, a reference to the Sinatra song "It's Nice to Go Trav'ling". This was Presley's first TV appearance in three years. This was also Frank Sinatra's fourth and final Timex sponsored outing for the 1959–60 television season.
"How the Web Was Woven" is a song written by English songwriters Clive Westlake and David Most. It was first recorded by rock and soul singer Jackie Lomax and released in February 1970 as his final single on the Beatles' Apple record label. George Harrison produced the recording, which also features contributions from American musician Leon Russell. The single is unique in that, with Paul McCartney producing the B-side, each side was produced by a different member of the Beatles.
The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover is a 1977 American biographical drama film written, produced, and directed by Larry Cohen. It stars Broderick Crawford as Hoover, alongside an ensemble cast including Jose Ferrer, Michael Parks, Rip Torn, James Wainwright, Celeste Holm, Ronee Blakely, John Marley, Michael Sacks, Brad Dexter, Tanya Roberts and in final screen appearances, Jack Cassidy and Dan Dailey. Both Cassidy and Dailey met with then First Lady Betty Ford and helped director Cohen get permission to film in Washington, D.C., in locales where the real Hoover visited or worked.
"We're Gonna Move" is a song by Elvis Presley. The song is credited to Elvis Presley and Vera Matson, the wife of Ken Darby, the principal writer, published by Elvis Presley Music. The song was featured in the 20th Century Fox movie Love Me Tender and was released as an RCA Victor EP in 1956.
American singer and actor Elvis Presley served in the United States Army from 1958 to 1960. At the time of his enlistment, he was widely regarded as the most well-known name in the world of entertainment.
