1962 Lloyd Shearer article

PARADE
The Sunday Newspaper Magazine
November 4, 1962

Lloyd Shearer should be a familiar name to most Elvis fans. Ger Rijff, the greatest Elvis book publisher of all time, gave us Memphis Lonesome in 1988. This book was "An Intimate, Never Before Published Photo-Journal by Lloyd Shearer". I´m lucky to have a signed, numbered 100/100 copy of this book. It seems I was the last, and the least, in line.

Unfortunately, this newspaper is too big for my scanner. So, this 2-page article comes to you in 4 pieces.

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Thanks

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This is a VERY interesting upload, as I've always wanted to read the piece Shearer created from that fascinating interview he recorded with Elvis on the set of "It Happened at the World's Fair." And two things are quite clear:

1) Lloyd got access because his finished article was EXACTLY what management wanted in print, Elvis as the All-American boy
2) Shearer "enhanced" Elvis' answers to suit his narrative

Unless there is another tape, a lot of the direct quotes in the Parade article do not match what we hear on the 1962 recording. Sadly, some of these "quotes" have been perpetuated as legitimate ever since. Another piece of the puzzle!

For those who do not know, Parade is a free magazine tucked into almost every major newspaper's Sunday editions.

Thanks, as always, The fool.

Thanks for sharing this article

Unless there is another tape, a lot of the direct quotes in the Parade article do not match what we hear on the 1962 recording. Sadly, some of these "quotes" have been perpetuated as legitimate ever since. Another piece of the puzzle!

In Rijff´s Memphis Lonesome book, there is another magazine cover with a Kid Galahad picture on it. Maybe there is another tape of Sharer´s interview with Elvis?

In the Elvis "Word-For-Word" book, there is an indication that Osborne was indeed working with two versions of the same tape. And there apparently wasn't one complete tape, totally uncut, so he did his best to get the most of what he heard on paper. There was something in that book, from the tapes, that I haven't heard myself. He asks Elvis about the "United Nations" and some kind of resolution or something they were considering. Osborne feels that whole part doesn't make any sense at all, and was cut up, heavily edited. Anyway, right about that time, Elvis had to leave for a moment. His cousin Gene was there, and when Elvis returned, Shearer related something Gene had said. "You told!" He was furious at Gene. Elvis said the whole south would be after his butt, because Gene "told." This is weird, and I haven't ever heard it; just read it in Osborne's book.

So, 1. Does anyone have more of the tape, than the standard version?

2. If this is on a tape, what was it that Gene "told"?

3. A stunning interview, considering what he said a decade after it happened. This was very early, only '62, and maybe he actually believed what he was saying. But he did not choose either the movie songs, nor did he choose the scripts himself. That was false. And I don't remember if he said that time changes things on the tape, but if he did, he sure was wrong. You change time; I mean, life doesn't just "happen" to you. You make things happen. There is another source, who says that Elvis told him, in the service that "you make your own luck." But he said that in private. Well, at this point he was starting to make his own bad luck. But perhaps he convinced himself of all this, for the longest time.

And his defensiveness against any criticism of his lifestyle choices . . . well, we've heard the interview. It's a shame. (Is "I don't inhale" actually on the tape? I don't remember hearing that, but it's in Guralnick. I thought it was a little joke - that Peter Guralnick told a little joke there, but it was printed that he said it. Wow!)

And it opens with Shearer taking a whole lot of other people down. Why did he need to do that, by name? Not nice at all. And yes, Elizabeth Taylor did become a wonderful, caring, nurturing, loving person, and did not deserve to be dissed like that. I don't know the particulars about the thing with Lancaster, but it seemed very unnecessary.

And, at the end of the road, this squeaky clean image became a terrible burden.

Incredible piece of history there, even if it's edited in a number of ways. Thank you very much!

rjm