Elvis Presley's afterlife

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Presley's grave in the Graceland Meditation Garden

The afterlife Elvis Presley is the subject of cultural and historical research. When Elvis Presley died unexpectedly on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42, he left behind neither an autobiography nor any other record that could have been used to form a picture of himself in addition to his music. Throughout his life he wrote very few letters, gave hardly any interviews and when he did, then often in the course of press conferences, which hardly provided the right framework for a more in-depth discussion. He had always kindly but firmly rejected questions about his private life or his political position.

“For a dead man, Elvis Presley is awfully noisy. His body may have failed him in 1977, but today his spirit, his image, and his myths do more than live on: they flourish, they thrive, they multiply. "

- Gilbert B. Rodman, Professor of Communication Studies - see footnote for translation

Presley never appeared on talk shows, only socialized with a select few colleagues from entertainment and avoided events such as award ceremonies or celebrity parties. This is just not his thing, he said in 1969 when asked about his stance on Hollywood society. Except for the framework of a very successful career, surprisingly little was known by the general public about the man from Memphis until 1977. This left a lot of room for speculation, which contributed to the mythologization and ultimately also misinformation about Presley and which are now an integral part of his history as part of popular culture. In studies of American pop culture that deal with the ongoing Elvis Presley phenomenon, Elvis Presley's posthumous career from 1977 onwards is seen as an independent topic.

From legend to myth

“When Elvis Presley died,” said the music journalist Greil Marcus , “this event was something like an explosion that took place in silence, in souls and hearts; the result of this explosion were many fragments that slowly came to light, took shape and changed again and again over the years. Nobody [...] could foresee the omnipresence, the exuberance, the strange, the terrible and the amusing of this second life of Elvis Presley. "

Already legendary in his lifetime, Elvis Presley became a myth on August 16, 1977. His death hit the headlines around the world and this event was the news of the day for many newscasts around the world. There was often talk of the “end of an era”. The public interest in the USA alone was so great that the leading TV stations ABC and NBC even opened their evening news with the death of the entertainer, while competitor CBS paid for its initial reluctance to report with a large loss of ratings. Tens of thousands of fans made their way to his main residence, Graceland, in Memphis, to bid farewell to their idol. Radio stations changed their programs and played Elvis non-stop while record stores saw a rush for anything bearing the entertainer's name. In the first few months after Presley's death, according to Billboard magazine, 20 million records were sold weekly. 40 press shops were busy at the same time to meet the demand for Presley plates. At times, every third record sold in the US was by Elvis Presley.

The media hype that set in immediately, however, could not hide the fact that ultimately little was known about the man Leonard Bernstein had described as the greatest cultural force of the 20th century. There was neither an autobiography of Elvis Presley nor an in-depth, complete biography. The New York Times , which always has obituaries for important people ready in case of emergency, had none for Elvis Presley. There was also perplexity in the hurriedly convened discussion panels on American television. While a round of journalists on NBC speculated about possible reasons for Presley's early demise, Chuck Berry, who by no means had a personal relationship with Presley like James Brown , Jackie Wilson and BB King , was hardly able to hide his satisfaction on the ABC channel, at least survived the white competitor to have. Honors such as that of the journalist Charles Kuralt, who pointed out the cultural and historical importance of Elvis Presley on a CBS special, were in the minority.

Controversy over Elvis Presley's cause of death

The speculation about Presley's untimely death was mainly promoted by the book Elvis What Happened ( Elvis, what happened , 1977). Three former, u. a. Presley’s security officials released it with the assistance of tabloid journalist Steve Dunleavy just weeks before Presley’s death. The dismissal of some of the long-time employees was preceded by lawsuits from concert-goers against Elvis Presley. Apparently the three employees had shown inappropriately brutal behavior towards fans on several occasions, after which Presley was advised to remove the three from his increasingly professional security organization. Elvis What Happened primarily focused on Presley's personal life, affairs, failed marriage, preference for firearms, drug abuse, and the like. Red West - one of the authors - is said to have distanced itself later from the publication. Released shortly before Presley's death, the book formed a basis for the controversy that developed among medical professionals about the cause of death, primarily by addressing drug abuse. A controversy that began on August 16, 1977, saw the media play a major role, and dragged on for nearly 20 years and several legal proceedings.

The events of August 16, 1977

Elvis Presley was found lifeless and crouched face down on the floor of his bathroom by his friend Ginger Alden on August 16, 1977 at 1:30 p.m. The emergency services and general practitioner George Nichopoulos were alerted immediately, and friends and employees tried to provide first aid. Nichopoulos decided to admit Presley, who was not having a heartbeat at the time, to the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. Since he had already been treated there several times, they had his medical records, and the hospital also had a first-class emergency room. There, however, all efforts to bring the entertainer back to life proved in vain. After the death was determined and Vernon Presley and the rest of the family informed, Chief Medical Investigator Dan Warlick immediately began investigating the site on behalf of Shelby County Chief Examiner and Coroner Jerry Francisco.

After the site inspection, Warlick was able to quickly rule out third-party negligence. Based on the position of the body, he was able to reconstruct that Presley was probably sitting on the toilet when he had a seizure, straightened up from the sitting position, took a step or two, and then collapsed over. He bit his tongue almost all the way and inhaled particles from the carpet. Warlick and his team interviewed everyone who was in the house at the time of death and learned that after Presley was admitted, the housekeeping staff had cleaned most of the bedrooms and bathrooms, as instructed to do so immediately whenever Elvis Presley did so Left house. It was not assumed that he was dead and therefore nothing should have been touched. Warlick's team also looked for drugs Presley might have been taking before he died, but found nothing.

The investigator learned from the staff that Presley, who was a night owl, had returned from a visit to his dentist around 1:30 in the morning, after which he had a business appointment with his security chief and tour manager to discuss details for the upcoming tour . He then played a game of squash in the in-house squash court with his cousin, his wife and his girlfriend. At around eight in the morning, he retired with his girlfriend to sleep, and then called a nurse who lived on the Graceland property and was engaged in delivering medication to him and his seriously ill father for extra sleeping pills to get. Because Presley, who had suffered from chronic insomnia since childhood, had overdosed on sleeping pills and sedatives in the past, his family doctor had switched to handing him all medication himself or through a nurse when Presley was in Memphis or on tour in the mid-1970s was. Among other things, he received medication for insomnia, depression , a chronic intestinal disorder ( megacolon ), diabetes mellitus , high blood pressure , arthritis , kidney problems and the consequences of Reiter's syndrome . Since Presley still could not sleep on the morning of August 16, 1977, he retired to his bathroom with a book ( The Scientific Search For The Face Of Jesus by Frank Adams), where he fell asleep in the early afternoon from his girlfriend was found.

Since investigator Dan Warlick ruled out third-party negligence as the cause of death, there was also no need for a state autopsy - a perfectly normal process, which was later interpreted by journalists as an indication of a conspiracy to conceal the true background of Elvis Presley's death. Vernon Presley's request for a private autopsy was submitted that same day by George Nichopoulos to the pathologists at Baptist Memorial Hospital. Since the local pathology team around Muirhead wanted to be above suspicion in such a prominent case, the team around the state coroner Francisco also attended the autopsy in an advisory capacity. The morphological part of the autopsy was started and the body was initially unsuccessfully searched for external injuries, puncture marks from injection needles and the like. In the further course of the autopsy, some diseases typical of sudden death, such as pulmonary embolism , aneurysm , endocarditis or bleeding, could quickly be ruled out. However, arteriosclerosis and hypertrophy were found . Also very noticeable was the pathologically enlarged intestine, which must not only have caused considerable difficulties, but also made the entertainer appear much more overweight than he actually appeared to be.

The doctors had agreed to hold a press conference that same evening, and although the ongoing autopsy had not produced any clear results up to this point and the results of the laboratory tests were not yet available, Francisco, as spokesman for the medical team, presented the following cause of death to the media:

“The ruling of the autopsy is that the cause of death is cardiac arrhythmia due to undetermined heartbeat. There are several cardiovascular diseases that are known at the present [explanation of those]. It may take several days [to determine the cause of death]; it may take weeks. It may never be discovered. [...] He was using medication to control his blood pressure and or a colon problem, but there is no evidence of any chronic abuse of drugs whatsoever. "

- Jerry Francisco 1977 - see footnote for translation

The toxicological studies 1977

The pathologists around Muirhead were not enthusiastic about Francisco's approach, but saw their reputation endangered by this premature statement in their eyes. The disagreement between the pathologists and the coroner was to lead to an expert dispute and several lawsuits, which dragged on for almost 20 years. Blood and urine samples were sent to two different laboratories in Memphis for toxicological testing. In both investigations, several drugs were found, but no drugs or alcohol (for details of the substances found, see footnote).

The pathologists at Baptist Memorial Hospital were unsatisfied with this result, so they sent additional samples, alias Ethel Moore, to Bio-Science Laboratories in California. Despite the code name, one suspected whose samples it was. Bio-Science could only detect various sleeping pills and pain relievers, but neither drugs nor alcohol (for the substances found, see footnote). There, after consulting another toxicologist, Robert H. Cravey, the argument was followed that - in the absence of any other significant disease that could have caused death - the interaction of the drugs, ie. H. Polypragmatic , Presley's death (wording in the original see footnote).

Autopsy report vs. official cause of death in 1977

The assessment of the toxicologist Cravey was taken over by the Bio-Science-Labor in its final report to the pathologists of the Baptist Memorial Hospital, who in turn included this in the autopsy report:

“(..) it is our view that death in the case of Baptist Memorial Hospital A77-160 resulted from multiple drug ingestion (commonly known as 'polypharmacy'). Of particular note is the combination of codeine, ethchlorvynol and barbiturates detected in body fluids and tissues. The levels in body fluids exceed some other known identifiable multi drug overdose cases where codeine has been implicated. "

- Paragraph on toxicological examination in the autopsy report 1977 - see footnote for translation

Robert H. Cravey's statement that there was no adequate explanation for Elvis Presley's death from other diseases contradicted the results of the morphological examination listed in the autopsy report just below the toxicological examination. The heart disease was described in detail and the metabolic disease alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency , which Elvis Presley had been diagnosed with during previous hospital stays with the assistance of the Mayo Clinic, was also discussed:

"Several major abnormalities of the cardiovascular system were revealed by the autopsy examination. There are significant cardiac hypertrophy (heart weight 520 gm.) Due principally to left ventricular hypertrophy without dilation. Moderate amounts of coronary atherosclerosis were present in all major coronary arteries. The degree of coronary luminal narrowing was impressive when the subject's age is considered. Study of the intrarenal arterial system demonstrated rather marked arteriolar sclerosis manifested by hyalinization and hyperplastic changes. Obsolete glomeruli and focal atrophy and fibrosis indicated some degree of nephrosclerosis. The cardiac hypertrophy and renal arteriosclerosis and nephrosclerosis result usually from significant hypertension. Coronary atherosclerosis is known to be aggravated by hypertensive disease. "

“Additional comment: Clinical studies, conducted earlier, indicated that the subject had an antitrypsin deficiency. This abnormality in the serum was demonstrated on two occasions at Baptist Memorial Hospital and on one occasion by a sample transmitted to the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic typed the subject as MS. "

- Result of the morphological examination in the autopsy report 1977 - see footnote for translation

In October 1977, in the absence of family doctor Nichopoulos, pathologists at the Baptist Memorial Hospital Vernon Presley announced that polypragmasy was the cause of his son's death. They also leaked the results of the private autopsy report to the local press. Nichopoulos had no inkling of these events (especially since the complete autopsy report was not sent to him); he had already, in consultation with Francisco, issued the death certificate based on the official cause of death so that Vernon Presley could take care of his son's estate. After receiving the official toxicology results from the Memphis laboratories, Francisco had in turn consulted with two other independent toxicologists from other states in the USA, the majority of whom confirmed his view. Subsequently, on October 21, 1977, Francisco announced the results of the investigation into the cause of Elvis Presley's death, which did not agree with the assessment of the advisors of the pathologists of the Baptist Memorial Hospital:

“The investigation of the death of Elvis Presley by the Office of the Shelby County Medical Examiner has been completed. The death certificate has been signed and filed with the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department. The cause of death has been ascribed to Hypertensive Heart Disease with Coronary Artery Heart Disease as a contributing factor. The autospy report from the Pathology Department of Baptist Memorial Hospital, which includes the toxicology results, was completed October 18, 1977 and has been reviewed. All of the findings have been discussed by the staff of the Section of Forensic Pathology at the University of Tennessee Center for the Health Sciences. This includes 3 Forensic Pathologists and 1 Toxicologist. The toxicology findings have also been discussed with 2 other Toxicologists in the United States. It is the considered opinion of all of the Forensic Pathologists and 2 of the 3 Toxicologists that there is no evidence of the medication present in the body of Elvis Presley caused or made any significant contribution to his death. The third Toxicologist was of the opinion that all medications were in the therapeutic range and individually did not represent an overdose. All the Toxicologists agreed that the decision of whether these medications played any role in death causation should be left to the Forensic Pathologist. All of the medications present had been prescribed by his doctors. There was an extensive search for illicit drugs and they were not found to be present. "

- Final report Office of Shelby County Medical Examiner, Memphis, Tennessee 1977

Investigate journalists from TV station ABC (1979)

The case was on hold for two years - until the two journalists Thompson and Cole, looking for a topic that would be as effective as possible in the media and that should improve the slacking ratings of 20/20 magazine on ABC, decided to take on the death of Elvis Presley. Since Cole lived in Memphis, they began their research there and came across an older article in the archive of the daily newspaper Commercial Appeal , in which the inconsistencies surrounding the autopsy were addressed. They also found excerpts from the bio-science laboratory report that pathologists from the Baptist Memorial Hospital had apparently forwarded to the newspaper. With the help of sensational reporter Geraldo Rivera, they contacted some of Elvis Presley's former employees and his doctors, especially George Nichopoulos, to substantiate their theory of a drug overdose. Of the former employees, however, only three - Marty Lacker and David and Ricky Stanley - turned out to be an abundant source. All three tried to achieve a similar book success as Elvis What Happened by either just publishing their first own book about Elvis Presley or still writing it, but in any case could use the publicity of the ABC journalists. Both Lacker and the Stanleys made no secret of their own drug (Lacker) or drug addiction (David Stanley) from journalists. Lacker made it clear that Elvis was addicted like him and that he was addicted by doctors like Max Shapiro and Nichopoulos, whom he named as his own main source of medicine. Lacker was also the first source to bring into play extraordinarily large quantities of tablets supposedly prescribed by Nichopoulos (in his case 13,000 in four years). In the later trial against Nichopoulos, Lacker did not maintain his testimony.

On September 13, 1979, ABC broadcast the first part of their particularly sensational report, The Elvis Cover-Up , in which Thompson, Cole, and Rivera alleged that Elvis Presley had died of a drug overdose initiated by irresponsible people Doctors like Nichopoulos who would have prescribed tons of it. Nichopoulos and Ghanem - Presley's doctor in Las Vegas - were shown in edited interviews as "Elvis conspirators", Ghanem with the statement that Presley, like many people in show business, had used sleeping pills, but neither drugs nor alcohol. Rivera, Thompson and Cole also found doctors like Noel Florendo who - without ever having examined Presley - came to the conclusion that he had definitely not died of a heart attack based on excerpts from the bio-science laboratory report in front of the camera. Pittsburgh coroner and pathologist Cyril Wecht told journalists directly that drugs had killed Elvis Presley. The Elvis Cover-Up was one of the most successful TV shows of the season with nearly 17 million viewers, giving ABC an edge over competition CBS.

Hearing and trial of George Nichopoulos (1980/81)

The television broadcast resulted in a hearing before the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners for George Nichopoulos accusing Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and 18 other patients (including Nichopoulos himself and his daughter) of deliberately overdosing prescription drugs . In the last eighteen months of his life, Elvis Presley is said to have received 196 prescriptions for 17 different medicines from Nichopoulos. While other cases of prescription abuse were heard, it quickly became clear that Presley's case was the focus of the investigation, and that it was due to the large media interest at the public hearing. Immediately before the hearing, journalists Thompson and Cole had unsuccessfully sued ABC for the publication of the private autopsy report to support the prosecution's arguments and to persuade coroner Francisco to change the official cause of death. Because of this lawsuit, no information from the autopsy report could be included in the hearing by court order. As early as 1977, journalists from the National Enquirer had tried unsuccessfully to get the autopsy report through bribery and theft.

At the hearing, George Nichopoulos himself described how he treated patients with addiction problems - in Presley's case mainly caused by his chronic sleep disorders and painful illnesses - by controlling their drug consumption and giving placebos as often as possible. In the case of Presley, he also contacted other doctors in order to make them aware of the problem and to prevent the mailing of medication. In the hearing, in addition to a large number of doctors, successfully treated patients testified, for example Alan Fortas, Entourage member and employee of Elvis Presley in the 1960s, whom Nichopoulos had cured of his drug addiction. Ex-girlfriend Sheila Ryan and producer Felton Jarvis, road manager Joe Esposito, his ex-girlfriend Shirley Dieu and nurse Tish Henley also testified from Elvis Presley's environment. Her testimony confirmed the claims made about Elvis Presley's health problems - especially his insomnia - and that Nichopoulos kept the drugs under lock and key, the use of placebos, and the point that the prescribed drugs were not all for Elvis Presley, but for the care of the up served to 100-member touring group of the Elvis Presley Show. Shirley Dieu, part of the Entourage from 1974 to 1977, testified when asked:

“I know that he [Elvis] was on medication, but I never felt or got the impression that he was getting 'high', so to speak. Normally if he would take medication, he would go right to bed and it was for that reason. As far as recreation purposes, I never recalled anyone sitting around, smoking marijuana or taking any type of drugs or pills. He [Elvis] didn't allow any alcohol or marijuana around. If he found out about it, he would be really upset ... The guys would have lost their jobs. ”

- Shirley Dieu 1980 - see footnote for translation

That statement was supported by doctors such as gastroenterologist Lawrence Wruble, who treated Presley for his gastrointestinal problems. Former employees and friends also acknowledged the entertainer's generosity, who enjoyed giving and lending expensive gifts, which aroused the curiosity of the commission in connection with a loan of up to $ 200,000 that Elvis Presley Nichopoulos granted in 1976 to build a home .

Since Robert Cravey - the toxicologist who had played a key role in initiating the polypragmasy thesis - could not or did not want to testify for the prosecution, and the chief pathologist of the Baptist Memorial Hospital was not allowed to testify, they looked for other voices that supported polypragmasy -These supported and found it among others in the pharmacologist Raymond Harbison, who testified that the prescription of drugs like Quaalude is not medically appropriate because, if prescribed over a long period of time, they could lead to dependence. Nichopoulos' prescriptions for Elvis Presley would be at most appropriate for a cancer patient in severe pain. The prosecution also counted on Bryan Finkle - toxicology expert from Utah - but he pointed out that he had been misquoted in the 1979 TV show The Elvis Cover-up and then supported his early 1978 in Salt The Lake City Tribune released testimony, suggesting that the concentration of drugs found in Presley's body was insufficient to cause death.

In the end, Nichopoulos was acquitted of many allegations, but his approval was withdrawn for three months, among other things because in some cases he was unable to comprehensively prove his approach due to incomplete medical records. That did not end the matter for Nichopoulos, as in May of that year the Tennessee state brought charges against him, also for improperly prescribing drugs to patients including Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis . Joseph Tennant, a specialist in one of the leading pain clinics in the United States, was a key witness in this trial, stating that Nichopoulos' approach to treating patients with addiction problems may be the only promising method. The proceedings ended with an acquittal for Nichopoulos, who continued to practice in the following years and specialized, among other things, in the treatment of AIDS patients.

Re-investigation and final assessment of the cause of death (1991–1994)

In 1991 the journalists Thompson and Cole, who after the death of one of the pathologists at Baptist Memorial Hospital had come into possession of the complete bio-science toxicology report from 1977, published their book The Death of Elvis , in which they made claims from The Elvis Put cover-up on the table again. This, as well as local political efforts to remove Francisco coroner from office, prompted the Shelby County Commission of the State of Tennessee to re-examine the Elvis Presley case, the circumstances of his death and, above all, the question of whether Francisco had forged Elvis' death certificate . For this purpose, Joseph Davies of the Miami School of Medicine in Florida, who had performed more than 20,000 autopsies in a long career, was commissioned to review all autopsy documents collected in 1977 by the Baptist Memorial Hospital, including the toxicology report from Bio Science. After examining the documents, Joseph Davies stated that many of the substances listed were not psychoactive substances taken recently, but rather degradation products, so that not - as assumed by the pathologists of the Baptist Memorial Hospital in 1977 - a combination of dubious amounts consumed shortly before death Template. Davies made an unequivocal judgment (as did the 1977 Shelby County Medical Examiner before him) that drugs would in no way have caused the death of Elvis Presley and concluded:

“It takes hours to die from drugs. Elvis would have slipped into an increased state of slumber. The scene itself told what happened to Elvis. [It was] a textbook case of a heart attack. "

- Joseph Davies 1994 - see footnote for translation

The central statement that drugs played no role in Presley's death was also supported by the toxicologist Merigian and the doctor Brookoff. Merigian also carried out a detailed individual analysis of the substances found in Presley's body by Bio-Science, which was first published in 1994 and which he reaffirmed in 2009 (see footnote for full individual analysis). The analysis showed that all substances except for Quaalude were present in such small quantities that they could not have had any serious consequences. He also identified a number of substances as secondary ingredients, which further reduced the number of drugs taken. Quaalude was the only drug available in a higher dose, but according to Merigian it was still below the lowest known dose of concern. Merigian came to the following conclusion:

“The reality is there were a lot of drugs identified as trace amounts or metabolites. None of these drugs in and of or by themselves would have caused a problem. I totally disagree with that [Bio-Science Lab report] conclusion. His death is not a result of multiple drug ingestion. I think they are trying to put a square peg in a round hole. A person would have a better chance of being struck by lightning than succumbing to cardiac arrhytmia from drugs in these concentrations. [...] Any scenario is probably more likely than a drug overdose. "

- Toxicologist Kevin S. Merigian 1994 and 2009 - see footnote for translation

Dwight Reed - another advisor to Bio-Science toxicologists in 1977 - later distanced himself from the polypragmatic testimony by saying that it was no more than a conjecture, an opinion, but not a fact. Despite all these recent statements, the cause of death polypragmasy can be found in many biographies and books about Elvis Presley , including the most famous one, Careless Love by Peter Guralnick, which in its conclusion is based exclusively on Thompson and Cole's book The Death of Elvis and supports the evaluation of the Bio-Science laboratory report from 1977 presented there, but does not mention Davies' investigation or Merigian's findings. To Davies' own regret, his detailed report from 1994 cannot be published for legal reasons, nor can he comment in detail on the contents of his report. If this were not the case, Davies said, widespread misunderstandings could finally be dispelled.

Nichopoulos did not benefit from Davies' 1994 assessment of Elvis Presley's cause of death. The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners began investigating him again for prescribing drugs to his patients, including many pain and AIDS patients, following the publication of Thompson and Cole's book in 1991 and an anonymous tip-off. When the case dragged on for four years without any significant findings, meanwhile the subject of the investigation had shrunk to a prominent case or the prescription of methadone to Jerry Lee Lewis , the now partially newly appointed commission offered him a settlement in 1995, which he refused . As a result, the doctor's license to practice medicine, who was 68 years old at the time, was withdrawn (for the wording, see next footnote). According to Nichopoulos, none of the commission doctors had proven experience treating patients with chronic pain or drug / drug addiction. Rock 'n' roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis calls his former doctor his friend to this day, who helped him through difficult times and maybe even saved his life.

Recent theses on the cause of death (2009)

The intestinal specialists Chris Lahr and Thomas Abell formulated a further thesis for Elvis Presley's cause of death in 2009. Based on the reports on Presley's chronic intestinal problems and its appearance, they were certain that an intestinal obstruction (colonic inertia, paralytic ileus), possibly caused by a hereditary one Maternal disposition, and a resulting megacolon was at the center of this question. According to the two specialists, Presley had many symptoms that are typical for this clinical picture: profuse sweating, puffiness, severe weight fluctuations, feeling weak, migraines, slow bowel movements, abdominal pain. In the final stages of the disease, according to Abell and Lahr, drugs no longer help, and all that remains is the operation, the partial or complete removal of the bowel.

A colectomy was also considered by Nichopoulos in 1975 with the help of a specialist, but was rejected as too risky, especially since Elvis Presley feared negative effects on his career. One misjudged the clinical picture and assumed that the intestinal complaints were simply a side effect of administered medication, which the intestinal specialists Abell and Lahr consider to be unlikely based on current knowledge and due to the nature of the disease. The clinical picture rather points to Hirschsprung's disease . As early as the 1980s, some people believed that Presley's fatal heart attack was likely caused by a so-called Valsalva maneuver during bowel movements, since the morphological part of the autopsy had already revealed a highly dysfunctional bowel.

Dan Warlick - the medical investigator from 1977 - has repeatedly pointed out Presley's genetic predisposition, the strikingly high mortality rate of family members on the maternal side in their forties, and confirmed it again in 2009:

"I hope I can make this clear for the last time. Elvis Presley did not die of a drug overdose… It makes a better story [for the media], but it's not true. That poor guy had issues with his physiology that were in large part genetic. "

- Dan Warlick 2009 - see footnote for translation

Elvis Presley in literature, music and film

Biographies and pseudobiographies

The book Elvis What Happened? (Elvis, what happened?) , Which three former employees who, among other things, were responsible for security issues, published together with sensational journalist Steve Dunleavy shortly before Presley's death in 1977, gave the starting signal for a long series of pseudobiographical book publications. Because did Elvis What Happened? Before Presley's death received little attention outside of fan circles, it became a million seller immediately afterwards. The success resulted in an abundance of anecdotal publications by other so-called friends, relatives, former employees and casual acquaintances of Presley, which mostly spread little more than the subjective point of view of the respective author and were researched incompletely. The dominance of these book publications with the simultaneous lack of statements by real insiders prevented a serious argument for a long time. Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker, for example, had neither written a book nor given a comprehensive interview until his death and justified his reluctance in 1993 with the statement that he had so far rejected all offers because he did not want to participate in the kind of sensational journalism of the publishers high editions guarantee.

This situation did not change with the first book publications by outsiders in the 1980s, which were traded as biographies. Albert Goldman's bestseller Elvis (1981) is considered outdated by experts due to its many factual errors, proven invented stories, racist remarks and obvious deficits in the presentation of music-historical contexts. Goldman was also successfully sued for defamation and distortion of facts by two members of Elvis Presley's entourage cited in the publication. Nevertheless, to this day, articles about the entertainer still contain set pieces from Albert Goldman's bestseller, which Presley essentially portrayed as a poorly wealthy, untalented soldier of fortune of lowest descent, who had achieved fame solely because of the skills of his manager, and then a life in excess to end early. Jerry Hopkins' attempt at a biography with Elvis: The Final Years is only a little more factual than Goldman's publication . A first fundamental musical appreciation of Presley was published in 1982 by music journalist Dave Marsh with Elvis , while Elaine Dundy brought out a well-researched biography of Elvis Presley at a young age in 1985 with Elvis and Gladys .

It was not until the beginning of the 1990s that there were, along with other disclosure books - Alanna Nash's Revelations from the Memphis Mafia - an increasing number of authors who seriously dealt with Presley's life and work. One example is Bill Burk with his detailed volumes about Presley's childhood in Tupelo, his school days in Memphis and his first musical steps. The author was obviously able to benefit from his many years of activity as a daily newspaper journalist in Memphis and the personal contacts (including to Presley himself) from this time. As a comprehensive biography of Elvis Presley, the two extensive volumes Last Train to Memphis (1994) and Careless Love (1999), published by music journalist and author Peter Guralnick , are now considered to be . Above all, the first volume, which deals with the years 1935 to 1958, was widely praised and u. a. Awarded Book of the Year in the USA. The second volume of the biography, which covers the years 1959 to 1977, is viewed critically by experts, especially because of the too subjective description of Presley's life and career after his army service, which is already in the subtitle of the volume “The Unmaking of Elvis Presley “(Eng. The Swan song). This evaluation of Presley's career is not surprising, however, as, according to Greil Marcus, it was already evident in Guralnick's earlier publications such as Lost Highway (1979) through a general rejection of the commercialization of music. a. resulted in an idealistic and musical predilection for the 'original', still little known Elvis of the Sun years.

Besides Greil Marcus, Guralnick's perspective is judged to be too one-sided by other experts (including Prof. Richard Middleton, Simon Frith, Daniel Wolff) who have dealt with Presley's career and his influence on the music world. Daniel Wolff z. B. holds Ernst M. Jorgensen's approach of developing Presley's biography in A Life in Music (1998) or its predecessor Reconsider Baby (1984) along with the recording sessions; H. to closely follow Presley's overall musical development, for the more appropriate approach. Marc Hendrickx Elvis A. Presley: The Music, the Man, the Myth (for the first time 1993), on the other hand, convinces with the wealth of information about Presley's national and international publications, concerts, films, sales figures, chart positions, awards and the listing of publications about him which, in chronological order, provide a comprehensive insight into the successful musician's career and legacy.

The King as a literary figure

In addition to the large number of books that deal more or less substantially with the biography of Elvis Presley, there is also a large number of literary, musical and cinematic works that have the King as their theme. A well-known example of a first fictional adaptation of the events surrounding Presley's death in 1977 is Gail Brewer-Giorgio's novel Orion (1979), in which the author tells the life story of the fictional rock star Orion Eckley Darnell, who faked his death under pressure from his superstar -Escape from existence. The novel - today only a term as such - was the prelude to a topic that - picked up by the media - quickly became a sure - fire success and continues to provide amusement to this day: the ' Elvis is alive ' phenomenon. The novel was followed by another book in 1987, this time with a more direct Elvis reference, entitled The Most Incredible Elvis Story Ever Told ( The Most Incredible Elvis Story Ever Told ) . This second book title appeared again in 1988 under the title Is Elvis Alive? , provided with an audio cassette on which Elvis was supposed to be heard. In the course of these publications, the "Elvis-Lived-Rumor" took on such a life of its own - the King was regularly seen somewhere in the world - that it strongly dominated reporting about him until the 1990s.

The musical renaissance from the 1990s

In the 23 years of his career, Elvis Presley had released 711 different songs, which appeared on around 60 original albums, 29 extended plays and an almost unmanageable number of greatest hits, budget and license releases from outside companies. A large number of recordings remained unpublished during his lifetime, including alternative versions of songs that had already been published. There was also a considerable number of concert recordings, both as soundboard and audience recordings (recordings of concert-goers) as well as private recordings.

However, this extensive musical legacy was rarely used by Presley's record company RCA in the late 1970s and 1980s. One reason for this was the lack of an overview of the actual holdings in the extensive, poorly documented archives scattered across the USA. In addition, those responsible at RCA underestimated the potential market for Elvis publications and continued to rely on the strategy of reassembling what was already known, often without considering artistic aspects, for which the LP Elvis Sings for Children and Grownups Too is an example. Presley made regular income posthumously in this way, but otherwise had little priority for the label:

“Elvis was really almost forgotten. It was recognized that if you put out an Elvis release you'd make some money, but there was no effort to match the quality of the product with Presley's artistry. "

- Mike Omansky - former managing director of RCA - see footnote for translation

As a result of this corporate policy, collectors in Presley's large fan base increasingly turned to the flourishing " gray market ", where studio recordings and concert recordings of all kinds could be bought in the form of black copies and imported releases (and still exist today).

The situation only changed when RCA was bought by the Bertelsmann Group (BMG) at the end of the 1980s and the historian Ernst M. Jorgensen, the head of the Danish RCA branch, was commissioned to jointly with his British colleague Roger Semon the Presley Bringing the catalog into shape. The music lover Jorgensen had already started researching Elvis Presley's recording sessions as a schoolboy in the 1960s, and in 1975 Elvis Recording Sessions was the first version of his standard work Elvis Presley , published in 1998 . A Life in Music . Through an intensive and systematic search in the various RCA archives, he cataloged existing recordings - in order to track down lost material, he contacted former musicians and employees of the various recording studios. Under sometimes very adventurous circumstances, he then bought back important recordings that had found their way into the “gray market”.

As a result of this work, the high-quality 5-CD box The King of Rock 'n' Roll: The Complete 50's Masters was presented in 1992, which contained all masters approved for publication by Presley as well as unpublished material from the 1950s in a digitally edited version . The box was equipped with an extensive booklet which, in addition to an introductory text by Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick, also contained a detailed discography. As a result, it broke with the previous practice of issuing Elvis compilations in terms of systematics and price and was not only a great success commercially: it also re-established Elvis Presley in critical circles as a major artist. Jorgensen and Semon were nominated for a Grammy for their work and received the “Re-issue of the Year Award” from Rolling Stone magazine. The success of the 1950 box was followed by From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential 60's Masters in 1993 and Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential 70's Masters in 1995 . Both contributed significantly to a re-evaluation of Presley's music of the 1960s and 1970s. In autumn 2010, Jorgsensen continued this work with the limited edition deluxe box The Complete Elvis Presley Masters , which contains all 711 songs published during his lifetime as well as 103 rarities on 30 CDs in optimized sound quality, accompanied by a hardcover book with annotated discography and many photos and artwork from the original albums.

On the 25th anniversary of Presley's death in 2002, Jorgensen and RCA / BMG achieved a real coup with the release of the CD Elvis 30 # 1 Hits , which can be found in 17 countries - the USA, Great Britain, Canada, France, Australia, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Argentina, New Zealand, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Chile, Switzerland, Australia and the United Arab Emirates - immediately went from 0 to number 1 in the album charts. Even in the US, Elvis Presley's first top chart debut was in this immediate form. A little later Elvis reached the top placement in 30 # 1 hits in other nations. With the posthumous album chart topper Elvis 30 # 1 Hits, Presley has been one of the few solo artists (next to Barbra Streisand ) who has topped the pop album charts in four different decades (1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 2000s) since 2002 In others, at 46, he holds the record for the longest period between his first and last top album placement.

As a bonus, the CD contained the very successful remix of the song A Little Less Conversation , which the Dutch DJ JXL had produced for the advertising campaign of the sporting goods manufacturer Nike for the football World Cup. This song was originally Presley in 1968 for one of his last films Live a Little, Love a Little (dt. Honey, let lying ) and then something in a second, rockier version of the so-called comeback special Elvis recorded. The rockier version was officially released by RCA / BMG in the 1990s. A Little Less Conversation was never a hit during Presley's lifetime, JXL's remix called Elvis vs. JXL - A Little Less Conversation , which is based on the rockier version, was able to top the charts in over 20 countries in 2002. In the USA, the remix was then used in a number of TV series and films, after Presley's original version was already on the soundtrack of the hit film Ocean's Eleven in 2001 around the world.

Elvis 30 # 1 Hits was followed by other successful CD releases such as 2nd to None in 2003. In 2005 Elvis Presley also stormed the UK with reissues of Jailhouse Rock , I Got Stung / One Night and It's Now Or Never , which celebrated his 70th birthday. Birthday came out there, the top position of the singles charts. He beats the Beatles with 21 number 1 hits in their homeland, the Fab Four are still at the top of the US pop charts.

In addition to the successful publications for a wide audience, RCA founded the label Follow That Dream in 1999 under the direction of Ernst Jorgensen , which is primarily aimed at the solid core of collectors. The Follow That Dream CDs and, to a lesser extent, LPs are usually not available from regular retailers, but exclusively from fan clubs. Between 1999 and the beginning of 2010 a total of 89 publications appeared under the label's umbrella. Follow That Dream maintains various series, including the new edition of the classic albums with high-quality booklets and previously unreleased alternative versions as bonus tracks. The recorded dialogues between Presley and the musicians in the studio give insights into the working methods and the further development of the songs, which can be heard from recording to recording. In addition to the classic series, soundboard recordings of live concerts are also published, soundtrack CDs and CDs that are thematically categorized according to different aspects, for example recordings in which Presley sang with friends for private enjoyment and which were never intended for publication . The publications of Follow That Dream ultimately also contribute to the completion of Elvis Presley's biography, as they let some of the rumored myths about concerts and recording sessions - for example about the Jungle Room Sessions 1976 - appear in a different light.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. on this the press conference on the occasion of the concerts in Madison Square Garden, New York, June 1972
  2. ↑ "For a dead man, Elvis Presley is very noisy. His body may have let him down in 1977, but his spirit, his image and his myths don't just live on: they thrive, they bloom and multiply. ”Gilbert B. Rodman: Elvis after Elvis. The Posthumous Career Of A Living Legend, New York: Routledge 1996, p. 1.
  3. ↑ Ken Sharp: Elvis '69, p. 149
  4. ↑ cf. u. a. Gilbert B. Rodman: Elvis after Elvis. The Posthumous Career Of A Living Legend, New York: Routledge 1996; Greil Marcus: Dead Elvis. The legend lives on, Hannibal Verlag 1997
  5. ^ Greil Marcus: Dead Elvis. The legend is alive, Hannibal 1997, p. 10
  6. ↑ cf. Doll: Elvis for Dummies, pp. 262f
  7. ↑ cf. u. a. Doll: Elvis for Dummies, p. 245
  8. ↑ cf. Roger Semon & Ernst Mikael Jørgensen: Is Elvis the Biggest Selling Recording Artist? - Sorting Out Records Sales Stats & RIAA Rules ( Memento from February 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Quote from Leonard Bernstein
  10. ↑ cf. u. a. Doll: Elvis for Dummies, p. 262
  11. ^ Greil Marcus: Dead Elvis, p. 17f
  12. ↑ Marcus: Dead Elvis, pp. 18f; further u. a. Doll: Elvis for Dummies, p. 261
  13. ↑ cf. this u. a. Guralnick: Careless Love, p. 720; also: Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 103; also Ed Parker: Inside Elvis, Ballantine Books 1978, p. 107; see. also the recorded telephone conversation between Red West u. Elvis Presley v. October 1976 in: Osborne: Elvis Word for Word, p. 314
  14. ↑ Steve Dunleavy: Elvis What Happened, Ballantine Books, 1977
  15. ↑ George Klein: Elvis My Best Man, A Memoir, 2010, p. 289
  16. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 1ff
  17. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 10
  18. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 11 and 13
  19. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 11
  20. ↑ Dan Warlicks after Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 10f
  21. ↑ On the timing, see also Marc Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 424
  22. ↑ cf. Interview Maria Hesterberg with Dr. George Nichopoulos v. January 7, 2010, in: Graceland Magazine 193 (May / June), p. 38
  23. ↑ cf. Marc Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 427; also Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 363f
  24. ↑ cf. Marc Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 424; on Elvis Presley's various diseases, see also Nigel Patterson's interview with Dr. George Nichopoulos v. February 2010 ; further contribution v. Maria Hesterberg: Dr. Nick, in: Graceland Magazine 193 (May / June 2010), p. 36ff
  25. ^ Charles Thompson and James P. Cole: The Death of Elvis, Dell Publishing, p. 52ff; see. Letter from attorney James H. White dated July 28, 1978 to his colleague Max Shelton, in which the legal basis of the private autopsy report is explained, published in: Dick Grob: The Elvis Conspiracy, p. 638; Marc Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 427
  26. ↑ Dan Warlicks after Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 14; see. also Dick Grob's statements on this in: The Elvis Conspiracy, p. 238ff.
  27. ↑ cf. Charles Thompson and James P. Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 41
  28. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 16; Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, ill. Document opposite p. 247
  29. ↑ cf. Dan Warlick's observations after Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 45 u. P. 63f
  30. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 16
  31. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 53
  32. ↑ "The autopsy showed that there was heart failure due to cardiac arrhythmia. Pre-existing cardiovascular diseases were found [brief explanation of the same]. It can take days or weeks to determine the exact cause of death, or it may never be found. [...] He took medication for high blood pressure and an intestinal disease, but there is no evidence of drug abuse or drug use of any kind. "Quoted from: Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 17
  33. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 61
  34. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 18
  35. ↑ The blood and urine samples showed up to six different substances: ethinamate / valmid, methaqualon / quaalude, codeine , meperidine / pethidine / demerol , chlorpheniramine and a barbiturate , i.e. H. Sleep pills, pain relievers and an antihistamine. One of the laboratory reports commented that all substances were below the threshold values ​​for a toxic or even fatal effect, which ultimately put them in the therapeutic range; see. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 86 u. Document in chapter illustrations in the middle of the book (no page numbers)
  36. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 87
  37. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, pp. 94f
  38. ↑ The bio-science laboratory, which, in contrast to the other two laboratories, also examined tissue samples, found a total of fourteen substances, two in the blood, seven in the urine, eleven in the liver and six in the kidneys. The four substances found exclusively in the liver and kidneys ( amitriptyline , nortriptyline , meperidine / pethidine , phenyltoloxamine) were very minor traces, as they were not recorded in the report as all other substances with values ​​in μg / ml and also not in the final analysis of the laboratory report, which then spoke of ten substances; see. Bio-Science report in: Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, illustration in the middle of the book (no page number)
  39. ^ "In view of the lack of significant pathology to explain death, and considering the vast number of sedative-hypnotic and analgesic drugs found in concentrations ranging primarily from therapeutic to toxic, the combined effect of these drugs in combination must be considered. These findings would be consistent with coma and certainly could have proved fatal. "Robert H. Cravey, Chief Toxicologist Orange County and Advisor for Bio-Science - Translation:" Due to a lack of sufficient pathology to explain the cause of death and due to the large number of sedatives as well Analgesics in concentrations ranging from mostly therapeutic to toxic doses, the combination effect of these drugs must be taken into account. These findings would be compatible with a coma and could certainly have been fatal. ”Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 94f, quotation from document in illustrations, center of book, no page numbers
  40. ↑ “(..) we come to the conclusion that patient A77-160 of the Baptist Memorial Hospital died from taking numerous drugs (commonly known as polypragmasia ). In particular, a combination of codeine , ethchlorvynol and barbiturates was found in the body fluids and tissues. The concentrations in the body fluids exceeded those in other demonstrable cases of fatal overdoses involving codeine. ”Quoted from: Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 94f, quoted from document in figures, middle of book, no page numbers
  41. ↑ "Several major cardiovascular system abnormalities were discovered during the autopsy. There is significant hypertrophy (heart weight: 520 g) due to left-sided ventricular hypertrophy without enlargement / dilation. Moderate arteriosclerosis was found in all major coronary vessels. The extent of the narrowing of the lumen is impressive considering the age of the deceased. Examination of the intrarenal arterial system revealed clear arteriolosclerosis with hyalinization and hyperplasia. Obliterated glomeruli, focal atrophy, and fibrosis suggested nephrosclerosis. Hypertrophy, atherosclerosis, and nephrosclerosis usually result from significant high blood pressure. Atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries is known to be worsened by high blood pressure.
    Addition: Previously conducted clinical studies indicated that the deceased suffered from an alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency . This blood serum abnormality was found on two separate occasions at the Baptist Memorial Hospital [1975] and in a sample sent to the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic classified the deceased as MS [subclinical carrier]. ”Quoted from: Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 94f, quotation from document in illustrations, center of book, no page numbers
  42. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 98
  43. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, pp. 105ff; Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 126
  44. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 124
  45. ↑ see Toxicology Report from the Imversity of Utah, Salt Lake City Tribune v. January 29, 1978
  46. ^ Official letter from the Office of the Shelby County Medical Examiner v. October 21, 1977, signed by Jerry Franciso MD, JS Bell MD, CW Harlan MD and DT Stafford Ph. D., photocopy of the original in: Dick Grob: The Elvis Conspiracy. Fox Reflections Publishing 1994, p. 623; Article Toxicology Report from the Imversity of Utah , in: Salt Lake City Tribune v. January 29, 1978
  47. ^ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 109
  48. ^ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 112
  49. ^ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 116
  50. ^ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, pp. 160ff; see also Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 142 and P. 148f
  51. ↑ cf. the impressions of Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 160 u. 245f. Lackers Elvis: Portrait of a Friend was published in 1979, Stanley's Elvis, We Love You Tender in 1980
  52. ↑ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, pp. 160-164
  53. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 447
  54. ^ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 159; see also Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 193
  55. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 287
  56. ^ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 290
  57. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 165
  58. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 164f
  59. ^ Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 138; see also Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 142 and 167
  60. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 183
  61. ↑ cf. Dick Grob: The Elvis Conspiracy, p. 538.
  62. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 175
  63. ↑ cf. Jerry Schilling's statements in: Jerry Schilling: Me and a Guy named Elvis, 2006, p. 249 u. 284f; also Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 363f
  64. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 180ff
  65. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 172f
  66. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, pp. 177-180; see also Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 364ff
  67. ↑ "I know Elvis was taking medication, but I never got the impression he was taking it to get 'high', if you put it that way. He usually took the medication just before bed and they were for that purpose. As for taking substances as a recreational activity, I don't remember anyone smoking marijuana or taking any drugs or pills. Elvis also didn't allow alcohol or marijuana. If he had noticed anything, he would have been very upset ... The boys [Entourage] would have lost their jobs. ”Quoted from Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 178; Shirley Dieu is also used in Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, mentioned on p. 364 but not cited
  68. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 182; Wruble's statement is also mentioned in: Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 367
  69. ↑ see loan agreement in: Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, pp. 146f; For statements on generosity, see p. 179
  70. ↑ Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 346ff
  71. ↑ Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, 368
  72. ↑ Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, pp. 359f
  73. ↑ on this and on the journalists' hopes for Finkle see Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 370f
  74. ↑ Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 184
  75. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 188
  76. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 193
  77. ↑ see Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 214
  78. ^ Acquittal for Dr. Nichopoulos, New York Times v. November 5, 1981 ; see. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 224
  79. ↑ see Thompson et al. Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 375
  80. ↑ see Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, pp. 228-236; see article Florida Pathologist Called To Look Into Elvis' Death in Orlando Sentinel v. August 24, 1994 ; see also Dr. Davies opens up about Elvis 'death with Davies' own statements on the Elvis Information Network website in 2012
  81. ↑ “It takes hours to die from taking medication. Elvis would have fallen into a slumber at first. The scene itself clearly showed what had happened to him. That was a textbook case of a heart attack. ”Davies quotes from Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 236; on Davies' outcome, see also article Elvis A Clean Bill Of Death, September 29, 1994
  82. ^ Rose Clayton and Dick Heard: Elvis up close - in the words of those who knew him best, 1994, p. 372; also Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 237ff
  83. ↑ Merigian: “Now, you have codeine here at 1.6 mcg / gm in the liver and 2.3 mcg / mg in the kidney. An average codeine level in someone who is thought to have had a fatal codeine overdose would be 2.8 mcg / ml and his was 1.08 mcg / ml. So, literally, that's not enough of the drug to associate his death with a fatal codeine overdose. The liver normally has about 6.8 mcg / gm concentration in a fatal overdose and his liver had 1.6 mcg / gm concentration. So we can see that there is not a huge amount of this drug in his system. Now, he also had morphine 0.03 mcg / ml in the serum, 0.04 mcg / ml in the liver and 0.04 mcg / ml in the kidney. What that's telling you is that he probably took codeine (in that form) because codeine metabolizes to morphine. He also has diazepam. What it [Bio-Science Lab report] says is a diazepam metabolite. It doesn't say exactly which one it is, because diazepam is Valium; and a diazepam metabolite could be oxazepam or nordiazepam ... Those are the most common. If I knew exactly which metabolites was detected and at what concentration, I could tell you approximately how much parent compound would have been taken. I could project the amount, based on how much metabolite was present. You could probably roughly extrapolate the dose of Valium and about when he took it. The pharmacokinetic profile of a known standard dose of Valium allows us to do that. So, he's got more metabolites than parent compounds; that implies this drug was taken remote to the time when this specimen [used in the BLS report] was donated. He may have taken the Valium twelve hours prior to when this was procured. All that is remaining is a metabolite, and there's not a lot of metabolite here actually. That's what is curious about the findings. Since usually a high concentration of diazepam in their blood is necessary to consider the patient dead from a Valium overdose. When I say high, I'm referring to 30 mcg / ml. He (Elvis) is measured at 0.01 mcg / ml; so it's very, very small in comparison. It's like 1 / 600th of what it should be measured at for an overdose. He also had ethchlorvynol [Placydil], which is a sedative / hypnotic very common in the fifties and sixties. Again, looking at the averages, the blood concentration in a fatal ethchlorvynol would roughly be around 84 mcg / ml. He's got 7.5 mcg / ml; so he's not even at 1 / 10th of what a fatal concentration would be. Amobarbital , which is a short-acting barbiturate, again, is usually used as a sedative / hypnotic, or a sleeper. Fatal cases on average, we're looking at blood around probably 100 mcg / ml. He's got 11 mcg / ml. Again, he's got 1 / 10th of what one would consider a high dose. Phenobarbital is 5 mcg / ml; that's not even in the therapeutic range. That probably wouldn't make anyone sleepy. Methaqualone - Quaaludes is the common term ... Again tissue distribution in the blood for perhaps some of the fatal cases can be as low as 6.4 mcg / ml. Well, he has a concentration of 6.0 mcg / ml, so that may be consistent. However, even though his liver was 58 mcg / ml; so the liver concentration was ten time higher than the blood, no one quantited the tissues. […] They [BSL] did not quantify Methaqualone. I interpret that finding to mean they did not have enough in his body to be a cause of death. Certainly Demerol was found in the liver and in the kidney, but no concentrations were measured in the blood or in the serum. There are a lot of drugs and metabolites identified in his body fluids and tissues but the reality remains that I don't see anything in the results, with perhaps the perception of the Quaaludes, that could even be implicated with some kind of drug related fatality - that he just overdosed - and stopped breathing. None of these drugs are significantly associated with arrhythmias, or causing heart failure - none of these. The thing you have to realize is the way that someone dies from sedative / hypnotic and / or narcotic drugs [found in the body at death] is that he or she will just go to sleep and stop breathing. That's it. If this man was alert or awake when this event happened, the cause of death could not have been an overdose. And it's just that straightforward ... “; Merigian's remarks can be found almost word for word in Rose Clayton and Dick Heard: Elvis up close - in the words of those who knew him best, 1994, p. 376f; also Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, pp. 238f
  84. ↑ “The fact is that a lot of drugs have only been identified as traces or metabolic degradation products. None of these substances could have been a problem. I definitely disagree with the conclusion of the Bio Science report. His death was not the result of a variety of medications. I think an attempt was made here to press a square post into a round hole. The probability of being struck by lightning would be greater than dying of cardiac arrest from taking medication in this concentration. ”Merigian's remarks can be found almost word for word in Rose Clayton and Dick Heard: Elvis up close - in the words of those who knew him best, 1994, p. 376f; also Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, pp. 238f; only the last sentences from "Any scenario" can only be found in Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 253f, as they are from 2009.
  85. ↑ cf. Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 239
  86. ↑ Peter Guralnick: Careless Love, pp. 778f; also Jorgensen and Guralnick: Day by Day, p. 379
  87. ↑ Dr. Davies opens up about Elvis 'death with Davies' own statements on the Elvis Information Network website in 2012
  88. ↑ cf. the detailed description of the hearing in Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 230ff
  89. ↑ "The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners takes this action in order to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Tennessee having found the Respondent guilty of certain violations of the Medical Practice Act.", Quoted from Nichopoulos: The King and Dr . Nick, p. 240
  90. ↑ s. Quote from Jerry Lee Lewis in Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, blurb
  91. ↑ see remarks by doctors Lahr and Abell in Nichopolous: The King and Dr. Nick, pp. 136f
  92. ↑ Maria Hesterberg's interview with George Nichopoulos from January 7, 2010, in: Graceland magazine. No. 193 (May / June 2010), p. 39
  93. ↑ see remarks by doctors Lahr and Abell in Nichopolous: The King and Dr. Nick, pp. 136f
  94. ↑ Demystifying the death of Elvis by Daniel Brookoff, MD, 2009. ( Memento from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  95. ↑ cf. Thompson and Cole: The Death of Elvis, p. 472
  96. ↑ "I hope I can clarify this once and for all. Elvis Presley didn't die of a medication overdose ... That might be a more interesting story [for the media], but it's not true. The poor guy had serious physiological problems, mostly genetic. ”Quoted from Nichopoulos: The King and Dr. Nick, p. 138
  97. ↑ see u. a. the remarks in Greil Marcus: Mystery Train, p. 344ff; Doll: Elvis for Dummies, p. 270
  98. ↑ cf. Brief interview with Colonel Tom Parker on the occasion of the festivities for the issue of the Elvis postage stamp in 1993.
  99. ↑ see u. a. the remarks v. Charles Hamm: Elvis, A Review, in: Putting Popular Music In Its Place, Cambridge University Press 1995, pp. 131ff; Greil Marcus: Mystery Train, p. 348 and Dead Elvis, p. 66ff; Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, pp. 471f; Georges Plasketes: Elvis Presley in American Culture, p. 53; Elaine Dundy: Elvis and Gladys, p. 156f
  100. ↑ cf. Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 471
  101. ↑ cf. Greil Marcus' detailed interpretation of Goldmann's publication in: Dead Elvis, p. 64ff; Charles Hamm: Elvis, A Review, in: Putting Popular Music In Its Place, Cambridge University Press 1995, pp. 131ff; also Albert Goldman: Elvis, 1981; the commercially successful dismantling of Presley inspired Goldman after the death of John Lennon to a similarly edited publication about the ex-Beatle, see Goldman: The Lives of John Lennon
  102. ↑ cf. Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 465
  103. ↑ Dave Marsh: Elvis. First edition: Straight Arrow Publishers, 1982; on Dundy cf. Greil Marcus: Dead Elvis, p. 126f; For bibliographical information on Dundy's book, see Bibliography
  104. ↑ for bibliographical information on Burk's books see bibliography; see also Henrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 561
  105. ↑ cf. Greil Marcus: Mystery Train, pp. 348f; also Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 560; Guralnick's biography was also published in German, see information in the bibliography
  106. ↑ cf. Greil Marcus: Mystery Train, p. 349; Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 560
  107. ↑ cf. u. a. Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 587; also Daniel Wolff: Elvis in the Dark, pp. 31–33; Ian Mcackay: Careless Love - How much does it cost if it's for free.
  108. ↑ cf. Greil Marcus's remarks on Lost Highway, Journeys and Arrivals of American Musicians, in: Dead Elvis, pp. 82–86
  109. ↑ cf. Daniel Wolff: Elvis in the Dark, The Threepenny Review No. 79 (Autumn 1999), p. 33; on the publications of Middleton, Frith and Hendrickx s. Bibliography in main article Elvis Presley
  110. ^ Greil Marcus: Mystery Train. P. 346; see also Georges Plasketes: Elvis Presley in American Culture. P. 220; also Doll: Elvis for Dummies. P. 266.
  111. ↑ Ken Sharp: Ernst Jorgensen talks about mastering the music of Elvis Presley, Interview in: Record Collector, September 8, 2006 ; also Adam Victor: The Elvis Encyclopedia, p. 7 u. 146
  112. ↑ Ken Sharp: Ernst Jorgensen talks about mastering the music of Elvis Presley, Interview in: Record Collector, September 8, 2006
  113. ↑ cf. David Segal: The Elvis Hunter - On the Trail of the King with Ernst Jorgensen, Washington Post, October 17, 2003.
  114. ↑ “Elvis was really almost forgotten [at RCA]. You noticed that you made money with an Elvis publication, but there were no attempts to produce a quality product that would also do Presley artistically. ”Quoted from David Segal: The Elvis Hunter - On the Trail of the King with Ernst Jorgensen , Washington Post, October 17, 2003.
  115. ↑ cf. the remarks by Marc Hendrickx in the chapters “The Elvis Industry”, which are subdivided by year in: Elvis A. Presley; also David Segal: The Elvis Hunter - On the Trail of the King with Ernst Jorgensen, Washington Post, October 17, 2003 .
  116. ↑ cf. Ernst Jorgensen, Erik Rasmussen, Johnny Mikkelsen: Reconsider Baby: The Definitive Elvis Sessionography 1954 - 1977, Pierian Press, 1986 Reprint Edition, p
  117. ↑ cf. Jorgensens statements: video interview with Ernst Jorgensen v. August 23, 2008 and Ken Sharp: Ernst Jorgensen talks about mastering the music of Elvis Presley, Interview in: Record Collector, September 8, 2006 and David Segal: The Elvis Hunter - On the Trail of the King with Ernst Jorgensen, Washington Post, October 17, 2003
  118. ↑ In Rolling Stone magazine it was said: "Presley the singer emerges as a workhorse, a student - finally, unarguably, an artist" and Jorgensen had achieved a personal goal: I think my greatest challenge was an element that we were facing when we started the whole Elvis program arount 1990. “It was to get Elvis reestablished as a significant and important artist and not just a stupid joke in 'The National Enquirer' because there was a tendency in the media to treat him like that. I think fifteen years later that has been achieved. "; 1. Quote from David Segal: The Elvis Hunter - On the Trail of the King with Ernst Jorgensen, Washington Post, October 17, 2003; 2. Quotation from: Ken Sharp: Ernst Jorgensen talks about mastering the music of Elvis Presley, Interview in: Record Collector, September 8, 2006
  119. ^ David Segal: The Elvis Hunter - On the Trail of the King with Ernst Jorgensen, Washington Post, October 17, 2003; Marc Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 542f u. 547
  120. ↑ Ken Sharp: Ernst Jorgensen talks about mastering the music of Elvis Presley, Interview in: Record Collector, September 8, 2006 ; Marc Hendrickx: Elvis A. Presley, p. 553 u. 566
  121. ↑ The Complete Elvis Presley Masters ( Memento December 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  122. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: von Elvis 30 # 1 Hits 2002 ; also Joel Whitburn Presents Top Pop Albums, Chart Data Compiled From Billboards Pop Album Charts 1955 - 2009 and Bubbling Under The Top Pop Album Charts 1970 - 1985, 7th edition 2010, p. 621f, p. 751@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.elvis.com
  123. ↑ cf. Statements by the songwriter Mac Davies in Ken Sharp: Writing for the King, pp. 190ff; also Ken Sharp: Ernst Jorgensen talks about mastering the music of Elvis Presley, Interview in: Record Collector, September 8, 2006
  124. ↑ cf. Elvis Presley's 21 Top 1 Hits in the UK ; see. also chart statistics in Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–2008, 12th edition 2009
  125. ↑ Follow That Dream collector's label
  126. ↑ Explanation of the label
  127. ↑ cf. Jorgensen's statements about the jungle room sessions at FTD in an interview between Arjan Deelen and Ernst Jorgensen June 19, 2002 ; Ken Sharp: Ernst Jorgensen talks about mastering the music of Elvis Presley, Interview in: Record Collector, September 8, 2006 ; David Segal: The Elvis Hunter - On the Trail of the King with Ernst Jorgensen, Washington Post, October 17, 2003.