I saw Elvis Presley
in 1976 when my wife and I visited America. While staying with friends in Sacramento, we heard that they sometimes make cowboy movies out in the Nevada area, so we went for a ride, and came to Virginia City. I was sure I had heard that name before somewhere, and later found it was to do with the Bonanza TV series, which I saw as a teenager in Bulawayo, Rhodesia.
It was such an exciting thing to visit that old city. Some places had real weird names, like: “Bucket of Blood Saloon.” I saw an old piano there, where it had a roll of paper, and played a real old time honky-tonk kind of a song. I remember seeing a picture of a woman in a dress all made out of silver dollars with a golden girdle made of golden dollars. While we were in one shop I saw an Elvis Presley movie on the TV. Then I saw a postcard with a picture of Reno. It looked like an exciting place, so I suggested to my wife that we go there.
On the way into Reno I saw a big billboard advertising Elvis for Monday night. That was exciting. I saw Elvis in movies before, but I had never seen him in person. So we decided to stay there the weekend and try and get tickets first thing Monday morning. We only had the clothes we were wearing, and I remember for the first time in my life, buying disposable razors for shaving. At the ticket office Monday morning there were still a few seats available. We were so lucky. They were only $15
each.
Our seats were right near the back of the indoor arena. Chairs were placed tightly together, and we had to squeeze past about twenty people to get to our seats. In the first part of the show I remember the comedian saying. “You wake up in the night. What do you do? You look at the time. What for? You’re not going anywhere!” Last night as I went to the washroom, I was thinking of that again. We have the little night light on permanently in the bathroom, with a clock on the back of the toilet, so we can always see what the time is.
I remember J.D.Sumner singing: “I’m just a weary pilgrim, traveling through this world of sin, but I’m ready for that city, when the saints go marching in.” He sang so low that our chairs were shaking. I remember in Africa hearing that he sang four notes lower than the piano. It was an experience. We were all keen to see Elvis, but then there was the interval. The suspense was agonizing.
After interval, we were all excited, waiting to see Elvis. The lights went out and a spotlight was searching the stage for Elvis. The spotlight landed on a guy with a guitar. The people started screaming, then it died down when they realized it wasn’t Elvis. I saw the spotlight roaming around searching for Elvis. Then we heard him singing. The people went wild screaming. I was shocked to see middle aged women screaming like that. Once in Bulawayo on the TV I saw the Rolling Stones having a concert, with all the young girls screaming, but I didn’t expect it from middle aged women.
Elvis sang about six slow songs that I wasn’t familiar with. The only song I had heard before was: “Fever.” Someone in the band made a sound like a whip cracking when he sung that song. I always thought of Elvis as a rock and roller, so I was surprised at him singing so many slow songs. In my singing I would always start with fast songs to try and catch the audience’s attention, but I guess Elvis didn’t need to do that, he already had the audience in the palm of his hand.
At one point he would play the guitar and pose for photos in different positions so the people could get good pictures. Then he threw the guitar over his head and someone caught it behind him. I’ve never thrown my guitar like that. At one point in the show he said we could come up close and take photos. I was keen to do it, but it meant climbing over about twenty people to get to the aisle, and I didn’t think it was fair to do that to the other people. Now I wish I had done it. My wife took some pictures from her seat, but it was a cheap camera, and Elvis came out so small when the pictures were developed.
One thing he said was a bit sad. He said: “Ten thousand flash bulbs a night are making my eyes sore.” Wow. I hadn’t realized how that must be. I know sometimes when people have taken pictures of me using a flash bulb, my eyes would be seeing purple spots for the next three minutes. So imagine what Elvis was seeing! He must have been seeing millions of purple spots the whole night!
Near the end of the show he started doing a medley of all the old rock and roll songs, but I had an idea, and I said to my wife, “Let’s get out now, and go to the back, so we can see him coming out.” So we went to the back by the buses, and the one bus driver told me he doesn’t come out there. He said he comes out in a limousine from the roll up garage door. So we went to where he showed us. I was ready there with the camera, when a policeman came running up to me with a batten in his hand shouting: “If you take a picture I’ll bust you!” That scared me. I thought he was going to hit me over the head with his batten. Years later I found out that ‘bust’ meant to put me in jail. Wow. I didn’t know it was a crime to take a picture in America!
Eventually the roll door opened, and out came the limo. As it passed by us, I saw Elvis slumped in the back seat between his bodyguards, wearing his dark glasses. It was such a different picture from him on stage. On stage it was as if he was the king of the whole wide world, but there in the car he looked like a prisoner. I guess he was a prisoner of his own fame. Years later I have read that he had death threats against him, and some guy threatened to shoot him on stage. So I guess it must have been very hard living in those circumstances. Normal people don’t go through those kind of pressures. Many famous people in America have been shot, like Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, the Kennedy brothers, Ronald Reagan, and John Lennon, to name a few. So those death threats towards Elvis must have been very hard to live with. Imagine living with the threat that some mentally deranged person can shoot you at any time. It could drive a person crazy.
The following year when we were back in South Africa we heard the sad news that Elvis Presley had died. Then it struck me how privileged we were to have seen him when we did. I hope he made it through the pearly gates. God bless America, the land of Elvis Presley.