Elvis & The Memphis Mafia (FULL MOVIE)

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[soft guitar music playing] [narrator] Elvis Presley had a select group of friends he entrusted with his life. He didn't like to be around new people. He didn't trust'em. He trusted us. We were a source of comfort. It's not like we... Were these straight guys with this one freak over here. Uh, it wasn't that way. We were all in the boat together in various levels. [Esposito] We were like a bunch of mob guys, you know? We'd get in the limousine, and take off, and get out of the car, it was exciting. And I remember we were in Vegas goofing off one time, and... I think there was a reporter there or somebody just wrote an article about Elvis in town and all those boys and he called us "The Memphis Mafia." [narrator] Through never seen before interviews, this documentary will explore Elvis' life through the eyes of the Memphis Mafia. From the highs... to the lows. One Saturday night, just for the hell of it, I was bored. So I went in the house and I counted... All the women that were in the house with us seven guys. And this is not an exaggeration, there was a 152 women there. There were times... Where it got... bad enough... That just as a human being... And a friend, that you did have to get involved. Door opened up, Colonel Parker walks up to me and stands-- and I get up. We stand toe-to-toe, and he stares coldly into my eyes, he says... "Now you listen to me. The only thing that's important... Is that that man is on stage tonight. Nothing else matters. Nothing." [narrator] Elvis Presley is one of the most enduring icons of the twentieth century, and one of the most important pioneers of rock and roll music. From his seminal best selling albums to his star turn in classic Hollywood movies, Elvis' ever-changing career spanned decades as he topped the charts all over the world. And through his soaring highs of the best-selling solo artist of all time, to his struggles with narcotics, the people who knew him best were the Memphis Mafia, a select group of friends and employees he shared his life with. He was the most generous, the most beautiful, inside and out, human being you ever wanna meet. It was hard to believe that this was such a superstar. He was such a natural, good person. Attentive, caring, a warm guy. And anyone that came in contact with Elvis was drawn in by him. There's not a day that goes by I don't think about him. I wanted to be like him. He was lovable, he was dangerous... Everything a young kid would admire. [Larry Geller] The world has... an image of the king. And rightly so. But behind the image, behind the lights, and the makeup, and the music, there was a real human being, a real person, that had feelings. Well, the image is one thing, and a human being is another, you know. So... Before Elvis became the most controversial figure in show business, everything in popular music seemed squeaky clean and well produced. But he shook up the popular culture and paved the way for many generations of superstars to come. Born in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, his twin died at birth. So he became the only child of Gladys Love and Vernon Presley. A solitary child, his classmates often described him as a loner. His life changed on his 11th birthday when he was disappointed not to receive a bike or a rifle, but instead an acoustic guitar, sparking his love of music. At 13 years old, Elvis and his family moved to a prominently African-American neighborhood in Memphis. As a result of the depth of his musical influences, in many ways Memphis was the perfect place to start his incredible and unrivaled career in the music industry. Along the way, picking up his closest friends, the Memphis Mafia. Elvis was a bit of a loner back then. He had... Maybe three or four friends that lived in the same housing project he did. Uh, and primarily was shy, did not really come out of his shell... Until a couple of talent shows and the girls started... Screaming. I mean, he always liked... Girls. I mean... I think he had more... Girl friends than he had guy friends. [narrator] This is Marty Lacker, one of the original members of the Memphis Mafia, who worked for Elvis as a foreman for 16 years, and was the best man at his wedding. The way I met Elvis was in the last year of high school, at Humes High school, in 1953. When I moved from New York, to Memphis, I still wore the same type of clothes we wore in New York. Back then it was loud color pants and shirts and... Saddle stitches on the side, and... What was known as pistol pockets on the back. And you wore your shirt with your collar up and... Had a pompadour in your hair. And the guys in Memphis my age... Basically wore Levis, a T-shirt and had a crew-cut, except one guy, and that was Elvis. And he basically dressed the same way we dressed in New York. And the kids in school used to kid us. You know, asking, "Well, who's gonna outdress who tomorrow?" [narrator] Elvis' school years weren't easy, as he always stood out. But this would become a benefit in later life. On July 7th, 1954, a local radio DJ played a recording of Elvis' "That's all right", a cover of an earlier song by blues singer Arthur Crudup. [Lacker] I remember it... Explicitly. I was driving down... Vollintine avenue here in Memphis with a friend of mine, who also went to Humes, and we were listening to Dewey Philips. It was all the kids did back then. And Dewey started going off about "Well, I got this brand new record by this... Boy who's from Humes high school and both my friend and I looked at each other, we were trying to figure out who it was and... Played the record and... We thought it was really good and at the end he said, "Elvis Presley" and it... It just, you know, it really shocked us. And he played it like seven or eight times in a row. And he said the response on the telephone was just phenomenal. [narrator] The local response was overwhelming and Elvis became an overnight sensation due to his unique style. Elvis recorded "That's all right" and several other songs at Sun records, an independent record label in Memphis where he met Lamar Fike. Sam Phillips had started the label. And the studio was put together on a shoestring. When I was over there that night I think Scotty and Bill had just left. And Elvis was getting ready to leave and I walked in and Sam introduced me to him. And we sat and talked for a few minutes. And Elvis said to me, he said, "are you coming back?" I said, "Yeah. I guess so. Why?" He said, "Come on back over." He said, "I'll be over here again tomorrow night." And so I went over again the next night. And... Uh, one thing led to the other. It was just a case where I liked him he liked me, and we... Uh, we would touch base. And... see, 'cause I graduated in '54. So, he graduated in '53 so he had a year on me. But we would touch base in '55 and '56 and we'd get together. When he moved over to Audobon drive, I went over there. I went over there a lot. And... So, I mean, we were in and out of each other's lives for about two years before I went with him. [narrator] Soon after meeting Lamar he met Jerry Schilling, another key member of the Memphis Mafia. I met Elvis in 1954 growing up in North Memphis. Uh... I went to the local park one day. It was called Dave Wells community center. Guthrie park. It was a little school called Guthrie. And sometimes people would play basketball, football or whatever. It was the only kind of park to go to. I went there this Sunday and there were five older boys trying to get up a sixth player to play football. And one of the older guys was... A friend of my older brother's, Red west. And... And he said, "Jerry, do you wanna play with us?" 'cause I played grade school football and Red knew I did, and I said, "Sure." Little kids always liked to play with the older guys. And... We went in the huddle, and I saw this guy, and this was the week that Dewey Phillips had played " That's alright mama" the very first time. I had been listening to Dewey Phillips for two years, ever since I was ten years old. And I looked and I knew who it was. It was Elvis Presley. [narrator] Elvis' career was flourishing. So naturally he sought after a new manager who could deal with his rise to fame. Colonel Thomas Parker, a controversial figure in Elvis' life. He then signed with RCA, which helped him become a national star, and brought his distinctive style of Rock and roll to the masses. Riding off the back of becoming a household name Elvis decided to take his talents to the movie industry, starring in films such as Love me tender, Loving you, and King Creole, which catapulted him into being one of the biggest stars in the world. As well as taking over people's radios and TV screens, in March 1957, Elvis returned to Memphis to purchase his iconic home, former church, renovated into a 23 room mansion, Graceland. A place where he and the Memphis Mafia could spend the majority of their time off, and Elvis' home for 20 years. However, in December 1957, Elvis received his draft notice to join the army. This came a shock to both him and his fans, who were devastated he would be taking time away from the music and film industries, as it was often hard for artists to regain the star power they once had after time in the army. Nevertheless, in a day known to his fans as Black Monday, Elvis reported for duty in March 1958. [TV presenter] Elvis Presley no longer has that rock'n roll beat. The tempo is "Hup, two, three, four" for Private Presley. He's in Camp Chaffee, Arkansas, beginning his two year army hitch courtesy of the Memphis draft order. Like any ex-civilian raw recruit the king of rock and roll will be keeping time to non hip bugle calls. Involuntarily retired the gyrating guitarists' departure from the public eye left his blue jeans fans all shook up so we hear. But Elvis doesn't seem to mind at all. [Joe Esposito] I got drafted into the army same time Elvis did. I went to Fort Hood, Texas. Elvis came to Fort Hood, Texas for basic training. I didn't meet him there. I saw him a couple times on base but that was it. Then I went to Friedberg, Germany. And I was there for about 30 days. Then we heard the rumor that Elvis was coming to our base. So, one night I was working late in the office with my friend George. You didn't meet George, my partner. I was a finance clerk for the army. I lucked out. And... We see all these people starting to gather up around outside the gates of the camp. And I ask George, "What's going on?" He says, "Well, haven't you heard, Elvis is coming to our base tonight." And all of a sudden, at about 8 o'clock at night, buses coming in with all these troops and kids were screaming, yelling that Elvis was on the bus somewhere. It was a little tougher for him to be in the army because everybody was watching him. And they were keeping an eye on him, to make sure he did a good job, or make sure he didn't goof off. So, it was tougher for him than a lot of the other GIs. Elvis, uh... Since you've been in the army, have the boys given you kind of a rough time in the barracks because of your past career, would you say? No, sir. I was very surprised. I've never met a... A... better group of boys in my life. They... They probably would have... If it had been like everybody thought. I mean, everybody thought I wouldn't... I wouldn't have to work. And I would be given special treatment and this and that. And they looked around and saw I was on KP and I was pulling guard and everything just like they were. And they figured, "Well... He's just like us." [narrator] It was in the army that Elvis met Joe Esposito, another key member of the Memphis Mafia. [Esposito] While I was in Germany, this one gentleman, his name was Wes Daniels, he was a photographer for the army. He was in the army too, and he was assigned to take picture of Elvis, for promotional-- for PR for the army. Elvis and a bunch of his army buddies used to play football on the weekends near his house. And Wes Daniels asked me one day, he said, "We need some more players. Would you like to go play football and meet Elvis? I said, "I'd be-- I would love to." And that's how it all started. I went to his house in Bad Nauheim and I was introduced to him at that time. [narrator] During his time in Germany, Elvis was introduced to Priscilla Beaulieu, the 14 year old daughter of an army officer. First time he met Priscilla happened to be at the house that evening when... she was introduced to him. And when she walked through the door, I mean... Very pretty young lady. But I didn't know how old she was at the time, and... I figured she was about 16. But at the time she was 14, I find out later. But she was very mature, very quiet at first, 'cause now she'd walked in the room with all these guys in there. And then Elvis, you know, I mean... That's a pretty tough situation to be in. Then the fair started. It just scared me to the point where I couldn't even breathe. It was just... You know, she had just turned 14. And... Kinda... uneasy, you know. I just... I thought... I told him one night. I said, "I think we're all gonna die." And he said, "What do you mean?" I said, I said, "If they catch you with this girl," I said, "it's over with." And it didn't bother him. But we kept him so secure that he was able to do what he did, but... It was a little... it was stretching and it was very nerve wracking. And I took her home to make sure that... You know, she came home with me, and... Not with him, and stuff like that. The diversions were quite unique. It was the case where one of us would be with her as opposed to him. You had to do that, you know. It was so scary. You know, it was... I had dreams of Jerry Lee Lewis and all the stuff that was going on with him, and... I said, "You don't need this problem, you know?" But it didn't make any difference to him. [Fike] I think that it was a form of manipulation. I think you could do... More with a younger girl that you could with a woman who had some sort of sophistication. He didn't like anybody his own age. Some woman who was really wise or... Had some sort of intelligence about her, he didn't like her. It bothered him that he didn't... Wouldn't fool with her. [narrator] Elvis left the army in 1960. His train was mobbed by screaming fans practically the entire way. [TV presenter] At Fort Dix, New Jersey, Sergeant Elvis Presley is mustered out after two years of army service. The rock and roll idol of millions is back on the scene. [man] Uh, any romances, did you leave any hearts shall we say, in Germany? [laughing] Not any special ones. Uh... There was a little girl that I was-- I was seeing quite often over there that... Her father was in the air force. And she was at the airport when I left. And... there were some pictures made of her. [chuckles] But it was no big-- it was no big romance. I mean... The stories came out, "The girl he left behind." And all that. It wasn't like that. I mean... [narrator] Elvis' time in the army deeply affected the rest of his life. While he was away, Colonel Parker continued to release previously recorded tracks as singles. It was during this time that the most important person in his life, his mother, passed away. He was never the same again. With his fans excited to see what he would do next, Colonel Parker had arranged for a bigger push into Hollywood. I understand that you want to become a dramatic actor, is that right? Well, sir, that's... That's my big ambition now. It takes a lot of time, a lot of experience but... I... I hope I make it. And that's what I wanna do. [narrator] It was by this time Elvis had put together his insular team of friends and employees that he trusted, known as the Memphis Mafia, who came with him to Hollywood. [Lacker] He had come out of the army. When he came out, he was a bit changed. He was more polished. Now he was dressing in... Cummerbunds and... Tuxedo jackets and... Ascots. And... his outlook was a little different on life, and the way he... handled it. And I think, part of that... That change also was because his mother was gone. [Schilling] He had time to think in the army and he came out... And Colonel had made it possible in Elvis' mind that he had a career when he came back from the army. Normally... An entertainer went into the army, the career was over. Colonel kept movies being released, songs out, and he had these long term contracts which... Looked really good in the beginning. [Sonny West] The movies years were the best years that I spent with him. They were not only the first years that I spent with him, but they just far outweigh the touring. In those days we were never bored. Something always exciting, something new everyday, it was always different. It was never the 9-5 situation. We were on the movie sets, we used to have fun. Elvis was very easy to work with on the set. And he was very nice to all the crew people. They loved him a lot because he was very cooperative and everybody was "Yes, sir. No, sir." And it was fun. But movies sets are boring though, too. You know, you sit around... You know, you shoot one scene, you sit for another hour and a half Wait until the next scene sets up, so... We played cards, a lot of the guys. Elvis would talk to the co-stars, he'd be in the bedroom talking-- excuse me. The dressing room, talking to the co-stars. And we'd play poker between takes and talk to the extras and hang out. It was one big party. You know, it wouldn't have bothered me if he had never toured again. I mean, if he had just kept-- But he wanted to make other movies. And he should have. He should have had more drama because you see King Creole, and Jailhouse Rock, you know he can carry a drama. He can carry a role of heavy drama. [Fike] It was a nervous time. I mean, you know, you grow up and... You think that Cary Grant's head is probably... Six feet high and three feet wide or something, you know, and... When you see him, he's much more normal and then you... But you're around all these stars you've grown up with, it's hard to be... You can be as normal as you can. But, and that was of course, you know, you think of the set from Jailhouse rock. You know, everybody... The... The studio system was still going but it was in its last throes. It was all new to us, so it was exciting times. Every day was an excitement. You got up, you felt great going to the movie set, and... You know, like I said, we had different celebrities come visit all of us on the set. You know, Warren Beatty, Gene Simmons, they all wanted to come and say hello to Elvis 'cause he got back out of the service, and... I was very impressed. When Elvis would get... a script, he'd say, "Here we go again, man, only this time I'm gonna be in Acapulco. I'm gonna be here, I'm gonna be up in Seattle or something." He really enjoyed Las Vegas. Viva Las Vegas 'cause of Ann Margret. He enjoyed that. [Esposito] 1963, Elvis was getting ready to do "Viva Las Vegas." And Elvis' co-star was Ann Margret. And at that time, Ann Margret was considered like the female Elvis Presley. We had never met her before, and didn't know what to expect. And she came on... The studio one time to meet Elvis, and meet everybody and... She was great. I mean, you could just tell, her personality just fit in with us easy. Everybody. She was so nice to everybody, had a great smile, very upbeat all the time. And her and Elvis just clicked. The chemistry was there between the two of them. And... That movie was probably one of the best experiences of making movies as far as having a good time... Out of all the movies. [narrator] Colonel Parker signed Elvis up for as many films as he could, often formulaic musical comedies. And despite awkward receptions they were almost all successes. And we would talk about it and he said, "I wanna do some real good." Real good scripts." And he said, "I don't know, I've got these contracts." And we would say to Elvis, "You know, so many stars have script approval." "Can't you get that in your contract?" He said, "Yeah, I probably could. But I've just got these long term contracts. When they're up." And that's what he said he was gonna do. "When they're up and I've finished my contract obligations then it's gonna change." [indistinct clamoring] Get the police. Quickly. Elvis... Was getting older, understanding the business... Outgrowing the Colonel, he started questioning these things. [narrator] After several more years of success in both the film and music industries Elvis decided to marry Priscilla in a small ceremony on the first of May, 1967, at the Aladdin hotel in Las Vegas. The wedding was arranged by Parker to maximize publicity and featured very few guests. So it was over in only eight minutes. It was followed by a press conference and a ten thousand dollar breakfast reception. The wedding caused arguments between Elvis and several of the Memphis mafia. who were not invited to the ceremony. Some of them even claimed he didn't want to marry her but was forced to by Priscilla or she would tell people about the fact they dated when she was underage. Elvis and Priscilla went on to have a baby girl, Lisa Marie, one year later. Priscilla had just turned 16, or somewhere 'cause she still had to go to school. And that I think is where Elvis made the deal. You know, that if he'd bring her over here that he would probably... His plans were to marry her and so... That really is probably where it all came about that he had to, 'cause he didn't want to marry her. It... He just didn't want to be married. He wasn't ready for it. [narrator] But Elvis had become unsatisfied with his career. And his life was becoming more hedonistic as he enjoyed the Hollywood lifestyle, drugs, and affairs. [West] In the movie years, the drugs were in control. The sleeping pills and the... The uppers... For the energy level, those were just taken. In fact, some of us that took them... I couldn't take 'em everyday. Not to be the goodie-goodie but I just couldn't take that pill-- what it was gonna do to me. Make my mouth dry, It was just gonna make me wired all day. And I just didn't wanna do it. But I had to take 'em sometimes 'cause... He would stay up till 3 o'clock in the morning, 2:30, 3 o'clock, and we'd get up at 5 to go on location, and I learned at the very start I sleep when he sleeps. [Esposito] Elvis, one weekend, he kept saying, "We gotta go do something this weekend." He said, "Let's go to Vegas." Well, I had never been to Vegas and a lot of the other guys had never been to Vegas so he said, "Okay, let's go." And we just did this for a week, ten days. Elvis said, "Okay, we gotta get out of here. We gotta go back to L.A." And we get in the car, start driving, I said, "Elvis, why do we have to go back now?" He said, "I don't know. I just thought we've been here too long." I said, "Ah, let's go back!" We turn around and go right back. We stayed two or three weeks at a time. And just party. And one time I forget, we were going so hard, that Elvis started getting a bloody nose. And we went to the doctor. The doctor said, "You guys need to get some rest." His resistance was getting down. He kept getting a bloody nose so we had to rest for a couple days. But we did party quite a bit. You know, we were making three movies a year there. And you know, a movie, you have to get up early, you have to be at makeup at like 5:30, 6 o'clock. And... But, we were young. Okay? And we liked to have parties late at night. A lot of the dancers from the movies, the extras, the pretty girls, they all come up to the house, and... Just sit around, talk, listen to music... And we'd go out to the swimming pool and stuff, we didn't go to bed till 2 o'clock in the evening. And it was tiring after a while and... So we'd take a little speed to stay up the next day and... A lot of time we couldn't go to sleep 'cause we were high and we had to take a sleeping pill to go to sleep. And we lived that way for a long time. It was just sort of... Like having ham and eggs or something. You just did it. And there wasn't big deal about it. I mean, nobody knew anything 'cause like I told you, it all goes back to that original thing. Nobody knew anything. You just did it. You know, it was a magic potion, so to speak. It really was. It kept us... going. [West] But see, here's, in his mind, were not illegal drugs. These were prescription drugs, now. The doctor's writing them for him. He's abusing 'em. But they're not illegal drugs in his mind. But he wants to stop the people out on the street getting heroin and cocaine to young people and trying to influence 'em to get on to drugs and things of that nature. So that's what it was in his mind. As intelligent as Elvis was in so many ways he was naive in thinking that there were separate issues there 'cause there really wasn't. It was called a recreation drug. But I mean, how much recreation can you do? We used to have a thing infact on Paramount on GI Blues. They had a club scene in there and... He'd kept us up late and I just couldn't stay awake and I hadn't taken anything, so... I went over to a dead set and got into a booth there in the nightclub set, they were shooting on another one, and laid down on the booth to get some sleep. And one of the crew guys up on the catwalk... Just pointed me out to Elvis, I found out later. He pointed me out. He said... Like that. And Elvis came around when he got through with his business... He came around and looked for me. And he saw me through there, 'cause there's a couple tables stacked up. I had kinda put a little camouflage so I couldn't be seen easy. Oh man. Boom! He threw that table and chair I woke up, straight up. And he said, "Damn you, Sonny! I told you, you sleep when I sleep." You know, Elvis... Was a pretty even tempered guy. But when he didn't... Something flared up and got mad, he had a bad temper. I mean, that was the difference...So it was... There was no in-betweens. It was really... nice guy in the world. Sometimes he would snap and just have a real bad temper. And he'd scare the hell out of you sometimes. There was one instance I remember during the movie Wild in the country. Christina Crawford, Joan Crawford's daughter, was one of the co-stars in the movie. Well, we became friends. And I invite her up the house one evening, to... hang out, you know? Elvis knew who she was. So, we're sitting there, watching a little TV, and sitting on the couch and... This big couch at the house on Perugia way, and... Elvis would smoke cigars once in a while. So he picked up a cigar to smoke, I take the cigar, and I... I reached over and lit his cigar for him. And she pulled my hand away from him. I went to do it again and she pulled the cigar out of Elvis' mouth. She was like, "You shouldn't have to light his cigar." And I say, "Don't do that." So Elvis really got mad. He got up, and he grabbed her by the hair and he pulled her across the coffee table, which scared the hell out of me and everybody else there. They were really in shock. And he said, "Get her out of here." "Take her home." [Fike] Well, women are always the greatest distraction in the world for rock and roll. And it's a pleasant distraction. I say that in... In all candor because... It's what makes it go. [West] We had a lot of girls on the sets that we worked. Elvis liked 'em 'cause they inspired him doing his numbers in the movie. He had several of them. A nucleus type thing that he wanted, and he wanted them where he was gonna be working, sitting at tables so he could see 'em, 'cause they really liked him, and he liked them. And they inspired him with their laughing and their cutting up with him. [Fike] It's moths to a flame. I think it goes back to that same premise. They're attracted to somebody like him, and... You know, I think-- two things, if you'e got wealth and looks they're really gonna come. And they're gonna come fast and hard. Just for the hell of it, one Saturday night, at a time when there was only seven of us including Elvis, see, on Friday night and Saturday night Elvis used to let all the girls in that hung around the gates. And one Saturday night, just for the hell of it, I was bored. So I went around the house and I counted... All the women that were in the house with us seven guys. And this is not an exaggeration. There was a hundred and fifty-two women there. [Fike] What you have to do is on a continual basis, weed 'em out, because you gotta weed the squirrels out from the lambs. And the squirrels cause you more trouble than a lamb will ever cause. Not because they eat a lot of nuts but it's because... [chuckles] They... you know, they're crazy. And this is the problem. So... You have to sort of check 'em out. [West] We had friendships with them. There wasn't really anything that was happening. A lot of them were married. You know... Just working as extras, but they just enjoyed being around Elvis and us guys just to talk. And then there were some that we had affairs with. But... The... The thing with Elvis is he had his own thing going with his co-stars, you know. And in Vegas, the same thing. He had... ladies there... Also... that he would bring in. He'd take 'em on tour. He'd meet 'em in Vegas. Lake Tahoe, he spotted one there. She was very pretty. We were walking off the stage after he finished his number. "Sonny, do you see that girl?" I said, "I got it covered, boss." I knew exactly which one he was talking about. So, I went back out there. Her name was Paige, And I ask her, I said, "Paige, And at the time, I introduced myself, she told me her name. I said, "Paige, would you like to meet Elvis?" She looked at me and she said, "How would I meet him?" I said, "Well, I work for him." And I said, "He asked me if you'd like to come backstage and say hi to him." And she said, "Yeah." So I took her back there. And she was just sweet and wonderful as she could be and Elvis just flipped over. He really liked her. Elvis was just... He just loved women. You know, he... It wasn't a case of... He just didn't need to think about it. It was just like having a cup of coffee in the morning. [narrator] This passion for excess was giving Elvis and the Memphis mafia a reputation. But it was at this point a new controversial figure entered Elvis' life, Larry Geller, who soon joined the group. A Hollywood hairdresser, Larry was a different fit from the others. I mean, I thought I was different. [chuckles] Larry was a strange bird for our group, you know? That probably took a lot of pressure off of me with Larry coming in. I looked like one of the boys. I was cutting and styling the singer Johnny Rivers. He was in my chair. And my phone rang. And I answered it and it was one of Elvis' aides a fella by the name of Allan Fortis. And Allan said to me, "Larry, Elvis heard about your work, and he would like you to come up to his house to do his hair. I said, "Great." Now, at that time, I was... My clientele was some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. And every day I was mingling with them. And some of them were my friends and it became almost second nature, but the idea... Of meeting Elvis, the king, the legend... Blew my mind. I was very excited. So I drove up to his home in Bel Air in Perugia way, and outside of his house, there were... At least a hundred people. So, I drove into the car compound, walked into the house, and Elvis got up and walked up to me and he said to me, "Come on, man, let's go into my bathroom. You can do my hair and we can talk." I said, "Okay." We walk into his bathroom, and I expected to see a luxurious, salon-type chair. Nothing of the kind. Elvis walked over to the basin, he says, "Come on, man, let's just... Just wash my hair right here." So he put his head down into the basin. I started to shampoo his hair, and I'm rinsing the hair... His hair and the shampoo out, and all of a sudden he reared his head up and started shaking. The water's splattering everywhere, on me, on him, and he's drenched. And he looked at me, he smiled and he said, "Hey man, what the hell? At least it's clean." And I remember thinking... This guy is very down to earth. And I proceeded to style his hair. And not a word was said for about 45 minutes. And I can see Elvis' eyes in the mirror just following every move I made. And I said, "So, what do you think, Elvis?" He said, "Great, great, great." And he swirled around in his chair, he looked at me and said, "I wanna ask you a question. My hair is great but what's more important to me is this. What are you really into, Larry? What are you really all about?" He really threw me for a loss for a moment. I mean, here's a person who's totally straight forward. And I said, "Elvis, you know that I work with celebrities. And I do their hair. This is what I do for a living. But what's more important to me than anything else... Is my search for truth, to find a purpose for living." I said, "Look, I know you're Elvis Presley. You're the biggest star in the world. I know this may sound corny to you." He said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, Larry, wait. That's not corny at all. You have no idea... How I need to hear what you have to say about this. Please man, just keep on talking." And I did. I told him about my earlier life. And how I began my search. I told him about the books I've read, about my interests in all various, great world religions. My interest in Yoga. My interest in health foods and being healthy. This led us into a conversation that went on for the next three hours. And at that point, Elvis said to me, "You know, Larry, what you have to say, what you're talking about... This is what I secretly think about. I had no one to really talk to about these things. But think about them, especially at night, when I'm going to bed, there's got to be a reason, a purpose, why I was plucked out of all the millions and millions of lives to be Elvis. There's no coincidences. There's got to be a reason." He said, "Man, I was brought up in the church... And in the deep south. And they used to preach fire and brimstone. He said, "Hey, don't get me wrong now. I always knew there was a truth to my religion. There was something there. I just didn't care for the fear they would instill in people. But I always felt there was a god. My mom taught me that. And there's a reason for everything that happens in life. And so we got into a deeper conversation about his life, and about growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi, and about his twin brother, who was stillborn. He said, "Larry, man, I'm the one who survived. There's got to be a reason why I survived. and my brother Jesse Garon didn't. I used to ask my mom and my dad about it. And I know there's a reason. There's a reason for it. That first night with Elvis changed both of our lives. At the end of the three hours, I said, "Elvis, I have to get back to my shop. He said, "Well, why don't you go back there, and why don't you tell them that you quit? What do you think? You work for me full time. Because you can bring me books. We can talk about these things." And I didn't have to think much longer about it. I said, "Yes." And I met the guys that worked for Elvis and I liked them. They were different from me. I mean, I came from another universe, another planet. I came from another culture. But there was a big difference. And I was the only person from Southern California. Everyone else came from Memphis except for one other fella, Joe Esposito, who is from Chicago. So there was a big difference culturally between Larry Geller and the Memphis mafia. And here I am being blended and brought into this Elvis family. When Larry Geller came onboard to be Elvis' barber, you know, Larry was very nice at first. We didn't know too much about him. I mean, he was a... A Los Angeles guy. He was a hair dresser. He was introduced to us by Elvis' barber before him. And he was very pleasant and nice. But then we didn't know or realize that Larry was very much into different kinds of religions, different ideas about life, and philosophies of life. Elvis and Larry talked a lot, together. Hours and hours on end. It was not something I was interested in. I was not interested in... All these different philosophies of life and... Why we're here and all that stuff. I didn't care. I was just having a good time. But they spent a lot of time talking about that. And Elvis really got into it. And Elvis started reading books about... Different religions. He got into all religions. He just wanted to know about all different kinds of aspects of life. He was always searching for something. We didn't know what it was but as life went on we realized that he wanted to know why he was here. Why was he picked to be this person? Everybody loves him. Why did he get all this talent? So they talked about that for many, many nights on end and days and days on end. My take on Larry Geller, basically at first he seemed like a nice guy. Larry was very quiet spoken. But then he started introducing his far eastern... What I call California cult crap. And he started talking to Elvis about it. And Elvis... Because there always was a tinge of boredom... As far as Elvis was concerned. And Elvis was... You know, was interested 'cause it gave him something new. And... as the years went by, I, you know, Iike started calling Larry "The Swami." Because I... First of all, I don't trust people like that. I think they're full of [bleep] I think they have an ulterior motive, which Larry started coming out a little bit. On a bus trip out to California. He started talking to Elvis about becoming a religious messenger. And I tell Larry, I said, "That's not... What Elvis is." I said, "Elvis' message is in his music." [narrator] Although Larry brought a spirituality to Elvis, it didn't save him from his downward spiral. A mixture of drugs and constantly being in the public eye was making Elvis paranoid. He even carried a gun in his boots on stage as he was scared of an assassination attempt. When the death threats first started happening, they just kinda snowballed. We tried to keep 'em quiet, because we don't want the copycats, okay? So we kept these things quiet and it worked. We had bomb threats. Most people will say, "We had a bomb threat at the show" and all of a sudden... we kept it quiet because we didn't wanna have a bomb threat at every venue we played because we had one at the last one. So someone's gonna call in another one at the next one. We used to joke because... He used to have a gun here, and a gun here, and a gun here, and a gun in his boot, and a gun in his back, and he'd just go out to go to the movies. [chuckles] Uh, plus... Some of us had guns. He made sure that... You know, we were all armed because he didn't wanna take any chances. [Fike] When I called him from LA when we were going to that last tour. I said, "You just need to shut it down." I said, "[bleep] the tour." I said, "Cut it off." I said, "Let's just... Cancel this tour out." And he said, "Lamar, I've got a payroll." which, you know, when you say that, you go, "Well, he's right." But at the same time, I told him, I said, "Listen," I said, "You've got two or three guys around here... That will go to Hawaii with you." And I said, "We'll hang out, and just, you know, and you can just get yourself back together again." He said, "Let's talk about that after this tour's over. It sounds like a good idea." He didn't make it. [narrator] His fans were getting tired of his recent work, with his films failing to do well at the box office, and his albums receiving poor sales and critical responses. So, Colonel Parker arranged some comeback shows in Las Vegas which helped bring him into the spotlight once again. It turned out these were actually all just to cover Parker's gambling debts. Getting more isolated, he relied closely on those he trusted in the Memphis mafia. One night, I walked down to the casino. I'd just left Elvis. This was after his show. And I noticed there was a large group of people roped off... And they were all in front of a table watching someone gamble. And as I walked up, it was Colonel Parker, by himself at the table with stacks of chips. And he was playing the sucker's game of all games, it was called "The Wheel of Fortune." And the odds of winning that game are the worst. It's better if you play craps or blackjack. At any rate, he's got the table and he spots me in the crowd. "Larry," he said. "Come on, come here. "Sit next to me." He said, "I'm not doing too well, I need some luck. Give me some good thoughts, Larry." [chuckles] I said, "Okay, Colonel." And then I felt so uncomfortable. I really did. After about five, ten minutes, I said, "Colonel, maybe you'll do better now. I hope you will, but I have to get back upstairs. 'Cause Elvis needs me. I told him I was just gonna walk down for a few minutes." So I left. There Colonel was there for hours upon hours upon hours until like 5 o'clock in the morning. And he lost... One and a half million dollars that night. When Elvis found out about it, [stammers] he couldn't believe it. He said, "A million and a half dollars?" That's obscene! Most people don't earn that kind of money working their whole life. And he goes and squanders money like that? He said, "Oh, yeah. He can do it 'cause he's got me. I'm his ransom. What's gonna happen is he's gonna have to turn around make a damn deal with me, coming back to Vegas," which-- I don't like Vegas. "This is Sin city, man. I don't like it here. I'm never gonna come back here again." I think Elvis has given up on some of his dreams. When I saw the CBS special, I was shocked and I was pissed. I called and then I went and met with him. "How could you let him be on camera like that?" And he said, "Well... You're a manager, 'cause I managed the Beach boys at this time. "You're a manager, you have to give the artist offers. I said, "How could you?" He said, "I put an offer out there that was ridiculous. And CBS came back with it, and I took it to Elvis and he wanted to do it." Elvis had a tremendous... Draw to him, emotionally, and physically, when you looked at him and you thought, "that is probably about the best looking man I've ever seen, you know?" And... He just had a charisma about him. He had a way of pulling in... People call it southern charm. He had it in spades. He had it in spades. There really wasn't much that Elvis couldn't get if he really went after it. Whether it was from the southern Charm or just a strong conviction of saying, "I'm gonna do that and that's it." And that's what we always admired about it. But those things slipped away. [Schilling] There were times... Where it got bad enough... That just as a human being... And a friend, that you did have to get involved. And I have... done that. And I know history is, you know, "Why didn't you do this And why didn't you do that?" We did from time to time. I had put my job on the line more than once when Elvis was in trouble. [Geller] Elvis had a lot of physical problems, that were really eating away at him. He had glaucoma. He had hypertension. Do you know that every night after a show his blood pressure would shoot up to 180, 200 every night. That's a tremendous strain on the heart. Elvis had a spastic, twisted colon. I can't tell you the problems that plagued him because of it. I got a call from Elvis, saying "Jerry, can you help me?" And I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "I'm on the floor, I can't get up." And I said, "Who's there?" And he said, "Nobody." So, I... ran down the stairs. I don't know what car I got into or whatever, went to the doctor's house and sure enough, he was on the floor. So we picked him up, put him in bed. This was a proud man... That... And you know, he was even proud around us. And this broke my heart... To see Elvis Presley. And it was a psychological thing. His legs really just weren't working. I was hurt, I was angry. And I waited downstairs for the doctor to come home. I said, "What the hell is going on?" He said, "What are you talking about?" I told him what I'd just gone through. And he said, "You know, this is a liquid diet. And we're not giving him any drugs. We're just giving him placebos. And I... I threatened the doctor. I said, "If I ever see this man, in this shape again... I will go all the way." A couple of hours later, it's me and Elvis... In the bedroom. Nobody there. And I just said, "You know what, Elvis?" And I didn't want to embarrass him, by talk about the night before. But I just said, "You know, we're not having any fun anymore." [West] Some of us... Talked it over one day... About how bad the situation was going with Elvis. And... We... Discussed it with some of the guys that were getting it to him, in a way that "Don't do it anymore or you're gonna be hurt. And we're gonna turn your doctor friends in to the medical association." Well, it dried up for a while. The guys were scared of us. The ones of us that were gonna do something to them physically. Elvis finally said, "What is going on? How come I'm not getting this or that? And find me Ricky, his brother-- step brother... Told him what was going on, that we had threatened him. Elvis called us in on the carpet. He told us we better stay out of his business. It was none of our business. He was in charge. He knew what he was doing. He needed it right now. He was asked, "Well, what happened to the good old days when you didn't need it?" And he said, "There are no more good old days." So he said, "If you don't stop it, you're gonna be looking for other jobs." We didn't stop it. Three or four months later, we were fired by his order through his father. He was told, we know from... Linda Thompson. She was present. Elvis told his dad told give us enough money to live on for two or three months... 'cause he was gonna hire... Hire us back. Not Dave... But the other two of us. And give them enough money to live on. It was not mentioned it was five thousand dollars. He said, "I've just got to show 'em I'm still the boss." Well, instead of his dad doing that, he called us and on the phone, he gave us three days notice and gave us one week's pay. And he said goodbye. [narrator] In the years before Elvis' death, his life was falling apart. His health was quickly deteriorating as a result of his crippling drug addiction. And in 1972, he and Priscilla divorced. Even the Memphis mafia were shocked by his decline, not knowing who to blame, or how he got to this depressing stage of his life. I think there was too much... Pain in Elvis at that point... From going through divorce and wanting to be back with Priscilla, from losing A Star is born, from not being able to tour overseas. His health was giving away. You know, he had a bad colon. And he had, I mean, you... everything you could think of in this guy was physically wrong. And he did not want to admit anything was wrong. He was Elvis Presley. [West] There were times when I looked at him and he looked very lonely. And he'd be in the middle of a bunch of people. And I'd look at him and think... He's not even where he wants to be right there. He's... He's not feeling anything right now. He's... There were times I had to go over to him. I said, "Hey boss, "Hey Sonny." "About ready to go?" "Yeah, yeah, let's go." Get him out of that. He wasn't enjoying it. He wasn't enjoying it. [Fike] I've always said that Elvis was like a artillery shell. They loaded him up, fired him, he fell out of the arc. And I think the horrendous part of it is... Is that we could not... Stop it. I think till the day I die... That that'll be one of my burdens. And you know, we tried and we tried. But we couldn't. He was his own worst enemy. [narrator] On August 16th, 1977, Elvis Presly was found unresponsive on his bathroom floor. Got up the next day, came to the house at about 12 noon, the 16th, and... About 2 o'clock the phone rings, intercom, and one of the maids picks up the phone. And it's Ginger. She says, "Come upstairs. I need help. Elvis fainted." So I ran upstairs. I got into the bathroom. And... Elvis had fell over. He was laying on the floor. I turned him over, And... I knew he was dead. I just knew it. I just... But I was hoping he wasn't. I picked up the phone and called... The operator. They didn't have 911 at that time. And said, "We need an ambulance here at... Elvis Presley's house." I didn't tell them who it was. And meanwhile I couldn't do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation 'cause Elvis' mouth was closed shut. There was no way possible. There were rumors I did that but... Somebody made that story up. I was trying to massage his heart as well as I could, and it just seemed forever. People were all coming up there, and... It was pandemonium. The ambulance finally showed up. And it seemed forever, and I found out later it was like 20 minutes before they got there. We got him in the ambulance. The stretcher came, got him down the ambulance. I jumped in the back of the ambulance, got there and they rushed him into the emergency room. I tell you, it was... Tough. And 30 minutes later, about 30 minutes I would think, the doctor came into the room and he said, "Elvis has left. Elvis is gone." And we all broke down and we all hugged each other. It was... you know, very, you know, very emotional time naturally. [narrator] He was officially pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m. at Baptist Memorial hospital. His death was felt around the world. It's almost like... A soul ruptured, so to speak. Yes, you know, you come to terms with it. But it stays with you. And that moment, those moments of his death, have remained to this very moment and I'm sure they will until I take my last breath. Changed my life entirely. I was driving down and I... radio's on and... And they play an Elvis record. And the disc jockey says, "By the late Elvis Presley." Oh. I just... uh, I mean... I couldn't believe it. You know, my best friend is dead. No matter what you wanna say, that's the biggest loss to me I've ever had. And we can say he had a good career, and we can say this, we can say that, but the guy is dead. Here's a guy that helped everybody else. If you were sick. Not just with money though. He helped you talk things through or whatever else. I don't think he got the reciprocal from his friends. You know? [West] It was like... like a train stopping. I know, for about a year after Elvis died, I couldn't hear. I was almost deaf. It was like, you know, they say that the accident doesn't kill you. It's the stopping that kills you. And the stopping, it stopped. It went to a screeching halt. I think that he had so much to give... And here it is, you know, he hits the floor and died by himself. My wife and I... Got up in the morning, that morning, out in California. We had Arabian horses. And we were going over. I had bought her this Arabian horse. We were breeding her to a famous stallion over there. And she was in season, acting in season for the last... Three or four days. We get there, we go with the... And let me tell you something. This is very important. There was a misty type, overcast rain and it was not forecast the day before. And I said to my wife, I said, "Judie, honey, I thought this was supposed to be a pretty day. A little fog early and burn off. She said, "I know. I don't know." So we left. We get our Mayor who's across the street... We're taking her. I've got a halter on her. As I'm going down there to put her into the barn, for the breeder to come out, he comes running out. He's a friend of mine, a very good friend. And... he comes out, and he said, "Sonny, man! Have you heard?" And I looked at him and I said, "Elvis died." And he said, "Yeah, yeah." I went to my knees. I just cried out loud and went to my knees. Let go of the horse, everything. I lost it. Judy reached down and grabbed me. Harvey took the horse. I started crying, "He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve this." I got up, and he was saying, I hear him apologizing. And Judy's saying, "No, no, Harvey." He said, " I didn't know he was that close--" Actually he said-- never mind, it's okay. I walked over to his fence, over to the ranch fence with those long white planks and I hauled off and I hit one of those and broke it. I said, "I gotta get out of here." So we left. Went home. I started walking around from room to room just crying. Phone's ringing, can't answer it. Judy had to answer it, take all the calls. I couldn't talk to my parents, any of my sisters, or my brother. I could talk to nobody. Tell you what... I miss him... today. [narrator] In his short lifetime, Elvis became an icon that will never die. To this day, he is the best-selling single artist of all time and is hundreds of millions of record sales ahead of artists such as Michael Jackson or Madonna. Over 650,000 fans still visit Graceland each year, to feel closer to Elvis at what is now a national historic landmark of one of the most influential artists of all time. And those that knew him best will never forget the intense highs and lows the experienced whilst being alongside the king of rock and roll, in the Memphis mafia. Just knowing Elvis Presley was an experience of a lifetime. He made us part of history because of him. Like I tell a lot of people, I'm just a little kid off the Chicago streets, man. I don't know what I would have done in my life. Now, I'm part of history because of this man. I don't know if history will ever catch up to how smart this guy was. You know, not a day goes by... That something doesn't happen in my life... Through a phone call, seeing somebody, or some way-- e-mail, that someone doesn't spark something in me, thoughts about Elvis. Elvis was something else. But... His blind spot with his body, and what he put into it. He's responsible ultimately, but at the same time he was a victim. No question about it.

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Channel: FREE MOVIES

Views: 1,024,529

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Keywords: elvis, the memphis mafia, freemovie, elvispresley, presley, graceland, kingofrockandroll, rockandroll, music, fullmovie, Movies, On Demand, fullfilm, movie, stream, documentary, streaming, 1091, 1091pictures, fame, rockabilly, the king, las vegas, Mystery Train, Suspicious Minds, If I Can Dream, In the Ghetto, Jailhouse Rock, Can’t Help Falling in Love, Love Me Tender, Heartbreak Hotel, memphis, Tennessee

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Length: 62min 40sec (3760 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020