I’d love some insights from anybody who knows whether there is any truth to the claim that Elvis Presley read the Book of Mormon in his last days.
Here are some articles that indicate Elvis may have read the Book of Mormon:
This web site has pictures of Elvis’ alleged Book of Mormon with handwriting that may or may not have been Elvis’.
This may be an interesting time to note that Ronald Reagan also read and quoted the Book of Mormon.
A Book of Mormon that did belong to Elvis Presley (given to him by an LDS fan named Cricket, and returned to her) is deposited in the Church Archives. I’ve seen it and flipped through it. I’ve never seen or heard of any challenge to its authenticity.
There are a few marks in it that would indicate that somebody, probably Presley, did read at least some of it.
Some people have tried to divine what he read by holding the book on its spine and letting it fall open, presumably to places where the binding was pressed flat for reading. I wouldn’t rely on that, though; after all the people who have handled it, it hardly seems likely that it would retain Presley’s binding breaks rather than those of all the people who have held it since.
On my mission in 1989 I attended a fireside with Elder F. Burton Howard, then a member of the Seventy. He discussed Elvis’ copy of the Book of Mormon extensively (it had just been donated to the Church by Graceland). He read some marginal notes that were quite positive about the message of the book.
Reminds me of the story of Arthur Kane of the New York Dolls, although with him we know a lot more (in fact, he joined the church and worked at the temple in L.A. family history library): http://www.newyorkdollmovie.com
More than the King reading the BOM, I’m fascinated by our need to tie celebrities to our church. Is that something we as Mormons do out of insecurity, or are all religious groups eager to point out the smallest ties to an actor or singer?
I remember fellow missionaries going on and on about how their cousins – friends – brother had tracted into Steve Martin and baptized him. While they seemed to think this was big news, I was never sure how or why it applied to us at all. It’s not like he was going to appear in a revamped temple film or anything.
I made an innocent comment at a ward dinner, back when Shawn Bradley was just starting to fail in the NBA, that we Mormons tend to overvalue our connections with celebrity, that we’ll give a pass to a Mormon celebrity (or to a non-Mormon who sympathizes with our Church). We’ll overlook their foibles as long as they are friendly to Mormonism.
The stake president at the dinner upbraided me, saying that (a) there is no Mormon cult of personality, and that (b) Bradley really wasn’t that bad of a pro player, and (c) we needed to celebrate any and all interactions with Americans with Mormonism, because it leads more people to Christ. (He also had a theory on how if BYU spent more money on football, it would double convert baptisms among sports fans.)
To look at NFL-dom – How many Mormons consider the San Francisco 49ers their favorite team, just because Steve Young played there? Or now the Eagles, because of Andy Reid? (But we don’t take “credit” for Brian Billick, I notice.)
In the 1980s, when I was paying attention to such things, the Church News would post the names of the Mormons warming the benches in the Major Leagues.
The Deseret News recently was asking readers to submit names of RMs playing in NCAA bowls.
You know there’s a cult of personality when someone suggests Shawn Bradley was actually a good player.