Elvis Close Up edited by Rose Clayton and Dick Heard
I Just learned of this book from the editor on Twitter, and I thought I had heard of every Elvis Presley book there was. This was a good book, informative and told stories I had never heard before. It is a group of vignettes from everyone who knew Elvis (including some people I had never heard of which was nice) organized chronologically talking about his personal life, his professional life and his loves.
Here are just a few stories / facts about Elvis I did not know:
- Elvis wanted to manufacture his own candy bar in 1957 called Teddy Bear according to Fred Frederick.
- Janice Pennington, one of the Barker’s Beauties from The Price Is Right back when I watched in the 1980s, met and hung out with Elvis in LA when she was 14 and again as an adult.
- Elvis loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – guess that’s why they made the special banana ones on the 30th anniversary in 2007.
- Girl Happy, my favorite Elvis movie, was Mary Ann Mobley’s (who played Deena) first movie.
- I knew Elvis threw his cape into the audience on Aloha from Hawaii but I didn’t know he also threw his cape and belt into the audience the night before at the rehearsal and Bill Belew had to make another one in a day and fly them to Hawaii!
This is a good overview book for any Elvis fan, but for the hard core fans you are going to find some repeat stories from more of the well-known folks in the Elvis world if you’ve already read their Elvis memoirs.
DEENA'S DAYS 
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