Review
by Nadine Steffens - Translation by Nadine
Schwenk
Elvis Presley - Paternity Suit
At the end of 2006 Praytome Publishing released
its latest product.
This time it was not a book like "Born
To Rock", nor a DVD like "Behind
The Image".
It was a premiere, because this time it was
a combination of a book and a DVD.
Paternity Suit is not a common DVD either,
or a book with a lot of pictures and very
tense stories. Praytome Publishing reveals
background information on a topic which was
totally ignored until now.
It is about the paternity suit Elvis was confronted
with in 1970. I never would have thought,
that it is possible to do a complete book
- or in this case even a complete book and
a DVD - on this topic. I was wrong.
The whole case lasted for more than 6 years
in Elvis's life and was not such a small thing
as most people thought. To write down the
complete story of the book, would be too much.
Shortly about the content:
In 1970 a young woman named Patricia Parker
visited the Elvis Opening Night on January
26th. She somehow managed it to go backstage
and get a picture with Elvis. This picture
was later the only evidence, the two of them
ever met.
According to her statement Elvis invited her
to his suite and seduced her, shortly after
that she noticed that she was pregnant. During
the seventh month of her pregnancy she assigned
the famous lawyer Paul Caruso to her case.
This should be the beginning of a 6 year fight
if Elvis was the bodily father of the child
or not.
A lot of background information is mentioned
here for the first time, as for example, that
they ambushed Elvis shortly before his concert
on November 14th 1970, to serve him the court
papers. I also didn't know that after Patricia
Parker Elvis only allowed photos with his
fans, when one of his bodyguards stood in
the background. This was a safety measure
, so nobody could later claim she was alone
with Elvis and to avoid further freeloaders.
But these are not the only things you learn
in this DVD. If you think back and see the
lots of covers of the yellow press you can
understand why Elvis talked so bad about the
press (TV gossip magazine) in the famous Desert
Storm concert. He made it public so that certain
persons (maids among others) who had spread
rumors about him, noticed that he was very
well aware of it. Knowing that, I see this
concerts differently than before.
What fascinates me about the book is that
everything that is written in it is proved
with court documents and/or pictures. Blood
tests, polygraph tests, even the envolvement
of a former NBC employee, who had worked on
the 68 Comeback Special, you get everything
and it is no fiction.
Praytome Publishing managed it once more to
do a detailed research and to come up with
results based on facts, instead of repeating
the common lies and rumors, as it is unfortunately
done so often. I am amazed of the professionalism
and the will to report about facts instead
of legends. In addition you get great candids
(the famous hidden camera pictures) and never
before heard audio comments of Elvis himself.
The book is correspondingly thick and the
quality of the paper is outstanding. No fingerprints
remain on the pages. The combination is very
succesful. What I also liked was the fact
that the DVD included for the first time German
subtitles. This is important for this kind
of material, because not everybody can speak
English. I would recommend this combination
to every fan who is interested in Elvis as
a private person. In my opinion it belongs
to the household of every fan. To the ones
saying "I'm only interested in the musician"
: this case has also accompanied Elvis on
stage.
And last but not least: I have also friends
that are not Elvis fans. They have watched
the DVD as interested as I did. So it is not
only for die-hard fans.
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