Jerry Lee Lewis, passed away today at the age of 87, he was the victim of a castrating mother who did not want her son to become the protagonist of something he was called rock n roll. What did the lady do? She placed him in a seminary in Texas as a student. Result: in 1955, with 16 years old, Jerry marries Dorothy, a preacher’s daughter.
The unrest begins in that matriarchal decision. Later, Jerry’s name would be engraved on the wall of the famous bigamis: having a son, already 17, and still married to his premature second wife, Jane Mitcham, the precocious keyboard player married – obviously in secret – to hisyou 13 year old cousin call Myra Gale Browndaughter of a double bass player who performed at his shows.
At that time, the middle of the last century, it wasn’t that strange. In fact, it even seemed completely normal, especially taking Elvis himself as an example, who, at the age of 24, married Priscilla, who was only 14.
But the difference was on the map: Jerry’s bad luck was in England, while Elvis’s was in the United States. With the legend he says: “What was done in Memphis stays in Memphis.”
Jerry Lee Lewis was in his third marriage before age 20, without even consummating the divorce of his first. For one thing, for another or for the sum of all fears, the effect was disastrous and devastating for the musician’s career.
Glory and sunset in 1958
In January 1958, Jerry was aiming high in the graphs with Big fireballs. Also, God willing, he divorces Jane Mitcham and the good news seems to be multiplying.
In May 1958, the womanizer idol is ready for a far and wide tour of Great Britain. His dressing room requirements didn’t include 30 bodyguards, a yoga instructor, or a vegan chef, but there was a catch: the 13 year old girl, his wife, I had to go yes or yes.
Her representatives were nervous about this condition and asked her to stay home (with her parents) and, if possible, to finish school. But Lewis, one of those stars everyone imagines, didn’t give in to the pressure, turned a deaf ear, for nothing, and the day the tour began he arrived at London Heathrow airport with his sweet wife.
What was to make him one of the first American glories to forge a career in England became a real nightmare. To all this, while Jerry did not leave a puppet with the head, the Good Elvis joined the army, giving free rein to the throne of rock. Now the world was at Lewis’s feet.
He landed on English soil and prepared to hold a press conference. “Who’s that girl?”asked, in true Madonna style, a journalist at a press conference. Myra herself answered in her little voice. “I am his wife”She said.
The British yellow press produced the story and they tore it to pieces. he and the sidecar who had a partner. Contracts were terminated by many organizers and wholesale presentations were dissolved within hours. There he was left without a manager and Lewis had to return to the United States.
What followed was a slump: the musician’s fee dropped from $ 10,000 for playing to a measly 250 green mangoes, which was what they could pay in the bars and inns of the time. Neither the friends of the champion nor those of the neighborhood remained. Myra was another victim. “I was marked as Jerry Lee Lewis’ child wife”He once declared.
For all this, Elvis knew Priscilla, just 14, stepdaughter of a retired soldier. Presley went to ask for the girl’s hand, asking permission to live with him in the Graceland mansion.
There she would study in a nun school and live in a house separate from the main residence until she reached legal age and could finally get married. Jerry followed the news from Siberia about him probably thinking aloud, “Elvis did the same thing, but secretly.”
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Source: Clarin
