PRIVATE PRESLEY "Although the life of Elvis Presley was filled with controversy, and fans continue to debate the evolution of his musical style and deliberate over his personal extravagance, it is widely acknowledged that the period between 1958 and 1960, when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and posted to Germany, was a crucial watershed both in his career and in his private life. It is also the least well documented period of his life." "Using almost 400 photographs (with more than 270 never seen before and 70 more published only in newspapers of the period) combined with eyewitness accounts, Private Presley is the only accurate study of the rock legend as soldier. The book traces the story of Presley's two years in the army: the trauma of his mother's death just three weeks before he left for Germany; the media circus of his arrival and the constant attention of the press during his stay; his first experiments with drugs; the girls with whom he was and was not involved; his first encounters with his future wife, Priscilla, who was just fourteen when they met; and his triumphant return to America." "With new evidence relating to Presley's alleged affair with actress Vera Tschechowa and an extraordinarily intimate catalog of photographs from the private collection of a previously unknown German girl with whom Presley had a relationship, Private Presley shows the personal side of a man who gathered his family and friends around him in Germany to combat his loneliness. Through interviews with visitors to the house Presley rented in Bad Nauheim for himself and his father, grandmother, and entourage, the often bizarre events that occurred are recounted in detail - as are his visits to Munich nightclubs and two little-known trips to Paris." "While in the army, Elvis decided against recording any new songs or performing live. However, in interviews with local radio disc jockeys he recalled his earlier career. For the first time ever, these interviews and recordings of live Elvis performances of seven songs from this period - "Baby Let's Play House," "Maybellene," "That's Alright (Mama)," "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "There's Good Rockin' Tonight," "I Got a Woman," and "Tweedle Dee" - have been remastered onto compact disc and can be found in an exclusive CD inside the back of the book." "The photographs, background research, and firsthand interviews used in Private Presley were compiled over a period of seven years by a German private investigator, Andreas Schroer, and his two colleagues, Michael Knorr and Oskar Hentschell." "Following Presley's movements from the moment he first arrived in Germany, they talked to hundreds of people whom Presley met and examined thousands of photographs of him taken during those two years. The most fascinating collection of pictures came to them from a middle-aged woman who showed them her album of intimate pictures of Presley and a young girl taken in the late fifties. She was that young girl. There were almost one hundred pictures in the album, and it was obvious that these had been taken over a period of many months. The researchers were amazed that they had never before found evidence of Presley's association with this woman, had never seen her album of photographs, had never even heard mention of her name. These photographs are just one of the astonishing and unique elements in this revelatory book."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved