"the prettiest girl you've ever seen"

press conference at Graceland, 1960

In the entertainment business the future is very uncertain. You never know. You can only try. So I’m only gonna say I’ll try to continue to please the people enough that they, you know, that they keep liking me and keep interested. As far as actually knowing what the future holds for me, I’ve got no idea – Elvis Presley, 1960.

Still grieving over his mother, Elvis had to leave all his friends and relatives behind when he got on the troop train and rolled north to the port of embarkation. That was when me and Elvis started to get close. He was sitting staring out a train window when I went up the aisle looking for him. I sat down across from him. We talked about this and that. About the show people knew. It got late. I fell asleep as the train rattled and rolled along. He put a blanket over me. 

Elvis came through the  ship looking for me after we sailed out of the harbor aboard the troopship SS General Randall. “Charlie,” he said, “I don’t know a single one of those guys in my compartment. You want to move up there with me?” He got permission from the ship’s officers. I moved to his compartment. I took the bunk on top. Elvis had the bunk below. 

During the days on the high seas, he was smiling and relaxed. Really easy going. At night he grieved in his bunk. I would lie in the darkness and listen as he quietly moaned from down in his heart. After a while, I would climb down and sit on the side of his bunk. I’d tell him jokes and stories until he began to feel a little better and could fall asleep. When I climbed back up in my bunk, I made it my goal to keep Elvis laughing all the way across the ocean.

One day, as we stood at the railing and the ship plowed its foamy way through the foggy North Sea, Elvis said, “Charlie, you keep me from going crazy.”