Elvis by George Klein

Author:George Klein [Klein, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-45276-4
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2010-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

I got to know Ann-Margret a little better when the cast and crew of Viva Las Vegas moved to the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas to do some location shooting, and I quickly discovered that in addition to being beautiful she had a warm, wonderful personality. As successful and great-looking as she and Elvis were, neither one had the typical Hollywood star attitude I’d seen in other celebrities, and they just hit it off tremendously. From his earliest days, Elvis had been a little reticent about getting seriously involved with women in show business—one of the things that drew him powerfully to Priscilla was that she was from outside of that world. But Ann was fun-loving and down-to-earth, and, though she was a star, she didn’t have the inflated ego that a lot of much less talented actresses suffered from. While anyone close to Elvis knew he was absolutely smitten with Priscilla and sincerely wanted to build a life around her, it was also obvious that he was honestly overwhelmed by the feelings he had for Ann-Margret. With success had come a complicated life for Elvis, but Ann’s humor and energy made it easy for him to enjoy himself. That meant a lot to him.

I ended up spending a lot of time with Elvis and Ann in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. One night we went to see one of Elvis’s favorite gospel groups, the Clara Ward Singers, at the Frontier Hotel, where Elvis had played his first Vegas engagement in 1956 to less than enthusiastic middle-aged casino crowds. It was there I saw a rare occasion when Elvis lost his temper in public, after a cocktail waitress refused to serve Ann-Margret unless she produced ID.

Back in L.A., just before I returned to Memphis, I had one other notable experience with the pair of stars. Elvis was considering moving to a phenomenal celebrity’s home in the Hollywood Hills that was now for sale. It had all sorts of crazy modern features, like TVs that would descend from the ceiling at the push of a button, and Elvis wanted Ann to see it. While he and Ann and Richard and I were out for a drive, we decided to stop by the place. The house was locked up, but Elvis didn’t want to wait the hour or so it might take for a real estate person to show up. Richard had picked up a knack for getting into locked premises, and, sure enough, he found some sliding doors around back and was able to unlatch the lock on them using a credit card. He came around to the front door and let the rest of us in. We started looking at the spectacular layout and the amazing architecture, and Elvis pointed out one of the prime features—a secret “panic” room hidden behind a closet where the homeowners could go for protection if they needed it.

All of a sudden we heard a pounding on the front door. Elvis told me to go see who it was, and I opened the door to see a puzzled Los Angeles police officer standing there.

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