Ep. 14: Snap Me Like a Glowstick: The Life and Death of Elvis Presley

Speaker A: Hello. Hello. I'm Emma. I'm Shannon, and this is this podcast doesn't exist. What? This is really, really cute.
Speaker B: I didn't have anything else to contribute. The podcast owl.
Speaker A: It'S only you were on our bingo card.
Speaker B: What bingo card?
Speaker A: Emma, this bingo card that Shannon created for all of our listeners to use while they listen to our podcast, it is found in the bio of our Instagram at. This podcast doesn't exist. Please go and play it and listen to us while you do. Maybe not if you're driving, but have some fun while you listen to us. Be silly.
Speaker B: Well, and how silly of me to.
Speaker A: Forget the bingo card that I created. So silly. The one that I don't even play.
Speaker B: Well, that's okay. You listen to us while you edit. But if you play along with, um, the bingo, please share your results screenshots. Share to your instagram story. Tag us so, uh, we can see how you're doing.
Speaker A: So we can see do we need.
Speaker B: To sing more randomly to help you out? Do I need to name drop musicals or fandoms? Yeah, I'm not saying I'm going to stack the deck for you, but if you share and tag us, then maybe, uh, I can flip one in there for you just in mhm case.
Speaker A: Jordan did ask me what qualifies as a fandom, and I didn't have an answer for her.
Speaker B: I think your answer that you gave her was appropriate. Yeah, like a Marvel movie, a Harry Potter, a book series, really? Anything that you feel like people would get together and talk about on the Internet, which could kind of be almost anything.
Speaker A: Yeah, I think I would agree. Does that mean conspiracy theorists are actually fan fanboys?
Speaker B: I mean, are football fans fanboys?
Speaker A: Yes. Okay.
Speaker B: They make fun of the nerds, but I'm like, uh, have you ever seen a group of white dudes get sad about a football game?
Speaker A: Seriously?
Speaker B: Just saying.
Speaker A: I can both change a tire and get excited about my favorite book series, so you all can calm down.
Speaker B: Well, that's good. Now I know who to call if I get a flat tire.
Speaker A: Yeah, I'll teach it. It's really easy. Okay. All right. What would you like to know what we're talking about today?
Speaker B: Yeah, let's go. Uh, what are we learning about today, my friend?
Speaker A: You're talking about Elvis.
Speaker B: I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't that.
Speaker A: I also titled this in my notes. Undead. Um, Elvis not for any zombie reasons, because I hate zombies, but, um, it just seemed appropriate because it's not just about his life. It's also about his death. So this is going to be fairly heavy and dense in just information about Elvis, because I need you to know I knew absolutely nothing. I just knew, like, Elvis songs and a couple of other things. I knew really nothing about his life. His life is actually fairly interesting. I also did text Lucas to figure out if he hadn't because one of my best friends from high school, he is a musician and when we were in high school together and still kind of is obsessed with Elvis. Not necessarily obsessed obsessed, but he loves Elvis. So, uh, I talked to him and I asked him, do you have anything to weigh in on this? And he was like, nah, I think he's dead. And I was like, dude, so boring. Just be helpful. Like you don't have a favorite one, even if you believe. Well, just don't worry. I'll let you later.
Speaker B: In the spirit of being helpful, should we plug Lucas's Spotify and things?
Speaker A: Yes. So he's a wonderful musician. He has a tik tok which I.
Speaker B: Didn'T know that he does.
Speaker A: He has a TikTok that my mother follows.
Speaker B: Oh, goodness.
Speaker A: I'm, um, not sure if he's still using it. Uh, so I won't give it out because I don't have it from the top of my head. But his, uh, name is Lucas Kachetta. He has some wonderful originals on Spotify. He's very easy to find. Um, and I would just say go and listen to Q The Ring. It's his first original song and it is on point. Um, I love it.
Speaker B: It's his first original. Didn't he have an EP before?
Speaker A: He may have. I know there's one that's about Paul's Deli, but, um, it's the first one that was picked up, I think.
Speaker B: Oh, very cool.
Speaker A: Yeah, he's an incredible dude.
Speaker B: And now he has to listen to.
Speaker A: Us because we yeah, dude, we just like punch it.
Speaker B: Just send him this clip to guilty.
Speaker A: He said he was going to listen. We love a guilt listen.
Speaker B: Looking at you people that I facebook message.
Speaker A: All right, well, let's get into this. Okay. So the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley is one of the best known musical icons, if not Americans. His death in 1977 grieved the world, but some believe that Elvis didn't actually, quote, leave the building. So we're starting in on Elvis life on January 8, 1935. So a few days from recording is his birthday. Elvis Aaron Presley was born to Vernon and Gladys Presley 35 minutes after his stillborn twin Jesse Garon. Oh, so he had a twin, which I feel like I knew, but I didn't.
Speaker B: I did not know that.
Speaker A: So Elvis grew up as an only child and was the center of his parents world in Tupelo, Mississippi, with a crowd of family members helping to take care of the small family. Jobs were slim, but his parents did their best to provide for him. They were members of the assembly of God Church with Elvis and his mother credited for his initial love of music because it was very much into the gospel era of music.
Speaker B: I feel like that's a common story even today. Like Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, I feel like they all have ties to singing in church. Beyonce, the Queen yes.
Speaker A: In 1945, at ten years old, Elvis stood on a chair to reach the microphone at a youth talent contest at the Mississippi Alabama Fair and Dairy Show held in Tupelo. He sings Old Shep and wins fifth prize, which earned him $5 in Fair Ride tickets.
Speaker B: Woohoo.
Speaker A: Which honestly, as a ten year old, that would be all I got.
Speaker B: Maybe throw in a funnel cake.
Speaker A: Seriously. Honestly, um, I wouldn't have cared about getting first price so long as I still got money for fair price. Yeah. All right. So for his 11th birthday, Elvis asked for a bicycle. Gladys knew the family couldn't afford it and meaning into his interested music convinced him to accept a guitar instead, a much cheaper gift. It cost twelve point $95, which I then plugged it into the calculator for inflation and all that, which is about $172 today. So it's not cheap. But I was trying to think about it in the context of all the other things that they had to pay for. They didn't necessarily have to pay rent. They had a house that Vernon built for them. It was like a one storey shotgun house, which is just basically like it's the front room and then the bedroom directly behind it. And um, it had like a little idiotty porch and all this is still standing. You can still go visit it. So they don't have to pay rent, they need to be buying food and taking care of all that. But still, like, $172 is not cheap. Uh, but how much was that bicycle if this was the alternative? I don't know, I was just like, wow, okay. But they loved him, so they bought my guitar. In an effort to find a better life and better jobs, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1948. They end up living in the poorer neighborhoods of North Memphis, all three of them working. Once Elvis is old enough to support themselves. They continue to attend the assembly of God Church, and Elvis absorbs the inspiration of gospel and the blues he hears there and on Beale Street in Memphis. He grows his talent with the guitar and is known around his neighborhood and in his church as a talented musician and singer, mixing white country music and black Luz music into his sound. So you'll listen to Elvis songs and you'll hear that grovely voice and that gospel music undertone. But um, he later in later life definitely credits like, the black community that he was surrounded by as his deep inspiration for a lot of his music. While in high school. Elvis enters a talent show and receives first prize, apparently to his surprise, like, he did not expect it. After his graduation, he starts work at the Parker Mechanist Shop and that summer decides to use his paycheck to buy a special birthday gift for his mother. He stops by the Memphis Recording Service, which housed Son Records, to record a demo record of my happiness and that's when your heartaches begin for $4. So, like, you would go in, you use their recording equipment and they would write a record for you and hand you the record and you go home with it. Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records, recorded him and afterwards told US assistant about him and she wrote in her notes, quote, good ballad singer hold, end quote. So obviously they recognize that he had some talent and this is like just he's 18, he's just out of high school. 1954 became the year that Elvis started to break out into the music world. Sam Phillips called him back to the studio to try recording a song that Phillips had wanted to put to record for a while, but didn't like Elvis style. When he sang it. They tried a few more songs and eventually Phillips decided to team Elvis and two other local musicians, scotty Moore and Bill Black, to see if they come up with some worthwhile music. They did and recorded the first of five singles in the Elvis Cannon, released on the sun label by early summer of 1954. And Scotty Moore and Bill Black play with Elvis for a really long time, not just as the trio of them, but also later when he's Elvis Elvis, they come back to back him, which I appreciate.
Speaker B: Who is it? Is it springsteen in the East Street Band or whoever.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: I don't know.
Speaker A: How Jersey are you?
Speaker B: Not as much as you would hope. I don't know.
Speaker A: They tore up the south and appeared in the fall on the Louisiana Hayride Show, a live Saturday night music show on the radio. Elvis signed a one year contract with the show, which made it impossible for him to go on tour anywhere outside of the south. So he's kind of stuck in the southern states for a little bit. Mhm. In 1955, Elvis's son contract was sold to RCA with unprecedented sums. It was the highest at the time that any performer had been paid in compensation for their music rights. Didn't write down how much that was, but I'm going to assume a lot.
Speaker B: Um, I believe you.
Speaker A: Yeah. It's obvious that Elvis is starting to grow in popularity and this is just 1955. So this is like a year after he's been discovered. Two days after his 21st birthday in 1956, Elvis recorded Heartbreak Hotel, which topped the charts in the next few years, recording songs and appearing on television and in movies that starred explicitly him. It becomes evident that though the older crowds of the US are not his fans, they thought he was a bit too racy. The youth of America are crazy for him. They love not only his sound, but his moves, his style and his handsome face, those hips. So what this reminded me of was, have you seen Grease? Yes. Okay, so there's that song that Rizzo sings about Sandra D and about how perfect and goody twoshoes she is. And there's a moment where she sings Elvis. Elvis. Let me b keep that pelvis far from me. That's all I can think of.
Speaker B: Will say I thought you were going to talk about the musical by Vibrati.
Speaker A: Oh, that too.
Speaker B: I directly related to Elvis.
Speaker A: Yes. That's honestly one of those musicals as a movie that I think works really well on stage. It's interesting, but it's not as fun as it is in the movie.
Speaker B: We did it my senior year of high school, but it was the unfortunate but culturally appropriate follow up to us, uh, trying to do hairspray, but we, uh, didn't have enough of a diverse cast coming out and I'm very proud of our directors for being like, no, we're not going to try to make that work when it would be culturally insensitive.
Speaker A: Instead. We did.
Speaker B: Bye bye, birdie.
Speaker A: I appreciate that.
Speaker B: I played the mother, which, uh, surprises no one. And we were double cast, which was kind of unfortunate. But I was double cast with my best friend Sarah.
Speaker A: Well, that's fine. Yeah, we love that. We love Sarah.
Speaker B: We do.
Speaker A: Shout out to you.
Speaker B: She's a teacher.
Speaker A: She's great. I will say too byebye Birdie. The movie has Anne Margaret as the young, uh, orangey knew. And Anne Margaret was in movies with Elvis, um, at the time as well. So it's interesting to me that she's in a movie that's almost explicitly about Elvis.
Speaker B: Elvis.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: That's fun.
Speaker A: So I find that cool. Mhm elvis returned to his hometown of Tupelo in September of 1000, 1956, to perform at the Mississippi Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. And there were 100 National Guardsmen surrounding the stage to maintain control of the crowd.
Speaker B: So the teenage girls yes. Like that's. So, uh, fun.
Speaker A: Yes. At this time, Elvis merchandise became a phenomenon as it hadn't been with any celebrity before. So they're just marketing all of this specifically Elvis stuff. And my favorite is so by this time, his song, You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog has come out crying all the time. Yeah. Which, uh, apparently was like racy, because to be like a Hound dog was like, you were going after girls wanting to have fun. Which I did not, uh, put that together.
Speaker B: But the 50s are different.
Speaker A: Exactly. But my favorite thing that they sold were these little stuffed hound dogs. Oh, what a good marketing, uh, move.
Speaker B: Right. I was like, what an ideal marketing move.
Speaker A: This is so perfect. It's so perfect. But they have like t shirts and buttons and everything.
Speaker B: Can I show that I'm a bad classic rock, um, fan?
Speaker A: That's okay.
Speaker B: What years were the Beatles really popular?
Speaker A: They're coming.
Speaker B: Okay, so he's before that. Oh, that makes sense. Does. Sixty s. Sixty s. All right, I'm back. I get it.
Speaker A: It's interesting because he has a weird relationship with them later on.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: By March of 1957, Elvis had accrued enough money to buy the famous graceland mansion in Memphis for his parents, his paternal grandmother, and himself to live in. He wouldn't be staying long, though, as his draft noticed. Arrived in December of 1957. These are the photos that I remember seeing Elvis. Of course, you see his Jailhouse Rock video or movie stills and stuff like that, and that iconic, like, striped shirt and his pelvis moves and all of that. But these photographs of him in uniform, he's already a beautiful person. He's just a handsome person, but in uniform, I can't imagine. I would definitely be all over him in the 50s if I were this girl.
Speaker B: Sorry.
Speaker A: I'm sorry, babe. I think you would be, too.
Speaker B: You do love a uniform.
Speaker A: I do. I think it's a symptom of being a military kid.
Speaker B: Oh, see, I directly am the opposite.
Speaker A: Uh, know it's fine, but anyway, he's transferred to Fort Hood for basic training in August of 1958, and he receives word that his mother is ill. Oh, no. So he's been at Fort Hood for a while. And in August this is for Vietnam, or no, uh, this is for Korea.
Speaker B: Um oh, right. Yes.
Speaker A: He is granted emergency leave and visits her at the hospital. She has acute hepatitis and there is nothing to be done. On August 14, at the age of 46, gladys Presley dies. She's laid to rest in Forest Hill Cemetery, not far from Graceland. And Elvis returned to Fort Hood devastated. Uh, while he's stationed in Europe, because he gets after basic training, he gets stationed in Europe, uh, and in Germany specifically, his family follows him to maintain residences where he's stationed. So his father, grandmother, and some friends stay just out of Friedburg, where he is stationed for 18 months. He also stays there. He just maintains a residence just outside of base, which I'm like. Are you allowed to do that?
Speaker B: I guess, if you have the money. As long as you report, um, where you need to be, I guess.
Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know anything about that. But Elvis finds Europe to be as enthusiastic about his music as his fans in the US. Because obviously everyone knows that he's there. But he can't perform while he's on duty. Basically, every time he goes on leave and he's able to get back to the US. He does his best to do any kind of songwriting, recording, anything that he can do while he's on leave, and then just gets right back to work when he's back on duty. In 1959, when Elvis was 24, captain Joseph Boo, which is just a great last name, moved from Texas to the White. I'm going to say vicebodin vs. Bodin. All right, that's dope. Yes.
Speaker B: I did gymnastics there for, like, two.
Speaker A: Years small when I was a child. Well, the vs. Bodden air force base near Friedberg. Freedberg. How do you spell F-R-I-E-D-B-E-R-G?
Speaker B: Freedberg. Usually you say the second vowel.
Speaker A: Okay, near Freedberg with his wife and children, including his stepdaughter, Priscilla Anne. Uh, 14 year old Priscilla is invited to a party at Elvis off base home. And apparently the two hit off despite the fact, uh, that she's a child.
Speaker B: And how old is he at this point?
Speaker A: He's 24.
Speaker B: You know, it's a no from me, dog.
Speaker A: They're exactly ten years apart.
Speaker B: Exactly. They're the same birthday.
Speaker A: Well, no, essentially ten years apart.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: Which I will say my parents are nine years apart.
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker A: They met when my mom was 17. They did not start dating until my mom was 19. Right. And they were friends. Mum and dad. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you might not want me to tell the world if I am wrong, but it's very interesting to me that with everything else that I learned about Elvis and all the other stuff that he did, this is like the one sticking point for me of just like, no, dude.
Speaker B: Also, if you're an attractive, successful musician serviceman, you could probably get any woman that you were interested in.
Speaker A: Anyone. Probably the only reason he was interested in her is because she's 14 and didn't have a clue who he was because that wasn't her scene or something.
Speaker B: I don't know. I mean, we see that a lot, unfortunately, in music, where older people I've recently and everyone who knows me in real life will know this, but I've, uh, recently fallen down the Taylor Swift.
Speaker A: Rabbit hole that you have.
Speaker B: And I'm not mad about it, but like, John Mayer, um, dated her when she was 19. But yeah, technically she was an adult, but he was like a grown man. Like, why, bro?
Speaker A: Yeah, they hit it off. That's the effect.
Speaker B: He played ping pong and cheeseball.
Speaker A: Sorry. I mean, is that what you do? Right. At the cusp of 1960?
Speaker B: I cannot say.
Speaker A: After eventually being promoted to sergeant, elvis was officially discharged from active duty in March of 1960. He immediately starts back up with his recording and filming. He felt like he had lost two years of his career, which essentially he did, regardless of his time on leave, when he would come back to record or, um, do anything. So I get it. In 1962, the now 17 year old Priscilla visited Elvis from Germany in the summer, and they spent their time in Las Vegas in between Elvis filming for movies. And she came again later in the year for Christmas. Only a year after 1963. She moved to Memphis and graduated from high school there in 1963. May of 1963.
Speaker B: OK, so obviously, was her family traveling with her?
Speaker A: I don't think so. This is just her.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: Yeah. Elvis continues to make movies, buy homes, and sell out theaters, including a theater showing in Mexico City that resulted in a ban on Elvis films in Mexico, as crowds destroyed the theater. They ripped up seats, they threw trash everywhere. There were fights. I have no clue what the investigating thing was. It's very interesting. I wonder if it was like, girls are crooning over. Elvis and their boyfriends were like, no, I don't know. Machismo in any case, I don't know. In 1967, he and Priscilla finally married. Lisa Marie was born exactly nine months to the day after their wedding. Good for them.
Speaker B: Great customer.
Speaker A: Elvis started his Las Vegas residency for a while in 1969 and 1970, regaining some of the admiration he felt at the beginning of his career and started to tour the country. Finally. Now, this portion I'm really excited about because this gives you an insight into the kind of person he was. Based upon his celebrity, Elvis mhm met with President Nixon in one mhm 970, taking a photo that has become the most requested photograph from the National Archives. The story behind it, however, gives us some insight. On December 21, nine, um, hundred and 60, richard Nixon invited Elvis to the White House. Elvis had requested to meet him, stating in a letter that he brought to the White House, I have, uh, done an indepth study of drug abuse and communist brainwashing techniques, and I am right in the middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good. I would love to meet you just to say hello, if you're not too busy. He believed that since he, at 35, was in touch with the youth of America, that he would be the perfect person to help. Elvis arrived that morning at the White House in a purple velvet suit, a gold belt, and wore a Colt 45 pistol on his hip.
Speaker B: It's called fashion, Emma.
Speaker A: It's called being, uh, wealthy and celebrity enough that you can get away with anything. And from the South, Elvis had become an avid collector of police badges and wanted a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. He also wanted to be named a federal Agent at large by the Bureau. Now, according to Priscilla, his wife quote, with the federal narcotics badge, he believed he could legally enter any country wearing both guns and carrying any drugs he wished. Um, in terms of motivation to get this badge, I wonder if it was both. Like, I want to be able to do whatever I want, but also I want to be able to flash it to do whatever I want in that.
Speaker B: Honestly, if I were angling for a political appointment to do whatever I want, I would rather be a diplomat.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: Because you can literally commit mirror dirt and diplomatic immunity.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: Uh, I'm going back. Right. Look, there was a whole West Wing arc about it that was very frustrating.
Speaker A: So the only information about what happened in this meeting comes from a memo by an aide in the room named Eagle Bud Crow it came from who wrote the following quote presley indicated that he thought the Beatles had been a real force for antiAmerican spirit. He said that the Beatles came to this country, made their money, and then returned to England, where they promoted an antiAmerican theme. The President nodded in agreement and expressed some surprise. The President then indicated that those who use drugs are also those in the vanguard of antiAmerican protest. Violence, drug usage, dissent, protest, all seem to merge in generally the same group of young people. Presley kept repeating that he wanted to be helpful, that he wanted to restore some respect for the flag which was being lost. He said he could go right into a group of young people or hippies and be accepted, which he felt could be helpful to him in his drug drive. The President indicated again his concern that Presley retained his credibility. End quote.
Speaker B: Wow, that's a lot.
Speaker A: Yeah. So he does not like the Beatles. The Beatles are becoming like they were already big at this point because it's 1970, really big. They're starting to move with the times in terms of the ways they're writing music. So their music is becoming much more along the lines of, like, that hippie trippy stuff. And for Elvis, that seems like counter to what music should be kind of thing.
Speaker B: Also, I'm sure you were mad that they were selling a lot of records.
Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. And they weren't from the US. Right.
Speaker B: So the British Invasion.
Speaker A: Yeah. So Elvis was presented with a badge, but it was an honorary one. But no one told, uh, elvis, uh.
Speaker B: This who would want to, uh right.
Speaker A: Now, why would you tell the King? Oh, yeah, totally. Don't use that. Don't try and use it. Bet Elvis hugged the President on his way out, too.
Speaker B: What a funny image.
Speaker A: Right? Let me show you the picture, uh, of the two of them, because, honestly, uh, they both look so comfortable with each other.
Speaker B: Just chilling.
Speaker A: Straight chilling.
Speaker B: Wow.
Speaker A: What a love rice. Remember, uh, purple velvet?
Speaker B: And I love that he's wearing it sort of like a cape.
Speaker A: Yeah. It's not even like he's put his arms through, he's just draping it, draped it over. Fashionable gentleman. So that photo exists.
Speaker B: All right.
Speaker A: So now it becomes obvious as the years go on that Elvis, um, popularity is waning. His films start to chart lower than 50 in the box office. No, I know he made a lot of movies. And his songs, though still charting, are not where he believes they should be. In October of 1973, priscilla and Elvis amicably divorced, sharing custody of Lisa Marie. So they were friends to the end. So obviously they had at least a good friendship going on. Elvis began to get into the groove of touring and seemed to really enjoy it. He didn't tour outside of the United States, except for, uh, Toronto and Ottawa. Those are the only two places that he ever toured outside of the US. But he was a huge hit in the States. He felt like he was on the rise again during these tours. But his fans started to see a key difference in him. He was starting to gain weight, he was losing stamina to perform full concerts on his tours. And he was starting to become fairly obsessive about spiritualism and his past self. It's like his past image. He tried to keep wearing the same kind of outfit, the white tuxedo look that he's very famous for. All that it was getting very obvious. And there's one concert that he did fairly close to the time that he died, that he was only on stage for an hour, which is the minimum that it could possibly be, um, on stage. And he was completely no one could understand him at all. He was talking to them, mumbling into the microphone. No one could understand what he was doing or saying. It was not great. On 16 August 1977, Elvis was at Graceland preparing last minute details of his next tour. He is supposed to fly to Portland, Maine to perform on the 17th. He goes to his room to rest around 07:00 A.m. To wait for his evening flight. By late morning, Elvis had passed due to heart failure. It was a shock to the world. Elvis was 42 years old. Now, Graceland, the place has its own website and everything. You can go visit a, uh, huge tourist attraction in Memphis. It's a beautiful old house, and it's much smaller than you'd anticipate it being. There are a lot of other buildings outside. There's a barn. He was really into horses, uh, and stuff, and so was Lisa Marie and Priscilla. But it's interesting to me, I got a lot of this information from the biography of Elvis on Graceland's website because I figured that's the most credible place. But their biography does not mention that Elvis was in fact found on the bathroom floor looking as though he had frozen while seated on the toilet and had just fallen over.
Speaker B: Yes, I feel like that is the thing you hear about Elvis passing.
Speaker A: The King's funeral was held at Graceland on August 18, where people crowded outside the gates to get a glimpse. A car rammed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third just outside the gates. So this is a mob of people. 80,000 people flocked the processional route from Graceland to Forest Hill, where Elvis was buried next to his mother after someone attempted to steal his body later in the month. I'm sorry, someone tried to dig up his body and steal it? Both Elvis and his mother's bodies were reburied inside the grounds of Graceland so that they could just basically be like, no, no.
Speaker B: Yes. No, thanks.
Speaker A: No, thank you. Now let's talk about Elvis death. Okay. Uh, it has been revealed that Elvis had started a dependency on prescription drugs, which apparently he saw as separate from illegal drugs.
Speaker B: All, buddy. Yeah, well, it's just like alcohol is legal, so. That's not an issue. But weed is bad because it's illegal in most places.
Speaker A: So there was that kind of thing in him of like, well, I've been prescribed these, uh, badge. I can do whatever I want. Nixon gave it to me. These prescription drugs worsened his body and probably contributed to his heart attack. He had seen his dentist the night before his death and was given codeine pills for pain. The possibility for anaphylactic shock brought on by a mild allergy to this medication might have also contributed to his heart failure.
Speaker B: Oh, no.
Speaker A: He knew he was mildly allergic to codeine, and he just took it anyway, so there's that.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: In, um, fact, a pair of lab reports filed two months after the King's autopsy suggested polypharmacy, which is just basically, like, all kinds of drugs as the primary cause of death. He had 14 drugs in his system. Oh, ten in a large quantity. That's, like, a lot.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker A: I can't imagine taking ten medications. I'm sure plenty of people do to maintain their health, but I'm sure that there's some kind of conflict if there's.
Speaker B: One if even one of those medications is affecting his mental state, then it's like if he's responsible for managing his own intake. To me, there's clearly a risk for misdosing.
Speaker A: Uh, not necessarily overdosing. It's not an intentional thing.
Speaker B: But, like, all the interactions yes.
Speaker A: Even, like, I learned that Robotussin and Tylenol do not mix, apparently. Or maybe it's I'd be proven something like that, where it's just like, you can't mix them because they can cause your throat to close up or your arteries to oh, goodness, I forget. In any case, I'm just not I made sure I don't have robotics.
Speaker B: I'm always paranoid about ibuprofen because ever since I was in high school and I was able to take my own medicine for my headache, my mom was always like, be careful, because if you take too much your liver, it will damage your liver.
Speaker A: And I'm like, I don't it's basically if you take six ibuprofen every single day. Yeah, well, I get it.
Speaker B: Fortunately, yes.
Speaker A: Michael Baden, a forensic historian and pathologist, seems to believe that it isn't as cut and dry as all that. He has said that Elvis had an enlarged heart for a long time, and that with the drug habit that caused his death, ultimately, it was too difficult to diagnose one or the other at the time, at least so far as they said. However, a reopening of the autopsy report in 1094 showed no data that supported death from a drug overdose, which wasn't necessarily a drug overdose. Just to put that back out, mhm there polypharmacy is not an overdose. It is a mixture of drugs that can cause bad reactions within your body. Everything pointed to a severe heart attack, but not everybody supports this theory, because you can have a severe heart attack and have that be what you die from. But it can be caused by a number of things. It should also be noted that about a week before his death, three former bodyguards of Elvis published a book called Elvis What Happened? Which detailed Presley's years of drug misuse. And Elvis attempts to halt the relief were unsuccessful. This was August 1, when this book was published, and August 16 is when he dies. So this was broiling at this time, right? Anne was being read. People were like, oh, my gosh. Elvis. Oh, my gosh, Ellis.
Speaker B: Put that on the march.
Speaker A: Uh oh, my gosh. Ellis. He said, that was far from me.
Speaker B: I don't like that voice. That's not my name.
Speaker A: All right, sorry. So Elvis sightings alive.
Speaker B: Oh, I'm glad. People are running into dead Elvis on the coke closet. You're like, whoa, you open a coat closet and what? Shannon, there's dead elements in there. Just like the body leaned up against the side like rigor mortise.
Speaker A: Uh, rigor mortise only lasts for, like, 12 hours after that.
Speaker B: Wait, really?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So, like, when you go to a funeral and the body is like it's like a floppy yeah.
Speaker A: Wow. But I feel that it was formaldehyde and sometimes newspapers. Sorry. You did not need to know that. I apologize.
Speaker B: I already knew that because of an episode of My Favorite Murder. Yeah, uh, sorry, but I don't remember his name. The boy and the wrestling match.
Speaker A: Yeah. Anyway, we'll get to that case because.
Speaker B: That'S one that we have to it's.
Speaker A: One that really hurts my heart and I feel is very important to talk about because it was so mishandled. All right, sorry. Um, we can talk about that.
Speaker B: Well, I just, um, feel that cartoons have lied to me because I thought dead bodies were all stiff as a board forever.
Speaker A: Well, if you ever happen upon a dead body, first of all, don't touch it. Call the police. But if they come and the EMTs are, like, picking them up, you can tell if they're stiff or not because sometimes morticians have to break rigor mortis in order to do their autopsies because your body can freeze in the position that you die in. And there have been times where it's like because in order to break rigor mortise, you need a lot of force. So there have been times where people need, like, three or four people to help break a body, basically.
Speaker B: Do not snap me like a glow stick. I don't like that human glow stick cracking you onto a slab. Well, his mouth opened. Something I picked up at the Denver airport.
Speaker A: Human glow sticks. Oh, my God.
Speaker B: You're welcome. Put that on the Merch, actually.
Speaker A: Um wow.
Speaker B: What if we had glow? Oh, my gosh. We'll make human glow sticks. Like, glow sticks that are in the shape of people.
Speaker A: You snap them against, like, a snap.
Speaker B: Bracelet, but, like, glow stick style. We'll workshop it. If you have ideas, please write in oh, my gosh.
Speaker A: I'm sure Dylan has some ideas.
Speaker B: He probably thinks we're very weird, but no take backs.
Speaker A: I had no takebacks, man. You married me.
Speaker B: I was there.
Speaker A: You were. So there's a longstanding theory among diehard fans that the King is alive. And the conspiracy began the day he died, the afternoon of August 16, 1977, while the rest of the world was mourning a man who had an extreme resemblance, um, to Elvis is said to have bought a one way ticket from the Memphis airport to Buenos Aires. He gave the name John Burrows, which Elvis used as his pseudonym when checking into hotels on tour. However, Patrick Lacey, author of Elvis Decoded, claims that he debunked the popular theory when he interviewed employees and officials at the airport. Apparently, international flights weren't available from Memphis until the 80s, making it impossible that a one way could have been booked. But I will say one way can also include several layovers. One way just means you don't want a return ticket. So if you wanted to lay low, mhm, this may have been the way to do it. Jump some airport Florida. But even if I have a one way ticket to Buenos Aires. I have enough money that I don't have to go with Buenos Aires. I can get to the airport that I'm having layover at and buy a different ticket there and go somewhere else so that even if somebody does figure out. Oh my gosh. He bought a ticket in Memphis to this place. We got to go find him there. Like. He's wherever he wants to be. So mhm. Maybe. Maybe not. Elvis Presley's funeral, uh, also garnered a lot of what ifs around the Star's Death footage from the service shows about twelve pallbearers struggling with the 900 pound copper coffin. Bro, like, this is so heavy. Regardless of his weight gain, there's no way he and the casket weigh a half time, almost a half time. Obviously, if the factor in the fact that there is a casket and there's flowers on top of it and a body inside of it and the stuff that's like, surrounding the body and all that, but £900 seems like a lot. But again, I have seen the video and I'll show it to you later and it's in the show notes, so go ahead and look at it. Um, but it honestly just looks like they're struggling to get it up the stairs of Graceland mansion rather than actually struggling mhm, to carry it down the sidewalk. But in any case, mhm there has been another explanation put forward that there was a wax dummy in the casket instead, along with a cooling system to keep it from melting on the hot summer day. This is supported by Gene Smith, a cousin of Elvis, who said that upon looking into the open casket, quote, his nose was kind of puggy looking and his right sideburn was sticking straight out, looked about an inch and his hairline looked like a hair piece or something was glued on, end quote. So if you've seen you'll look at pictures of Elvis in our Instagram post, it's a very aquiline nose. Like, it's very straight and long and very it's not puggy. Piggy, really. I think that's what he meant.
Speaker B: I like the dog or puggy.
Speaker A: Yeah. It's kind of squished, a little bit flatter. It's not mhm that his nose does not, um, look like that. And the fact that his sideburns and his hair there's a picture of him and Nixon, that's about what his hair looked like around the time that he died. It's a lot of floof. It's a lot of 1970s floof. And his signature sideburns are like, a thing that he keeps very particular. So it's interesting that it looks like it was glued on. Um, he added that Elvis hands, uh, were smooth, which was really unusual for the musician, because he has calloused hands of a guitarist. And that there was sweat on his brow, which I will say is not uncommon for dead bodies. It's not necessarily sweat, but more along the lines of, like, condensation. So sorry about it. Sorry. So far as I am aware, if I am wrong, if we have any forensic people, this is what I have garnered from listening to millions of podcasts and reading a lot of books. So because I am not a mortician or a pathologist, um, or anything like that, maybe I'm wrong, but let me know. It may not have been a wax dummy at all, or even the King, but rather a double kept cold in the casket and made to look up like the King while the real man went off to sign retirement in peace. Uh, so rather, there's, like, an alive person in the coffin, which is why the body was sweating and the hands were not calloused. And there was a SSO. Maybe there was a cooling system that was, um, keeping a live person cool during August.
Speaker B: Don't want that job. No, because eventually they close the lid.
Speaker A: This double could have been the stillborn brother actually alive and raised by other family members, as the Presley's were extremely poor and could probably only afford to raise one son. There's been no evidence of this, but it's fun to speculate, as there have been theories about all this. Having a double starting in 1976. So, like, a year before his death when he started to get Mubbly.
Speaker B: Okay. But also, uh, if I have a secret twin somewhere, like, if you were the secret twin that was taken away and raised separately. I'm not about to step in for my famous twin.
Speaker A: No.
Speaker B: You know what I mean?
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: I don't think I'd even do that for someone that I was close with.
Speaker A: Right. I'm not getting in a coffin for you.
Speaker B: They're going my plans for my birthday.
Speaker A: I love you. I love you. I'm foster public.
Speaker B: Yeah, me too.
Speaker A: Yeah. Never.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker A: Do not put me in a coffin unless I'm dead.
Speaker B: Even then. You want to be a diamond.
Speaker A: No.
Speaker B: Or a vase.
Speaker A: There you go. No. You, uh, determined that you should better be a diamond. I know.
Speaker B: I want you to be a diamond. I don't need to be one.
Speaker A: No. You just told me not to throw you overboard because the ocean is scary.
Speaker B: Yeah, true.
Speaker A: If I throw you overboard, will you haunt me?
Speaker B: Do you want me to haunt you? Yes. I don't know how to answer that.
Speaker A: Question, but I'm going to throw you on board. Sorry.
Speaker B: No, you're not.
Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. The headstone on Presley's grave also raises suspicions. Elvis middle name, Aaron, was given to him spelled as A-R-O-N potentially in memory of his stillborn brother's middle name, Garron. G-A-R-O-N. However, it seems that Elvis just preferred the more common spelling, which is proven by legal documents bearing his name. Um, some people are like, oh, my gosh, it's a clue for his fans to let us know that he's not actually gone because it's not his name.
Speaker B: The way he did it.
Speaker A: Yeah. It's like or if he just never.
Speaker B: Legally got it changed.
Speaker A: Yeah. But anyway, the second sighting of Elvis came on December 31, 1977, when a photo was snapped around the pool house by a visitor to Graceland. A few years after visiting, the man was studying his photographs and saw a shadowed male figure sitting in the doorway. This, to him, looked like Elvis. He's got the right build, he's got the right outline, the right shadow. Okay. Photography expert at the time verified that nothing on the photograph had been messed with. So obviously someone had been looking out at the house. It has been suggested that it was actually a pressly associate, Al Strada, and some have taken this as fact, including the man who took the photograph. But nothing has been proven because unless you were standing there when it happened, you don't have any proof of what happened. A similar case of photographed evidence popped up a few years later in a 1984 newspaper photo. The photo was of Muhammad Ali being discharged from the hospital and Jesse Jackson, his friend. But behind them was a man who looked extremely like Elvis. So I'm going to show you the photograph.
Speaker B: Jesse Jackson also reportedly a freemason. In addition to being a famous athlete, the more you know.
Speaker A: All right, so here's the photograph and the man in the back. Uh huh. Does it look like Elvis to you?
Speaker B: Mhm well, in this context, sure. I don't think if I saw that photo just in a book or something, I don't think I'd be like, oh, that sells us behind them.
Speaker A: Okay.
Speaker B: It's, uh, still the 70s, right?
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I feel like everybody has floppy boy hair like Kelso. He looks like Kelseo.
Speaker A: And that's every show. That's the only show. Absolutely. He does I wonder if that's where they, uh I mean, no, obviously not. It was the kind of hairstyle at the time in my head, I was like, oh, my gosh, maybe they, like, modeled him after Elvis. Sports agent Larry Cole came forward with the color picture to prove that it was him in the shot, not the King. But later, when asked to identify, uh, the man, muhammad Ali said, my friend Elvis. So either Muhammad Ali has been hit in the head too many times or he's a troll. Yeah. Or he's been paid off. But anyway, Elvis was spotted at a Burger King by a young woman in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1988.
Speaker B: The king.
Speaker A: At the king. Yes. Apparently it was one of his favorite chains. You would eat okay, burger King.
Speaker B: They have really good onion rings pretty regularly. Dang. Now I want onion rings.
Speaker A: No, we have good food. We have to eat well. Otherwise otherwise our bodies will hurt me later. There is this weird theory that he showed up as a background extra in Home Alone, seen behind Catherine O'Hara's character at the airport. But the real character actor has come forward and said, it's me, and shown a picture of himself side by side. But there are still people who don't believe it to be true. In 2016, a video of a Graceland groundskeeper appeared on the Internet, and he kind of does look like Elvis at this point. Elvis would be 81 years old and die hard do believe that this is Elvis Presley, but it's been completely debunked. The man is actually a Graceland employee named Bill Barmer. And there's this video of this Elvis fan, like someone who came to Graceland and found Bill Barmer and was like, oh, my gosh, you're the, um, guy from the video. Obviously you're not Elvis. In the video they take to be like, this is him. He goes, yeah, and I'm not 81. He looks no more than 60. He's just a guy with a big white beard. For those people who are like, oh, it's definitely Elvis. Like, the white beard is like, oh, he's 81. Like, he's older. This guy does not walk, move, or talk like an 81 year old.
Speaker B: And he's like, well, not 81. 81. Isn't that wild, though? That I feel like in general, we would all say, yeah, 60 and 80 are both older. That's a 20 year difference.
Speaker A: Yeah.
Speaker B: That's the difference between us being six or seven and where we are now. Yeah, that's wild. Time is wild, you guys.
Speaker A: Yeah. So that one's been completely debunked, and it's very obvious that it's him in the video. Still. There are people who don't believe it that, uh, maybe Bill Barmer is Elvis Presley. And I'm like, okay, this dude is not 81. Like, even him just saying it. If that's not enough for you, you can just tell he's not anyone. On the mhm. Graceland official website, there is a whole section dedicated to Elvis sightings, but they aren't what you think. It's actually just added fans posting anything they find in connection to Elvis. Not really the possibility that he's still out there. It's really kind of weird because it's like it'll be people who go into diners or stores or who are watching TV and like, an Elvis impersonator or an Elvis poster, mhm or an Elvis song comes up and then they'll just either, uh, take a photo of it and post it, um, to this portion of the website, or they'll write out a little blurb. There's a lot of people on this planet. It was a lot of time on their hands and internet access. So those were all the sightings of him. If he were alive now, let's go into some sightings of him dead. No, thank you. If Elvis is actually still alive, then it's kind of weird that there have been some sightings of his ghost elsewhere. Or maybe it's his ghost everywhere as, like, the sightings of people thinking that he's alive or it's not a ghost and he's just pretending to be the ghost. I don't know. I'm just here to read all this to you.
Speaker B: If you had faked your death, would you not want to maybe sometimes be.
Speaker A: A ghost, haunt people while you're alive? On the Merch, dude. So a visitor, a woman who absolutely loved Elvis, mhm, was in the wing of one of the buildings on Graceland property that houses all of Elvis jumpsuits. Cool. Yes. She was looking at one of the items when she thought she saw someone move in her peripherals. And she turned to look, but there was no one. When she turned back to look through the glass, elvis face was staring at her. It disappeared quickly. And she looked around to try and see, um, if there was a reflection anywhere that she could have seen from, like, a poster or someone walking by, but found nothing. She saw his reflection once more in a different room. And that was all she could handle before leaving the ground. Yeah. No, thank you. Yeah. The Las Vegas Hilton, where Presley performed whenever he was in town is a site where the ghost of the canyon said to Rome. There have been multiple occasions of people spotting him in the penthouse suite or in the basement where he used to hang out with his musicians before and after his shows. There has even been a sighting of him in the freight elevator where he often hid to get away from fans. Wayne Newton has seen Elvis during a performance. He claims he was singing to his audience one night, looked down and there was Elvis. Uh, but I'm going to caveat that with the fact that you are in Las Vegas, Mr. Mutant. True. The possibility of seeing Elvis anywhere in Vegas is very high. And I don't mean like the real Elvis. I mean like all of the Elvis impersonators, like the drag kings. All of anybody dressed as Elvis. The people who marry you in the chapels?
Speaker B: Uh, absolutely.
Speaker A: There are Elvis everywhere, so maybe not. The Nickelbacker Hotel in Hollywood has instances of a Presley ghost, especially in room 1016, which guests they are regularly cold, regardless of what temperature it is outside. I'm also going to caveat this in. The air conditioning exists.
Speaker B: Yeah, and it usually is pretty intense in hotels.
Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, they say that it is impossible. Just like the name of the Nakerbacher Hotel. Yeah. Another ghost sighting is a bit more on the psychic side. A young man named Tony had run away from home in Georgia to make it as an actor in La. He left behind records and posters of Elvis, whom he admired. His father, Harold, was a police officer and constantly worried about his runaway son. One night, he had a dream, and Elvis, dressed as an officer, appeared to him, telling him that he was worried about Tony, too. He was running with a bad crowd, he said, and on drugs. Elvis gave Harold directions to the home Tony was staying in, even describing the surrounding buildings. Harold and his family went out to La. And found Tony right where Elvis described in the dream. Later, Tony told his father that he had dreamed of Elvis that night, and he had told Tony that his father was coming to get him. Harold hadn't told anyone about his dream before that.
Speaker B: Oh, wow. Wait, but how does he explain it to the rest of his family?
Speaker A: Uh, I'm not sure. The article in the Houston News didn't really houston Gazette or whatever it was, didn't really elaborate. But it seemed that he had not, uh, told anybody, um, why he thought his son was there. They just found him. Whatever the case may be, the legacy of Elvis lives on in the charities that he helped to fund both in his hometown and in Memphis, the low income housing he supported in Memphis just outside the Graceland grounds, and his own family that maintains his home. Lastly, I just want to mention that what I knew about Elvis was that he loved fried peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches. And that just makes me want to throw up. Yeah, it's a lot. When my dad was in college, he used to eat fried bologna and peanut butter sandwiches. And it was just like I don't understand why. No, thanks. Yes.
Speaker B: That probably didn't help the heart condition.
Speaker A: No, elvis loved fried food. Any kind of when you think, like American diner food, like corn dogs and French fries and onion rings and absolutely. That's what he loves.
Speaker B: You're not helping.
Speaker A: I'm so sorry. We're both really hungry. We're going to go downstairs and make some dinner. But yeah, I'm sorry. I'm getting hungry.
Speaker B: Too. Also, shout out. I mean, I know he was from Mississippi, but he lived in Memphis, Tennessee. Shout out to Tennessee. Between Elvis and Dolly Parton.
Speaker A: Yeah, they're probably living through, honestly. One last note. The quote, Elvis has left the building. The phrase was first used this is from Wikipedia, word for word because it's so useless. To paraphrase. The phrase was first used by Promoter Chorus Logan at the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, on December 15, 1956. Elvis had appeared in the middle of the night's lineup and Logan needed to quiet the audience so that the remaining performers could play. So they were going crazy and we just want Elvis for the rest of the night. And mhm he had to say, Elvis has left the building. Like he's not coming back.
Speaker B: That's so funny, right? But also true. Also, folks, if you don't like the openers or you don't care for the openers or know them when you're going to see a band or an artist, don't be rude about it. No, go get your merch or your snacks. While the line is shorter or maybe it's longer if a lot of people.
Speaker A: Don'T, I don't remember. The amount of contacts that I've actually been to is very few.
Speaker B: Well, most of the time I enjoy the openers, but I remember in high school, oh, god, this is such a cringe moment. But me and my two friends, Brian and Stephanie, um, we went to the Jingle Ball in Hershey, which was close to where we lived. We went specifically to see do you want to try and guess who? It was like.
Speaker A: 2011. It wasn't any kind of punk band, was it? No, it was not. Um, I think it was too easy.
Speaker B: Something far more embarrassing based on Nickelodeon, if that helps at all.
Speaker A: Uh, was it the Joe Bros?
Speaker B: No. Although Joe Jonas was there. The Jonas Brothers were no longer together as a group.
Speaker A: That's right.
Speaker B: But also the artist Jojo was also there. We had Jojo and Joe Jonas.
Speaker A: I loved Jojo. Um, I have no clue.
Speaker B: It was the band Big Time Rush, which was Holly, a boy band that was based around a TV show. Or, um, the TV show was based on that. I don't recall which came first. Anyway, super embarrassing because we were like juniors in high school.
Speaker A: But I will say I don't judge when it comes to music because it's whatever makes you happy. Because music is about what makes you happy. So regardless of the fact that I really hate metal music, if that's what makes you happy, I'm not going to judge you or not. If what you love is one direction, I'm not going to judge you. It's what makes you we're not here.
Speaker B: To yok anyone else's.
Speaker A: Yum.
Speaker B: But the point of that embarrassing story is to share that Sean, um, Paul was one of the people.
Speaker A: Yes.
Speaker B: You would have been very excited. You would have been dancing to Temperature.
Speaker A: And all his other hits.
Speaker B: That I don't know because that was not my jam. But, uh, at that point, we vacated our seats to go get Merch, and there was literally no line, and it was great.
Speaker A: Yeah, it definitely take advantage of not having to wait in a line, especially after 2020 being stuck. I never want to wait in another line ever again.
Speaker B: But if it means I'm waiting in line to be on a ride at Disney World or get on a plane to go somewhere fun, that's fine.
Speaker A: I feel like those are appropriate lines, whereas the inappropriate lines are ones where you're like, I'm going to take a bathroom break at the same time everybody else does. Just think forward a little bit to like, how am I going to maximize my enjoyment?
Speaker B: True. Anyway, that's very funny. And that's where that saying originated from.
Speaker A: I really like it. Uh, so thoughts? I think he might still be alive, but how old would he be now? I think he'd be 85 because he was supposed to be 81 in 2016. Okay.
Speaker B: Uh, wait. When does this episode come out?
Speaker A: Oh, this will come out well after.
Speaker B: Oh, that's true. That's true. We record them in batches, so sometimes I forget what so happy belated birthday, Mr. Presley.
Speaker A: If you are listening, he'd be 86.
Speaker B: I guess it's kind of like I feel about Tupac. Uh, if nobody got hurt and you're living your best life, why not?
Speaker A: After a scathing reveal of your drug issues, uh, like, a couple of weeks before he passed review of all of your life up to that point, maybe you would want to have a quiet, uh, retirement. You knew that your music wasn't going to be what everyone would want from that point on. Maybe you were trying to make it easier on your family rather than step away. You wanted to go out and ablaze the glory.
Speaker B: Well, is it a blaze of glory if you're discovered on the bathroom floor?
Speaker A: I'm not going to we're not going to talk about that. Graceland doesn't talk about it. We don't talk about it. All right. But, I mean, he's well over 80 now. Um, and he must just be in a nursing home eating as many sandwiches as he wants if he is still alive.
Speaker B: What are words? Do any of the theorists, his wife or daughter ever said anything that they.
Speaker A: Point to or no. So Lisa Marie is a part of, uh, Scientology, as were her children and Elvis Presley's grandson. Lisa Marie's son just recently passed away from a drug overdose, and he looks uncannily like, um, Elvis. So it's an interesting thing, but Lisa Marie, uh, has maintained that her father tragically passed away at a young age. There's never been any kind of big reveal or anything. I only bring out that she's a part of Scientology because I've, um, been listening to this Scientology podcast with what's her name? I forget it. It's an interesting it's what is it called? Give me a second. Free Game. They talk about Scientology's. Free Game.
Speaker B: Aspects.
Speaker A: Look it up. It's really interesting. Uh, it's fascinating. But she was really good friends with Lisa Marie.
Speaker B: Can I tell you, I personally don't ever want to talk about Scientology on the podium.
Speaker A: We will never talk about Scientology. I'm scared of them. Absolutely. In the same vein, we will never talk about QAnon. Yeah.
Speaker B: Um, anyway, so, about Elvis Like I said, if he did that and he's lived a good life, awesome. I appreciate him because my mom had a CD of his, I'm assuming Greatest Hits. I don't recall the name of the album, but it was gold. I say album, it was a CD, but it was definitely in the rotation for our dance around the kitchen music. That's cute.
Speaker A: That's fun. And lastly, I just want to show Shannon the, uh, conspiracy page that I found. It is called the Elvis Information Network. This is its front page.
Speaker B: Oh, no.
Speaker A: It will be in the show notes. I'm not going to post a picture of the, um, front page of it, but feel free to wander through. But a lot of these websites that they link, it has a disclaimer that says, in 2019, we discovered that almost all of the above websites have closed. We have removed the unreliable links, but there's tons of conspiracies on here of illegitimate children that he possibly could have had a whole new wave of Elvis sightings. Oh, man. There's a whole section on his doppelganger um, um, or like double and it being his brother. There's also a whole section on Illuminati. Um, there's a whole section on the Rosicrucians and him being abducted by, uh, aliens. I don't like that. I absolutely hate it. So there's a lot in this that I just like, I got okay, so I got to this point and I went, I'm done to the alien stuff. And I was like, you know what? I'm not going to even delve into this much further because there isn't a lot of reputable information on here. So I'm just going to wow. But God bless.
Speaker B: You just gave our bingo players two bonus unexpected squares in the last five.
Speaker A: Minutes of the past. I just find it to be very funny that there is such a I mean, not funny because it's a real thing that this was a very famous person who had a very large cult following of people who just basically worshiped him. And even now, like, 40 ish years after his death, there are still people visiting his home. There are still people who are seeing him out into the wild, like all that, and there's still conspiracy theories that are rolling around. But I will say there's not a lot more time for those conspiracies of Elvis being currently alive to continue. Maybe if he reaches 100 or so. Uh, yeah, for a little while, maybe another 40 years or so. Okay.
Speaker B: Faked deaths have a timeline.
Speaker A: They really do. Ghosts are forever. Yeah. Honestly, with the sightings. I mean, again, they're very few and far between. I didn't find a lot of personal.
Speaker B: Stories about Elvis ghost, but can I relate it to Ghost and bring us full circle?
Speaker A: Absolutely.
Speaker B: What has continued to pop in my head throughout this episode is that one country song, Walking in Memphis, because they have a whole verse about seeing Alice's ghost. And if I recall correctly, one Lucas coachetta would torture you by singing that mhm song. Yes. Frequently driving.
Speaker A: Uh, so he and I used to drive to school together because he had a car and I didn't. And his mom's house was in the same neighborhood as, um, my parents house. And so he drive by and picked me up and we drive to school senior year. And it was a constant rotation of either Johnny Cash, whom I love, or Elvis, who I don't mind. But when you listen to the songs over and over and Lucas Kachetta knows all the words to all these songs, so I'm not just listening to Elvis, I'm listening to Lucas, which isn't a bad thing, but there's a lot of like, since I don't know it, I can't sing along, so I'm just listening. And I have never really liked the song Walking in.
Speaker B: Memphis sing, but I prefer the cover by.
Speaker A: Cher. I do love Cher. Still not a fan of the song, but I remember we're listening to all of these and then he got onto, uh, a kick of just like, other country songs that he would put on and that was one of them. And he sang it full, uh, blast. And he knew how much I disliked it. So that to the point where whenever he had his guitar out and I was in the same room as him, he would just start playing the first few notes of it and I'd be like.
Speaker B: No. Friendship.
Speaker A: Friends. Yeah. That man is now one of my very good friends. We call each other brother and sister because that's how we've always felt about each other. Is that just like we have that kind of weird kindred connection. And his mother loves me for no particular reason, but I love her. She also loves Dylan.
Speaker B: She thinks Dylan is awesome. While Lucas played at y'all's wedding.
Speaker A: Yes, he did. He did. That makes me so happy. Love you. You'd better listen to this. I'm sending it to you. Listen to it all the way through.
Speaker B: And when you're done listening to it, Lucas and other friends, you should like rate Review subscribe share it with a friend. Tag us on Instagram if you played bingo, follow us on Instagram at this podcast doesn't exist.
Speaker A: Yes, and if you feel the need to send us any of your sightings of Elvis, maybe your diner order if it is, um, actually, like the weird, gross fried bacon, whatever Elvis sandwich. Like, have you ever eaten that? Please. I want to know if anyone other than Elvis has eaten an Elvis sandwich. Maybe I shouldn't call them Elvis sandwiches.
Speaker B: No, I think people get it.
Speaker A: Yeah. Banana, bacon, and peanut butter fried so, like, melty banana.
Speaker B: You also don't like bananas.
Speaker A: In any case, send whatever that story may be. Um, any ghost stories, elvis or not, go ahead and send them over to us at this podcast doesn't exist@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you if you have any need to send us to your enemies. Uh, please do. I feel the need to haunt everyone while I'm alive, so let me do so. Let me haunt your enemies. Um, and remember, this podcast doesn't exist. I spent through that.
Speaker B: I don't know why. No. Okay.

Check out Luke Caccetta on Spotify
Also, Emma remembered the name of the podcast Scientology: Fair Game. with Leah Remini and Mike Rinder
Sources:
The Mother Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
The King’s Palace: https://www.graceland.com/
Elvis “Sightings” in the Wild: https://www.graceland.com/elvis-sightings
Elvis Bio: https://www.graceland.com/1974---1977
Funeral Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Acs4iWERZ4&ab_channel=TheMattDollarShow
Catalogued Elvis Sightings: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/503466/suspicious-minds-bizarre-40-year-history-elvis-presley-sightings
Nixon and Presley: https://time.com/4894301/elvis-president-nixon-photo/
The Elvis Information Network: http://www.elvisinfonet.com/conspiracy.html
Graceland Ghosts: http://alastarpacker.weebly.com/mists--moonlight/alastar-packer-haunted-graceland-and-a-ghostly-encounter-in-memphis
Places to look for Elvis’s Ghost: https://www.houstonpress.com/music/all-the-places-to-see-elvis-presleys-ghost-6755060