Elvis stormed out of Graceland on Saturday, December 19, 1970, all he had in his wallet was a little cash and a credit card he had never personally used. This was the start of the strange saga that ended with Elvis meeting President Richard Nixon in the White House two days later. His experiences with the money needs he encountered along the way are fascinating. When Elvis arrived at the Memphis Airport, he went to the Pan Am ticket counter to get a flight to Washington DC. According to the 1999 movie Elvis Meets Nixon, the girl behind the counter asked him how he wanted to pay for his ticket. Elvis reached for his wallet and realized he had forgotten to load up with cash before leaving home. So, he tried a couple of ploys. First, Elvis asked if they could just send the bill to the Colonel. Of course, that didn’t work, so the counter girl brought her supervisor over to speak with Elvis. Elvis made one more futile attempt to have the man send the bill to the Colonel. When he got the same negative answer, Elvis pulled out the keys to his car. He offered the supervisor a chance to drive Elvis’ brand new Cadillac while he was out of town, if they could work out a way to cover the ticket. The man was tempted, but ultimately he backed away and asked if Elvis had a credit card. Elvis finally remembered he carried a credit card in his wallet for emergencies, and this was one. Problem solved. On the flight, Elvis moved around and socialized with many of the passengers. The war in Viet Nam was going on in 1970, and Elvis spent ten minutes speaking with one of the G.I.s returning home for the holidays. Here’s the rest of the story in Jerry Schilling’s words:
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 09:49:13 +0000
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