Elvis Book Review

The Inner Elvis

The Inner Elvis

Author: Peter Whitmer, Ph.D.

Published in paperback by Hyperion

ISBN 0-7868-8248-4

"The Inner Elvis" examines Elvis's life from the psychological perspective. As such, its language is sometimes very academic, making reading, especially in the early chapters, quite hard going. But it's all worth it in the end, for the book offers an unusual insight into the factors that influenced Elvis's actions and makes the reader better understand the seemingly self-destructive later years.

The book begins with some interesting, if not always pleasant, background information about Gladys and Vernon. Much of this is based on Dundy's "Elvis and Gladys," but with some additional facts and perhaps some fantasy, too, such as the story of a six year old Elvis playing guitar in the street in order to earn some extra money!

The focus is then turned towards Elvis's status as a "twinless twin" and the role this played in influencing Elvis's further development. The author attempts to explain the "why" of his behaviour, rather than merely describing "what" his life was like and discusses Elvis's "enmeshment" (a term used to describe one person's unusual closeness to another) with Gladys.

There follows some considerable detail about the early development of Elvis's career, including his entry into films and with an excellent account of the final Hayride performance. This leads to what seems to have been the inevitable conflict between Elvis's private and public personas. Of special interest here are the recollections of Harry Kenter, the director of "Loving You," of his travels and work with Elvis, for whom he held great respect. This contrasts sharply with Kenter's reports of his dealings with Tom Parker, for whom he clearly had very little respect.

Such views are shared by others interviewed for this book - numerous film professionals praise Elvis's abilities and potential as a dramatic actor, something which, it is generally agreed, was blocked because of "the Colonel and his stooges." The book attempts to explain why Elvis was so subservient to Parker in psychological terms. Indeed, the book resorts to these terms to explain almost all other aspects of Elvis's life and career, too, including his love of karate, his selection of Priscilla and his visit to Nixon.

"Elvis In Depth" is a very well researched book, relying on a large amount of reference material, all of which is meticulously listed, including books, interviews and letters. Nevertheless, it is doubtful that Lamar Fike's intestinal bypass and George Klein's nose-job were done "so that Elvis could inspect the results before submitting himself to the same procedures," as the author claims! This seems to be pure conjecture, even though Elvis may well have decided to undergo similar surgery after seeing the results.

The book contains an excellent account of the making of the TV special in 1968, based largely on an interview with Steve Binder, and including an unnerving tale of how Parker, having lost control over the show to Binder, attempted to sabotage the production by obtaining all of the tickets to the sit-down segment and then "disposing" of them without actually getting an audience. Fortunately, Binder was able to work around this problem, but Parker and his cronies got the final word by preventing contact between Binder and Elvis ever again after the show was completed.

Towards the end of the book, the author examines Elvis in the context of shamanism and his eventual decline from the status of shaman following his divorce.

"Elvis In Depth" is recommended to fans who want more than the usual biography or tattle-tale story.

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