November 20, 2023 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, doing maintenance in mansions, you could meet anyone, talk about anything - even find your career as an agent!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Greg MacDonald got
his start in show business as a teenager after meeting
Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, while changing
their AC filters in Palm Springs, California. Greg went on
to manage Ricky Nelson for seventeen years and worked under
(00:31):
Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly after Parker began managing Elvis
in the nineteen fifties. Here's Greg with the first time
he met Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
When I was a young kid, my dad was a
part time preacher and a part time air conditioning mechanic.
We used to work for Oral Roberts, who was a
famous evangelist preacher. Well ORL. Roberts had this giant tent
that used to belong to Ringling Brothers. It had ten
(01:12):
thousand seats, and my dad was one of the preachers,
and we'd travel with that tent and set up ten
thousand chairs and set up the stage and put the
tent up and when the revival was over, When ORL.
Roberts was finished with that revival, we'd come back to
(01:32):
Palm Springs, California, where my dad did pretty good in
air conditioning, because it's very odd here. He was in
the air conditioning business. So I was only a young
teenage kid, and my dad and the company had me
out changing filters in the Los Palmis area of Palm Springs, California.
(01:55):
And at that time that's where all of this. A
lot of the old movie stars lived there. So Elvis
was renting a house that belonged to the Jack Warner,
the famous from Warner Brothers studio. Well, I knew it
was the Warner House because I had a key to
the house. It was summertime and I was supposed to
(02:15):
go in and change the air conditioning filter. So I'm
in the house. It's hot outside. I don't think anybody's home.
So the air handler for the air conditioning system was
in the hall inside the house. So you had to
change the filter in the belt, which is all I
(02:37):
could do. I was just a kid. I had to
take a screen off and crawl under the air handler.
And I'm under the heater air handler and I'm laying
on my back and I'm reaching down for my tools,
and there's this little white dog trying to bite and
(02:59):
I'm cursing the dog, and I'm annoyed with this dog.
And every time I reach down into the hall, I'm
laying on my back and my feet are out in
the hall. So every time I reach out from my
hip joint toolbox, this dog tries to bite. So I'm
cursing pretty loud. Now I don't think anybody's home. So
(03:22):
I look down between my shoes and there's a face
down there, and it's Elvis. And I knew it was
Elvis even when I was down on my back. He
grabs a dog and he keeps looking underneath where I am,
and he says, boy, what are you doing under there?
I said, I'm trying to change your darn filter. But
(03:42):
your dog's trying to eat me up. He says, he's
laughing at me. Now he says, come out from under there,
so I crawl out, and I knew it was Elvis immediately.
You know, he was only wearing a rope. He wasn't
wearing his jumpsuit of me. So I get out and
we start talking and he thinks it's so funny about
that dog, and I said, well, I said, oh, well,
(04:04):
your dog's trying to Eve say it's not my dog.
The girl out there by the pool it blad dog
belongs to her. She's a friend of him, but she
wasn't dressed, and as soon as he figured that out,
he went over to the curtain and shut the curtain.
Elvis was pretty cool about that, so he said, what
are you doing? You're just a kid, what are you
(04:25):
You're a mechanic. I said, well, I'm not really a mechanic.
I can change these filters and I get so much
a house and I'm going on my bike with a
wagon all over the neighborhood here and he said, this
isn't my house. It belongs to mister Warner from Jack
Warner's studios. And I don't really know who that is,
but obviously he did. So he says sit out, and
(04:51):
we sit down, and he says, why are you doing this?
I said, well, we have to work, and I told
him I said, we work for Oral Roberts, and he
immediately sparked Oral Roberts. He says, I know Oral Roberts.
I love Oral Roberts. So he starts quizzing me about.
He said, so your dad's a preacher and I said yeah.
(05:14):
He said, well that means you're an assembly of God kid.
I go, yeah, I guess I am, and he says,
you know, so am I. I went to the Assembly
of God in Tupelo, Mississippi. My mama brought me there.
So now this sets off another We weren't talking about
rock and roll music. We were talking about preachers. And
he's testing me. Now. He says, tell me, did they
(05:36):
bring snakes to your church? I said, yes, they did, Yes,
they did. They brought rattle sakes. And he said yeah.
And I said, my mom used to sit us in
the middle pew so that we if we sat near
the aisle. The idea was, if the snake reached out
for you, you had sinned, you were a sinner. And
(05:58):
Elvis is laughing all over the room. He says, my
mom glad us did the same thing. She said, us
in the middle pew so we wouldn't be near the rattlesnake.
And now both of us are laughing about the snake
because they really did scare the crap out of me.
So that's what we're talking about, you know. And he says,
so you travel with a tint. I go, yeah, we do.
(06:22):
So he wants to know how we put that tent
up and I said, well, it's an old circus tents,
canvas tent with all the poles and the ropes and
all the roughnecks. Those are the men grab those poles
and push the canvas up, they called roughnecks. These are
all old tough guys, mainly old circus hands. He said, well,
(06:47):
how do you pull that up with an elephant? He said, no,
we don't have any elephants on the show. We do
it with big tractor trailer trucks. He laughed. I said,
you think we bring elephants to the revival, so he
told me. I said no, I guess not, But he'd
seen the circus used to pull up the tent with elephants.
(07:07):
And this went on forever, and we weren't talking about
him being a rock and roll star of music. We
were talking about preachers. And he said, okay, kid, who's
the organ player for Earl Roberts? And I said, a
guy named Buford Dowell. He says, how do you know that?
I said, because one of my jobs was to help
(07:29):
him move his Hammond B three organ up onto that
darn stage in his Leslie cabinet. And Elvis is now
walking around there and laughing out loud. He says, you're right,
he's the best organ player in the country, and I
can't get him to come and play with me because
he won't play secular music, won't play rock and roll.
I said, well, I know him very well, so through
(07:53):
this whole piece with him, which was very interesting to me.
Phone rings and he answers the phone and somebody named
the Colonel is on the phone. Well, I didn't know
who Colonel Parker was. He's obviously telling the Colonel I'm
over here talking to this kid, and he's a funny
(08:13):
kid and he works for Oral Roberts and he's changing
my filter in this air conditioner. So the Colonel told
Elvis on the phone, send that kid over here. I
need my filters changed. And it was only a couple
of blocks away where the colonel lived from the Warner House.
So I said goodbye to Elvis. You know, I'm getting
(08:35):
ready to leave, and I'm shaking his hand and he says,
I'll see you somewhere. I'll see you again, And he
didn't really say anything other than we'd had a lot
of fun. So I go over to the Colonel's house
and I knock on the door and I'm expecting some
military guy to show up. And it's just an old
(08:56):
man in a robe and he says, coming here, So
I changed the filter and then he has me come
into his sitting room with his wife, Marie Katz. They
both set my lap and he says, now, tell me
about this story about Oral Roberts. I love those preachers
that went on for twenty seven years. I got along
(09:20):
with him and he just sort of, I don't know.
He kept me as long as he worked and we
were very very close.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Greg McDonald. What a story he told. He's just doing
some ac work for his dad in Palm Springs and
next thing you know, he has an encounter with Elvis
Presley and they talk about everything under the sun but
rock and roll music. The story of Greg McDonald's first
(09:53):
encounter with Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker here on our
American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Greg MacDonald got
his start in show business as a teenager after meeting
Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, while changing
their AC filters in Palm Springs, California. Greg went on
to manage Ricky Nelson for seventeen years and worked under
(00:31):
Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly after Parker began managing Elvis
in the nineteen fifties. Here's Greg with the first time
he met Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
When I was a young kid, my dad was a
part time preacher and a part time air conditioning mechanic.
We used to work for Oral Roberts, who was a
famous evangelist preacher. Well ORL. Roberts had this giant tent
that used to belong to Ringling Brothers. It had ten
(01:12):
thousand seats, and my dad was one of the preachers,
and we'd travel with that tent and set up ten
thousand chairs and set up the stage and put the
tent up and when the revival was over, When ORL.
Roberts was finished with that revival, we'd come back to
(01:32):
Palm Springs, California, where my dad did pretty good in
air conditioning, because it's very odd here. He was in
the air conditioning business. So I was only a young
teenage kid, and my dad and the company had me
out changing filters in the Los Palmis area of Palm Springs, California.
(01:55):
And at that time that's where all of this. A
lot of the old movie stars lived there. So Elvis
was renting a house that belonged to the Jack Warner,
the famous from Warner Brothers studio. Well, I knew it
was the Warner House because I had a key to
the house. It was summertime and I was supposed to
(02:15):
go in and change the air conditioning filter. So I'm
in the house. It's hot outside. I don't think anybody's home.
So the air handler for the air conditioning system was
in the hall inside the house. So you had to
change the filter in the belt, which is all I
(02:37):
could do. I was just a kid. I had to
take a screen off and crawl under the air handler.
And I'm under the heater air handler and I'm laying
on my back and I'm reaching down for my tools,
and there's this little white dog trying to bite and
(02:59):
I'm cursing the dog, and I'm annoyed with this dog.
And every time I reach down into the hall, I'm
laying on my back and my feet are out in
the hall. So every time I reach out from my
hip joint toolbox, this dog tries to bite. So I'm
cursing pretty loud. Now I don't think anybody's home. So
(03:22):
I look down between my shoes and there's a face
down there, and it's Elvis. And I knew it was
Elvis even when I was down on my back. He
grabs a dog and he keeps looking underneath where I am,
and he says, boy, what are you doing under there?
I said, I'm trying to change your darn filter. But
(03:42):
your dog's trying to eat me up. He says, he's
laughing at me. Now he says, come out from under there,
so I crawl out, and I knew it was Elvis immediately.
You know, he was only wearing a rope. He wasn't
wearing his jumpsuit of me. So I get out and
we start talking and he thinks it's so funny about
that dog, and I said, well, I said, oh, well,
(04:04):
your dog's trying to Eve say it's not my dog.
The girl out there by the pool it blad dog
belongs to her. She's a friend of him, but she
wasn't dressed, and as soon as he figured that out,
he went over to the curtain and shut the curtain.
Elvis was pretty cool about that, so he said, what
are you doing? You're just a kid, what are you
(04:25):
You're a mechanic. I said, well, I'm not really a mechanic.
I can change these filters and I get so much
a house and I'm going on my bike with a
wagon all over the neighborhood here and he said, this
isn't my house. It belongs to mister Warner from Jack
Warner's studios. And I don't really know who that is,
but obviously he did. So he says sit out, and
(04:51):
we sit down, and he says, why are you doing this?
I said, well, we have to work, and I told
him I said, we work for Oral Roberts, and he
immediately sparked Oral Roberts. He says, I know Oral Roberts.
I love Oral Roberts. So he starts quizzing me about.
He said, so your dad's a preacher and I said yeah.
(05:14):
He said, well that means you're an assembly of God kid.
I go, yeah, I guess I am, and he says,
you know, so am I. I went to the Assembly
of God in Tupelo, Mississippi. My mama brought me there.
So now this sets off another We weren't talking about
rock and roll music. We were talking about preachers. And
he's testing me. Now. He says, tell me, did they
(05:36):
bring snakes to your church? I said, yes, they did, Yes,
they did. They brought rattle sakes. And he said yeah.
And I said, my mom used to sit us in
the middle pew so that we if we sat near
the aisle. The idea was, if the snake reached out
for you, you had sinned, you were a sinner. And
(05:58):
Elvis is laughing all over the room. He says, my
mom glad us did the same thing. She said, us
in the middle pew so we wouldn't be near the rattlesnake.
And now both of us are laughing about the snake
because they really did scare the crap out of me.
So that's what we're talking about, you know. And he says,
so you travel with a tint. I go, yeah, we do.
(06:22):
So he wants to know how we put that tent
up and I said, well, it's an old circus tents,
canvas tent with all the poles and the ropes and
all the roughnecks. Those are the men grab those poles
and push the canvas up, they called roughnecks. These are
all old tough guys, mainly old circus hands. He said, well,
(06:47):
how do you pull that up with an elephant? He said, no,
we don't have any elephants on the show. We do
it with big tractor trailer trucks. He laughed. I said,
you think we bring elephants to the revival, so he
told me. I said no, I guess not, But he'd
seen the circus used to pull up the tent with elephants.
(07:07):
And this went on forever, and we weren't talking about
him being a rock and roll star of music. We
were talking about preachers. And he said, okay, kid, who's
the organ player for Earl Roberts? And I said, a
guy named Buford Dowell. He says, how do you know that?
I said, because one of my jobs was to help
(07:29):
him move his Hammond B three organ up onto that
darn stage in his Leslie cabinet. And Elvis is now
walking around there and laughing out loud. He says, you're right,
he's the best organ player in the country, and I
can't get him to come and play with me because
he won't play secular music, won't play rock and roll.
I said, well, I know him very well, so through
(07:53):
this whole piece with him, which was very interesting to me.
Phone rings and he answers the phone and somebody named
the Colonel is on the phone. Well, I didn't know
who Colonel Parker was. He's obviously telling the Colonel I'm
over here talking to this kid, and he's a funny
(08:13):
kid and he works for Oral Roberts and he's changing
my filter in this air conditioner. So the Colonel told
Elvis on the phone, send that kid over here. I
need my filters changed. And it was only a couple
of blocks away where the colonel lived from the Warner House.
So I said goodbye to Elvis. You know, I'm getting
(08:35):
ready to leave, and I'm shaking his hand and he says,
I'll see you somewhere. I'll see you again, And he
didn't really say anything other than we'd had a lot
of fun. So I go over to the Colonel's house
and I knock on the door and I'm expecting some
military guy to show up. And it's just an old
(08:56):
man in a robe and he says, coming here, So
I changed the filter and then he has me come
into his sitting room with his wife, Marie Katz. They
both set my lap and he says, now, tell me
about this story about Oral Roberts. I love those preachers
that went on for twenty seven years. I got along
(09:20):
with him and he just sort of, I don't know.
He kept me as long as he worked and we
were very very close.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to
Greg McDonald. What a story he told. He's just doing
some ac work for his dad in Palm Springs and
next thing you know, he has an encounter with Elvis
Presley and they talk about everything under the sun but
rock and roll music. The story of Greg McDonald's first
(09:53):
encounter with Elvis and Colonel Tom Parker here on our
American Stories
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