By: Jim Burrows

Jim Burrows — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 17:38:29 +0000

Lovely review, right on the button. This is the second time where author Joan Didian is referenced in connexion with Elvis Presley. Incredibly, they never met, Nevertheless, in an article entitled “Love is strange, but so was the effect of meeting Elvis”, writer, lawyer, actor, comedian, and commentator on political and economic issues Ben Stein saw the connexion like this. And I quote “My father, Herbert Stein was at the time Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and worked at the White House, often took me for lunch there where top dogs were allowed to have delicious meals, served by Navy Mess NCOs. We saw many famous people there, but one day, roughly three years before I myself started working there, he leaned towards me confidentially and said, “If you saw Elvis Presley in person, would you recognize him?” “I think so,” said I. “Well, look behind you.” I swiveled my hairy head around, and to my total shock, there was Elvis Presley eating with President Richard Nixon’s Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman a much feared but extremely pleasant and smart man. I got up, made my excuses to Mr. Haldeman, and said to Elvis, “Sir, everyone in the world is your fan, but I am your biggest fan.” In a voice and with a phrase that is incredibly famous, he simply said, “Thank yew ver’ much.” I was dazed. But I did not forget. And if you were to ask me to cite a lesson from it, it would be a line from a great Joan Didion novel called “Play It As It Lays: “You can’t win if you’re not at the table.” “Connections are golden.” Well worth remembering. Unquote
***Ben Stein, explaining how his telling that story, over the years, led to his playing the role of the professor in John Hughes’s “Ferris Bueller’s Day off”, as published in the American Spectator’s March 16, 2015 edition in an article entitled “Love is strange, but so was the effect of meeting Elvis”

Comments on: Priscilla (2023) Review

By: Jim Burrows