Elvis’ Entourage Worried Priscilla Presley Was ‘Conspiring’ to Get Them Out of Elvis’ Life: ‘She Was Just Threatened By Our Presence’
Many people who got to know Elvis Presley found the constant presence of his entourage off-putting. Other celebrities found it odd that he was never alone, and members of his own band found the group intimidating. While Priscilla Presley liked the entourage, she didn’t appreciate the fact that their constant presence left her practically no alone time with her husband. The entourage sensed her frustration and believed she had it out for them.
Elvis’ entourage saw Priscilla Presley as a threat to them
After their wedding, Elvis and Priscilla left for their honeymoon at their Mississippi ranch home. They were not alone; several other members of the entourage were on the property with them. Priscilla, understandably, found it frustrating to share her honeymoon with her new husband’s friends. In turn, they blamed her for changing the dynamic of their group.
“[She was] conspiring with Vernon [Presley] to find a way to get rid of us or at least reduce our numbers,” Alan Fortas said, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “It wasn’t that she didn’t like us as individuals. She just felt threatened by our presence.”
Fortas, at least, could see why Priscilla was frustrated. Whenever she tried to be alone with Elvis, he invited his friends along.
“I think she had a fantasy of a normal home life with [Elvis], one in which he went to work like other husbands, came home in the evening, helped her cook dinner, and then sat around with her at night,” he said. “‘We never have any privacy!’ she told me once. And it was true. Just as she couldn’t believe Elvis would want to take all of us and our wives down to the ranch, I found it odd that Elvis often circumvented her plans to be alone with him by inviting an entire herd of people to come along.”
Priscilla Presley tried not to say much about Elvis’ entourage
Priscilla considered Elvis’ entourage close friends, but she found their constant presence trying. She had hoped that marriage would change their dynamic.
“I loved playing house,” she wrote of their honeymoon in her book Elvis and Me. “I personally washed all his clothes, along with the towels and sheets, and took pride in ironing his shirts and rolling up his socks the way my mother had taught me. Here was an opportunity to take care of him myself. No maids or housekeepers to pamper us. No large rooms to embrace the regular entourage.”
Ultimately, though, she didn’t think she should try to pull Elvis away from them. She worried he would lash out at her, as he often seemed frustrated when other women did this.
“I understood Elvis’ need for the camaraderie the entourage provided,” she wrote, “and I didn’t want to take him away from the people he loved, especially now that we were married.”
She cracked down on them in one way
Still, Priscilla found at least one way to push back against the entourage. When she moved into Graceland, she found it ridiculous that they ordered whatever food they wanted from the Graceland kitchen. Because of this, she instituted a set menu for meals.
“What was really outrageous was that the regulars were ordering sirloin steaks or prime ribs while Elvis usually ate hamburgers or peanut butter and banana sandwiches,” she wrote. “I wasn’t too popular around Graceland when I started reorganizing the kitchen. I set down a policy of having one menu per meal, and anyone who didn’t like what was on it could go to a local restaurant. This new edict resulted in much grumbling from the guys, but the cooks were relieved, and Vernon [Presley] sanctioned my decision.”
