When Caroline Kennedy Met Elvis! And Her Days in Journalism

According to the latest reports today, Caroline Kennedy, indeed, does want Hillary Clinton's seat as (my) junior U.S. senator from New York, and she may well get it. Well, it's nice to see that a former journalist has come to some good.

Since Kennedy's name resurfaced this month in the sweepstakes to replace Hillary, reviews of her life often contain one brief line about her being a former "journalist" with some also referring to her once writing a story for Rolling Stone about visiting Graceland following Elvis Presley's death -- and somehow getting a rare private viewing of the King lying in state.

Since I am a former Rolling Stone writer myself, let's dig a little deeper.

Kennedy is best known, at least in the journalism field, for her Sept. 22, 2007 article in Rolling Stone, a kind of "scoop." Reading it today, one may be surprised to find that it does not seem to match some of the press accounts which suggested that Caroline had sneaked into Graceland or carried out some other kind of dering-do.

Yes, the estate had been sealed off by cops and private guards as 75,000 gathered following Presley's death on August 17, 1977. But Kennedy, a Radcliffe coed, was simply outside mingling with others in line when Winslow "Buddy" Chapman, the director of police, "invited me into the house where a scarlet carpeted hall led into a large room filled with gold and white folding chairs," she wrote. "At the far end of the room was the gleaming copper coffin that contained the body of Elvis Presley. His face seemed swollen and his sideburns reached his chin.

"A couple in their late twenties stand beside the casket. The woman was sobbing. The man had his arm around her. Behind the coffin, an arch led to another room where a clear glass statue of a nude woman stood high off the floor, twirling slowly, adorned by glass beads that leaked like water. Potted plastic palms surrounded the coffin and on the wall was a painting of a skyline on black velveteen."

Priscilla Presley entered. "Would you like a Coke or 7-Up?" she offered. Kennedy described the living room as mahogany-paneled and decorated with fur-covered African shields and spears.

Then Priscilla introduced Caroline to Elvis's father, Vernon Presley, who was watching the 10 o'clock news in a nearby bedroom. Nobody in the group around him spoke.

Later, at the front door, Caroline interviewed Charlie Hodge, Elvis' rhythm guitarist. "It's really hard to believe," he said. "I went to the dentist with him on Monday night around 9:30. We were getting ready for the tour and we talked about the songs we'd use. But we never did rehearse. We just used to make it up right on the stage....I've been with Elvis all day. Just this afternoon I shaved his sideburns. It was the least I could do."

Kennedy closed with this description: "Outside the front door were hundreds of wreaths; some spelled 'Elvis' in flowers, others were shaped like crowns, broken hearts, hound dogs and blue suede shoes."

See below for Elvis singing "Sweet Caroline" -- which reportedly Neil Diamond named for Ms. Kennedy.

But Caroline had some daily journalism experience as well.

A People magazine online bio observes that young Caroline "considered becoming a photojournalist (her mother's original career) but soon realized she could never make her living observing other people because they were too busy watching her."

However, she did, during college, intern at the New York Daily News in 1977 -- her Elvis year -- where according to People "she sat on a bench alone for two hours the first day before other employees even said hello to her." Explained former News reporter Richard Licata, "Everyone was too scared."

She was apparently doing "copy girl" tasks but the newspaper "had to post guards at every entrance to keep camera crews out. Once a photograph of Caroline fetching coffee for the editors from a local Bagel Nosh came over the wire in the newsroom even before she returned from her errand.

"Another time Caroline and Licata, who gossip columnists wrongly assumed was her boyfriend, snuck out the back door to avoid network reporters coming up to interview them." Caroline supposedly said, as the pair waited, "Now you have an idea what my life is like." Later she worked as a photographer's assistant at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher. His latest book, on Iraq and the media, is "So Wrong for So Long." He was executive editor of the legendary Crawdaddy magazine for most of the 1970s.

Comments

[mmiddle]

I honestly don't care what choice New York makes here, but I think you're taking her account of the Graceland visit at face value. Peter Guralnick, in his highly-praised, professional biography of Elvis ("Careless Love") gives a very different version, much less flattering to Kennedy.

[SethBLiNK]

She worked at a daily newspaper and got an article published in Rolling Stone. Does that not qualify as working briefly in Journalism? All this happened when she was at college. Given her age and the brevity of her career, I don't think anybody thought she was the one who uncovered the Watergate scandal.

Though I would guess that even then she would have caught and corrected your typo in paragraph 4, that claims her article on Elvis was published 30 years after she wrote it.

[ElBruce]

Mr. Mitchell, I'm sure I could find a number of not-very-serious things you've done, list them, and use that to suggest that people shouldn't take you seriously. The same should be said of anyone. A "let's dig a little deeper" look at her work history should be comprehensive in order to be meaningful.

[KlausPV]

The U.S. are supposed to be a democracy where people get elected into office, not an aristocracy where certain families seem to have a right of direct Senat representation. My suggestion: Let's appoint a true interim candidate, who will definitely not run in 2010. In 2012 Caroline Kennedy then can make a Senate run. I may even support her then.

[Cheesemelt]

Caroline Kennedy helped to secure over $200 million in funding for NYC public schools. This from the private sector.

Please let us know how many other prospective candidates have done something equal to or greater than this while serving in a non-governmental capacity?

[CatfishJohn]

...george Bush is verfied proof that family pedigree can get you into elite schools and hi-profile job titles...i am a strident liberal...yet having observed Mrs. Schlosberg oevr the years and listened to her speak, she does NOT strike one as bright or intellectually sophisitcated in the least...hillary clinton was/is as sharp as they come and she carried a heavy, active politicla load for bill in the white house for 8 and during his political climb..kennnedy is a complete novice..a none too bright one..again, our celebrity worshipping culture and a shallow sense of nostalgia are the only rationales to appoint someone such as her to this position...new york state has mutliple properly liberal ,experienced Dems capable of filling this seat...and frankly more qualified and deserving...

[Stephen C. Rose - Huffpost Blogger]

Caroline has lots of good stuff to point to.

http://stephencrose.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/caroline-kennedy-is-no-slouch/

[SEQUOIABISON]

And ?? Some people are just not qualified to evaluate the qualifications of others.

Caroline is easily the Best person for the job of senator from NY, we will never have to worry about bribery or malfeasance, while she holds that seat.

[canarypapers]

Wow. Quite an indictment, not to mention a heavy-handed trivialization of an intelligent, educated, accomplished, well-respected woman who has spent most of her life in public service -- contributing much of her recent energies into the education system in NY, for which she's helped raised millions -- and who also currently serves as director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund....

....as she is, after all, an attorney, educated at both Harvard and Columbia Law School. You forgot to mention this, Greg.

[lentinelia]

Now that Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin are no longer the targets of choice, we watch Caroline Kennedy taking her position in the line of fire.

Will this ever end?

[Horst]

The women you mention have this sense of entitlement which puts people off. Mrs. Schlossberg the best qualified candidate? Give me a break.

[larry278]

What happens if Gov Pateron appoints a nobody to hold the seat till 2010 or Il leaves Obama's seat open till 2010? We just had the mother of all Ponzi schemes hit the world's financial elite. The 1st decade of the 21st century is ending like we have flat tires on the 2 rear wheels, nobody to tow the car & nobody has the tires we need either. The cell phone still works & a motel is sending a car to pick us up so we can sleep in beds tonight.

[NABNYC]

You're right. Caroline Kennedy does not have the same credentials as most of the people in the Senate: she's not male. And that is the essence of the problem. She's also not married to a man-in-power who can legitimize her entry into the old boys' network. My goodness, I could go on and on about these men in Congress whose main credential before getting there is that they worked on Wall Street, stole lots of money, proved they would go along to go along, got in with the right old boys' network.

Now let's look at Caroline Kennedy. Citizen, mother, taxpayer. As I understand it, she's probably smarter than all the Senators combined (I know -- not saying much) and no whiff of scandal attaches to her, in contrast with the people currently in Congress and on the take (I know -- not saying much). She is a constitutional scholar, intellectual, writer, public citizen. I guess she forgot to stop off at some corporate headquarters and take lots of bribes, but what exactly is it about her that warrants ridicule and dismissal -- other than the fact that she's female, of course? But the boys will have fun with Caroline. After all, how can she possibly compare to Al Franken (didn't he wear a bee-suit on TV?) when it comes to the dignity and experience criteria.

[garlicpowder]

I Al Franken becomes Senator Franken, he will have worked for it. If Caroline Kennedy is appointed Senator, it will have been given to her. That is how she compares to Al Franken.

[considerthis]

She can't run for it. "IT's" not open to election until 2010. Someone has to be "given" the position. She's a good as anyother under consideration.

[hopeless277]

Why on Earth wouldn't they give a Senate seat to such a nice young lady? Face it, she couldn't do worse for the American people than Schummer has done. Can you say Mukasey? Can you say deregulation of Wall St.? Give her a shot. What's she gonna do? Declare war on Iraq? Besides, maybe she'll donate her salary to charity and forgo the taxpayers paying for her health insurance. Then again the Kennedy's didn't get their money from turning down free health care and $163,000 a year.

[Citizen54]

As a New Yorker, I have to agree with you. She could not be any worse than Schumer, the sell-out Senator from Wall Street.