Elvis Presley is usually described as the king of rock'n'roll, but he was also the first modern pop star. He signalled the beginning of the era of larger-than-life musical deities whose mythology subsumes them even as they live, and whose voices echo long after their bones have ground to dust. On the 40th anniversary of his death it's time to puncture some of the myths that built up around his life and career.
FALSE: Elvis was racist
This charge probably stems from an unsourced accusation that in 1957, at the height of his powers, Elvis said: "The only thing Negroes can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records."
The egregious slur was related by an anonymous source in a story headlined "How Negroes Feel About Elvis" in a magazine called Sepia, according to Michael T Bertrand, writing in Race, Rock, and Elvis. It was allegedly made during an appearance in Boston - but, as Bertrand wrote, Elvis had never been to Boston.
Elvis's friends and musical peers testified that it was wildly out of character. Sammy Davis jnr said: "He's white but he's down-home [unpretentious]." James Brown described him as his brother. BB King authored another Sepia article that defended Elvis, writing: "All I can say is 'That's my man'."Ironically, Elvis faced racist taunts from white critics at the time, who frowned on his co-option of black music. Today it is not unusual to see this argument flipped on its head, and hear cultural critics argue that Elvis stole black music.
Ultimately, there is no evidence that Elvis was racist, says Elvis biographer Ray Connolly.
TRUE: Elvis fitted a two-way mirror in the women's changing room at Graceland
Asked why he needed a two-way mirror in a changing room by the pool of his Beverly Hills home, since most women would take their clothes off for him anyway, Elvis - according to biographer Connolly - said: "It's more fun this way."
FALSE: Elvis was afraid of leaving the US
Elvis rarely played anywhere beyond the country (except Canada), but in reality it was his manager who didn't want to leave the US. "Colonel" Tom Parker's real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk - and he was an illegal migrant from the Netherlands who didn't have a US passport.
TRUE: Elvis was a voluntary agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration - and a drug addict
Elvis wrote to US president Richard Nixon asking if he could become a federal agent-at-large in 1970 - a move that may be interpreted as delusional or extremely canny, given that he was addicted to a cocktail of drugs that would eventually kill him.
Nixon gave him a specially made Bureau of Narcotics badge (Elvis collected police badges). The bauble and the meeting were kept secret for years, as was Elvis's Trump-esque letter to Nixon denouncing "Drug Culture, the Hippie Elements, Black Panthers, etc".
"He was probably stoned when he wrote to Nixon," said Connolly.
TRUE: Elvis used monstrous quantities of drugs
It is often written that Elvis died from years of prescription drug abuse. What is sometimes missed is the sheer quantity and variety.
Elvis's various biographers list opioids, sedatives, the stimulant Ritalin, barbiturates and steroids. He also enjoyed taking cocaine - in liquid form, on earbuds stuck up his nostrils. Elvis went to great lengths to medicalise his addiction. Concerned that only "junkies" shot up, he would make members of his entourage inject the opioid Dilaudid into his hip.
He took what he called an "attack pack" of drugs, three times a day, according to stepbrother David E Stanley in My Brother Elvis: The Final Years. Typically each pack would include amphetamines, opioid pills and shots (with needles) and barbiturates.
TRUE: Elvis once turned a Tommy Gun on a toilet in his bathroom
Of course he shot his television. But it wasn't the only domestic appliance to feel his wrath. In what may be considered a prescient attack on the porcelain fraternity that would one day end him, in 1970 he turned his Tommy Gun on the toilet bowl, according to Connolly's biography."I never did like that toilet," he said.
This later-life propensity for shooting things was more than just "high jinx", according to Connolly. It was part of a pattern of "erratic and often peculiar behaviour and frightening mood swings" that signalled Elvis's spiralling addiction.
TRUE: He performed with a handgun in each boot
Elvis always liked firearms, but when his manager the Colonel and chief of staff Joe Esposito started receiving anonymous phone calls threatening kidnap, he "went gun crazy", according to Connolly. This meant a handgun in each boot, and licences for everyone around him to carry firearms. "He didn't want to be dead, he would say, with 'some sonofabitch crazy bastard pictured sneering in the newspapers about having killed Elvis Presley'," wrote Connolly.
TRUE: He died in the bathroom (after he'd fallen off the toilet)
Elvis died face down in the red shag carpet in the middle of the bathroom, as though he'd been reaching for the phone that was attached to the wall.
The cause of death was announced to the press as cardiac arrhythmia. In reality, it was far more complicated than that. Elvis's problems included a massively enlarged heart, a blocked large intestine and a damaged liver.
TRUE: Elvis lives (though he's not alive)
The most famous myth about Elvis is that he is still alive somewhere, years after his death.
- The Daily Telegraph, London..