Gold Hearts and a Pink Cadillac

from the Groupie Feminism art series

Attributions

Gold heart-shaped slips of paper, variously-sized and individually cut from folded candy wrappers and the insides of gift envelopes. On the inside of each heart is the name of a girl or woman who loved Elvis, each name a different color, written with a Sharpie or ink pen.

1955 Pink Cadillac, 1/18 scale in die cast metal by Model Rectifier Corporation in cooperation with Elvis Presley Enterprises, Graceland, and the Cadillac Motor Car Division of General Motors Corporation.

Cadillac with hearts 13" length x 4 1/2" width x 4" height

Including strewn hearts, 6" more width

2021

Artist Statement

R.I.P. Elvis Presley, who died August 16, 1977. I made art by and on the 44th anniversary of his death to honor the girls and women who loved (and love) him. This is the 13th assemblage artwork for my Groupie Feminism art series.

This artwork of a pink Cadillac festooned with heart-shaped slips of paper filled with fans' names was inspired by something I read in Peter Guralnick's beautifully written book, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley (Little, Brown and Company, 1994). Guralnick describes when Elvis Presley and girlfriend, June Juanico, were in Miami, Florida, for Elvis' three daily shows at the Olympia Theatre, beginning August 3, 1956. Guralnick writes, "They went back to the Robert Clay Hotel after the final performance. Elvis' two-week-old Lincoln was covered with names and messages and phone numbers." (p 316) Wow! The fans were being bold!

One of the first things Elvis did as he became a rich and famous singing sensation was to buy a pink Cadillac. One of his songs mentions a pink Cadillac. He also gave a pink Cadillac to his mom, Gladys. So I thought I'd festoon a pink Cadillac with gold hearts, each heart inscribed with the name of a girl or woman who loved Elvis.

I got the pink Cadillac from Wayne Pemberton , who, around 1995-1997, was given the collectible car as a gift from his then bandmate, the guitarist, Michael F. Glass.

Then I wondered, how to find the names of the girls and women who loved Elvis? Of course I knew his mom's name, and his daughter's name, and his wife's name. But who else might be on those slips of paper? My mom's, for sure. My name, too. And one of my favorite groupies, the bestselling author, Pamela Des Barres, who has Elvis's autograph tattooed on her body. And then I remembered the book my uncle, Michael Ward , gave to me! Signed by the author to me! Baby, Let's Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him, by Alanna Nash (HarperCollins, 2010). From her crucial book, I gathered several names of the girls and women who loved Elvis.

Girls and women have historically had their sexuality controlled by patriarchy. Abortions, slut shaming, and fatphobia have limited, inhibited, and sometimes erased female desire. Body surgeries to change a natural shape or the skin's natural aging process sometimes numb the body, preventing physical sensations. The bodies that cause desire can't feel any of their own. It's as though only boys and men can take up sensational space: the space of their bodies and the space of the world.

But the existence of fans and groupies is a refusal of that social control. Elvis preceded Beatlemania, and I think the erotic and romantic clamor around Elvis predicted Beatlemania. As Jonathan Gould says in Tom O'Dell's documentary, How the Beatles Changed the World (2017), "These girls were controlling public space. And nobody could do anything about it. It's a perfect example of what we would call bad behavior: screaming, yelling, weeping in public. This is bad behavior in one way or another. And yet, it was sanctioned. Not by the authorities, but by the Beatles themselves." The Beatles may have insulted their fans by calling them Apple Scruffs, but the band needed their fans. In fact, many bands have sometimes dubbed in the sounds of cheering fans for their live albums. The fans contribute an adoring energy (not to mention money) necessary for a musicians' livelihood.

Music scholar and musician, Lisa Rhodes, who wrote the necessary Electric Ladyland: Women and Rock Culture (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005), told me that without groupies there'd be no rock star. Without fans, how would the musician garner an audience or earn a living?

Something that I just couldn't get out of my head was the idea that teen girls were misbehaving. Hysteria, a term rooted in the word "womb," and the idea of the wandering womb, suggests an emotionalism marked as female, and meant to be controlled. Whenever I hear the Beatles' song, "Fixing a Hole," and the lyrics, "I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in/And stops my mind from wandering/Where it will go," I replace the word "mind" with "womb." Who says we feminists don't have a sense of humor?

Desire is powerful. My mom surmised that some men, feeling powerless when sexually turned on by women, thereafter disempowered women socially and legally. One wonders if some men feel mystified by women's ability to give birth, and instead of respecting it they try to control it. Illegal abortions; men enjoying multiple wives who aren't allowed to enjoy multiple husbands or sex outside of marriage; the promise in some religions of virgins to men after death; even the fact of birth control pills (whose side effects only affect a woman's body) place all the responsibility and aftermath of sexuality and chastity on women. Girls and women are blamed when they are sexually harassed or raped. Judged harshly if they have sex outside narrow parameters (such as heterosexual marriage) or wear sexy clothes. Feminist writer, Marilyn French, says that patriarchy insists that sexuality and reproduction be entirely the responsibility of girls and women.

The heart shape is a prehistoric symbol of female empowerment and procreation, equivalent to the phallic symbol, according to feminist activist, Gloria Steinem, in her book, Revolution From Within: A Book of Self-Esteem (Little, Brown and Company, 1992), who says patriarchy trivialized the heart-shaped symbol. My friend, Jennie Rosenthal, gave the book to me (signed by the author to me!).

I hope the gold hearts on the fancy pink car honor the girls and women who gave their hearts to Elvis.