On Saturday, October 5th, the seventy-nine-year-old global icon Priscilla Presley hosted a meet and greet and personal interview in Staten Island, New York. Priscilla is known for being a fashion icon, actress, and mother, but she is best known for her six-year marriage to Elvis Presley, from 1967 to 1973. Despite their divorce, Elvis and Priscilla preserved their friendship until the end of Elvis’ life, and even now, Priscilla works hard to keep his legacy alive, participating in frequent interviews and meet and greets in order to be true to his wishes.
This particular meet and greet was held in the St. George Theatre, which was adorned in a sixties, elegant style that Elvis and Priscilla used to showcase when they were married. Most people who attended were older fans of Elvis, some going as far as to dress in Elvis merchandise. At the meeting, guests were encouraged to buy her memoir, Elvis and Me, originally published in 1985. Before the show, Priscilla stood for hours meeting guest after guest, remaining as poised as ever as she shook everyone’s hands and talked delicately to the smaller children. The fact that she still had so much energy and genuine interest in each person she was meeting, despite being seventy-nine, was astonishing to witness. She took her time signing various items such as records, photographs, and, of course, her book, proving to be truly radiant in her ability to treat each guest with such respect and kindness. With her classic red hair, light makeup, black pants, and a patterned blue blouse, Priscilla’s style and attitude remain fashionable to this day, never once abandoning that 60s flare that she was so loved for.
About an hour later, she was interviewed about her life story, starting from her childhood and moving to the present. She talked about how her father was stationed in Germany for the war and how it led her to feel incredibly lonely throughout her youth. Mentioning her friend from America, she noted how they had told her that Elvis was stationed in Germany as well, so there was a chance she could meet him. It was a true moment of foreshadowing because soon enough, a friend of Elvis’s invited Priscilla to come to one of his parties. Priscilla was only fourteen at this point, while Elvis was twenty-four, making her parents hesitant to allow her to go. After a lot of convincing, Priscilla was allowed to attend, as long as she was chaperoned by friends of her parents and came home by 10:00 p.m. During the speech, Priscilla was sure to mention how nervous she had been to meet Elvis and how respectful he was upon meeting her. She talked about how the primary focus of their relationship at the time was conversation. Both being lonely and living so far away from America, they began to find comfort in each other’s company. Priscilla did, however, emphasize the difficulty she had meeting him afterward because her parents did not permit her to see him often. Yet she noted how Elvis made an effort to impress her parents by meeting them in his soldier’s uniform with his own father present.
Another important topic of conversation was her first time visiting Elvis’s home in Memphis, which he called Graceland. Priscilla was sixteen when she made this trip, on the condition that she would stay in a neighbor’s house and write her parents a letter every day she was there, though Priscilla did not listen to either of these rules. She giggled as she talked about how she managed to stay at Graceland with Elvis. During the trip, Elvis whisked her away to Las Vegas for a few days. She knew her parents would be angry at her if they saw her letters coming from Vegas, so she hand-wrote six days’ worth of letters and had Elvis’s cousins send each letter one by one. Priscilla laughed in a girlish tone as she remembered these fun days and rebellious moments.
Staying positive, Priscilla talked largely about the benefits of her marriage with Elvis. They married when Priscilla was twenty-one and soon after had their only child, Lisa Marie Presley. She reflected on how long it took for them to get married but how Elvis insisted that he wanted to wait for the perfect moment. She went on to describe the joy of their wedding day and how excited Elvis was to be a father. During this moment, she played a montage of never-before-seen home movies of the two of them going out on dates, laughing, riding horses, getting married, and playing with Lisa Marie. The song “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey played in the background. This nostalgic-sounding song with the home videos made Priscilla teary-eyed. She said that those moments were “the best memories of her life.” Amongst the good times, Priscilla talked about the downfalls of their marriage, including the other women Elvis was involved with. Yet, she never talked badly of Elvis and instead focused on how great of a father he was.
Shifting tones, Priscilla then told a story that reflected the abnormal fame that she and Elvis experienced. One day, she noted, she had noticed a woman following her in her car. Recognizing this woman as one of Elvis’s superfans who would constantly try to stalk her, Priscilla told the audience about how the fan had attempted to crash into her on the road. Although the situation was disturbing, Priscilla made light of the situation, displaying her positive spirit.
Speaking eloquently about her divorce from Elvis, Priscilla mentioned how, post-divorce, they never had any ill will towards each other and how they would still talk for hours and visit each other’s homes quite regularly. She said that the only reason she divorced him was because she felt she “could not live like that, wondering where he was and who he was with all the time.” She also noted her heartbreak when Elvis passed and how he always remained in her heart, even as she started seeing other men.
She talked frequently about the pattern of death in her family, including the tragic loss of her daughter and her grandson, Benjamin Keough. Lisa Marie Presley passed away at age fifty-four in January 2023. Priscilla sadly told the story of how she and her daughter had gone to see the movie Elvis, starring Austin Butler and directed by Baz Luhrman. Lisa had been complaining of stomach pain for the past few weeks, but that particular night was much worse than it had been before. Priscilla made sure that Lisa got home safely and was awoken the next morning to a heartbreaking phone call telling her that her daughter had died overnight due to bowel obstruction. Priscilla was still in shock telling this story, and the viewers could tell that she was devastated beyond words. She also talked about the loss of her grandson, Benjamin, to drugs and suicide, describing him as, “a sweet boy, full of sadness.” Because of all she has suffered, Priscilla works hard to raise awareness for these situations so they can be prevented in the future. Even through all these dark times, Priscilla remains a beacon of hope and positivity for those who are going through similar struggles.
Priscilla ended this night on a positive note, discussing her close relationship with her son, Navarone, who has begun working as a singer, and her granddaughters, including Riley Keough, who recently starred in the Amazon show Daisy Jones & The Six. She said that despite all the rumors, she and Riley are very close, and she adores all of her grandchildren. Priscilla was sure to mention that Elvis’s biggest fear was being forgotten, so she tries her best to keep him relevant. With her guidance, Graceland has become one of the most visited houses in America, and Elvis’s legacy has lived on due to modern films like Elvis and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla based on Elvis and Me. Overall, Priscilla maintained her eloquence, and she proved herself to be a very loving, compassionate, and talented woman. Priscilla Presley remains, to this day, an icon who displays her family and those she loves with pride and strength, even without the support of her late ex-husband. Students in IHHS should take time to reflect on Priscilla’s impact on pop culture and society. Reading her memoir and learning about the trials of her life are a good way to reference the icons of the past and their significance today.
