Today at 2:06 PM ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA Visit our web site at: assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol Wednesday, October 30, 2013 Elvis Presley and His Great Love for Old Hymns and the Bible Also Sandy Ferra Martindale reveals that she once dated the King, but eventually Presley married Priscilla and she wedded veteran TV game show host Wink Martindale By Dan Wooding Founder of ASSIST Ministries BEVERLY HILLS, CA (ANS) -- After Elvis Presley returned to the United States from Germany in 1960 following his time as a G.I., he eventually moved to Los Angeles and with his girlfriend Priscilla pining for him in Germany, Elvis Presley began dating Sandy Ferra, the then 14-year-old daughter of a nightclub owner. Sandy and Elvis This was revealed at the Media Fellowship International (MFI) Thirteenth Annual Praise Brunch held at the historic Beverly Hills Hotel a couple of years ago, when the perennial American radio and television favorite, Wink Martindale, said, during his keynote address, that his wife, Sandy Ferra Martindale, who was in the audience, had once dated Elvis Presley. That news was too much for an old hack like myself to pass by, so I managed to get an interview Sandy after the event, and I discovered that, because of her young age, she was initially chaperoned everywhere by her mother Mary Lou, and that 25-year-old Presley got no further than kissing Sandy, but apparently he had other intentions. Media reports said that one night Presley asked Mary Lou if she and her daughter would consider moving to his new mansion, the soon-to-be-legendary Graceland, where he would raise Sandy as his future wife, but that work out. In an exclusive interview, Sandy told me that she first met the King of Rock and Roll when he visited the Cr oss Bow, her fathers night club in Panorama City, California, which is located in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. He was in town to make G.I. Blues, his first film after his discharge from the army. Elvis during one of his glittering shows Elvis had just got out of the army and one day he came into my dads club and saw my picture in the office, and said, Id like to meet your daughter, Sandy recalled. So Elvis called me, and because it was a school night and my mother wouldnt drive me up to the nightclub, he said he could come back the next week and he asked me if I could meet him there. In the meantime, my dad came home and told me that he [Elvis] was a gorgeous guy because at the time, I didnt know who Elvis Presley was. Sandy explained that Elvis didnt visit the club to sing, but just for recreation. So, the next week my mother said she would drive me to the club, recalled Sandy. Elvis had a date with a beautiful actress and I just sat there with my little ponytail and frilly dress. He kissed me on the cheek and then later he called and told my mother he wanted to date me and my mother said, I dont care if youre King Farouk; my daughters only fourteen and she cant go out with you. So Elvis said to my mother, Well, you can come on the date, so she came on our first three dates. Where did you go? Elvis was living at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, so wed go there and have pizza, hot fudge sundaes, banana splits, as well as watch television and also talk and dance. That was our dates. And then, after the first three dates, he then promised my mother that hed be a gentleman and take good care of me and then my mom then said that it was OK for me to go out with him without her being there. He stuck to his word and was and he was a perfect gentleman. He loved and respected my parents and was a wonderful part of my life. Did he ever talk about the Lord during those days? Elvis Presleys Bible, inscribed with on the inside back cover in blue pen with I love ya, mama, is being held by David Smith, a Baptist minister and the curator of a Bible exhibition in Liverpool, UK. Smith said, Elvis grew up in church and started his music in church. Thats where he first performed. (Photo: Liverpool Daily Post) He knew the Bible from cover to cover and was a very religious person, Sandy replied. Elvis once told me about the time, when he was younger, that he was driving across the desert in Texas -- because [at that time] he wouldnt fly -- and thats when he said he saw a vision of Christ. He told me that he had stopped the Winnebago [an RV vehicle that he was traveling in], and got out and it was then that he saw this vision of Christ. He told me that he then got back into the vehicle and said that he didnt know what it meant. You know, I believe that God has something big for me to do, but I dont know what it is, Elvis added. Elvis didnt realize that this was going to take place after his death, for that is when he became [big for God], with the release of much of his Gospel music. He had no idea at the time, as he was kind of like my husband [Wink Martindale] -- a Tennessee boy, who was very shy and who didnt know how talented and valuable he was. How many dates did you have with him? I dated him for six years, she said. And then I did dance in Viva Las Vegas and a bunch of his other movies and a lot of days Id go to the set because I went on the auditions by myself as a dancer and he didnt get me the parts. I worked in the movies and a lot of days Id get paid just for going there and having lunch with my boyfriend. It was a great life growing up. I am sure that there were lots of girls who were very jealous of the fact that I was dating Elvis, but I didnt talk about it very much so many didnt even know. Did he ever propose to you? Elvis and Priscilla with baby Lisa-Marie We talked about marriage and I knew I was the kind of a girl he wanted to marry, but he had actually met Priscilla two months before me while he was in Germany and then, after she moved over to the States with her parents still living in Germany, she moved to Memphis and he felt responsible for her. By the way, my mother would never let me go over and spend the night with Elvis so they [Priscilla and Elvis] forged a much stronger bond than was possible between the two of us. So he felt responsible for her and fell deeply in love with her of course and married her. Were you saddened with what happened to him in his later years when his life just fell apart and died on August 16, 1977 in the bathroom at Graceland? Yes, after I married Wink, we were with him in Las Vegas just a few months before he passed away, recalled Sandy. Wink knew him some ten years before I met him; actually before I knew either one of them. They were friends in Tennessee and were both true Tennessee gentlemen. Elvis told Wink how proud he was of him and how great his career was, which I found quite amazing when you think of what Elvis had achieved in his career. And then he told Wink that my mother came on the first few dates and Wink said, I didnt believe her when she first told me this, but if you tell me that, I believe you. And then Elvis also told Wink that I was the nicest girl from the nicest family that he ever knew. The sad news as carried on the front page of the UKs The Sun After his mother Gladys died [in 1958], Elvis kind of lost his way. But then when Pricilla left him, he just wanted to forget reality because he had chosen her for his queen, and he believed in marriage as an institution; that it was meant to be till death do us part and that kind of broke his heart. I wondered why she thought the people around Elvis during his final days were not able to confront him about his problems. They were afraid that they would lose their jobs and sadly that was the most important thing for them, said Sandy. So are you glad you married Wink instead of Elvis? Sandy smiled and then replied, God had a plan and this was the plan God had for me. If I had stayed with Elvis, I may have been able to save him, but you know, Im not God, so maybe, also I may not have been able to save him. Also, I wanted somebody that I could grow old with, which I got. We were married on August 2, 1975 at the Arcadia Presbyterian Church in Southern California, she went on to say. In a previous interview at the same event, Wink Martindale, who in 1959, had a huge hit record called Deck of Cards, told me that he was a close friend of Elvis Presley and when Wink became the host of the TV show, Teenage Dance Party, Elvis made an appearance. Then, following Presleys death in 1977, Martindale aired a nationwide tribute radio special in his honor. Elvis Part Two: Wink and Sandy Martindale It was when I walked into the historic Beverly Hills Hotel again to report on the Media Fellowship International 15th Annual Praise Brunch on Saturday, October 19, 2013, I immediately spotted the couple seated at the front of the event and so I thought I would, as a good hack, try continue the interview about Elvis, and surprisingly, they both agreed. I began by asking them if they thought that Elvis would have enjoyed this gathering of mainly Christians in the entertainment business, and Sandy smiled and replied, Yes, he would and he would be up there singing gospel with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. [She was referring to couple, who were once members of The 5th Dimension, and were about to receive the Ambassadors Award, for their service to Gods Kingdom in the entertainment business from MFI founder and president, Pastor Bob Rieth. They recently celebrated 44 years of marriage together). Sandy went onto say that Elvis loved to sing hymns and added, In fact, during a lot of our dates, hed just be at the pia no in the den of our home, and begin singing gospel songs. Wink then said that How Great Thou Art, was Elviss favorite hymn, saying, Of course that whole album of hymns under that same title won a Grammy for him. [This was his the eighth studio album that was released by RCA Victor in mono and later stereo, in February 1967]. He went on to say that Elviss love of hymns began when he was a child and learned them in the Assemblies of Church God that he attended with his family. So his popularity, his songs that he recorded over the years, were an amalgam of country, rock and roll, spiritual and pop, said Wink. Did Elvis ever complain to you that that youd stolen his girlfriend? No, said Wink firmly, because he was delighted that we ended up getting married and being together. I had known him earlier in Memphis in 1954 when he was discovered and he met Sandy out here [in Southern California] and they dated for over six years. We later met several times and now weve been married for 38 year s. The last time we saw Elvis alive was at the International Hotel in Los Vegas in 1976. He invited us to come backstage between shows so he could talk to us. So we went back and he had just seen us together on television that day on a show called Tattletales, and said that he was amazed that we won the game for charity. Did you ever have any regrets that you didnt marry him? Sandy replied, No. God has a plan for all of us and its not in my hands to make those decisions. A bloated Elvis I wondered if Elvis was alive today, what she would like to talk to him about, and she said, I would talk to him about making him healthy and getting him to eat better than he did. Also, I would tell him to take better care of himself. Some nights, Sandy continued, he would get pizzas and eat the center part and throw the rest away or hed get the Sara Lee Pound Cake and put ice-cream and canned peaches on it, and that would be his dinner. Id just sit there and, say to myself, Oh my gosh, this is not healthy. But thats what he loved to eat -- and he also loved to eat those little White Castle hamburgers. Wink laughed and added, Id want to tell him to start taking vitamins. Sandy then revealed that, despite the fact that Elvis was, in his later years, fighting many demons in his life, he held onto a great love for the Bible. What a lot of people dont know is that he could quote the Bible from cover to cover. He believed deeply, she said. So I asked her, what went so wrong? It st arted with an innocent series of events, said Sandy. Hed come out here [Southern California] to do a movie and he wanted to look good and theyd give him diet pills, speed, so to speak. Then hed take a diet pill and also a sleeping pill to go to sleep, because hed have to be on the set at six oclock in the morning, so therefore he needed to come down from the high. So he started with diet and sleeping pills and then his body would build up an immunity. Soon, it became two diet pills and two sleeping pills. And then from that it went onto when he was doing karate and he got arthritis in his hands, and so he needed pain medication to go with the others. He didnt think that he was a drug addict as everything was prescribed for him by a doctor, and he thought it was, therefore, safe and healthy, and it eventually spiraled out of control without him really knowing it was happening, and then it was just too late. When did you first hear about his death at the age of 42? Sandy told me, That day, my hus band was on the air at KMPC [in Los Angeles] and we had some friends in town from Chicago, and I was with them at La Scala Boutique in Beverly Hills having lunch. I had my little portable radio on the table because I always listened to his show. Then, all of a sudden, he got all choked up and he went to a break and I thought that something must be wrong. That was before cell phones, so I went downstairs at the restaurant and got on the pay phone and called the station to see what was happening. Sandy then handed over to her husband, who told me, Yeah, it was twenty minutes after two oclock and the newsman came in and he knew of my closeness to Elvis and he didnt want to just come on with a bullet so he warned me in advance that it had just crossed the Associated Press [wire] from Memphis that Elvis had died. Sandy and Wink Martindale standing for the national anthem with Pat Boone at the Beverly Hills event And so after he announced that, I just segued one record to the other until three oclock when I got off the air. It was expected and yet it was unexpected, as youre never ready to lose someone that you love so much. Thats the way it was. Do you think anybody could have helped him? Wink said, I dont think so. He was hell bent on living the kind of life he lived and, you know, it was just one of those things. Sandy then gave her views on the situation, saying, If his mother hadnt died, it never would have happened as he would have listened to her. Wink added, Part of Elvis died when his mother died. She was so much a part of his life. She could have made a big difference, and thats not saying that he didnt also love his dad, but his dad couldnt make a difference. With that, ironically enough, Elviss one time rival in the rock and roll world, Pat Boone, then slipped into the room and took a seat next to the Martindales, and the star-studded event began. And if you would like read more about the friendship and rivalry between Presley and Boone, just go to my story at: assistnews.net/Stories/2013/s13060124.htm I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing both of these interviews Share See all ASSIST News articles at assistnews.net Dan Wooding, 72, is an award-winning journalist who who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 50 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he hosts the weekly Front Page Radio show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern California and which is also carried throughout the United States and around the world. He is the author of some 45 books, the latest of which is a novel about the life of Jesus through the eyes of his mother called Mary: My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary. (Click to order) ** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 04:45:21 +0000
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