The Party Years

The Colonel decided at this point that it didn't makes sense to confine these rambunctious boys to a hotel. They needed more space to stretch out — and they needed to be kept away from the little old ladies of this world. The solution to the problem was obviously a good-size private house in some secluded spot. A short search turned up a unique residence in Bel Air that had formerly belonged to Ali Khan and Rita Hayworth. It was a doughnut-shaped structure, ringed around a fifty-foot patio edged with shrubbery. Situated on the side of a winding hillside rood called Perugia Way, the house overlooked the greens of the Bel Air Country Club. Carpeted with thick white shag, filled with expensive California-style furnishings and staffed by a black cook and houseman, this flying saucer was the perfect playpen for a wealthy young playboy. Soon it became legendary as the headquarters of the Memphis Mafia, the most intently partying group of bachelors in the history of Hollywood.

The Presley parties are invariably depicted as tedious get-togethers whose only singularity lay in the disproportion of men to women. Though literally thousands of young women were guests at these parties over the years, those who got beyond the formalities would not have been eager to recount their adventures for the benefit of the press. Nor would any reporter or editor who valued his job in Hollywood have been willing to publish such scandalous tales. Though one hears a great deal about the outrageous violations of privacy suffered by the stars, if we are to judge by the example of Elvis Presley, in his day one of Hollywood's greatest stars — and one about whose private life curiosity reached unprecedented proportions — there are no limits to what a celebrity can do and escape exposure in the film colony.

The parties, which swiftly became the focal point of Elvis' life, would commence every night after supper, at about ten. The basic idea was to fill the house with attractive young women who had been especially selected to conform to Elvis' exacting criteria. Elvis' tastes in women were just as fixed and unvarying as his tastes in food. It was only natural that a man who could subsist for six months at a time on a steady diet of burned bacon, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and sliced tomatoes would want one and only one kind of girl. The interesting question is: what is the female equivalent of the aforesaid diet?

Elvis liked small, kittenish girls who were built to his ideal proportions. They were to be no higher than five feet two and weigh no more than 110 pounds. The prime areas of erotic interest were the ass and legs. Hair coloring, complexion, facial features were not important, though beauty was, naturally, desirable. What was critical was that the girls be as young as possible, certainly no older than eighteen, and that they be not too far removed from the condition of virginity. Married women were out of the question, and a woman who had borne a child was a complete turnoff for Elvis Presley. As for clothing, Elvis liked to see a pretty girl dressed all in white. When she undressed, he was hoping to see that she wore white underpants. White panties were Elvis' erotic fetish.

All the Guys became, at Elvis' urging, quite accomplished procurers. Their readiest source of supply was the studios where Elvis worked. Most Presley pictures had party scenes that called for as many as a score of pretty young girls. The moment the first call for such extras went out, the Guys were busy among the applicants, like cooks in the morning market, making these selections for the "Boss." After the studios, there were many other sources for Presley chicks: talent agencies, nightclubs, theatres, stores — Hollywood is full of pretty young girls, many of whom will do anything to advance their careers. All one of the boys had to do was mention that Elvis Presley was having a party that night at his home in Bel Air and the prey was winging toward the net.

Once the parties became an institution in Hollywood, a lot of girls started trying to crash the gate. On a typical evening, the whole street and the parking area before the house would be swarming with scores of young women who behaved very much like the crowd seeking admission to a popular discotheque. Like the patrons of a disco, they came in all sorts of costumes, from simple cotton dresses to sweater and pants outfits to stylish frocks topped with fur jackets. Parking their cars along this once-quiet street, they would stand, lean or sit all over the property, chattering and gossiping and looking each other over carefully. The focus of everyone's attention was the heavy brown door to the house, which was opened from time so time by one of the boys, who would admit the girls he knew and tell the others to "try later." As at Studio 54, the decision as to how many and which girls to admit depended entirely on the demands of the party going on inside the house. Some of the more determined girls would remain standing in front of the door until two in the morning.

Once a girl was admitted to the house, she would be ushered about with great politeness by one of Elvis' man-mountains. Her first impression was invariably one of great luxury and style. As you entered the house, for example, you could look straight through the foyer to the patio, which was romantically illuminated as night and filled with the splashing of a fountain as its center, where a statue emptied endless jugs from its shoulder. Sinking into the deep-pile carpet and following her guide as he turned to the left, she would enter first the living room, which was dominated by a fireplace, above which hung a painting, actually a painted photograph, of Elvis, Gladys and Vernon in front of Graceland. The next room around the circle was the den; here the parties were always held. Loud rock music would be playing from an illuminated jukebox filled with Elvis' favorite records; a wet bar at the far side of the room would be piled high with refreshments suitable for a Sweet Sixteen party — soft drinks, potato chips, pretzels, cookies — and in the middle of the room, a TV set, whose back was concealed by a folding mirrored-glass screen, would be playing with its sound turned off.