Elvis' fatal heart attack

Cafe Society
21

fiver, people who are addicted to drugs (or alcohol or cake, for that matter) are trying to fill a need. If you fill your face with cake all the time, it is pleasurable at that time. But the payback is hell. Same with drugs. If you are happy and well-adjusted you simply don’t choose to abuse your body by filling it with toxic substances, be it too much cake or legal (or illegal) drugs…no matter how pleasurable it may be in the short term. Generally speaking, people who use drugs use them as a means of escape, no? I mean, if your life was so pleasant to begin with, why in the world would you need an upper?

If you don’t accept my generalization about why people take drugs, it’s well documented from people who knew Elvis that he was desperately unhappy. He would sleep all day and stay up all night. He was a known womanizer who craved a stable relationship but kept sabotoging himself. He was constantly doped up. He was overweight and couldn’t even remember the words to his songs there at the end.

It really was a waste of a fine human being. Tragically, Elvis, like so many other really talented people, was his own worst enemy.

22

Elvis was not tall. I think he was more like 5’10" or 5’11". There is no way he was any taller than that.

He was definitely not healthy though. He went on a crash diet to lose weight for the 1973 Aloha from Hawaii concert and he looked great. But he terrible eating habits. I’ve been to Graceland three times [sub]don’t laugh[/sub] and I remember them saying that Elvis ate meatloaf every day for six months. That was part of the official audiotape tour, not something one of the guides made up. The last time I was there, they’d switched from a cassette tape tour to a digital tour and the entire script was different.

BTW, I did have a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich while I was there. OMG! No wonder he liked it so much. It really was delicious. I don’t think there was mayonnaise in it though. I hate mayonnaise.

23

Okay, so Elvis dies and goes to heaven, and you know that since he was “The King” that all the other cool celebs there from the 20th Century want to hang with him, but dontcha know there’s gotta be some awkwardness there. James Dean died in a car crash, Morrison, Joplin, and Hendrix all OD’d, cancer got McQueen, and Buddy Holly died in a plane crash. All of them get together with Elvis, and its gotta be weird! I mean, they all went out in vaguely “cool” ways, but Elvis, he died trying to take a dump. Man, you know they’ve gotta be dogging him about that! Don’t they? How does “The King” handle that?

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You guys are disrespecting The King! Shame on you.

I heard they busted his teeth out when they were trying to revive him.

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How the hell did they revive him? With a baseball bat?

“Uh, he ain’t waking up. Hit 'em again!”
“Lou, I think he’s beyond even Lighting’s powers of revivification. He’s gone to the place beyond the bleachers.”

It was percussive medicine’s darkest hour…

:smiley:

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Arg… they found me…

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Elvis loved God, loved his mother, and loved to share his unparalleled gift with the world. Y’all are pusillanimous when you speak of the King with such irreverence. Save your venal tabloid ruminations for the ‘VH1 Where Are They Now: The Shannen Doherty Story’ thread. You’re lucky there’s no such thing as karma, cucarachas. Out of shape lard ass, huh? Barking Spider, I hate you.

That having been said, the ‘midget in the blender’ bit is comedy gold.

28

Tuckerfan, what makes you think ANY of those people would get into heaven? Drug addicts, alcoholics, decadent movie actors, and musicians who play the “devil’s music” in heaven? They’re all ragging on Elvis in Hell. But being the King, he whupps up on them with all that kung fu he learned in the mortal realm while singing “Burning Love”.

29

You know, it sure is easy to take pot shots at a dead celebrity who’s name was only second to Coca Cola as the most recognizable name in the world. Elvis was one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived. He knew how to strike a chord deep down in his fans’ hearts and souls through his phenomenal voice.

However, I digress. First of all, you are correct: Elvis was overweight when he died. He didn’t take very good care of his body and was very worn down from many years of giving his heart and soul to his fans in his performances. The man lived to entertain. Elvis was appropriately voted entertainer of the century by several popular magazines. He was a legend in his own time.

Unfortunately, part of the price you pay for such notoriety is to have slugs like yourself who were born into this world as a nothing and a nobody and who will leave this world as a nothing and a nobody, criticize and attempt to defame their name.

Yes, even members of the protista kingdom such as yourself, people who will not so much as make a ripple in the proverbial vast ocean of human existence, have the freedom to make such ignorant comments about such a great and phenomenal entertainer.

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Well, It’s nice to have a first hand account so we can stop all this wild speculation.
My WAG: Take any worse than dirt poor kid, hand them the world on a platter at 20, pretty soon things are going to get boring. Don’t get me wrong, It’s tragic. But I don’t think he was sitting around one day clean and sober and said, “Hey, everybody, let’s go take enough drugs to kill me!”
I submit, PunditLisa, you do not know of which you speak. Nor (and I’m way out on a limb here) could you have done any better.
Thank you, TonyMisScarface, my sentiments exactly!

32

Did you get the questions answered, Barking Spider? Or were they rhetorical questions? Oh and another thing, what’s it like to have no soul, and a black, black heart? May you never get to hear his sweet voice again as long as you live.

33

[Moderator Hat: ON]

Whoakay, folks. Don’t know where all this bile suddenly came from, but cut it out. You want to insult other posters, take it to the Pit- that’s what it’s there for. Billy Baroo, this is your first warning. The rest of you, tone it down a notch.

[Moderator Hat: OFF]

34

Does any drug addict say that? What’s your point?

Au contraire. I’ve read loads of interviews and books by Elvis’s ex-wife, his cousin, members of his entourage, Ann-Margret,and Cybill Shepherd, to name a few. They all say that for as handsome and talented he was, he was also his own worst enemy.

Why does this assertion make you so hostile?

Try not to fall. I thought we were talking about Elvis, not me. But let’s see…I didn’t grow up dirt poor or hungry, I didn’t lose my only sibling at birth, my father didn’t spend part of my youth in jail, I am not devastatingly close to my mother, I am not a high-school drop-out, I am not drop-dead gorgeous, I am not naively trusting of people, and I don’t have a globally marketable talent…all of which contributed in one way or another to Elvis’s downfall.

I may be flattering myself, but I think I could have done a bit better than Elvis in dealing with fame. At the very least, I can guarantee you that there would have been no zebra shag carpets in my mansion.

Chill.

35

I was a young teenager when Elvis died. In fact, I was watching T.V. when the news scrolled across the bottom of the screen that he had passed away.
Now that I’m 36, I can see that Elvis was fairly young when he died. Hell, 41 is still a fairly young age. I just have to wonder about a guy who had it all, but refused to take care of himself.

36

Gosh, I think Billy and Tony should lighten up somewhat. He died on the toilet for Dog’s sake! Comedy platinum!

Seriously, to point out that someone died because of their own actions (ie not taking care of yourself and being an overwieght drug addict) is not overly disrespectful, it is a momento mori, a warning to us all. When we joke about these things we are warding off the horror of our own mortality (hmm just a tad pretentious there). It in no way invalidates the good things this individual did in his life. Like I say, Tony and Billy, lighten up! Just because you criticise someone doesn’t mean you hate them or anything. How many people have had loved ones kill themselves and have been angry with them? Doesn’t mean they hate them.

Personally, I think anyone who dies on the toilet deserves to be mocked! so nyaah to you! :slight_smile:

37

Tony:
So, by your recknoning, I don’t have the privilege to say that Jerry Falwell is a slime-sucking maggot with all of the brains of a day-old pile of donkey felch because I’ve never had my name in lights?

Enlighten me in the Pit, please.

:rolleyes:

38

Well, not that we need another “authority” to check in on this subject or anything, but from what I understand, Elvis died because he had a heart attack. He had a heart attack while he was on the toilet. He was on the toilet because he was constipated, and he was constipated because of all of the drugs, namely, the downers, he was so fond of.

But I’d be happy to run to Graceland real quick and ask them. Anyway, I think the real question we should all be asking ourselves is, can you imagine straining that hard?

39

My point is he lead a fairly healthy lifesyle for a good while, and as has been pointed out he worked himself to the point of exhaustion so the Dr. gave him this. Later that. More of this, more of that. Pills to poop, pills to not poop, etc. It was a long slow process. One that he had trouble recognising until it was too late.

Au contraire. I’ve read loads of interviews and books by Elvis’s ex-wife, his cousin, members of his entourage, Ann-Margret,and Cybill Shepherd, to name a few. They all say that for as handsome and talented he was, he was also his own worst enemy.

Why does this assertion make you so hostile?**
[/quote]

First, what did I say say that made you think I’m hostle? Just giving MHO.
Second, your retort to this reminds me of a book I saw once (I not making this up) called ‘Who Didn’t Kill Kennedy?’ The point is there are so many conflicting books out there, it would be hard to know what really happened. I’ve read them all, too.
Finally, Why do think just because he was handsome and/or talented he would not be subject to the same emotions as every other person on the planet?
Taleted people have a history of self-destructing -rich or not, handsome or not. I’ve read those books and studies, too.

Try not to fall. I thought we were talking about Elvis, not me. But let’s see…I didn’t grow up dirt poor or hungry, I didn’t lose my only sibling at birth, my father didn’t spend part of my youth in jail, I am not devastatingly close to my mother, I am not a high-school drop-out, I am not drop-dead gorgeous, I am not naively trusting of people, and I don’t have a globally marketable talent…all of which contributed in one way or another to Elvis’s downfall.

I may be flattering myself, but I think I could have done a bit better than Elvis in dealing with fame. At the very least, I can guarantee you that there would have been no zebra shag carpets in my mansion.**
[/quote]

True, he had no taste, but what has that got to do with anything?
And for, “I may be flattering myself, but I think I could have done a bit better than Elvis in dealing with fame”, I still don’t think so.

Cucumber, baby, cucumber…

Sophie, I’ve read that he had just finished a game of raquetball…

40

Gosh, I don’t recall thinking this? Please cite.

That is certainly true. But handsome he was. Which is yet another reason why people mistakenly thought Elvis “had it all.” Clearly he didn’t.

That’s pretty ironic coming from the person who wrote, “I submit that you, PunditLisa, know not of which you speak.” I’ve at least read a few books on Elvis. You don’t even know my name.