December 2000
The King and I
The story behind this month's cover story, "Viva Fort Hood."
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Watch excerpts from Eddie Fadal's home movies of Elvis. |
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I've always been an Elvis fan but not a rabid one. I had a love-hate relationship with the kitschy Elvis, who's the Elvis you usually see. But as I listened to his early stuff–in chronological order—I fell in love with it. You can literally hear something new coming–countrified R&B, hillbilly blues, rock and roll. You can't help but love Elvis, and ultimately, you can't help but hate him too for pissing so much away. I'm more sympathetic to him now, but I still don't care for his later-day music.
I started working on this story last spring, making calls and then going up to Killeen and Fort Hood. I found a couple of people who had lived in Killeen for a long time who got me in touch with people who knew Elvis at least vaguely. I found some Army vets by going to online bulletin boards and asking around Killeen, and I found the daughter of the man who used to host Elvis in Waco–she had some great artifacts and stories and contacts too. In fact, I found her by chance when I got the number of the name that was on the Eddie Fadal Museum Web site–Yannone. It turned out to be her ex-husband. She had a bunch of old photos of Elvis with various members of her family. She had a hat he had worn in some famous old pictures, some trinkets, a great concert rider from his October 12, 1956, show at the Heart O' Texas Coliseum, in Waco, and the pill bottles (my favorite).
Most of the people in Killeen were forthcoming with information. They see Elvis as this sweet little blip on their radar, their brush with fame. Everyone there, especially the girls he kissed and the soldiers he served with, is very protective and respectful. Some of the people who were closer to him later were harder to get hold of, and at least one of them asked if we were going to pay him for his interview (a common thread for a lot of Elvis hangers-on). Almost every single one loved him, and most still refer to him as the King.
It wasn't long before I realized—after talking to his old buddies and people who knew him–that this was a happy time in his life, especially considering that his beloved mother died toward the end of his Texas time and that his life went to hell after he left. I realized the angle here was that these were his last truly happy months. I think he liked being away from it all in Killeen and Fort Hood. He was relatively protected from the outside world at a time when he was the biggest star in the world. And he had girls chasing him everywhere he went. He liked being a soldier–he was pretty good at it too. And maybe most of all he liked hanging around with the other soldiers, being a regular guy. He'd never done that before. When he was in school, he was kind of the weird solitary kid, and after school, when he became a star, he was always performing for the screaming girls.
