ELVIS by Albert Goldman

Elvis fans HATE this book.  Albert Goldman's muck raking biography published in 1981 still rankles Elvis lovers.  Goldman went on to write a similarly received biography of John Lennon in 1988.  Goldman died of a heart attack on an airplane in 1994.

Elvis and girlfriend Linda Thompson 

who Goldman says had to dodge bullets coming through the bathroom wall.

Although thoroughly researched, Goldman didn't like Elvis Presley, didn't like Elvis fans, didn't like Southern Culture, and didn't like Rock 'n Roll.    Goldman always drew the worst conclusions possible from the facts.   This makes for a deliciously fun read.

Albert Goldman and his muck raking book

Goldman's Elvis is really fun to read.  We hear about Elvis shooting out the television in the Presidential suite at the International Hotel in Las Vegas and the bullet nearly hitting Linda Thompson while she was sitting on the toilet.  We hear about how Elvis and some of the guys went to Paris during a leave while Elvis was in the army and Elvis took the entire chorus line of a Paris theater back to his hotel suite.  We hear about how Elvis liked young girls, the younger the better, evidenced by his infatuation with the 14 year old future wife Priscilla.  Goldman reports in detail on every rumored sexual deviancy and obsession of the King.

Young Elvis being mobbed by the girls.

"Colonel" Tom Parker is also shellacked by Goldman.  The Colonel is painted as a manipulative carnival huckster and compulsive gambler who cared absolutely nothing about Elvis Presley except as a meal ticket.  (Goldman's was the first to uncover that far from being a southerner, Colonel Parker was an illegal alien from the Netherlands named Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, who came to the U.S. stowed away on a ship).

Reading Goldman's Elvis was a perverse pleasure.  Hard core Elvis fans will still be offended, but I found it to be a lot of fun.