I met Elvis.

Judy Cherry’s story of meeting Elvis on February 18th 1970.

The first thing I said when he came out was just a whispered “Elvis!”

He put his arms around me and gave me a nice warm hug. I told him I had waited 14 years for this and he said

“Have you? That’s a long time to wait, isn’t it honey?”

then gave Jamie (the girl with me) a nice hug and said,

“Did you come all the way from England”

She said, “Yes”

He said, “Thank you hon”.

I said, “Elvis, do you have time for a couple of pictures?”

His answer was a warm, “Sure.”

So while Jamie was getting my camera out, I showed him a copy of the Elvis Presley Story, that I had brought with me, and told him I had had it since 1957. He seemed genuinely amazed. He came across this one real old picture and said,

“This really is old, man. I was 21 years old here!”

In between these dribbles of conversation we had taken one picture (shown above), had some trouble with the flashcube and now were taking another picture… then (and isn’t this beautifully typical of Elvis?) he turned to Jamie and said,

“Now we are gonna get one with you, aren’t we honey?”

I got the picture, he said goodbye to Jamie and came over and gave me a hug. I said,

“Goodbye, Elvis, I’ll see you tomorrow night… whether you see me or not: cause I’ll be going to the show every night for the rest of the time.”

He seemed really surprised at this and said

“Eleven times! Thank you so much, sweetheart. I just wish I could meet everyone of you!”

He kissed me goodbye and he was gone but the 5 or 6 minutes will stay in my heart forever.

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My time seeing Elvis in Vegas.

I know he was a massive star and I appreciate this was late in his life, but I saw Elvis perform in Los Vegas many decades ago and it was pretty bad.

He was fat. He was sweating. He was annoying the audience by not singing and just kept showing us all how good he was with a gun - in and out of the holster and doing all sorts of fancy things with the gun and a large portion of the audience walked out during this bit as it was boring and was not what they went there to see.

I am sure, had they known that Elvis would be dead within a short time, they would have stayed and continued watching this train wreck of a performance just because it would be one of his last.

I have never really known or understood the mania, the craze, the global fandom aimed at Elvis other than it was just all good timing. He did sing some of his hits and that's about all I can remember of the evening. He did not live up to his superstardom that evening and had he lived would have ended up a fat, drunk has-been - he would have lost his fame and fortune and just been another star whose shine has lost its glow.

Bit like Michael Jackson and Evita Peron. Exact same story. All loosing it BIG TIME and died at the right time to be - almost - sainted.

I actually saw Michael Jackson in Wembley years ago and - it was boring. Seen the whole act on telly over the years and nothing new.

David B.

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