Return to previous pageSergeant Presley
Author: Rex and Elisabeth Mansfield with Marshall and Zoe Terrill
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1-55022-555-3 (paperback, 243 pp.)
Elvis's life, career, ups and downs, have been analysed, considered, examined, pulled apart and put back together again in some 2000 English-language books. 2000 books about one man -- almost unbelievable! Nevertheless, a significant period of his life is largely ignored: his two-year stint in the US Army. Indeed, just a relatively small proportion of the 2000 titles concentrate to any significant extent on this time, which, after all, represents approximately 9 percent of his time as an entertainer. Certainly nothing like this percentage of titles treat those two years with much more than a passing mention and considerably less than 1 percent concentrate solely on that period.
"Sergeant Presley" helps adjust this imbalance. The book is written by Elvis's army friend Rex Mansfield and his wife Elisabeth, who most fans will know better as Elisabeth Stefaniak, the girl who acted as Elvis's secretary for much of his time in Germany.
Rex was enlisted on the same day as Elvis and spent the whole period of Elvis's service with Elvis, becoming a close personal friend, taking part in all aspects of Elvis's life, even accompanying him on his trips to Munich and Paris.
The Mansfields divide the numerous chapters of the book between themselves, thereby giving different perspectives on occurrences and being able to cover those times when the one or the other was not on the scene, as when Elvis is on field-training in Grafenwohr, during which time he met Elisabeth. The recollections of the couple are often amusing: the goings-on in the two hotels that Elvis occupied before moving to his hired house in the Goethestrasse; the intruding Mrs Pieper, who let the house to Elvis at an exorbitant rent, but insisted on staying in the house herself; the typical (or not so typical!) boys' fun in Paris... Other recollections are less pleasant: Elvis's use of amphetamines, his tight-fisted attitude to Lamar Fike and Red West (resulting in Red's decision to prematurely return to Memphis), and especially his authoritarian treatment of all those in the household. No problems for me there, though, and all credit to the authors for telling a lot more hard truths than we are often used to, without ever seeming to resort to exaggeration and sensationalism. They could so easily have done so, for Elvis's intransigence made their own love for each other very difficult to develop, so they had sufficient reason to be bitter. However, their apparent genuine liking of Elvis ensures that their tale is balanced and fair, even if Elvis did almost totally ignore them once his military service was over.
The book's subtitle, "Our Untold Story of Elvis' Missing Years," is not entirely accurate, nor is the claim on the blurb on the back cover that "included are 40 pages of 90 previously unpublished photographs." Much of what is written in "Sergeant Elvis" and many of the photographs were published in the 1981 German book, "Elvis in Deutschland," also by Rex and Elisabeth Mansfield. As far as I am aware, however, an English translation of that particular book has never appeared (many sections of "Sergeant Presley" appear to be directly translated), so now English-speaking fans also have a chance to learn a lot more about this somewhat mysterious time in Elvis's life. This is a good, honest book, dealing with Elvis the man, rather than Elvis the performer. As such, it deserves more than passing attention.
David Neale
copyright September 2002
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