Elvis would have been 85 this week. His memory and his legacy live on through his music and the tireless efforts of his estate, spearheaded by his ex-wife Priscilla Presley. He death shocked the world on August 16, 1977. In an age long before social media and the internet, the news spread across the globe just two hours after his body was found on his bathroom floor. WARNING: Some details from the account below are distressing.
At 1.30pm that day, Elvis’ girlfriend Ginger woke up alone in their bed. The star was largely nocturnal and would often go to bed mid-morning.
His absence did not seem unusual at first. He suffered from severe insomnia as well as constipation which meant he spent hours in the bathroom.
One of the definitive accounts of the final days and hours is given in biographer Peter Guralnick’s seminal 2000 work Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley.
It describes in distressing detail the final, panic-stricken moments in Graceland and the frantic trip to the hospital.
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The account says: “She (Ginger) washed and put on her make-up in her own bathroom, then knocked on Elvis’s bathroom door.
“When there was no answer, she pushed on it and discovered him lying on the floor, his gold pyjama bottoms down around his ankles, his face buried in a pool of vomit on the thick shag carpet.
“In a daze she called downstairs and asked to speak to someone on duty, and the maid put Al Strada [one of Presley’s staff] on the line. She thought there was something wrong, she told him. He had better come quick.
“Al was bending over Elvis when Elvis’s friend and associate Joe Esposito came bounding up the stairs, and together the two men managed to turn the body over and Joe tried to breathe some life into him.”
They called emergency services and an ambulance with two firemen EMTs was dispatched Engine House No 29 in Whitehaven.
In the bathroom, nobody could believe that Elvis could be dead, despite the evidence: “His face was swollen and purplish, the tongue was discoloured and sticking out of his mouth, the eyeballs blood red.”
Lisa Marie and Vernon both rushed into the bathroom.
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According to accounts, Vernon cried: “Oh, God, son, please don’t go, please don’t die.”
Lisa Marie, who was only nine, asked: “What’s wrong with my daddy?” She was shepherded out by Ginger who closed the bathroom door, still saying, “Something’s wrong with my daddy and I’m going to find out.”
The ambulance arrived and the attendants later recorded there were no visible signs of life before loading Elvis into the vehicle.
Elvis’ personal physician Dr Nichopolous arrived and crashed his car into the gates, before leaping out and climbing into the ambulance where he tried to revive Elvis on the seven-minute journey to the hospital.
The ambulance arrived at Baptist Memorial Hospital at 2:55pm, just 22 minutes after the initial call was made from the house.
Elvis was taken into Trauma Room No1 and final efforts were made to resuscitate the star, to no avail. Time of death was called at 3.30pm.
Dr Nick rushed back to Graceland to tell Vernon the terrible news before the media were informed.
At 4pm a brokenhearted Vernon stood on the steps outside Graceland and told the gathered media and the world that his son was gone.
ALL EXTRACTS FROM Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley
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