by Kristen Kucharski
After watching the movie Priscilla, a 2023 American biographical drama film based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley, I highly anticipated the Holiday Meet & Greet coordinated by Jimmy Place at Teddie Kosof Salon + Spa in Northfield.
Known for raising thousands of dollars for their charitable efforts over the years, the salon was the backdrop for a grand fundraiser supporting GiGi’s Playhouse.
Priscilla’s movie resonated with me. After watching her loneliness in the film, I asked her if knowing what she knows today, if she would have changed anything - - left sooner, stayed longer……she said she wouldn’t change a thing. She wanted the film to be sensitive to their life, while simultaneously authentically and genuinely conveying the sincerity of her feelings for Elvis.
As she met each guest during the Meet and Greet, she was kind, humble, and earnest in her attention to their questions and photos. I pressed further to dig deeper into the person inside the business woman, entrepreneur, actress, author, and once wife to Elvis Presley. I asked her to share a possible theme song to her life. The lyrics to Always on My Mind depicted the lonely journey she had taken for so many years, while so in love with the King of Rock-n-Roll.
We chatted further about the TCB logo that she designed to emulate the sense of energy and power in Elvis’s work and his personal motto, “Taking Care of Business''. She was inspired while flying one evening working with the letters TCB. When she saw a lightning bolt outside the airplane window, she knew immediately it purely represented the emotions that surrounded the band, the music, and her life with Elvis.
Her week in the Chicagoland area was filled with fundraisers, the Rock ‘N Roll Christmas Dinner at the Arcada in St. Charles, personal interviews on WGN Radio 720 and FOX 32 Chicago, as well as earning the Tommy Lasorda Humanitarian Award by the National Italian Sports Hall of Fame at the 44th Annual National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame Gala & Induction Ceremony at The Belvedere in Elk Grove Village.
It was a chance meeting of a lifetime that carries a significance beyond words.
