When the tour ended in late October, Elvis went to Dr Ghanem (Dr Elias Ghanem, a Las Vegas general practitioner) for help losing weight. Ghanem put him on a 'sleep diet' he concocted, which consisted mostly of liquid nourishment and lots of sedated rest. Elvis stayed with part-time girlfriend Sheila Ryan in a special wing Dr Ghanem had added to his cavernous Las Vegas home.
After two weeks, Elvis walked out ten pounds heavier than he had been when
he walked in.
He was in such bad shape that Colonel Parker (his manager) postponed his annual January engagement at the Las Vegas Hilton to February. Two weeks after his 40th birthday, Elvis was admitted to Baptist Memorial Hospital when he couldn't
catch his breath. Dr Nick told the press that Elvis was having liver problems, but the truth was that his drug abuse was out of control.
A few months earlier, The National Enquirer had published a nasty story headlined: Elvis at 40 -- Paunchy, Depressed and Living in Fear.
"I hate those sonofabitches," Elvis said. "I'd just like to destroy their whole place. All they do is write a bunch of lies." But what they'd written wasn't far from the truth.
Image: Graceland, the Elvis Presley colonial mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. Lisa-Marie Presley, the daughter of the rock legend, inherited the home and some 205 million US dollars from her father's estate at 30.
Photographs: Jim Reid/AFP/Getty Images
Earlier slide show: Women we would love to see again!
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