Page 115 - PROTAGONIST-134

In these pages, Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu Presley on
their wedding day and with their new daughter, Lisa Marie.
©Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images, ©Bettmann/Contributor

“He was everything. He was ‘my God’, because I lived and convinced that Elvis has forgotten her and left her for Nancy
breathed him.” A few words to paint an intense, morbid, all- Sinatra, with whom he was immortalized in the tabloids. He
encompassing love story. Thus, in 2017, to Entertainment Tonight, reassures her, keeps calling her on the phone and begins an
Priscilla Ann Wagner Beaulieu, married Presley, recounts her intense exchange of correspondence.
relationship with the King of Rock’n’roll. A relationship that In 1962 they spent the Christmas holidays together, the
began when she was just 14, ten years younger than Elvis. following year Priscilla moved to the United States for good: as
A story that came back into the spotlight with the theatrical soon as she was seventeen, she followed ‘The King’ to his wild
release of Sofia Coppola’s film Priscilla. A story that saw its first parties, where he introduced her to amphetamines and sleeping
clapperboard on 13 September 1959: Germany, Inside Night. pills. Elvis makes her change her style, tries to mold her into
Enlisted in 1958, Elvis joined the 3rd Armored Division in a feminine version of herself, but Priscilla shows a stronger
Friedberg, where Priscilla, fatherless at the age of two, had moved personality than one might expect from a young girl. With her
in with her stepfather Paul Beaulieu, a career soldier. They met at a iconic ‘cat eyes’ eyeliner, backcombed hair and monochromatic
party, perhaps at the Beaulieu house, perhaps on the military base. clothing, she becomes a style icon, identifying the female
What is certain is that that evening, the swaggering performer of rockabilly style.
Love Me Tender was literally swept away by the innocent gaze of On 1 May 1967, Elvis and Priscilla married, in a ceremony
the little girl dressed in sailor’s attire. He dedicated a languid lasting just eight minutes, at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, for
version of Are You Lonesome Tonight to her, then the two a few guests. Nine months later, their daughter, Lisa Marie, was
disappeared from the party and Priscilla did not return to her born. She was raised mainly by her mother, as her father was often
parents until one o’clock in the morning. An innocent evening, on tour or filming. Or with other women. The marriage turned out
Priscilla recounted, but Elvis’s notoriety and the great age to be quite turbulent and Priscilla also has her adventures: first
difference could not help but arouse mischievous fantasies. an affair with the owner of a dance school, then with her karate
Meanwhile, Priscilla continues to go to school, Elvis returns instructor, Mike Stone, which will contribute to her separation
to the United States, where adoring crowds await him. She is from Elvis in 1972.

Protagonist Portrait 113