As Elvis Presley’s iconic Graceland is saved from foreclosure, the beauty pageant fiancée who found The King lifeless at the mansion has revealed to DailyMail.com exclusively: ‘He couldn’t have been saved.’
Ginger Alden was just 20 when she discovered Elvis slumped face down and unresponsive on the bathroom floor after years of serious health issues and barbiturate addiction.
Elvis’s death aged just 42 at his home in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 16, 1977, stunned the world.
‘He couldn’t have been saved. Even though I knew at the time what I was seeing, you still think there is some hope. Everyone was just in shock on that day and no, there was nothing more we could have done,’ Alden told DailyMail.com.
The 67-year-old actress revealed she went into so much detail of the death in her 2015 memoir to stop lies and ‘misrepresentations’ from people ‘that were not in the room… who said they were.’
In her book she wrote: ‘His arms lay on the ground, close to his sides, palms facing upward. It was clear from the moment he landed on the floor, Elvis hadn’t moved.
Elvis Presley’s final girlfriend, Ginger Alden, (pictured in January 1977) recalled the moment she found him unresponsive and the subsequent media storm surrounding his death
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‘I gently turned his face toward me. A hint of air expelled from his nose. The tip of his tongue was clenched between his teeth and his face was blotchy. I gently raised one eyelid. His eye was staring straight ahead and blood red.’
She told DailyMail.com: ‘I thought, I have to describe this and relive that before lies become the truth. It’s not pleasant. It’s something I felt the public needed to know because boy, I have never seen anything like it, what surrounded his death.
‘There were so many different stories and lies that were told. It was tough to sit back and watch.’
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After Elvis’s death, she said: ‘I would wake at night and I would look at the time and do different things for a while. I had a lot of strange dreams off and on for I don’t know how much time.
‘He was alive in the dreams and it was always sad. You would wake up and it was traumatic.
‘It’s never pleasant talking about someone’s death that you loved dearly so I try not to. I don’t dwell on it. I dwell on his life. I had a dream about him not long ago.
‘He was in it and it’s strange when you have those because you wake up and he is there for a few minutes, you feel that it’s OK now.’
Alden spoke out as Elvis’s actress granddaughter Riley Keough won a decision by a judge to stop Graceland going into foreclosure on May 23 – and the lender who wanted to force the sale backed down.
Naussany Investments claimed Keough’s mother and Elvis’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley borrowed $3.8million and gave them a deed of trust providing Graceland as security before she died in January, 2023 aged 54.
Alden, a former beauty pageant contestant, revealed she and the King of Rock and Roll had set a wedding date in the early morning hours right before he passed away on August 16, 1977
Speaking to DailyMail.com in an exclusive new interview, Alden addressed stories of Elvis’s wild eating habits as he ballooned in weight in his later years
Elvis’s death ,aged just 42 at Graceland, his home in Memphis, Tennessee on August 16, 1977, stunned the world
Keough, 34, launched a lawsuit in Shelby County Chancery Court alleging her mother’s apparent signatures on two crucial documents were forged.
Keough is the granddaughter of Priscilla Presley, 79. She and Elvis married in 1967 and divorced in 1973, four years before his death.
Naussany had a motion denying the allegations in the lawsuit. But after the judgment the firm said it would not be proceeding with its claim.
The battle over the house also coincides with a one-woman show tour, organized by WAYS Promotions, that Alden is undertaking in the United Kingdom, in which she shares her memories of The King.
In her exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, she addressed stories of Elvis’s wild eating habits as he ballooned in weight in his later years, saying she tried to help him regulate it.
‘Elvis had large portions but that didn’t mean he always ate it. He would oversalt his food and he retained fluid from that,’ she said.
‘One day he ordered ice cream and the housekeeper brought up 15 scoops. I said he didn’t need it. Elvis had been spoiled in his life and he got mad and threw the bowl.
‘Was it bad behavior? Yes. But I looked at it this way, he didn’t eat it, so that’s one for me.
‘People would talk about these peanut butter and banana sandwiches. You would think that Elvis was sitting in his room gorging.
‘I never once saw him eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich. That’s how some things were exaggerated.’
Alden say she met Elvis after the rock ‘n’ roll icon called her home asking to be introduced to the new Miss Tennessee, which was her sister Terry.
The newly-crowned Terry took Ginger and another sister along and the trio ended up waiting for him in Lisa Marie’s bedroom.
‘We waited a couple of hours then Elvis just came walking in dressed in a blue karate top and black pants. He looked so casual.
‘As shy as I was, I said hi to him because he was gorgeous. My sisters were beautiful so I don’t know why he focused on me.
Elvis had developed a notably bloated appearance in his final years, however, Alden claims it was due to his body retaining fluids as opposed to overeating habits
Alden was only 20 years old when she found the rock and roll icon slumped face down and unresponsive on the bathroom floor after years of serious health issues and barbiturate addiction. His funeral was held two days later on August 18, 1977
The former beauty queen turned actress revealed she felt compelled to share details of his death to stop lies and ‘misrepresentations’ from the public
‘That evening we were sitting down and he looked down then looked back up and said: ‘Ginger, you are burning a hole right through me’.
‘I thought he meant I was staring at him and that embarrassed me, but one thing led to another. I ended up staying the night and sitting in his bed as he was reading a book.
‘He had books on eastern philosophy and he was very keen on that. He was a total gentleman, he always was, and that is something I always appreciated.’
Alden broke up with her then boyfriend and ‘we started seeing each other.’ She continued: ‘Falling in love with him was fairly quick.
‘I was shy, I was scared about some things. It’s hard to explain to the average person but Elvis had this powerhouse personality and it was like taking over. It came to the point where I couldn’t picture him not in my life. It was so overwhelming.
‘I didn’t notice the age gap until he was teaching things, and he liked to teach.
‘Whether it was the philosophy or whatever. There was a fatherly side to him and he was super protective of me.’
Elvis proposed shortly after they met and went down on bended knee with a ring of 15 diamonds while they were in Las Vegas for what would be his final shows in December 1976.
‘He invited me to see him performing 12 nights and that would be his last Las Vegas engagement.
‘It was there he started saying things like, ‘When I close my eyes I can see you in a long, white gown’. I was like, what?’
‘I was deeply in love with him, absolutely. It was all consuming and I had never had that before.
Despite his womanizing reputation, Alden – pictured right last week – dismissed gossip about other women during their nine months together and said she believes he was faithful
The actress spoke out following the outcome a legal battle that stopped Graceland, Elvis’s former home and burial site, from being sold off at a foreclosure auction earlier this week
‘The fatherly aspects, the teacher, everything about him. I loved watching him sing and perform.
‘We had set a wedding date in the early morning hours right before he passed away.
‘Elvis wanted to announce our engagement in Memphis. He wanted to have more children. I was looking forward to that, I really was and he was too.’
Alden dismissed gossip about other women during their nine months together.
‘I do believe he was faithful to me,’ she said.
‘There were rumors of certain things and if I hadn’t been with Elvis as much as I was I would have been concerned. But I knew there was no room for that.
‘Some people tried to say there was a relationship here and there. There was no way unless they were hiding under our bed.
‘I always felt very confident about his feelings for me and never doubted that.
‘I never moved into Graceland, but Elvis had asked me early on to move in. I said it wasn’t my way at the time.
‘Eventually, it was like living there, but I would go home and see my dog, change clothes for a few hours and then come back.’
Riley’s lawsuit claimed her mother did not borrow money from the company, and that her signatures on the deed are forgeries; (L-R) Lisa, Priscilla and Riley seen in 2015
Graceland was built in 1939 and Elvis bought it in 1957 after giving his parents a budget of $100,000 to find a suitable home. He eventually bought the colonial revival style mansion for $102,500
Elvis’s favorite form of dress at home was nightwear, Alden revealed.
That was because his famous one-piece stage jumpsuits ‘had a lot of studs and that was uncomfortable for him, and he had marks on his back from those. So he liked pajamas a lot. He would wear a jeweled robe over the top of them sometimes.’
Alden moved to New York after Elvis’s death and became involved in modeling and acting.
‘I wanted to make it on my own,’ she said. ‘I didn’t wear a shirt saying, ‘I knew Elvis’. I auditioned for commercials and I’m proud of that.’
She landed parts in 1980s TV show Hollywood Beat and 1990s drama Life Goes On.
She went on to marry Ronald Leyser in 1991, but he died aged 61 on August, 16, 2015, the 38th anniversary of Elvis’s death. The couple had a son, now aged 29.
‘I lost my husband and moved back to Tennessee from New York and my son is still working up there,’ she said. ‘But I’m OK. I help take care of my mother who is 102 going on 103. I have family here. Life is fine, I won’t complain.
‘I like gardening. I go out with friends and we’ve started doing Elvis shows. I feel like I’m a curator for his last nine months. I want people to remember him in a positive light.’
