| Click for printable version
Click to send to a friend
Elvis Presley's hairdresser says white hair "was coming in all over" the King's head and had to be dyed for his funeral.
File Photo
| Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: Norm! Hairdresser confesses he helped Elvis tell fans a little white lie
Elvis' jet-black hair was turning white near the end, according to his longtime hairdresser, Larry Geller. As thousands of fans gathered to view Elvis for the last time, Geller went to a Memphis mortuary to blacken the prematurely white hair, Geller told Johnson & Tofte KSFN-AM, 1140. Geller, who was Elvis' hairdresser from 1965 until the singer's death in 1977, said he forgot to bring the King's usual black hair dye and had to improvise. The makeup artist had extra mascara, which he was able to mix with some water, and applied it with none being the wiser. The white hair "was coming in all over, in his sideburns, his hairline," Geller told me in a telephone interview from Memphis, where he is marking the 25th anniversary of Elvis' death. "I asked him if he just wanted to let it (the white hair) grow. He said no, that he wanted to look young." Asked whether Elvis' white hair was related to his well-documented drug use, Geller said, "Absolutely not. I'm sure it was stress and genetics. His father was prematurely gray in his 40s." Elvis was 42 when he died at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977. "He was very stressed the last two years of his life," Geller said. "A couple months before he passed away, he told me he had reached the stage where he wanted to change some things. He wanted to get rid of Col. (Tom) Parker, a number of the Memphis Mafia, and he wanted to come back as a dramatic actor -- and he wanted to get married."Vegas vignette What's up with this? Motorists driving along West Sahara near the library were left wondering just that Sunday night when they passed a jogger. The young man, who appeared to be in his 20s, was shirtless and wearing headphones and holding the U.S. flag aloft. The Scene and Heard Now we know why Lisa Marie Presley went on a shopping binge when she and her mother, Priscilla, were in town 10 days ago. The two were spotted in Bernini at the MGM Grand, with Priscilla holding Lisa Marie's clothes as the daughter tried on what probably was her honeymoon wardrobe. Lisa Marie and Nicolas Cage were married over the weekend in Hawaii. ... More radio moves: Mike Culotta has left his midday gig at KOMP-FM, 92.3 to move into the 3 to 7 p.m. slot at KXPT-FM, 97.1. Chris Fox, former afternoon drive deejay and KXPT program director, has joined the morning show with The Byrd and Steph. Sightings Debbie Harry, lead singer of the group Blondie, at Penn & Teller's show on Monday night at the Rio with 15 members of her group. Harry, a former girlfriend of Penn's, in turn invited Penn & Teller to their show at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel. ... John and Janet Elway at the Bellagio. The Broncos' future Hall of Fame quarterback has been wooing her since she made public that the marriage had fallen apart. ... Former "Baywatch" beauty Angelica Bridges stuck to a beach theme over the weekend. She had her bachelorette party with 11 gal pals at the Baywatch Beach on Friday at the Flamingo. Saturday, she married Montreal Canadiens' star defenseman Sheldon Souray in a poolside ceremony at the Bellagio. Bridges stars in "Son of the Beach." The Punch Line "Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted." -- Fred Allen, American humorist. Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.
| 
