Good Times - Elvis

[Merry]

The good times.

Let's share some of the good times with Elvis:

(Excerpt)

RED WEST


TS: Did you visit or go fishing, or was there any way you were able to escape where no-one would see you. That’s the point I’m making.

RW: No. The only time we went fishing was early in his career. He used to love going to. We went out on this boat - his cousins, his girlfriend and whatever, and that was fun. We fished, I remember I caught a shark, he caught a bunch of these benita, whatever. But that was in the early days, that was the late 50s - 54/55.

TS: There’s some charming film footage of Elvis going to. Did you accompany him when he did that?

RW: No. I think I was in the Marine Corps then. That had to be in 56/57 when he was doing his first movie. I miss that, I miss those days because that had to be - his cousin Gene was with him - and the first time in Hollywood had to be an experience, I wished I could have seen that, but I’d gone into the Marine Corps.

TS: Did you feel you missed out by not being there?

RW: No, I think things worked out the way they were supposed to for me. Yeah, I missed that initial changeover from Memphis to movies, I missed the first two, and I wish I could’ve been there because I’ve seen pictures, that was really some crazy times for Elvis because he was young and all this thrown at him, and he handled it pretty well, but I heard there were some pretty wild times in those first couple of movies. TS: Going on to Las Vegas because I think there’s the three schools of fans - the fans that like the 50s, the fans that do like the movies, because an awful lot of the music that we play at our events believe it or not are from the movies that generally probably Elvis didn’t like, and possibly didn’t like recording, but the songs to us all here have their own magic. But I guess it’s easier to relate to Elvis in the 70s which of course was a combination of very happy times, with Elvis Presley’s success at getting back into live entertainment.

RW: He was like a brother, he was closer to me than my own brothers, we grew together from high school. There were many, many good times. Like I said, we used to go to Biloxi, go fishing, we had these wild fireworks fights at night, on the golf course, the crazy things we did on the road, we had a certain little game we would play to break the boredom. We’d drive along the countryside, we’d be going over a bridge. We had this little thing where somebody was talking about something they thought was really important, you’d tap them on the head, they were supposed to like change the channel, go to completely something different. You’d say, "I thought the thing we did ...", you’d tap his head, he’d say "Oh, to hell with it ..", take his shoes off and throw them out the window into the river!! Things like that, stupid little things just to break the monotony, but they were fun, they were crazy.

Bill Black was one of the craziest guys I ever met, you know, the bass player. We had some good times on the road in those early days and they far overshadow the bad times,



Anymore stories?

[Merry]

Red's Favourite Story:



TS: Is it true Elvis carried a gun everywhere and have you any stories to tell about that?

RW: We all did. After we’d all been deputised in Denver in Vegas andMemphis. We had security investigations of our past. We were all armed and dangerous.

TS: Of all the pranks that Elvis pulled on members of the Memphis Mafia, what do you consider to be the funniest?

RW: OK. This is one of the things we did to break the boredom in Las Vegasand this was in the book, one of the good times. We had these threats and they had come and gone, so we didn’t have anything to do, we were going to pull something on the Stamps Quartet. Elvis, Sonny and myself got together and said lets pull one on the Stamps, let’s tell them that we’ve had another threat, go through this, this, this... OK, so that’s what we did. First we got the real security guards from the hotel to empty their guns, afterwards we thought what if somebody had really tried something that night. But anyway, down in the dressing room after the show we got the Stamps and said, "Hey fellas, now this is serious, we got another threat tonight so I want you to take the elevator, go up to the 30th floor, get out of the elevator, walk through a hall into the suite".

So, all the way there, Sonny and I are priming these guys, "Man, be on your toes for this sound". Bad. They were nervous wrecks all along the way to the elevator, we went upstairs, we went into the suite and there was a way around to the front of the suite and there was a way around to the back through the dining-room, down into the living-room. I went in with them, closed the door, Sonny fell back and went around the other side. As soon as we got in the suite I said, "OK, looks like we’re OK". Then all of a sudden Sonny shouted "Son of a *****", boom ... we put blanks in our pistols. JD Sumner knocked Elvis down and laid on top of him, Donnie Sumner jumped over the bar, hit his knee on the top of the bar and almost broke his legs. He was hiding behind the bar. I went running up these three steps, fired a couple of shots, Sonny fired a shot. I grabbed my stomach and said, "Oh, I’m hit" and I fell down these steps.

All the guards that followed had been shot, all these shots going off, all these guards were "dead". One of the Stamps was underneath the table, he was very religious and he was praying! And the other one, the wild man of the group says "Give me a gun, give me a gun". He went over and actually grabbed one of these dead guard’s guns. "The son of a ***** is empty". By that time, Sonny stuck his arm around Elvis (who was still on the floor with JD Sumner on top of him) and all Donnie Sumner could see from behind this bar was this hand with a gun. He picked up a big tomato juice can and threw it, it missed Sonny’s hand and Sonny turned around and he said "Son of a ….. " and fell about (laughing). That’s the sort of things we did to amuse ourselves.

[EnigmaticSun]

Well Kimmi, looks like they never really got over their period in high school!

[beckelvis]

Good memories. People don't realize the guys would help anyone they thought that needed help. Even Marty with his tough front. They loved their fun as anyone does.

[Merry]

This is also from Jerry Schilling's book "Me and a Guy Named ELVIS" Page 106-107

"Just before Christmas of 1964, Elvis asked me to come with him and Marty for a ride across town. we drove to a small home in a working class neighborhood in Midtown. This was the home of Gary Pepper, one of ELvis's earliest fans, who had becme his first fan-club prsident. When Elvis stepped off the train in Memphis after returning from Germany, the first person to greet him was Gary.

Gary suffered from cerebral palsy, and had a hard time communicating and getting around without a wheelchair. But he was a very bright guy, and for all the special care he required, in some ways he was taking care of his not very well off family. Marty had let Elvis know that Gary needed a new wheelchair, and this trip was mae to deliver the chair as a Christmas present. We knocked on the front door but go no answer. Elvis peeked through a window, and then quickly walked into the home. The scene that greeted us when we stepped in behind Elvis was, to my eyes, nightmarish. Gary was crawling across the floor of the small living room. His father wasn't around, but his mother was, and she seemed to be completely out of it--in a trance like state. Elvis immediately went right for Gary, got his arms around him, and helped get him up and comfortable. Gary was terribly embarrassed to be seen this way, but Elvis talked to him quietly and let him know it was OK--he was there to help him in any way he could. Once we had the new chair inside, ELVIS lifted Gary into it and made sure it was adjusted correctly.

I remember feeling weak. The scene was so awful, and I felt I wouldn't have known how to go about helping this poor disbled young man. But Elvis didn't hesitate to put his hands on him and comfort him.

To him, this was simply a friend who needed his help. ELVIS was a Hollywood star and a rock-and-roll legend, but nothing seemed more important to him right then than lifting Gary Pepper into a new wheelchair."

[May]

Bless ol' JD Sumner!!
The Gary Pepper story Ive heard before, but you can just imagine elvis doing that. Nice to hear.

[Miss Clawdy]

Great stories, thank you for posting them Kim! I love their kind of humour !

[Merry]

Great stories, thank you for posting them Kim! I love their kind of humour !

Thanks, Tina, I'm so glad you are enjoying these.

I found one of my favourites, tickles me!

Here we go:

LAMAR FIKE: One time, Elvis got on this kick where he wanted me to chauffuer. So I got a black suit, and here I went. One day, Elvis and Alan and I were in the black Rolls-Royce. I was driving and it had been raining. It was one of those fifteen-day California rains, where it just rains 'til Hitler comes back, and then the mudslides start. We were at Sunset and Sunset Plaza, on the way to Paramount, stopped at the traffic light. That intersection is a hill. And it had rained so much that those cantilevered houses were just falling. And there on the left, a garage was literally coming down the street in this flood of water.

I looked to my left, and I looked at the light, and I looked back to the left at the garage, and I said: "Gee, I hope it makes the light." And I was serious. Elvis opened the door and just started screaming with laughter. Fell clean out of the car. And sure to God that garage came right in front of the car and went down the hill. I said: "Well, hell, it made it!". The light changed to green, and we drove on off.

These things seemed like everyday occurrences to me. But it was insanity is what it was. We were just so encapsulated in our world. The Memphis Mafia was our thing.

[Merry]

Well Kimmi, looks like they never really got over their period in high school!

Your title?

[SweetCaroline]

This is also from Jerry Schilling's book "Me and a Guy Named ELVIS" Page 106-107

"Just before Christmas of 1964, Elvis asked me to come with him and Marty for a ride across town. we drove to a small home in a working class neighborhood in Midtown. This was the home of Gary Pepper, one of ELvis's earliest fans, who had becme his first fan-club prsident. When Elvis stepped off the train in Memphis after returning from Germany, the first person to greet him was Gary.

Gary suffered from cerebral palsy, and had a hard time communicating and getting around without a wheelchair. But he was a very bright guy, and for all the special care he required, in some ways he was taking care of his not very well off family. Marty had let Elvis know that Gary needed a new wheelchair, and this trip was mae to deliver the chair as a Christmas present. We knocked on the front door but go no answer. Elvis peeked through a window, and then quickly walked into the home. The scene that greeted us when we stepped in behind Elvis was, to my eyes, nightmarish. Gary was crawling across the floor of the small living room. His father wasn't around, but his mother was, and she seemed to be completely out of it--in a trance like state. Elvis immediately went right for Gary, got his arms around him, and helped get him up and comfortable. Gary was terribly embarrassed to be seen this way, but Elvis talked to him quietly and let him know it was OK--he was there to help him in any way he could. Once we had the new chair inside, ELVIS lifted Gary into it and made sure it was adjusted correctly.

I remember feeling weak. The scene was so awful, and I felt I wouldn't have known how to go about helping this poor disbled young man. But Elvis didn't hesitate to put his hands on him and comfort him.

To him, this was simply a friend who needed his help. ELVIS was a Hollywood star and a rock-and-roll legend, but nothing seemed more important to him right then than lifting Gary Pepper into a new wheelchair."

I absolutley so loved that story when I read it and love it reading it again!!!
What a good heart EVIS had.

[Merry]

I absolutley so loved that story when I read it and love it reading it again!!!
What a good heart EVIS had.

Yes, he did, dearest Carole.

It is good to read that the others did, too

for you!