Milham boldly asked Elvis
for his diamond ring instead. Shrugging his shoulders, Elvis took the
ring off and gave it to Milham in a discreet handshake. Elvis said he
had to go and walked back to his limo. Milham did not get front row
seats - however, fifth row was good enough. On
the way home, he stopped at a jewelry store and had the ring appraised
it was worth $ 2,000
Elvis nearly suffered fatal
injuries on the set of Loving You in January of 1957. He had just
finished shooting a scene and had stepped back up onto the set when some
instinct told him to move.
Three seconds later the
entire light structure crashed to the ground. Elvis would have been
crushed had he not moved. The studio wanted no more accidents with their
young, multi-million dollar actor.
During the filming of Kid
Galahad in the winter of 1961, Elvis's friends ordered a custom made
directors chair as a prank gift. The chair had "MR. PRESLEY"
stamped on the back of it; they presented it to the star on the first
day of filming.
Elvis turned to the crew,
the director, and the producer and asked, "Mr. Presley? Why so
formal?" Director Phil Karlson said, "Only the best for our
star!" Elvis hated the formality of it. He wanted to be treated
like one of the boys, and the chair destroyed that illusion.
The next day a new chair
replaced the formal one. The bright red canvas sported bold print that
read "JUST PLAIN OL' ELVIS." Elvis laughed out loud and
plopped into the chair.
In the early 1960's, Elvis
bought a talking myna bird which was placed in a large cage in the
kitchen at Graceland. The bird liked to talk whenever someone was on the
phone, and he memorized parts of people's conversations and mimicked
them over and over.
One day Elvis and a few of
his friends were in the kitchen eating lunch. Elvis was halfway into his
sandwich when the bird blurted out in his cackling voice, "Elvis
isn't here right now...Elvis is in a meeting...Elvis can't come to the
phone...Elvis is asleep...Sorry, Elvis is busy."
When the bird stopped
suddenly, Elvis broke up laughing. He nearly choked on his food,
sputtering and gasping for air. Elvis laughed so hard he fell off the
chair and lay on the floor, clutching his stomach.
He thought it was
hysterical that the bird not only remembered the excuses given to fans
and business people who phoned, but that he knew which ones to put
together and ranted then in succession with such feeling. Elvis never
forgot the incident and it became one of his favorite stories
Elvis was cruising around
Memphis with his friend Eddie Fadal one day in the early 1960's when he
remembered he had to make a very important call. He checked his pockets
for a dime, but couldn't find one. Fadel didn't have any change
either.
A man was walking by just
then and saw the two men searching there pockets. He produced a dime and
gave it to Elvis. While Elvis made the phone
call, he asked Fadel to follow the stranger and get his name and address
so that he could send him a little thank-you note.
Three weeks later, the kind
stranger received a letter of thanks. Elvis wrote that he wanted to
repay him for his good deed, and so the mortgage on his house was now
paid in full! The man was utterly speechless.
When he told his family and
friends the story, no one would believe him. In order to prove he was
telling the truth, he showed Elvis's letter along with the deed to his
house, silencing the non believers immediately.
When Lisa Marie was three
years old she learned the words to Elvis's newest songs, "Sweet
Caroline" and sang it for her father. Elvis told her that he wanted
to record her on tape; Lisa sang full blast and even mimicked some of
her fathers stage moves.
Elvis loved her little
voice and thought she would be a great singer one day... Lisa Marie
learned the words to Elvis's songs by playing his records on her on her
own portable record player. When she had the song down pat. She'd
run into her father's room, take him by the hand, and say, "Daddy,
sit down. I want to sing you our latest song!" She'd sing as loud
as she could, making Elvis laugh and cry at the same time. He loved the
fact that his daughter liked his songs enough to learn them.
