Elvis - A Lighted Candle

[FairyTale]

Thanks Sue A Very Good Idea!

[Wanda June Hill]

In the 2006 book I mentioned Vernon Presley's using stationary with Tenn. spelled wrong- I said probably someone didn't notice and he wouldn't throw it out, so they used it up. And there was a question about Starla's letter from Elvis having the address 3754 instead of 3764 etc:..
and the highway 51 south used on the stationary when it had been named Elvis Presley Boulvard etc:. Elvis didn't like personal mail being "lost" in the great amount of fan mail that came in, and sometimes got bagged up and sent to Madison, Tenn and the Colonels fireplace-eh, office. so he used a different address for that mail... We have things with the 3 above and there may be more than those, just as he used other names for himself...who knows. Apaarently, the EPE Archives do not show these private addresses, and since Graceland had only one address from the time he purchased it, and before, they acknowledge that long held address.

To further address this, I remind readers that there are verifiable stories about Elvis having given a special address to those he wished to keep in touch with- such as the little girl who became his pen pal for several years. Her nurse told about this pen pal arrangement, how much it meant to the child and said she "bloomed" with joy when receiving things from Elvis. The story was made into a television movie, "Touched By Love".

I prefer putting things in the gallery because they can be seen any time, by any one and made larger if they wish. Printing them in a book is not the best anymore as BookSurge doesn't do color photos unless one is willing to pay to have them properly reproduced, that is costly- and their black and white photos that are less expensive are not so great. I won't be putting much like that in the book...but will have the Website address thorughout so they can go and look.

And I wasn't nervous the first time I spoke on the phone to him because I wasn't sure it was him and I didn't care if he spoike to me or not- I was not a fan- he was the "child of the devil" etc:... but when I "came to" in my sis in law's driveway and had no clue how i got there- well, I was a tad bit nervous after that - but it didn't happen again. I was very, very nervous about meeting him in person... that made up for all the other "cool" times. whew....my knees jumped, my teeth chattered just waiting...I was nervous! I guess maybe something in me sensed that he was so different and this would change my life and everyone around me's life too. And he sure did.

[Ingrid]

Hello everybody, I´m the one who was asking a few questions, and they haven´t been answered yet, or rather not been clarified enough for me to understand.

Quote from WR, E 2006 p. 77/78:

"About a year after our book came out, we received a letter of thank you from Vernon, Elvis´ father, who had finally got around to reading our book that we sent him early that year, when it first came out. The stationary used for that letter was several years old, printed up close to the time Elvis and his family moved into Graceland. The letterhead was different in that Tennessee was spelled, "Tennassee", and must be why Elvis´ secretaries had stopped using the old stationary long ago. Apparently, whomever had the old stationary printed didn´t notice or the printers were too excited to be doing it for Elvis and didn´t notice. Whatever, it was so endearing of Mr. Presley, thrifty and frugal by nature of his upbringing and circumstances in his early years of life, to be using that discarded stationary, and we treasure his kind words."



Wanda, the question is not only about the misspelling of Tennessee (Tennassee), it´s more about the explanation you give in your book. Stationary printed in the 1950s, when the Presleys moved into Graceland, would NOT have Elvis Presley Boulevard in the letterhead, as that letter from "Vernon" does, because Highway 51 became EP Boulevard in 1972. That means your explanation is false.

http://elvislightedcandle.org/theman/doc_vernon-ltr.htm


The letters "from Elvis" in the Wanda´s Treasures gallery 2 are written on Graceland/EP Inc. "stationary", with the WRONG address in the letterhead. Graceland has always been at 3764 (not 3754, 6764 and not 6754 either). Ask the EPE Archives Team!

http://elvislightedcandle.org/galleries ... llery.html


The funny thing is, on "Vernon´s" letter, the address in the letterhead is 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, as it is on other letters "from Elvis", typed not scanned, in the WR, E books. Which is correct!

The letters in question should also have 3764 in the letterhead, not 3754. That´s a big discrepancy. What´s the explanation?

Graceland using stationary containing typos all the time?

This is not about what addresses YOU had to send mail to, Wanda, but about letters YOU "received", and they are containing suspicious mistakes.



Since you addressed another issue yourself, I´m quoting from your books again, this part was in the 1978 book (p. 127) as well as in the 2006 book (p. 198):

Ken Payne speaking, Jimmie´s brother:

"At fourteen, my brother, Jimmie, and his wife, Wanda (author of this book), took me into their home. Even then, a lot of the conversation was Elvis this, or Elvis that, and Wanda somehow had a way of finding out the most miniscule [sic] details about him or anything pertaining to his life. Public, or private, it didn´t matter. She knew. Though none of us had ever met him, we talked about him as though he were one of our family."

Wanda, that´s a direct contradiction to what you always tell, one recent example is Joe Krein´s interview. You always claim you knew NOTHING about Elvis before meeting him, and even said in Joe´s interview you told Elvis HIMSELF you knew nothing about him when you were on the phone with him for the first time.

What´s the real story?



Thank you.

Ingrid

[Wanda June Hill]

Wow, I am blind as a bat! I just noticed that I transposed numbers on my reply to you! I know it's 3764 ! but have a very hard time (as you will notice in my response I make typing mistakes that are really plainly obvious- I've got a cataract in the center of my right eye and it's very hard to read the screen, it's almost impossibll to use the phone and I gave up on the cell - can't see the number pads or screen- but that's just an excuse- any way the addresses we have on cards and other things is the correct Graceland address and then we have those with Highway 51 and the one Elvis used for personal mail- he had more than one for that- as well. That's the address he used on Starla's letters. As for the stationary, what I wrote was because it would seem that there would be NO spelling mistakes of the state they live in on the stationary.
It was my own opinion, I wasn't thinking anything else. I write what I think and as I think. Sometimes even I see it's confusing but that's just how I write, and talk too, according to my family and friends.

My comment was stupid, but ..it merely is what I thought and I wasn't going into the details, just a simple reason why- Vernon wouldn't waste anything he had to pay for...and that wasn't the only time they used it either...

As for the address that Elvis used, he had several personal addresses for mail he didn't want lost in the shuffle of mail at Graceland. I do not know why or when he started doing that- but there are other people unrelated to me who have had him give them a different address to write to him- so he'd get it. I can't answer the question any other way.

Ken was a kid and just turning 15 when we drove up the coast highway toward LA, we were going to look for movie star homes as he hadn't "seen any since coming to Ca." and so we found the guy with maps and Ken found out Elvis had moved and lived near by- he wanted to meet him, shake his hand and tell him thanks for inspiring him to take up guitar. I didn't get out of the car, Ken went to the door when we finally found the place. I knew things about Elvis from magazines but I wasn't a fan at all, Jimmie was and Ken too. I met an older lady who lived at the beach front where I took our little girl during the mornings- Jimmie worked nights and needed sleep-our house was tiny and noise woke him up. So we spent lots of time at the beach- the lady used to be an actress in the early days 30,40,and into the early 50's and she told me stories about her Hollywood friends, I passed them on to Ken and Jimmie and she told me about meeting Elvis when he did Love Me Tender and a couple of things that were funny- I passed them to Ken and Jimmie too.
We talked about Elvis because they were into him, and like most wives do, I tried to know some things, but only off the headlines of movie magazines at the check out lline in the grocery store usually- that was my sum knowledge of Elvis at that time- and that was I later learned a source of made up dribble. I thought he was a woman crazy nut like my dad told me and our pastor preached about. The devil's child you know, in the early 50's.
I remember when Elvis came home from the army, that was the very first time I had seen him perform...on the Frank Sinatra show...and he was cute, I thought. He had a pile of hair and he was playing up to Frank - we talked about him at that time, Ken couldn't wait for that show to air! He was a kid, and he idolized his image of Elvis like lots of young guys used to do- some still do I guess. Jimmie wanted to see Flaming Star, and there was another flim on with it I wanted to see, and we went but it was on second and the fog was rolling in (it was a drive in movie) and getting hard to see by the time the Elvis film came on- so we left and too, our little girl was sleeping and it was getting chilly in the car.
I really didn't have a lot of information of any value about Elvis and didn't care to have... I liked his voice on the records Jimmie had, but that was it.
If I had not met Diane whom Elvis nicknamed "Clu" I wouldn't have ever been a "fan" of Elvis Presley's... talking to him on her phone, then meeting him changed everything about what I had been taught concerning him. And that's all I can say about all that because that's all it was... and all there is to tell of those early days before meeting him.

wjh

Please for give my typing mistakes, I am about to the point of giving up trying to type anything and guess I will have to have the surgery to remove the cataract before long. Boy, all you younger pepole, please wear good sun shades to protect youe eyes - the rays are causing kids to have them and it's getting to be so common a probllem.

[Wanda June Hill]

Ingrid, I had to laugh when I read your last line, "What's the real story?"

That question was asked of me on the book tour- and it wasn't always asked by men- women interviewers would ask me off the air, "What else did you and Elvis do?" They expected some kind of intimate affair I guess, but that didn't happen and wouldn't have. He was a big tease, and I leaarned that quickly, and didn't blush any more which took some of the "wind out of his sails" because he liked making women/girls blush if he could. It was just his sense of humor and teasing at times. other times he wasn't that way at all. Anyway, thanks for the laugh!

Starla came home- so
I am using Starla's laptop and it's even harder to use with the keyboard it has- anyway, she said why didn't I tell you all how the numbers get assigned to property- we learned that when we bought land- if you own a parcel of land as did Elvis with Graceland, there are numbers assigned to it in case at some point in time it is split up for housing etc; and then each split section had a street number- thus Elvis might have been using one of those for personal mail, just to make it easier to separate- that's a guess- I don't know for a fact but the address he used would have fit into that parcel of land. Just as our land has 7 address numbers in case it's split. So that could be why there he had another number he used. He's not here to ask- I don't like trying to "second guess him" or anyone.

[Ingrid]

Hello Wanda,

I made you laugh? Great.

Thanks for another long and gracious answer.

You will have to agree with me that this one bit of information in your book contradicts what you tell otherwise. So thanks for clarifying that! I thought what Ken had to say sounded as if YOU were the obsessed Elvis fan not your husband, knowing every bit about Elvis before you two even met. Did that come across as if I was hinting at any romance between you and Elvis? I´m so sorry if it did, I know that THIS was certainly not the case.

And what I´d actually like to know about the letter from Vernon, is who told you that the stationary his letter came on was printed in the 1950s? Or did you just guess? I mean, if someone told you this, you were misinformed!

The numbers thing on the letterheads makes sense I guess, I can´t say, but the content doesn´t.

See, it´s not only the letterhead that made me think real hard about one of the letters, it´s the fact that one of it is dated Aug. 10 1977 and says "Hi, I´m in Palm Springs...".

So Elvis was in Palm Springs 6 days before he died?

You know that I wasn´t there, and you know the only way to try and find out is to rely on other people´s information.

I do find it strange that this trip to Palm Springs so shortly before he died was overlooked by a large number of people then.

Wouldn´t it have been very important for the investigation his untimely death triggered?

There´s evidence out there that Elvis was in fact screening movies in Memphis on Aug. 10 1977. Lisa was with him, and Ginger.

There´s evidence that Elvis rented Libertyland, a fairground in Memphis, on Aug. 8 and took Ginger, her niece Amber and Lisa with him.

Sorry for being funny again, but what´s the real story?


Thanks,

Ingrid

[Wanda June Hill]

I have no clue why he would say he was in Palm Springs- I know he was at Graceland most of the time, but he often did jump over other places and often sneaked out to do it- however, in those later years I don't think he did that as often. I too, have some questions about his last days- and there are others who say they saw him in Orange County at the airport getting off and then an hour or so later back on a small jet- it was not one of his- and there is a record of such a jet being there at that time...no log for it though as to who was on it etc:. A lot of things seem odd to me about those last two days, things that are not talked about in the archives etc;...but then maybe there is a good reason. I really do not know- I wasn't there. And like us all, we have to take the word of who was there as being what happened and who did what. He's not here to ask- or give his version.

Elvis told me he was in Memphis a couple of times when in fact he was not there at all- so who knows where he was. Not me. Not Starla.
I learned early to take Elvis for what he said, because that is what he wanted you to know at the time, and I guess he had his reasons. That was good enough for me.

wjh

[Ingrid]

Fair enough... but I really don´t get why he would do that.

EDIT: ... why he would do that to a little girl. He was basically lying to Starla then, because really everything points toward the fact he WASN´T in Palm Springs on Aug. 10 1977. Can´t see him doing that.


Ingrid

[Ingrid]

I´m sorry, I´m not getting past the fact how many untrue stories Elvis seemed to have told you, although he might have had his reasons!

I love this man just as much as you do, so let´s give him credit for knowing what he was doing.

And I´m sorry also, if this is not the right forum, but it fits, since we were just talking about telling stories.

Wanda, do you remember the story about the Mercedes buried at Graceland in a cheerful ceremony you mentioned in the 78 book? Elvis really pulled your leg on this one it seems, and you know it since you didn´t include the story in the 2006 book! There´s really no truth to that story, according to EPE.


For everyone who is interested, Wanda said in her book that Elvis told her, and I quote:

"He once told me about an old Mercedes car that he said was a lemon and wasn´t fit for anyone to drive or try to fix. One day he decided it ought to have a burial, it had been dead for so long anyway. So everyone trooped outside and watched as he pushed it out behind Graceland with the tractor-grader he had. He dug a hole large enough to hold it, and as the group of guys and girls cheered him on, he buried it. He gave a eulogy for the car and they all sang. That´s the kind of silly thing he´d get a kick out of doing."

WR, E 1978 p. 19


Do you still laugh about that one?

Ingrid

[Wanda June Hill]

Yeah, I knew he probably didn't do that, but he told it like he did and I gave him the benefit of the doubt- later on after the book was out, one of his friends said he wanted to bury an old car because it was "dead anyway". He had nothing but trouble out it I guess. It was just something he would do and since I wasn't sure, I took him at his word.
I mean he bulldozed the old house that Vernon had things stored in- and hardly gave him time to get anything out of it~ Elvis was likely to do just about anything he thought he wanted to do- and got his nick name for that fact of his nature- crazy.

But boy, he was a lot of fun at times, and heart ache at others. I miss him very much...so many things I would like to ask him... soon though, I will get that chance.

[Ingrid]

Right... I just LOVE Elvis´ sense of humor!!

[Rainbow Light]

Yes, me too, ladies!

Many thanks for your balanced insight and clarified, easy to understand replies (well for me and others, here too; apparently, anyway! ), Wanda! . As far as myself and many others on ELC forum are concerned I'm sure, we consider Wanda's shared and many wonderful memories of her time with Elvis also that of her family; Jimmie; Starla, Grandma Suzy et al such a special and cherished priceless treasure!

Best wishes to all, Sue-Lenora

[MaryInTheMorning]

Many thanks for your balanced insight and clarified, easy to understand replies (well for me and others, here too; apparently, anyway! ), Wanda! . As far as myself and many others on ELC forum are concerned I'm sure, we consider Wanda's shared and many wonderful memories of her time with Elvis also that of her family; Jimmie; Starla, Grandma Suzy et al such a special and cherished priceless treasure!

[Rainbow Light]

[Golden Sky]

It's my greatest hope that people who suppose that I am groundlessly accusing Wanda of lying to us will study this thread and PAY ATTENTION.

Thank you, Ingrid.