In February 2, 1959 the Presley clan relocated to a three-story, five-bedroom house at Goethestrasse 14, which afforded everyone more space and privacy than the nearby Hotel Grunewald. For the exorbitant rent of $800 a month, it also provided them with a landlady named Frau Pieper who doubled as their housekeeper.
However she still maintained a room in the house. Partly to serve as a housekeeper, and partly to keep an eye on her new guests. Elvis’ grandmother Minnie Mae and Frau Pieper soon became fast friends, though they were often at odds, each in their own language.
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What particularly irked Elvis and his entourage was the state of the garden. When they played badminton there,which they did a lot,they often lost the shuttlecock because the grass was so long.
Eventually on July 7 Elvis drove to Friedberg in his white BMW parked his car on the main street and went into the gardening shop Samen Herman where he purchased a lawnmower for 289 Deutschmarks – a very expensive item of the time.
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Next day, he gave the lawnmower to Frau Pieper, hinting that she should mow the lawn. She didn’t.
Thereafter Red West or Lamar Fike were the ones seen using Frau Pieper’s unwanted present. Frau Pieper knew Elvis was rich and that it was good to have him in the house, but the incident with the lawnmower demonstrates her apparent attitude of indifference towards this lucrative arrangement.
Well aware of the problems Elvis had encountered while searching for a house to rent, and exploiting a situation which was working totally to her advantage…
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Frau Pieper she was quite happy to sit back and let the money roll in. Indeed, she even made some extra cash by selling off many of Elvis’s personal belongings, particularly clothes, to visiting fans right up to the day he left for home.
