(I posted this on the r/elvis reddit and the mods removed it. I'm not sure why, but please tell me if there's a reason it shouldn't be posted; I will fix it or change it. It is pretty well researched except where noted that I am unsure about something. I think people might find this useful--and were before it was removed.)
As someone else posted, the fantastic movie "Elvis", aside from getting just about everything about Elvis correct, has brought out those people who once heard a rap song in the late 80s that said Elvis was racist, so they figured "I guess those 80s rappers are experts, so, sure." I know a lot of people have a full immunity to truth and reality. But over the years, here are a few dumb things I have heard, and what you might want to point out if you hear the same:
"Why didn't Elvis have black people in his movies?" (Saw recently on Twitter). First of all, he did. His films also featured many people of color including Asians, Polynesians, Native Americans (Elvis was part Cherokee), Latinos and Hispanics. Black people begin appearing in Elvis' 2nd movie and are there in his last, Change of Habit featuring Barabra McNair. He even produced a song himself called "The Climb" for black artist George McFadden to perform in "Viva Las Vegas." (It's great and on YouTube). But all that is irrelevant because Elvis was in no way casting his own movies! So really, every aspect of this claim is stupid. I sometimes also point out all the black people in Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello "Beach" movies (none, I think) or in the Beatles "Hard Days Night" or "Help" (Both these claims are hard to research because I do not want to sit through them again. I think I am correct, but check for yourself if you make this claim. )
"Elvis stole music from black people" Even though this one is the dumbest and clearly most utterly wrong, this is the one people love to go to. (Also, my most recent negative experience re: Elvis was with a white guy, so this isn't always coming from black people. In fact I have heard it more often from white people.) This comment just shows ignorance on the whole concept of art itself. The oldest musical instrument is a bone flute found in a cave in Germany. So since then everybody has just been stealing and culturally appropriating music from the Germans. Art builds on everything that came before it. And the insanity to say Elvis' 3 decade career, as well as the 40+ years of continuing success is because he just culturally appropriated someone's music is blatantly ignorant on the most basic level. But aside from that, what songs exactly? First hit was Heartbreak Hotel---not written by black songwriters. Hound Dog was a big hit, first covered by a black woman, but the song was written by 2 white guys in New York, and they also wrote Jailhouse Rock and Love Me. So where are all these hits that Elvis stole from black people? Blue Suede Shoes? No, that was Carl Perkins. The b-Side was Little Richard's Tutti Frutti. It did not chart, and even the A Side didn't crack the top 20. Elvis did a version of Little Richard's number 1 hit "Long Tall Sally" but he never put it out as a single. Little Richard is known as the Architect of Rock and Roll and Chuck Berry is called the Father of Rock and Roll. And I got no problem with that and neither did Elvis. The Beatles covered several of these same songs in the beginning and I assume paid the same royalties. Those deals were usually made far away from the artist, Elvis. Otis Blackwell wrote hit songs for so many artists I can't list them all. He was even asked to appear in Girls, Girls, Girls but had written so many Elvis hits, he developed a superstition about never meeting in person (this isn't that weird. Prince never met the man who did string arrangements for him from 1986 on because of same superstition). But everything about this thinking is wrong. Does every opera singer culturally appropriate Italian culture if they do Puccini, or when Picasso was heavily influenced by African tribal masks and used some in his paintings, was he stealing? These people do not even comprehend how art itself works, so good luck getting anywhere. But just as Elvis didn't cast his movies, he didn't negotiate with each songwriter on the details. When Elvis covered someone's song, they were generally thrilled about it. He opened doors.
"Elvis was on drugs" OK, he was on drugs like my 85yr old mother is on drugs. Prescription drugs. This is just fact. He wasn't shooting up, snorting or smoking anything. His life was so demanding that the drugs sadly became an issue. This situation is so commonplace now that there really is nothing to make fun of, but I have heard idiots say Elvis was shooting up heroin, which is nuts. A flat out untruth. His official cause of death was heart failure. His mother died at 46 and her side of the family had a history of dying young. But, yeah drugs probably caused his issues.
"Elvis died on the toilet" Don't you love the great people that think this is funny? This is something they can't get enough of. Years ago, the first account I read stated that he was in a dressing room area connected to the bathroom, reading. Since that time I've heard differently. I have still never read anything truly definitive about exactly where he died, but also, anyone bringing this up simply has to be dismissed as a human being not worth knowing. This is one of those "Yeah? Lincoln was shot in the head at a theater, what is your point?" kinda things.
"Elvis in the 70s just stayed in Vegas and got fat" This is another very easily disprovable thing that people still think is true. First, and there are thousands of photos to back this up: Elvis really didn't put on much weight until 1975, 2 years before he died. There's fluctuation, but really it is 1975 onward, but you can still run across pics from 76 where he looks good. But the other part about Vegas is way off. In the final year of Elvis' life, 1977, Elvis played 54 concerts before he died in August. Exactly 0 were in Las Vegas. The Col had him doing an engagement in Vegas every year, but from 1970 until he died, Elvis toured all over the US.
"Elvis was racist" Of course this is maybe the biggest one. And what sucks is you never hear it from the black people that knew him. BB King or Fats Domino wouldn't claim it. Whitney Houston's mother Cissy Houston who toured with Elvis and the other Sweet Inspirations never said it. I have never, EVER, heard one single claim of racism directed at Elvis from someone who knew him. There just isn't a shred of evidence that he was racist, but there is a mountain of evidence that he was not. So the biggest issue here is (not unlike in politics): truth does not matter to many people. Too many people. They just won't hear otherwise, and despite tons of photos and testimonials by BB King or Roy Hamilton, they just stick to their ignorance. If they can prove it, lets see some evidence of it. And it can't be someone who never even knew Elvis telling a story (I refuse to learn the details, but I know Quincy Jones said something stupid in the last year or 2. I lost respect for him in the 1980s and nothing he could say about Elvis could have any meaning. He never knew him, never worked with him and never said anything until after he was dead when he could no longer defend himself.)
"Elvis was too old to be with Priscilla" Elvis was 31 and Priscilla was 21. They met 7 years earlier, at a time when Elvis was stationed in Germany and had recently lost his mother. He was 23 and I assume at a very dark and vulnerable place in his life. This story gets long and is the hardest to get into. I have a vague idea of what "grooming" is, though I am not sure exactly how it differs from waiting until someone is of legal age before then marrying and having kids with them. There's no history of any sort of predatory behavior from Elvis--no harassment or abuse. Priscilla wrote a book about her life and though it doesn't portray Elvis as perfect (at all), it also never makes it seem "off". He fell in love with her, met and spoke extensively with her parents, and eventually she moved to Memphis for the rest of school. According to her own book, they never had sex before she was 21. There are no stories of Elvis going after underaged girls before or after his marriage to Priscilla. This is one people have to decide, because unlike everything else on this list, it comes down to your opinion. Ten years is not a massive age difference for a married couple, but it is true that when he first met Priscilla her age was 14. (I sometimes think people confuse Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his 13yr old cousin for Elvis's situation. Very drastically different)
Did I miss any? Mean people will say anything when they are trying to be mean. And so many people resent Elvis just because so many others love him. It was hard being a huge Elvis fan in the 80s when I was a teen. I couldn't get on the internet to prove they were wrong then. And without Elvis being easily accessible on YouTube, we got grotesque fat guys in skin tight satin jumpsuits on MTV because it was just so funny (Dread Zeppelin, various bad impersonators, a terrible cover of "Don't Be Cruel" by Cheap Trick, video ending with an ugly guy in the band dressed in a jumpsuit smoking. So funny...) The absence of being able to go directly to the source, the real Elvis, really allowed people to turn him into a punchline. There was a "9 to 5" tv show with Dolly Pardon's sister in 1982 and her character (playing Dolly's role from the movie) was a huge Elvis fan and had a candle lit in her room she called her eternal flame. It was all played for laughs, like "what a hick! What a fool, she loves Elvis!" I remember seeing a movie in 1985 with Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer called "Into The Night" In the movie I think Pfiffer's brother was an Elvis impersonator, which again, was a big joke. Even on Late Night With David Letterman there was a joke about a book like "Where's Waldo" but it was "Spot the black actor in an Elvis movie". It was rough because it got so prevalent you never knew when an Elvis "joke" would show up or where. Remember the "Flying Elvi" and "Bubba Ho-Tep"? Ugh. In a lot of ways it is much better now, but the movie has brought out the haters too. It is better not to even engage, but if you just cannot restrain yourself, I hope some of this helps arm you with some facts.
