On this episode of Our American Stories, Greg McDonald got his start in show business as a teenager after meeting Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, shortly after Parker began managing Elvis in the 1950s. Here’s Greg with the stories.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Greg 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 Rickey Nelson for seventeen years
(00:30):
and worked under Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly after Parker
began managing Presley in the nineteen fifties. Here's Greg with
three Elvis Presley story.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
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
(01:07):
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's
office at NGAM were there for years. So the colonel
had formed a club. He and Ellas formed a club
(01:27):
called the Snowman's 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 club of guys with great senses
(01:49):
of humor. Really didn't mean any So it became very,
very prestigious in Hollywood to have a snow card. For
Colonel Parker to give you a snow card, that meant
you were in Elvis's private club, and it really became something. Oh,
it became a joke, but it was also very serious.
(02:11):
All the people at the William Morris Agency, the big guys,
all belonged to the Snowman's League and they'd have luncheons
and it was just fun and great Colonel had a
great sense of humor, great sense of human So the
issue with the Snowman's League is you could never ask
(02:32):
for a card. You had to be offered a card.
You couldn't ask for And it costs nothing to get
in the Snowman's League, but it cost ten thousand dollars
to get out. It was a joke, but it was.
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,
(02:57):
I'm just a teenager at MGM and I'm out in
a hallway answering the phone, and in through the door
comes Kirk Kakorian. Well, Kirk Kakoryan owned MGM, and Kirk
Kakoryan owned the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He built
(03:17):
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 a teenage kid, and he said,
he's a billionaire, and he says, do you think that
(03:38):
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 cart. And I said, well, sure, you know.
So I walked in the office and the colonel had
heard it over the partition. He goes he flags him
(03:59):
out 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. Kacoran came
in three times before. He had us make up a
snow card with his name on and he owned the building,
he owned all of MGM, but he wanted that snow card.
(04:23):
Out Here in the desert are some of our mailboxes
are mounted on little blocks in front of the house.
Down you know, you could certainly reach and grab with
I'm going to run, make a run to the hardware store.
He kept stealing Elvis's mailbox, so he decided he was
(04:46):
going to replace in himself, which of course he had
no tools and no skills either. So we went to
Alan Ladd Hardware downtown in Pump Springs, and a friend
of mine that ran the ran of the store for
Alan Hardware and is ultimately as White. We'd wake him
up at two and three o'clock in the morning to
(05:07):
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 hold.
They got it on over into hardware, so and Elvis
is trying to mount the mailbox. Was hilarious. He had
(05:29):
no mechanical skills whatsoever. And I ended up putting on later,
but it was we were out. Three'd be out there
all night trying to install that mailbox. The Memphis Bopya
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
(05:52):
the guys would say, Elvis wants you to come up.
He wants to see 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 because somebody had to be at
(06:13):
the house with Elvis. So I go up there and
Elvis is off in the bedroom, and one by one
the guys all leave 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
(06:34):
to Germaine's Liquor, which is down on the corner, and
he wanted some cigarellos and some soda, and he just
got a black Stuts bear can and he says, come on,
let's go you want to drive? You want to drive
the new car? I said, sure. It was really a
(06:54):
cool car. It was really a fancy potty out. It
was good looking. So we get in the car and
go down to Germaine's and it's spring breaking palm springs,
and there's hundreds of kids around the store and in
the store. So Elvis is not walking the store and
he thinks he's incognito. And he's got these big glasses
and this big belt in this jumpsuit. It's a running suit,
(07:17):
not his show jumpsuit. So he thinks he's incognito. So
we go in. He goes back to the store and
break the fix the stuff up, and we go up
to the checkout counter and all these people are around
the checkout and I notice everybody is looking at Elvis,
of course, but they're watching his pants. Well, what's happening
(07:41):
is there's a big lump going down his leg and
as it hits the bottom of his pants, it's a
barrel of a gun that clinks out onto the floor.
Now everybody looking it. 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
(08:03):
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, and 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
(08:24):
tell the girls, this is Elvis. You're really young girls.
I'm not sure they knew who he was. And I
noticed in the down the road in the back of
the store there's a girl on the 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
(08:48):
store out the front door of the car is parked
right in front of the doors, so he gets into
the passenger side and I'm still guys, still got 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, takes it so funny.
And we drive off down on to Palm Canyon Drive
(09:10):
and we just know the cops are going to stop
the sending man because we're so obvious. But we did,
and I said if we get arrested to Colonel, if
you get arrested, the Colonel's going to kill me. So
going out with him was he never carried any money,
never carried any money, and he always had several guns on.
So it was an evening with Elvis.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to
Greg McDonald. He's the author of Elvis and the Colonel
and Insider's look at the most legendary partnership in show business.
That story about the Snowmans League was just so good
in Kurt Kakori and he was like basically the first
big super rich guy, practical billionaire who was also a
(09:59):
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
Grecorian's chain, wouldn't let him in the Snowman's Club turned
him now, not once, but twice. That's a sense of
(10:20):
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 going to let you
know that we don't work for you, we work together.
Three Elvis stories brought to us by Greg McDonald. Here
on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories. Greg 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 Rickey Nelson for seventeen years
(00:30):
and worked under Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly after Parker
began managing Presley in the nineteen fifties. Here's Greg with
three Elvis Presley story.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
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
(01:07):
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's
office at NGAM were there for years. So the colonel
had formed a club. He and Ellas formed a club
(01:27):
called the Snowman's 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 club of guys with great senses
(01:49):
of humor. Really didn't mean any So it became very,
very prestigious in Hollywood to have a snow card. For
Colonel Parker to give you a snow card, that meant
you were in Elvis's private club, and it really became something. Oh,
it became a joke, but it was also very serious.
(02:11):
All the people at the William Morris Agency, the big guys,
all belonged to the Snowman's League and they'd have luncheons
and it was just fun and great Colonel had a
great sense of humor, great sense of human So the
issue with the Snowman's League is you could never ask
(02:32):
for a card. You had to be offered a card.
You couldn't ask for And it costs nothing to get
in the Snowman's League, but it cost ten thousand dollars
to get out. It was a joke, but it was.
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,
(02:57):
I'm just a teenager at MGM and I'm out in
a hallway answering the phone, and in through the door
comes Kirk Kakorian. Well, Kirk Kakoryan owned MGM, and Kirk
Kakoryan owned the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He built
(03:17):
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 a teenage kid, and he said,
he's a billionaire, and he says, do you think that
(03:38):
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 cart. And I said, well, sure, you know.
So I walked in the office and the colonel had
heard it over the partition. He goes he flags him
(03:59):
out 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. Kacoran came
in three times before. He had us make up a
snow card with his name on and he owned the building,
he owned all of MGM, but he wanted that snow card.
(04:23):
Out Here in the desert are some of our mailboxes
are mounted on little blocks in front of the house.
Down you know, you could certainly reach and grab with
I'm going to run, make a run to the hardware store.
He kept stealing Elvis's mailbox, so he decided he was
(04:46):
going to replace in himself, which of course he had
no tools and no skills either. So we went to
Alan Ladd Hardware downtown in Pump Springs, and a friend
of mine that ran the ran of the store for
Alan Hardware and is ultimately as White. We'd wake him
up at two and three o'clock in the morning to
(05:07):
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 hold.
They got it on over into hardware, so and Elvis
is trying to mount the mailbox. Was hilarious. He had
(05:29):
no mechanical skills whatsoever. And I ended up putting on later,
but it was we were out. Three'd be out there
all night trying to install that mailbox. The Memphis Bopya
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
(05:52):
the guys would say, Elvis wants you to come up.
He wants to see 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 because somebody had to be at
(06:13):
the house with Elvis. So I go up there and
Elvis is off in the bedroom, and one by one
the guys all leave 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
(06:34):
to Germaine's Liquor, which is down on the corner, and
he wanted some cigarellos and some soda, and he just
got a black Stuts bear can and he says, come on,
let's go you want to drive? You want to drive
the new car? I said, sure. It was really a
(06:54):
cool car. It was really a fancy potty out. It
was good looking. So we get in the car and
go down to Germaine's and it's spring breaking palm springs,
and there's hundreds of kids around the store and in
the store. So Elvis is not walking the store and
he thinks he's incognito. And he's got these big glasses
and this big belt in this jumpsuit. It's a running suit,
(07:17):
not his show jumpsuit. So he thinks he's incognito. So
we go in. He goes back to the store and
break the fix the stuff up, and we go up
to the checkout counter and all these people are around
the checkout and I notice everybody is looking at Elvis,
of course, but they're watching his pants. Well, what's happening
(07:41):
is there's a big lump going down his leg and
as it hits the bottom of his pants, it's a
barrel of a gun that clinks out onto the floor.
Now everybody looking it. 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
(08:03):
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, and 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
(08:24):
tell the girls, this is Elvis. You're really young girls.
I'm not sure they knew who he was. And I
noticed in the down the road in the back of
the store there's a girl on the 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
(08:48):
store out the front door of the car is parked
right in front of the doors, so he gets into
the passenger side and I'm still guys, still got 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, takes it so funny.
And we drive off down on to Palm Canyon Drive
(09:10):
and we just know the cops are going to stop
the sending man because we're so obvious. But we did,
and I said if we get arrested to Colonel, if
you get arrested, the Colonel's going to kill me. So
going out with him was he never carried any money,
never carried any money, and he always had several guns on.
So it was an evening with Elvis.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler. And a special thanks to
Greg McDonald. He's the author of Elvis and the Colonel
and Insider's look at the most legendary partnership in show business.
That story about the Snowmans League was just so good
in Kurt Kakori and he was like basically the first
big super rich guy, practical billionaire who was also a
(09:59):
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
Grecorian's chain, wouldn't let him in the Snowman's Club turned
him now, not once, but twice. That's a sense of
(10:20):
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 going to let you
know that we don't work for you, we work together.
Three Elvis stories brought to us by Greg McDonald. Here
on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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