Ladies and Gentleman, Elvis has left the building...

In the year 1973 I was all of 9 years old, living in Las Vegas. And not the new extremely expensive playground for the rich it is today. The old Vegas, rat pack, smoke filled, drink in both hands Vegas. Back when there was the Dunes (which is where my mom and dad met) The Sands, The Landmark, The Riviera, back when Fremont street was great. It was during this year that my Dad got his 15 minutes of fame, or rather his 28 days of fame. In 1973 there was a period of time that my dad was out of work. One day while looking through the job ads in the newspaper he came across an ad to be a body guard for Elvis Presley while he did his 28 day engagement at what was at the time the Hilton hotel. My dad being a long time fan of Elvis decided he would go down and apply. He in fact did apply and got an interview. My dad told them that he had been an MP in the Air Force. They hired him.
Now I should back up for a minute or rather speed up I guess. This Elvis story has been in our family for years. Heck I even remember Dad being a body guard at the time, although vaguely. But last night my daughter Sara asked me "Dad is it true that grandpa Rich used to be a body guard for Elvis?" I told her that it was indeed true but at that moment I realized that even though I knew it to be true I knew nothing about it. I didn't know any of the details. Elvis being what he was, I had to ask myself how come I didn't know anything about what was to surely be a fantastic story. So the other day I called my dad to finally find out what the deal was with this Elvis thing. So on with the story.

Elvis came to Vegas a lot back then. Vegas was Elvis's favorite and was a common stop for him. The Hilton, or "The International" as it was known at the time was one, if not the biggest hotel in Vegas at the time. And this time he was going to be at the Hilton from January 26th to February 23rd. I guess there were three shifts of personal body guards supplied to Elvis by the hotel for around the clock protection and this is what Dad did. Elvis as you might imagine occupied the penthouse suite and Dad said that one of his duties was standing at Elvis's door to make sure anyone that wanted in Elvis's room had a pass. I guess Elvis seldom left his room during the day. At the time Elvis was god and he really couldn't go anywhere without creating pandemonium. Dad said the few times he did leave the hotel he would leave early, like 4am early, and be back in a few hours. I guess he would duck out for a movie from time to time. When he did, he would rent the entire theater so that he could watch a movie without being mobbed by the masses. If and when Elvis did leave his room dad would have to go with him. Elvis always had an entourage everywhere he went but the hotel always supplied a body guard do be with him anytime he was in the hotel. Dad said that sometimes he would sneak down to the kitchen with a body guard in the middle of the night for a snack. I thought that was pretty funny.

I asked Dad if he ever got to actually talk to Elvis one on one. Dad said it was hard to even get close to Elvis without a bunch of other people around but yes there were a few times when he did get to talk to him. I asked what they talked about. Dad said mostly about the area they were from. Both my Dad and Elvis are from the south. If you know anything about people from the south they talk to each other like they are all from one big family. Dad said that one night Elvis invited him to a party that was going to be held in his suite. Dad didn't go because he said he didn't feel like he would have fit in. I asked him if he regrets not going, he said he does a little. I can imagine those parties would be quite the deal. Dad said that there were a couple guys that he really liked from the Elvis group. His favorite was Red West. Red was Elvis's right hand man, if you know anything about Elvis you have heard about Red. Dad said he was pretty funny and joked around quite often. Ronnie Tutt, Elvis's drummer, was another guy my dad got along well with. He said he was a real personable guy.

Dad told me that one of his duties was to accompany Elvis to the actual show engagements and to be backstage while the show was going on. I asked what it was like to be backstage before an Elvis concert. He said it was amazing, the energy and excitement were almost overwhelming. I asked what Elvis was like before a show. He said oddly enough Elvis was always nervous. He said he did two shows a night for a month and before every single show he was very nervous, pacing back and forth, not talking to anyone. He said you would think that a guy that appeared so cool and controlled on stage wouldn't be nervous but I guess he always was.
Dad said the first night Elvis performed, a crazed woman climbed up on the stage and Dad had to run out and grab her and drag her out. I asked what that was like. Dad said having to go out and get a woman in front of thousands of people and in front of Elvis was pretty scary stuff. My Dad is a pretty laid back guy these days. I can't really imagine him wrestling crazed female Elvis fans off the stage.

After talking with Dad for about an hour I told him that he really needs to write all this down. I said there are lots of Elvis fans out there that would probably find all this interesting. I was 9 years old when all this happened. I don't remember much, but I do remember it being a pretty big deal around the house. I remember Dad coming home and telling Mom stories about what had happened that night.
I am glad I finally found out what really happened. Like I said it has been this little known story that has floated around our family for years and I realized I knew almost nothing about. Our little piece of family fame.