Elvis’ Hollywood girlfriend on his bedroom talents ‘Can sing but not much else’

Elvis Presley and Natalie Wood were two of the biggest and most beautiful stars in the world in 1956.It seemed a match made in Heaven.

Like Priscilla Presley and so many Elvis girlfriends before, during and after her, Wood was exactly the kind of apparently virginal, sweet and usually brunette girl who drew The King’s eye.

She was the bigger star in Hollywood, with a recent Oscar nomination for Rebel Without A Cause, while Elvis was about to launch his film career in Love Me Tender.

In later years, Elvis would set a pattern of pursuing, wooing, often proposing to, and then always discarding his co-stars and other girlfriends.

But he was still the shy young boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, at the time and Wood made all the moves – and wasn’t thrilled with what she found.

Natalie Zacharenko was born 85 years ago today, on July 20, 1938. By the age of eight, she already had starring roles in films like Miracle on 34th Street.

When she met Elvis at 18, he may have been three years older but she was already a seasoned star and glamorous, sophisticated Hollywood leading light.

Wood asked her Rebel Without A Cause co-star Dennis Hopper to introduce them: “I saw his picture in the paper before he got very popular and I liked his eyes. I thought then I just had to go out with him. He’s really great and the most totally real boy I’ve ever met. He’s a real pixie and has a wonderful little boy quality.”

In a gossipy scoop with the San Francisco News she added: “He’s very courteous and polite and so sweet! He’s the nicest boy I know. A wonderful dancer – and he sings all the time to me. All the girls in the country are in love with him – so why should I be any different?”

Elvis already had some tricks up his sleeve and bought out an entire cinema for their date, something he continued to do for the rest of his life.

Everything was wholesome on the surface. On September 1, Wood commissioned two special handmade shirts in red and blue velvet and sent them to her new beau on the Love Me Tender set.

Things got serious on November 1, when Elvis flew home to Memphis after filming the Ed Sullivan TV show in New York and Natalie travelled to meet him there and spend time with his family – something none of his future film star affairs were to do apart from Anita Wood.

The King shared one of his other great loves and took her riding on his new Harley-Davidson motorbike and in the evening they were pictured together at a glamorous party at the Hotel Chisca. One publication ran a shot of the smiling pair saying it “is almost certain to fracture the hearts of countless teenage American girls.”

Both thought it could be the start of something serious, but one woman stood in their way.

Natalie’s sister Lana recalled in her book Natalie: A Memoir by Her Sister: “They met, and Elvis flew Natalie to his family in Memphis. They were to be gone almost a week, but just two days into the great adventure, Natalie called. ‘Gladys has wrecked everything,’ Natalie said, referring to Elvis’ domineering, jealous mother. ‘I don’t have a chance. Get me out of this, and fast.’

“It was agreed that Mother would call Natalie back and ask her to come home because of some family emergency. Natalie’s romance with the king of rock fizzled out.

“‘God, it was awful,’ she told me later. “He can sing, but he can’t do much else.’

A different side of the picture was painted by Ray Connolly, author of Being Elvis: A Lonely Life: “Natalie wore a very flimsy nightgown around the house. Gladys was like, ‘Not in my house!'”

Lana also remembered Natalie describing how Elvis, who had a notoriously close relationship with Gladys, would sit on his mother’s lap: “They were very affectionate, and it bothered Natalie. She called and asked our mom to make up a story about why she had to come home.”

Gladys was also pressuring Elvis to drop Natalie, believing she was a “gold-digger.”

It was all over, and the next time Natalie was asked by the press if things were serious with Elvis, she simply said: “Not right now.”