Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1963)

p PERIODIC PAIN Every month Sue was miserable because of functional menstrual distress. Now she j ust takes M i dol and goes her way in comfort because Midol tablets contain: • An exclusive anti-spasmodic that Stops Cramping. . . • Medically-approved ingredients that Relieve Headache and Backache... Calm Jumpy Nerves. . . • A special, mood-brightening medii cation that Chases “Blues.” a ^ “WHAT WOMEN WANT TO KNOW” ^ FREE! Fronk, revealing 32-page book, explains womanhood's most common physical problems. Written by a physician. Write Dpt. B-23, Box 280, New York 18, N.Y. (Sent in plain wrapper.) Continued from page 41 heard by some few adults and the guards. If panic had seized the thousands at that moment. Presley — and who knows how many of his fans? — might have been trampled to death. Travel is another hazard. Recently a succession of plane crashes involving top entertainment personalities finally put an end to Presley’s travel by air. Autos are almost as dangerous, especially in crowds. Elvis is still haunted by his friend Fabian's close call when screaming fans pushed their way through a police cordon and smashed Fabian’s car window so hard that splinters of glass had to be removed from the Fabe’s eye. A fraction of an inch one way, and Fabian would have lost his sight in that eye. A longer sliver of glass — and Fabian could have lost his life! After all that. Elvis now moves about by train. Well guarded, of course. “Only” a crazy person Then there’s food. Presley, who loves food, can only let his mouth water at the goodies sent to him in the mail. Who’d want to poison Elvis? No one, of course, except maybe . . . ? You don’t take the chance when one bite might mean your death. One unthinking friend of Presley’s advised Elvis: “Why worry about it. El? Only a crazy man or woman would try to shoot you — or anything like that.’’ What the friend overlooked so stupidly is that a crazy man’s (or woman’s) bullet is the only kind Elvis must worry about. Sane people don't kill. But as we said, it’s nearly incredible how calmly Elvis can take this closeness to sudden death, instant mayhem and assault without warning. “I guess,” he says, “that when I got the first death threat a few years ago I was scared. For a while I thought: If people knew I was scared they’d call me chicken. But now I know there’s a big difference between being afraid and being a coward. “Anyhow, I got to live with this bit. Maybe it’s what I got to pay for all the breaks I’ve had in my life. You don’t get anything for nothing. Other people have other things to worry about. Every one of us has some kind of problems. It’s part of being alive. “But enjoying life, having friends, having fun, learning about people, doing your job and trying to do it better than anyone — that’s the side of living that makes it all worth while. “If there are people around who don’t like me. I can’t help that. All I can say is that hate is a big waste of time, because there is so much in life to like and love. Heck, when you stop to think of it, there is so much it takes more than a lifetime to love everything you want to.” Elvis’ pelvising doesn’t make the headlines any more with hysterical cries of “Immoral, obscene and indecent.” “Not since the twist came in,” observes Elvis with a big smile. “I guess I wasn’t so awful after all. I may have been twisting a little ahead of the time, that’s all. And that’s good.” Considering all. Presley has been a complete disappointment to his detractors on many counts. “He just can’t last,” said Jackie Gleason in 1956. In 1958. a judge stated from the bench that he “wishes Elvis Presley had never been born.” The hysterical screamers of righteousness predicted all kinds of special hells for Elvis — and soon. But Elvis is still moving and moving well. He’s older and smarter and more skillful. He’s not at all afraid any more. The most recent threat to his life wasn’t the first nor, in all probability, will it be the last. “I suppose,” he says, “if they weren’t threatening me they’d be threatening someone else.” Presley may have steady nerves over these promises to kill him, but some of his friends are apprehensive. “First of all,” says a Presley buddy, “you got to consider the pressure that lays on Elvis like a big rock. Just think about it! Suppose every time you opened a letter, every time you picked up a phone, somebody might be telling you they’re going to kill you. How long can you stand something like that without coming unglued? When’s it going to stop? Man, you live like that long enough and if you don’t end up in a suede strait-jacket you got strength, and I mean strength, of character. I think Elvis has got that, but none of us is ever going to know for sure till it’s all over. “And with as many people out to get Elvis as they say there are — well, it only takes one. and it’s the big blackout. Don't knock Elvis. He hasn’t had it, he’s having it and it won’t quit!” We discussed this friend’s apprehension with Elvis. He thought about things for a moment and then said, “Well, there are some people who say they want to kill me. So it’s nice to know that there are other people who like me enough to worry about me. Maybe it’s that kind of worrying that takes care of me — that and having God look down and keep things safe.” We sought the answer to one last question from Elvis: Since threats of death are rarely faced by the average man, perhaps they resulted in a kind of thinking from Elvis that was also rare. A special kind of philosophy. He shook his head. “Nope,” he said. “Of course, I hope no one of those people ever succeeds because I want to live. And I think I got a good reason. “I want to live to be old . . . and remember a woman’s love . . . and look at our children with her . . . and know in my heart that it’s been a good life. Until then. I’m not getting myself killed.” — Tony Wall See Elvis Presley in “Girls, Girls, Girls.” Paramount. His next picture will be “It Happened at the World’s Fair,” M-G-M. 82