Bernard Lansky interview - Elvis Information Network

Actor Jonathan-Rhys Meyers who played Elvis in the recent CBS TV mini-series recently met with Bernard Lansky, of the famous Lansky's clothing store where Elvis regularly used to buy his clothes.

In 2002 EIN interviewed Bernard Lansky who, although over 80 years old, is still as feisty and as forthright as ever and has some great stories to tell.

Elvis was just a teenager when he first spent lunchtimes soaking up the music of Beale Street while gazing at the fashionable clothes in Lansky Brothers' shop window. Bernard Lansky was the man who sold Elvis those famous threads that changed the look of popular fashion. With flash pink-edging and wonderful textures these clothes even stood out on fifties black & white TV and their style still affects the way we dress today.

Bernard Lansky is as energetic as ever and works every day at their new store in the Peabody Hotel in the centre of Memphis.

Even with the pressure of Elvis Week 2002 he was nice enough to talk to EIN's Piers Beagley (left, with Bernard Lansky) and tell us some great stories.

EIN - Mr Lansky you've been selling clothes in Memphis since the 1940's yet it is still hard to find a quiet moment to talk to you because you are still working, even on a Sunday!

Bernard Lansky - That's right, I still work 7 days a week. I open these doors at 6 o'clock every morning and I go home about 4 in the afternoon. Sometimes we're busy and especially when it is like this in Elvis week, I can stay until 9 or 10 O'clock. And then I still come back the next morning at 5 o'clock. When you're on a roll, you're on a roll & you don't want to stop.

EIN - You are the man who put Elvis in his first suit and his last suit. How did it all start?

B.L - When we first started out we were in Army surplus and when that ran out there was a void in the market for high fashion men's wear which we moved in to. People down on Beale Street thought that we were crazy. In those times it was full of pawn shops and stuff like that. I wanted to do something different. My family had been here in the Memphis area since the 1800's. We first moved here to Beale Street in 1946 and at one point we had 12 stores. We could have had a hundred stores but we just couldn't find the right people to work them. We serviced all over Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.

EIN - You mentioned dressing people like Count Basie & Lionel Hampton so you were dressing people in a contemporary style way before Elvis?

B.L - This was way before Elvis. Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine with the Hi-Boy collar shirts. Then we came out with the no-back-pocket pants. We were ahead of the style at the time and people just thought we were crazy coming out with all this merchandise.

EIN - It shocked me when I read that your Lansky store had moved out of Beale Street to here in the Peabody Hotel. How did that happen?

B.L - It was a shock to move from Beale Street but Elvis Presley Enterprises asked us to negotiate. We had an offer to sell for 2 million dollars but we knew what was happening. Priscilla liked to come in our store, Elvis used to bring her and she used to come down here to shop and bring her girlfriends. We knew each other and just kidded each other. It was coming around to the twentieth Anniversary and EPE wanted to get this thing up and running. If you don't have brains you just buy them and that is was Priscilla did with Jack Soden. Jack Soden is a dynamite guy.

We were headed for the twentieth year and so I told Jack that we had an idea to lease this property. They didn't have much time and they had to gut the whole place all the way down to the basement. I made a long term lease and a great financial deal - 20 years and then some!
You know, if you fall in love with what you have, then suddenly you find that you won't have them because everything will dry up. You got to get into other things and keep moving along.

EIN - So you dressed the Jazz era and then the Rock 'n Roll stars and then all of the Soul greats too, Otis Redding etc. Do you ever see any of them like Jerry Lee Lewis still?

B.L - I see Jerry Lee every once in a while, sure do. I've seen every type of music and every generation. We had B.B King, Bobby Blue Bland and all those Stax stars buying our threads. They all used to come to our store. We had the Rhythm n' Blues guys and the Gospel performers too. On Sunday morning all you could hear on the radio was black Gospel and where did they all get their outfits from but Lanskys. We took care of them all and they were large groups of five or six. Working with Elvis was easier 'cos there was just one of him!

EIN - Do you remember when you first met Elvis?

B.L - He was coming down the store looking in the window. I really didn't know who he was. We used to hustle people and try to get them into the shop. He was working at Lowe's Theatre and used to take his break and come down and look in the window and listen to the music down Beale Street. First week after I met him he bought a shirt and you know, we were the first store to give Elvis a charge account. Another guy was David Porter who is like a brother to me and did all that work with Isaac Hayes. He was one of the biggest soul musicians and writers. He used to work in a grocery store across the street and used to be a 'sacker'. He made himself a million. He wrote those great songs. You know 'Green Onions'? Well Steve Cropper the guitarist used to get his suits from me - all of Booker T. and The M.Gs. It was nothing new for me, just good-looking Bolero coats with no-back-pocket pants! - And the big sleeves!

EIN - There is a great quote that "Lansky Brothers is the store that permanently changed how America dresses"

B.L - That is exactly right and Elvis was our P.R. man. When Elvis put on our threads, that changed the whole of American society. Those clothes with the pink trim. Whenever they asked Elvis where he got his clothes from he said "Lanskys" and they had to go with the flow. You know we bought this stuff up and people thought we were crazy. Beale Street wasn't a flash part of town at the time - this was where the Blues started yet we were putting flash type clothes in the window. It was fantastic. We had our own tailor shop and what really put us on-the-ball was that they'd come in on Monday and by the next Friday we'd have their clothes ready for the weekend. We had so many people in the store that everything had to be ready by 5.30pm so that they could get out to their clubs and shows. We had so many clothes that the wall of the shop looked like a rainbow.

EIN - That is an interesting point since this was the era of Black & White TV and yet you were dressing Elvis in all these flash coloured clothes. So when you see him on Ed Sullivan you can see the textures but not the colour.

B.L - On TV the colour of the clothes were never 'popping'. They looked like nothing compared to real thing, but they still looked cool. I still see that video and think - "That's the suit I made".

EIN - Did you see Elvis much in the sixties?

B.L - I saw him quite a bit. He used to come in the store all the time. In that Hollywood era they were just carrying him too fast. They were selling him too fast. It was all to do with timing but his pictures were shit! It was too fuckin' fast. He was no fuckin' movie star, but they put him in there you know. The Colonel wanted to make a buck.

I met The Colonel and you know what? - I liked the Colonel! He was like me. There was no bullshit, hell he wouldn't fuck with you. His attitude was - If it ain't "Mr. Green" don't fool with me! I understand why people didn't like him - but hell if he had worked for me... man he did a very good job! He put Elvis in the front. He never let anybody over-work Elvis. He'd over-ride them, and he didn't let Elvis get burnt out. When Elvis came back after the army he did a hell of a deal with Frank Sinatra. The Colonel was a tough guy and he was a guy that knew what was happening. He was a Merchant, that's what I would call him.

EIN - When was the last time Elvis bought any clothes from you?

B.L - He still came around in the seventies. There was that pink Super-Fly suit that is hanging in our store from that time. I made eight of those wild coats for him and those hats he wore - fur hats. We still took care of him in the seventies. I was always buying stuff and taking care of business. I knew what he wanted - "When you snooze you lose" - I knew what I was doing!

EIN - A lovely quote that makes me laugh out loud "There was no back pockets in those pants because the entertainers wanted to show their bootys". Did you really say that?

B.L - That's so right! We used to call them "Booty Tight". Exactly that, with no back pockets and then with inverted pleats. We made the shirts to match. And with those bloom sleeves too. That's where those shirts come from with Elvis. It's nothing new. I've been making this stuff for the local black guys all the time. I was making those short Bolero coats - That's what they all liked. Think of those Stax performers. It's all Rhythm N' Blues and Rock 'N Roll. I've seen it all.

EIN - Do you know Lisa-Marie very well?

B.L - Sure I know her. She is here this week. She's nice very nice but she is like Elvis when he started out, very shy. Her husband now (in 2002), Nicolas Cage, a nicer guy you couldn't want to meet. He is so fine, he is unreal. He loves Elvis. I just talked to her uncle but she is here in
the Peabody. She makes so much money now that she doesn't know what to do with it. They got on her arse not too long ago about over spending, but as long as she's happy.. She's high maintenance. She doesn't know the value of what's happening. You know "Easy Come, Easy Go", just like her Dad. When you got it comin' in, what the fuck you care!

EIN - I thought her challenge was that she married Michael Jackson. Can anybody explain that?

B.L - I didn't understand that. Never asked, didn't give a shit!

EIN - One final question. What was it like making that final white suit for Elvis to be put to rest in? That must have been quite emotional for you.

B.L - It sure was. In fact it didn't have sides - it only had the front of the suit. I was down in Dallas at the markets at the time when we heard the bad news. We rushed back home because we knew that we had to do something. I never thought that it would happen. We all thought that Elvis would be here forever. In fact I was on the outside looking in - His life wasn't my business. My business was to sell him and dress him. You know we didn't bump heads or bump asses together. I used to go up to Graceland and present him with the clothes or throw them in to his room and ninety percent of the time he liked them. It was 'something different'.

EIN - Mr. Lansky, thank you so much. You are 'something different' and it was fantastic talking with you after all this time.

B.L - I ain't getting no younger but, life I love it !

EIN interviews Bernard Lansky

- Elvis' friend, as well as stylist -