PERFORMING ARTS

Elvis Remembered: Intimate Interviews from the Elvis International Archives, with the People Who Knew Him Best

by Shelly Powers
Firefly. Sept. 2023. 240p. ISBN 9780228104506. $29.95. MUSIC
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Elvis superfan Powers offers ten of her previously unpublished interviews with some confidants of the King. She tracks down Cynthia Pepper and Darlene Tompkins, two actresses, who appeared in Presley films, and transcribes her lengthy talk with singer Jimmy Velvet, who knew Elvis in the fifties and became a close friend of Presley’s father. Powers includes lively conversations with backup singer Myrna Smith, photographer Ed Bonja, and even controversial hairdresser-turned-psychic Larry Geller. Most tellingly, she penetrates Elvis’ inner circle with interviews of his longtime road manager Joe Esposito, talkative former bodyguard Sonny West, trusted utility man Jerry Schilling, and the ever-loyal Patti Parry, the only woman member of Elvis’s “Memphis Mafia.”
VERDICT In an oversized volume lavishly illustrated with dozens of photos, Powers successfully portrays Presley as a down-to-earth, generous, caring, and eventually lonely and drug-addicted icon and never bows to the usual sensationalism of most Presley accounts; general readers will find it refreshing, entertaining, and interesting.
Reviewed by Dr. Dave Szatmary , Oct 27, 2023
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