Bova Question: JB=Fact or Fiction???

Joyce says in her book that Elvis insisted that the trip to Washington in December 1970 came about because he wanted to locate her after a big argument with Vernon and Priscilla.
Thereby, she/Elvis suggests that he didn't think about meeting Nixon until he actually was there, and that the main reason for him to even be in Washington was to locate her and be with her.
What do you think of this?

Joyce says in her book that Elvis insisted that the trip to Washington in December 1970 came about because he wanted to locate her after a big argument with Vernon and Priscilla.
Thereby, she/Elvis suggests that he didn't think about meeting Nixon until he actually was there, and that the main reason for him to even be in Washington was to locate her and be with her.
What do you think of this?

It's sort of provoking. I don't accept it completely, because people do like to put themselves right in the center of things, but it might plug some holes, too. I'm not certain that he did see her at all during his journeys. He didn't just go straight up there. (There was a version where he stopped in Atlanta, but that doesn't carry too much weight excepting that most southern flights did have to go through that airport.) But he at least went up to D.C., went down through Dallas, got in touch with the driver, continued to California, got his supplies - clothing and the "special gift," saw a doctor, and returned. With Jerry: Sonny had been in Memphis. And they all got together in D.C.

So, if he did see her on that trip, and there's no evidence that he did of which I'm aware, you might think she put out the idea to go straight to the top. He'd had trouble with Finlator, the FBI's drug guy, and it was Finlator who said that the only way he'd get it was if the POTUS told him to give it to him. It is a bit confusing, but somehow I think she's exaggerating. He DID wish to see Finlator, and he did have his eye on that badge for a while. He'd been going around, getting badges, and wanted it.

I wonder if she ever considered that perhaps he was going with her precisely because of her job. I have long thought that made a lot of sense for the time. It doesn't sound flattering to him, but he was very fixated on the whole badge/government thing at the time - and on getting what he wanted, or thought he needed. And she worked for a congressional committee of some sort. Whatever, she was in a position to let him know a lot about how the federal government worked; it was her job. Not having read the book, I don't know precisely when their relationship heated up, and if the timelines "lined up."

It's possible he tried to call her; perhaps even probable. But was she his reason for going there? I'm not so sure.

rjm

Elvis wanted desperately that badge and all others seems second to that, including J.Bova. If she could help him in this matter, very good but his mind was in that december 1970 trip to obtain the badge.

According to the book, it "heated up" during that trip to DC.
I found it odd that they apparently didn't meet for a whole year. She describes their meeting in Vegas in August 1969, and she wouldn't see him again until the next time she went there; which I got the feeling would have to be in February. But it turns out it was August, with the deaththreats and all. She describes how disturbed he was by this, and in DC he would blame this for blowing up on her in Vegas in August; that he wasn't himself. The things were supposed to "heat up" in Vegas, but things turned sour because of EP's behaviour, and she snuck out of the bedroom while he was in the bathroom leaving him cold. And took the first flight possible home.

During their alleged meeting at the Hotel Washington in DC, he tells her that he just had to get away (from the argument with Pris and Vernon), and that he put Sonny on the job of finding her. He says that he got the idea of the whole badge thing on the plane with Schilling enroute to DC.
During their meeting, it turns out the he's already got the badge - having already met the President, since that "sonofabitch" Finlator didn't want to help - and shows it off to the Bova twins at the hotel.

Off course, I don't know if this is true. But it's not unlikely that he fed her this story to "gain points" even if the truth was that the trip came about because of the badge and meeting Nixon. According to the book, he was very shameful because of what happened in Vegas the previous August - so if there's any truth in that, there's the possibility that he wanted her to think that he came all that way just because he needed to get out and be with her.

I don't recall Sonny West ever mentioning Joyce Bova in relation to the White house trip.

I remember Sonny mentioning that he liked Joyce and that Elvis saw her a few times but that's all.

And I don't think Jerry Schilling in his book mentions that, too.

Joyce Bova is trying to make a big important relationship with Elvis out of very little. She was not a big player in any way and so makes the story bigger and juicier to fill out her ficticious role. Essentially J.B. = B.S.