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And we continue with our American stories. Craig McDonald's got his start in show business as a teenager after meeting Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, while changing their air conditioning filters. in Parker's Palm Springs, California home. Greg went on to manage Ricky Nelson for 17 years and worked under Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly after Parker began managing Presley. in the 1950s.
Here's Greg with three Elvis Presley stories. When I was a teenager, Colonel had an office. At MGM Studios. It was called the Elvis Exploitation Office. That's what it said on the door.
In those days, an exploitation officer was a real thing.
Now it sounds terrible. But it really wasn't.
So the exploitation officer at a studio was a big deal. They wouldn't give a manager a free office, but they would give a star free office, one of the actors.
So they called that Elvis' office at NGM. We were there for years.
So the colonel had formed a club. He and Ellis formed a club called the Snowmass League.
Well The Snowman's League, the first member was Elvis. and the Colonel and you know Priscilla and Just about everybody in the Memphis mafia. All of us, I was in it. It was just a fictitious club, very funny. It's a a club of guys with great senses of humor really didn't mean anything.
So it became very, very prestigious in Hollywood. to have a snow cart. For Colonel Parker to give you a snow card, that meant you were in Elvis' private club. And it really became something. Oh, it became a joke, but it was also very serious.
All the people at the William Morris Agency. The big guys all belong to the Snowman's Link. And they'd have luncheons and It was just fun and great. The Colonel had a great sense of humor. Great sense of you.
So The issue with the Snowman's League is you could never ask. or a card. You had to be offered a card. You couldn't ask for it. And It costs nothing to get in the Snowman's League, but it costs $10,000 to get out.
It was a joke, but it was all the big agents in Hollywood and producers. Pretty soon they all started wanting to be in the Snowman's League, but the Colonel had to invite them.
So again, I'm just a teenager at MGM. And I'm out in a hallway answering the phone. And In through the door comes Kirk Kekorian.
Well Kirk Kekorian owned MGM. And Kirk Okorian owned the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He built it, where at the time Elvis was working.
So he was not only our employer. He had made movies with Elvis and he owned MGM Studios.
So He comes up to me and I'm I'm a teenage kid. And he said he's a billionaire. And he says, Do you think that you could go in there, young man, and ask Colonel Parker if I could have a snow cart?
Now this is a billionaire asking a kid. if he could have a snow car. And I said, well, sure. You know?
So I walked in the office and the colonel had heard it over the partition. Because He ste flags him off to tell me to tell him now.
So I come back out and he said, he said, the colonel didn't say anything. He didn't make an offer. Kokorian came in three times. before he had us make up a snow card with his name on it. He owned the building.
He owned all of MGM. But he wanted that snow car. Out here in the desert. are some of our mail boxes. are mounted on little blocks out in front of the house down you know, uh you could certainly reach and grab one.
I'm going to run. Make a run to the hardware store. They kept stealing Elvis' mailbox.
So he decided he was going to replace it himself. which of course he had no tools. and no skills either.
So we went to Allen Ladd Hardware downtown in Pump Springs. And a friend of mine that ran the store for Allen Hardware and his ultimately his wife, we'd wake him up at two and three o'clock in the morning to open the store so Elvis could pick a mailbox. We did it three times. People kept stealing his mailbox. It was hilarious.
Whatever you need and a whole lot more. They got it all. Overhead of hardware.
So And Elvis is trying to. mount the mailbox was hilarious. He had no mechanical skills whatsoever. And I ended up putting it on later, but it was uh We'd be out there all night trying to install that mailbox. The Memphis Mapia guys used to call me at my home.
Elvis and the Colonel installed a red phone in my bedroom by my bed. And The phone would ring. And one of the guys would say, Elvis wants you to come up. He wants to see you.
Well, he really didn't. But They wanted me to come up.
So I finally figured out that they were trying to get me to come up and stay at the Chino Canyon house so they could go be with their wives and girlfriends, and I could stay there with Elvis, 'cause somebody had to be at the house with Elvis.
So I go up there, and Elvis is off in the bedroom. And one by one, the guys all league. And I'm sitting in the living room alone, and Elvis finally comes out, and we spend. the whole evening together sitting in the living room watching silly shows and he decides he wants to go down to Germain's Liquor. which is down on the corner.
And uh he wanted some cigarillos and Some soda and And he just got a black Stutz beer cat. And uh He says, Come on, let's go You want to drive my you want to drive the new car? I said, sure, it was really cool car. It was really a fancy Ponte like. It was good looking.
So we get in the car and go down to Germain's. And it's spring break in Palm Springs, and there's hundreds of kids around the store and in the store.
So Eltons and I walk in the store and he thinks he's incognito. And he's got these big glasses and this big belt and this jumpsuit. It's a running suit, not his show jumpsuit.
So he thinks he's incognito.
So we go in, he goes back to the store and break fixes stuff up. And We go up to the checkout calendar. And all these people are around the checkout. and I notice everybody is looking at Elvis, of course. What they're watching is pants.
Well, what's happening is there's a big lump going down his leg. and as it hits the bottom of his pants, it's the barrel of a gun that clinks out on to the floor.
Now everybody looking at Elvis is backing up. and the girls behind the desk see the gun and they're scared to death.
So He looks at me, he says. You should probably pick that up. Oh man. I just got out of the army. I didn't want anything to do with guns.
So I reached down and I picked this giant gun. up by the barrel. I'm holding it by the barrel. and the girls at the counter are scared to death they think we're robbing them. And I go, we're not robbing you.
This is Elvis. I'm trying to tell the girls this is Elvis. They were really young girls, I'm not sure they knew who he was. And I noticed in the down the row, in the back of the store, there's a girl on a phone. She's calling the cops.
Well I want to pay him. They won't take my money. And I'm holding this big pistol by the barrel. And Elvis is now backing out of the store, out the front door of the car is parked right in front of the doors.
So he gets in the passenger side. And I'm still guys still got I pay the bill, they won't take my money. And I bring that gun outside to him and I hand it to him, and he's laughing in tears, laughing. Thinks it's so funny. And we drive off down onto Palm Canyon Drive.
And we just know the cops are going to stop us anymore. because we're so obvious. But we didn't. And I said, if we get arrested, the colonel, if you get arrested, the colonel's gonna kill me.
So Going out with him was he never carried any money. never carried any money, and he always had several guns on him.
So It was an evening with Elvis.
Okay. And a terrific job on the editing, production, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to Greg McDonnell. He's the author of Elvis and the Colonel, an insider's look at the most legendary partnership. In show business.
That story about the Snowman's League was just so good in Kurt Kekorian. He was like basically the first big, super rich guy, practical billionaire who was also world famous. He owned MGM and the International Hotel, and that's where Elvis did his never-ending residency. was at the International Hotel. And there's Colonel Tom Parker yanking Old Kokorian's chain wouldn't let him in the snowman's club.
Turned him down not once, but twice. That's a sense of humor, right there, folks. And also had some depth to it. Hey, look, you may be the boss. But I represent the king, I'm with the king, and we're gonna let you know that we don't work for you, we work together.
Three Elvis stories brought to us by Greg McDonnell here on Our American Stories. Are you looking for entertainment that lifts you up? Then check out Up Faith and Family, the leading streaming service for inspiring, hope-filled shows and movies. This season streams soul-stirring favorites like Southern Gospel, plus four full seasons of Jesus Calling, and the uplifting new faith series These Stones. Or settle in with 19 seasons of the beloved family series Heartland, a family favorite ranch drama fans can't get enough of.
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