Interview: Patti Parry By Piers Beagley (August 12, 2003) EIN - Patti thank you so much for finding the time to talk to us. I think I can detect a slight English lilt to your accent, are you originally from the USA and please tell us how you ended up meeting Elvis? Patti Parry - I am British originally born in Stamford Hill, in London, but I came over here with my parents in 1953. I moved to the U.S. when I was 10 and I met Elvis when I was just 17. It was November 1960 and I was going to Beauty school. In fact, of all coincidences, I ended up in Beauty school with Larry Geller! Anyway I was driving with my friend in this old Buick down Santa Monica Boulevard and we see this Rolls Royce. It was obviously Elvis but I pretended I didn't know who he was. He rolled down the window and said "Hey girls. Hi". I replied "Hey, you look familiar do I know you from somewhere?" Well he knew that we knew who he was and he laughed and said "Hey girls, pullover!" Well we chatted and our personalities clicked & so he invited me up to the Perugia Way house. I got on well with all the guys so they all just adopted me and from that time on that was it! I was around until he died, amazing isn't it? EIN - What did your parents think of you, at such a young age, hanging around with Elvis? P.P - They weren't really happy about my life with him! I wasn't dating anybody and I just wanted to hang out with Elvis. Think about it, I was only seventeen years old and hanging out with Elvis Presley! They did eventually come around to the idea. They knew how much I loved him and they knew how much he loved me and they finally accepted that. In fact Priscilla would sometimes come around to my parent's house which was nice. EIN - Tell me about the recent reunion event you all had this year in Palm Springs. P.P - The event was the first time in ages that 'all my boys' were with me. I knew that Sonny West was going and Charlie Hodge too so I called up Joe (Esposito) and Jerry (Schilling) and said, "Let's all get together." This would be like the first time we had all been together in so long. It was like a dream to have all my boys together. (Laughing) I call them "my boys" but they are like 68 years old but they are still 'my boys'! See, I've been with them since I was 17! It was fantastic and we'll be doing it again next year. Although some of them have had their differences I said, "C'mon guys, it's 25 years you can let it go". We had the best time I was thrilled. We have also been doing some fundraising for the 'Special Olympics' which is a fun thing to do. EIN - We recently interviewed Jimmy Velvet, did you know him? P.P - Well he never hung around with my gang but I do know him and he is a lovely man. He once bought Elvis' guitar from me! Years ago when I took guitar lessons Elvis gave me this old acoustic guitar of his to practice on. It was no big deal and I had it in my closet for 25 years. I didn't really think about the fact that it was once Elvis' and so eventually I ended up selling it to Jimmy for his collection. EIN - Are you still working along with your Elvis commitments? P.P - I am semi-retired but I still work 2 days a week in Beverly Hills. I still am a hairdresser for Heads of Studios and Producers & Directors. I have an incredible cliental who just won't let me retire! I also keep myself busy with a lot of TV shows and I also do a few Elvis things for charity but I have never made my living off Elvis. EIN - Now the story is that Elvis paid you $750 for the first haircut you did for him! P.P - That's true but after that first time I never took Elvis' money because I ended up travelling with him and I practically lived at his L.A homes. He bought me gifts and I ate there every night going over to the house every day after work. Elvis was like my family because I knew him since I was 17 and so we grew up together. He brought me up. Wherever he was he'd bring me in to either Palm Springs or Vegas & I even got to go over to Hawaii for the satellite special. I just wouldn't go on payroll. EIN - I believe that you also did Priscilla's hair! P.P - I did Elvis' hair that first time and then I did Priscilla's hair for a while. I did her hair in that big "Boombah" hairdo. What an amazing hairstyle that was! I got put on salary for that for a short time but I didn't want that and Priscilla could be a little, uh, difficult… at times.. whatever! I saw Priscilla last year in Memphis and we hugged and kissed. EIN - What about the disturbing concept that Elvis surrounded himself with paid friends rather than real friends. I always think it is great that you are referred to more as a friend than as a member of "the Gang." P.P - Listen, the guys who worked for Elvis worked very hard. I mean it was a 24/7 job for them. But I had my hairdressing and was working 4 days a week. I was kid, I was seventeen and I was a girl, I couldn't give up my complete life to work for him. Elvis lavished us with gifts but above all he was a friend. He didn't have a Mum, he didn't have a sister so I was a girl who was around who could nurture him. He needed that nurturing. I was the only girl there and if he needed it I would give him a lot of help and a shoulder to cry on. I was his Little Sister, I was a very lucky girl. (laughing) They were lucky too! EIN - So tell me how you managed to stay a little sister without romance creeping in? P.P - We met when I was 17 and I was a nice innocent woman when I met him and he liked to bring up his women. He just adopted me and protected me and wouldn't let anyone hit on me. Even when I was in my thirties Elvis used to say, "Patti is family she doesn't fool around". I'd say, "Hey, I can fool around!" EIN - Were his girlfriends like Priscilla or Linda Thompson ever jealous of the fact that you were the only girl there? P.P - Oh no, they knew exactly who I was and what I was. When he brought new girls up he would say, "This is Patti she is part of the family." The women knew our relationship was like brother & sister. But with Linda, you know, I got on so well with her. She's such an incredibly nice woman. She was the most fun, so wonderful. You know she looked after him and if Linda was with him he would never have died. But living with Elvis was really difficult. You really had to be mother, sister and confidant. When I got the call about him dying I ran to Linda's house. She's an incredible woman.
P.P - Well I am closer to Joe & Jerry. Joe is like my big bother and Jerry lives just up the street from me now. And I've got back being friends with Sonny after a long, long time. You know 'that book' really put a bit of distance between all of us but I knew that after 25 years it was time to get over it and that we were a family and we should be together. We were the only ones that really knew him so that is why it was so good to see them together in Palm Springs. EIN - How much time did you spend in Memphis, because I heard that Elvis gave you a personal guided tour? P.P - I didn't spend much time there as when I met Elvis he was doing the movies & I was living in L.A. I sometimes went back for Christmases when he did. When I first arrived at Graceland he took me on this crazy ride on this golf cart which had, like, jet-engines! I thought it was going to be nice and sedate! He laughed as we bounced over the farmland at the back. I screamed and he loved that! Then he took me to Humes High School and to Sun Records and places he grew up. He took me to Gladys' grave, which was the biggest honour he could ever do for me. We were standing right by the grave sight and then he teased me and said "Hey, Patti you're standing on my Mother!" and started laughing. He had a strange personality! EIN - Elvis obviously had a very strong personality that would be have been very hard to say 'No' too. I can understand what an awkward position someone like Dr Nick, for instance, would have been in. P.P - You're right it was very hard to say 'no' to Elvis. In fact Dr Nick was a very nice man but he got caught up in the, how do I word it, "The Elvis syndrome." Nobody could say, "No." In fact I was always managed to be honest with him and told him the truth. I gave him hell when he needed it and he respected that! But Elvis was very crafty, he knew how to work around you! EIN - Maybe that was it Elvis needed more people to actually tell him how it was. Did you tell him to stop and cut back on those fatty sandwiches?! P.P - (Laughing) Oh no, I never could do that! When we were at Graceland we'd all be eating like red-eyed gravy and grits together! Those were some of my favourite times when Elvis and the guys would sit around and just sing gospel songs. In fact the guys commented, when I was singing along, that I was Jewish and shouldn't know all those songs. But I loved that music. EIN - So were you at the Perugia Way house when The Beatles visited? P.P - Yes I was but, to be honest, it was not really that exciting. They came up and they all sort of stared at him. Elvis said, "Well if you're just going to stare at me I'm going to bed"! That sort of broke the ice and then they started playing some music together. At the time I wasn't really into their music and this was the period when we were more into playing Gospel at the house. EIN - You were lucky enough to be in the audience for the '68 Comeback Special. What was that like seeing him perform live again? Was he nervous? P.P - It was amazing seeing him perform. I was there with Priscilla & Joannie Esposito and they said for me to go down and sit next to Elvis. It was incredible and every time he looked over at me he would laugh. He was really nervous about the show but at the same time really excited about doing it. He didn't get along that well with the director, Steve Binder, but he so loved to perform and that was when he was his happiest. Even though his records weren't doing so well at the time he knew his own talent and being surrounded by the guys he was really comfortable. He liked that so much more than making those movies. EIN - Was there a big party afterwards to celebrate its success? P.P - No, he never really liked those kind of parties, it was more like family parties for him. In Vegas after the shows we'd go backstage and he would change. Then all these movie stars would come in but I think he was the most uncomfortable of everybody. He was very shy. Elvis was basically a 19-year-old truck driver and he was still shy but with his friends he could really relax. He was so different the first time I saw him on stage it blew me away. To see how the audience reacted to him and how he reacted to the people. He always went down and kissed the girls and shook hands which is very special for an entertainer to do. EIN - Tell me about the Aloha Special. We know that Elvis was not happy with his hairstyle after he saw the dress rehearsal tape and wanted it changed for the final show. P.P - I did his hair for that! I wasn't there for the rehearsal and Elvis was very unhappy about that first haircut. It looked like hell! Elvis wanted his hair cut properly and it was Marty Lacker, who was in LA, who called me and we flew in together. I cut his hair for the final show and Marty Pasetta, the producer, said to me that Elvis had never looked so great. While I cut his hair Elvis said, "Patti, look, I've got really thin, I feel really good.." Elvis was very happy and really stoked about doing the show. I think that was his prime, he looked gorgeous. We were all staying on the 30th floor of the Hilton and had a ball together. The sad thing was that we all went to the beach but Elvis would be stuck in his room. We all also went to see the Arizona Memorial that he had put a lot of money into but again he couldn't go. EIN - In the Aloha Special Elvis is obviously very tanned especially compared with his look in the 'On Tour' film. Since Elvis slept most of the day when and how did he ever get so tanned? P.P - He would usually get tanned & fit by relaxing in his home in Palm Springs. Elvis would go outside and we would put a fan out there and he'd put on 'Man Tan' (which was a version of today's suntan lotions & bronzers). I'd put it all over his face and he'd sit there and get tanned. Elvis was nocturnal, as you know, but he took time out in Palm Springs to get fit. He'd still get up around 4 o'clock in the afternoon but the sun in Palm Springs is still hot until eight o'clock at night. It was like our getaway place. We all just hung out & kicked back. I found out that the place is up for sale again right now. EIN - Tell me about your TLC necklace. Do you remember exactly which year Elvis gave it to you, as EIN often gets asked which year they started? P.P - Tender Loving Care with the lightning-bolt standing for 'in a flash'! You know I've had it around my neck for so many years I can't remember exactly. It was the early seventies and we got it a Sol Schwartz's on Beverly Drive. Some people are really surprised that it is an original but I can tell you that this has never been off my neck! I've never taken it off and I never will. He gave it to me and Elvis was so special to me, he changed my life. EIN - There is a new fascinating book on Colonel Parker coming out. Did you ever see Elvis react about Colonel Parker? P.P - You know in all the years I was around, The Colonel hardly ever came to the house. That was business you know. Joe handled the personal stuff but The Colonel was business. In Vegas The Col would come backstage at night. In fact the first time I took my parents to Vegas, The Col came over and introduced himself which sort of shocked me because he wasn't really part of our Elvis life. Elvis was always good to all my family. My own brother used to come along to Vegas too and we would always get front tables to see the show. EIN - As you live in LA did you get to spend time with Elvis on the movie sets and did he ever tell you how bad he thought the later ones were? P.P - Sure, I was there at Kid Galahad, Wild in the Country, Viva Las Vegas and others. He said how he hated some of them. He said how they would just cut to a song and that it was stupid! But he knew that it was his job and he did the best he could. He was an incredible actor especially in King Creole (that was before my time) but also in Wild in the Country. Some of them, like Clambake though, oh dear, give me a break! During that time Elvis started into his self-realisation period seeing Daya Mata and stuff. He was always trying to figure out "Why me?" EIN - How often did you get to see Elvis perform on stage? Were you there for that first 1969 season in Vegas? P.P - Of course I was there, are you kidding?!! It was The International then and I got there every weekend. I never went on the payroll and so I couldn't go with him on tour 'cos I had to work but in Vegas I would fly in every weekend to see him or sometimes limo in. I saw him there every year through to the final one in '76 but by then, after the season, he would always return to Memphis. He was always so proud of the way he looked but by the end in 1977, he really let it go. It broke my heart. EIN - When was the last time you saw Elvis? P.P - I last saw him about 7 months before he died. He wasn't looking good and it worried me. You've got to understand, he was not really healthy and his kidneys were really shot. It just made me so sad. Unfortunately at the end most of his closest friends had gone and he had just a bunch of young kids around him. That book really hurt him a lot. I think part of his demise was because all the gang was gone and he didn't have anybody left to play with. We used to all play and have so much fun together. I loved him, you know, he was my big brother. EIN - You were there for so much of the music. Is there any Elvis song that means something special to you? P.P - (Laughing) "Little Sister" of course! But I love so many of them, like "It's Impossible." EIN - I have to ask you that of all the time you spent with Elvis, what was the most special moment for you & why? P.P - Every moment, every minute of every day I spent with Elvis was really special. I can't really think of any moment that was the 'most special'. However when my parent's first met him was really special. When my Mum met him Elvis came up and whispered in her ear. He said, "Didn't I do a good job of bringing up Patricia?" He always called me Patricia. My Mum laughed and said "You know Elvis, I had something to do with it too!" But he did bring me up and he liked bringing up his women. As I said I was a really lucky girl, but you know what, he was really lucky to have me too. EIN - Any final words you'd like to add? P.P - In my heart and my mind, that's where Elvis is. I still dream of him. I'm a very lucky woman. I always say to every fan "I'm glad that everybody loves my friend." EIN - Thank you so much Patti, it has been fantastic talking to you. Piers Beagley interviewed Patti Parry August 2003. **** EIN copyright 2003. **** Click to read EIN's Larry Geller interview Click to read EIN's Jimmy Velvet interview Click to read EIN's Billy Smith interview Click to read Marty Lacker's interview with EIN Click to read Lamar Fike's interview with EIN
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