December 31, 2024 • 43 mins
Morgan White Fills In On NightSide with Dan Rea:
What better way to ring in the new year than with Las Vegas-based tribute artist “Big Elvis!?” Morgan and one of Time Magazine’s Top 10 Elvis Impersonators celebrated as the ball dropped and a new year began!
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
What better way to ring in the new year than with Las Vegas-based tribute artist “Big Elvis!?” Morgan and one of Time Magazine’s Top 10 Elvis Impersonators celebrated as the ball dropped and a new year began!
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a night's Eyes with Dan Ray unknowing you crazy
Boston's news.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Radio one hour ago, to be more specific, fifty three
minutes or so to go before we wave goodbye to
twenty twenty four and hello to twenty twenty five. If
you're out and about Boston, all the things they have
(00:26):
for you, people celebrating First Night. And by the way,
if you didn't know, the history of First Night began
with Boston in nineteen seventy six. We were the first
city to do it and it caught on like wildfire. Everybody
after that started doing it, but we were the first.
(00:47):
So if you're out there tonight, yes, enjoy yourselves. Be careful,
pretty pretty please. I want to make sure that everybody
out there tonight has an enjoyable night, but a safe night, Okay,
and I thank you about that. Let's go back in
(01:09):
our memory. You gotta go back to and I'm not
sure the exact year. I think it was nineteen fifty
forty nine. I'll have my guests tell us once I
bring him in. And eventually, over the fifties into the sixties,
(01:30):
you're introduced to a gentleman who had tremendous talent. His
name Elvis Presley, and my next guest has made a
living mimicking Elvis in front of thousands of people every
(01:50):
year in Las Vegas. He does a show called Big Elvis.
If you are anywhere near Vegas for any length of time,
check out the show. You will be amazed at this
gentleman's talent, his voice. Close your eyes and you hear
Elvis Presley. His name is Peter Valley, and he's been
(02:15):
doing Big Elvis as his main act in Vegas several locations.
It's been at Harris Piano Bar Center Strip on the
Strip for a decade or more. He used to be
at Bill's Gambling Holland Saloon prior to that the Barbary Coast,
(02:40):
which was the same place, just a different name. And
I met him back in the early two thousands and
we built up a fast friendship. He's been kind enough
to let me do my trivia shtick as a break
on his show off and on for the past I
(03:01):
guess ten to fifteen years. Please welcome Big Elvis tonight's
side Tete, How are you doing really good?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Happy New Year's to your Morgan and to your people
out there on the East Coast. From Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Happy New Years to you. What is Vegas doing to
celebrate New Years? All?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Right? Now? The road on Las Vegas Boulevard is shut
down and they are going to do a massive firework
display off of all the top of a lot of
the casinos thro out the city.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Now, you live about thirty miles outside of the town, correct.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I do. I live out on the suburbs. It's a
sleepy little town called prompt but it's about forty minute drive.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And the last place you want to be is anywhere
near the Las Vegas Strip on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
It's wall to wall people. I mean the strip is
closed off and you just say nothing, but you know
there's this mass people there.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, and who wants to be a part of that
if you live there? And I'm sure one of the
TV stations KLAH or one of the other stations are
covering it so you can watch it on TV and
it's almost like you're really there.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, all the local stations are covering it, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah. So do me a favorite. Tell your backstory of
how you get to be big Elvis.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, you know, it started probably back in nineteen seventy nine.
I was It's just a kid, I loved Elvis music.
I was fourteen and I was in a classroom where
a teacher really loved Elvis, and so, you know, I
started singing at church, but I started learning some of
the songs and one day afternoon I said, you know,
(04:58):
I know Elvis saying for her and she said, oh,
you've got to be in the talent contest. So she
he put me into being the talent contest in high school.
And what I went saying there, you know, it was infectious.
I knew that that's what I wanted to do totally.
And then a year later my mom said, you know what,
when we moved to Las Vegas, and see if that
(05:19):
can happen for you, you know, And that's kind of
how it all started.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
A lot of times an occupation chooses you, not the
other way around. And I'm guessing the power of performing
as Elvis chose you because you could do it. It did.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I naturally had a you know, my voice sounded a
lot like is so it just it did choose me.
And that's and people really like that kind of music.
They still do, but back then it was really an anomaly.
So it it took off, you know, just that's how
it all started.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Now, Hemden hard in the beginning about this, but when
is the birthdate of Elvis Presley?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
January the eighth of nineteen thirty five?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay, and I was way off when I said late forties,
but nineteen thirty five. And what I have tried tried
to do twice a year, every January, have you on
to celebrate his birth and every August to commiserate that
(06:37):
we lost him in August of what nineteen seventy five,
seventy seven, seventy seven. So I automatically call you to
book you around those two times every year.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You too, It's been really great. I mean, that's it's.
Elvis's legacies is unbelievable. You know.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So a lot of people saw that movie from a
couple of years ago and felt that reflected truthfully his history,
his legacy and his history. Well, anything that you know
of that did not get the proper spotlight.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
In that movie, well there's you know, there's several different things,
and of course, you know, to really do a biography,
you'd be you'd be you know in Elvis, you you
could go five or six hours easily. So they had
to admit obviously a lot of things, and there was
a lot of things in there that wasn't put in there,
(07:45):
but you know, it basically got the uh, the drift across.
It was done really well. I mean, the the the
gentleman that that he worked for two years studying somebody,
and he really fit the part well. And Tom Hanks,
I mean he speaks for himself. I think he's a
fablous actor, and he really you know, I had the
part of the colonel down the way he was so
(08:07):
and the sets were, you know, meticulous. The Hilton. I
actually was in the Hilton as you were. Morgan, Yes,
in the set right, So you probably realized when you
saw that the Hilton. I could not believe how close
that stage was replicated. It was the exact same stage
(08:28):
because I stood on that stage back in nineteen eighty
eighty two or eighty three, whatever it was. But to
make a long story short, the whole movie was done
really rather well, I thought, And it was it was
you know, like I say, some of it's Hollywood, but
a lot of it was really close to what happened.
And you know, like I said, the actors and the
(08:51):
sets and the kid that portrayed him, the young man,
he did a fabless shop. So it was and it
actually really got a new, you know, revital Elvis to
a lot of the younger kids a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
True, and it helped boost record sales when they re
released Elvis one.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I've got a break to take, but when we come back,
you've had a movie career, and we'll talk about you
on the big screen. Anyone who wants to call in
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty or eight eight, eight,
nine to nine, ten thirty. I guarantee you. I guarantee you,
(09:35):
Pete will know whatever you bring up, so you're more
welcome to join us here on nights Side time and
temperature eleven fifteen forty four degrees.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Now back to Dan Way live from the Window.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
World Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Happy almost
New Year, everybody. This is Morgan's filling in for Dan.
Dan We'll be back tomorrow. This is his microphone. Every
now and then, I just get a chance to mind
it for him, and I am interviewing currently mister Peter
Valley aka Big Elvis. And before I take any phone calls, Pete,
(10:13):
you yourself have been in two movies if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Actually there's been there have been a two documentaries and
an actual movie.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Well then tell people about you on the big screen.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
A movie that was meaning about ten years ago was
a comedy with Connor pet who begin with files. It
was a takeoff of kind of a comedy kind of
like two cops that are kind of like Andy Griffith, right,
and I'm kind of the guy in the middle where basically,
(10:49):
you know, I get the women at the end of
the show and sing a bunch of songs and through
the whole thing, these guys are bumbling kind of sheriffs
in a small town and it's it's just really humorful.
I mean, to watch, it's funny, it's loving, it's endearing.
And the thing that was great about the movie was Morgan.
It was you know, really family fun, you know, I mean,
(11:09):
it was not swearing or not anything that was you know,
you know, it was really a clean film, kind of
like the way the Elvis movies were down in the sixties, right,
So it was it was fun, it was it was
a nice movie. And then the other two were you
were part of one of them. They were a documentary
that a nice gentleman out of Wisconsin has a company
(11:31):
and he put together a documentary in My Life. And
then the other one was for sun Dance with Robert
Redford and had Sam Elliott narrating. And it's a short
about fifteen minutes actually on the Sundance Festival, I think
in twenty eighteen, but it's called Big Elves fifteen minutes
short of it.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So little did you know that when you snouted because
a Keidrin high school said you should injure a talent contest.
The many years later it's your living. You are doing
this infessionally.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah. And you know, here's the really irony Morgan if
somebody who said, you know, you'll be doing this forty
years from now. But I've never thought in a million
years this like you just said, this would have been
my entire life. I mean, I just am shocked that
this has become my entire career in the whole world,
you know.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And you have jumped both feet into this. You have
the jumpsuits that you that you wear. I don't know
how many of them you have, but I've seen you
in five different jumpsuits. How many do you have?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Right? Oh? Sure, I've got probably probably at least ten
now still like a lot of you know I've put away, but.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Okay, and you style your hair the way Elvis styled
his hair, the sideburns, the pompadour look. Every thing about
you screams Elvis.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
The first time. I've still got the hair to do that.
I've been tying that hair to them for forty years.
But you know what it just become. You know, somebody
said it best if you become that person long enough.
I mean, that becomes part of your personal not that
I think I'm Elvis or anything like that, but it
becomes part of you. If that makes sense, you know
(13:25):
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
It does makes perfect sense. Let me take a phone call.
Invite more anyone who wants to call in. Here's your
chance to speak to a man who knows almost all
there is about the king of rock and roll. Mister Elvis, Presley, Howard,
and Randolph. You're up and you are talking with mister
Peter Valley aka Big Elvis.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Well happy in healthy new year, Morgan and mister Peter Valley,
Big Elvis. I'm a regular of Morgan's trivia shows, and
he always speaks very highly of you, with a lot
of affection and respect, and we always want to be
so often, you know, a segment on Elvis songs and
Elvis movies.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right, He's a great time. Morgan's a great guy.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Pete. Let me tell you Howard has see me do
my show dozens and dozens of times, as you have
seen me do my show, and the people who are
in their twenties and thirties yet and still they know
the facts about Elvis, and I have to be right
(14:31):
on when I do a question about Elvis. I can't
be off by a title. I can't be off by
a song. And they catch me on it if I
dare make a mistake. Didn't you mean to say force
of habit instead of horse of habit? Not that I
(14:51):
ever made that mistake, but the point of it is,
if I do make a mistake. So I'm twenty something
and thirty something kid, it is going to tell me
I thought it was X and not Y. They know.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, no, it's unbelievable. I see it at the show
all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And I'm going to tell you I've come out there
a couple of times where I didn't call you and
say I'm here. Can I do a break on on Wednesday.
I don't know when yet, when I'm going to be
out there sometime in the spring, and I will let
you know. And if you will allow me to, I'm
gonna letting me do a lot out there. Howard, did
(15:36):
you want to say anything else?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, Peter, what is your favorite elist movie?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
You know, there was a couple of them. I really
liked I think that and Elvis like too. And King
Creole was probably one of the one of the best
movies ever put out. It was it was made actually
for uh, Jimmy Dean and James Dean and or Marlon Brando,
and Elvis filled that role unbelievably and it really showed
(16:04):
the character that he had as a youngster, how he
could have really progressed have been a good actor. I
think the rest of them, by the ten of sixties,
of all the movie scripts just kept going down the hill,
you know what I mean, I think they were They're
getting worse and worse. But if you ever watched King Creole,
the movie was written by a director called Michael Curtis.
Was that guy was a huge Morgan You probably know
(16:26):
Michael Curtis was a great director for in the fifties.
And sixties and forties, so he was anyhow, Yeah, so
I mean it wasn't and he had Walter Matho behind him.
I mean, you know he had it's really Carolyn Jones.
I mean I think, who's the other guy, Dean Jagger
and just did The list goes on and on. So
he didn't have slouches for people underneath him. And his
(16:49):
acting ability, I mean, he was just as good as
any one of those actors. I think Elvis really really
could have been an unbelievable actor given the chance.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Elvis was a gift from God. He had just talent
oozing out of every pore for an old phrase that
I borrowed, because his singing voice better than any His
ability to capture your attention on the big screen, whether
he was in a scene with an actress like Anne
(17:25):
Margaret or he was up against somebody like Walter Mathow
who had great acting chops himself, Elvis could do it all.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
What's the question, Peter, are they doing anything for this
is every year's ninetieth birthday? Are you going to be
doing any kind of a special tribute above the MIGA
what you normally do?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
You know what? We work at different places, but every
time we work. On the eighth we do a tribute.
It's you know, not that we don't do it every day,
but we do, you know, all Elvis. At this other
club I've been playing, they have fan club show up
on the We do it on the sixteenth of August
for his passing, and then on the eighth of January
and they have all day Elvis music and then fans
(18:10):
show up and contests and kind of things like that.
So we always honor that. And I mean, of course,
you know it's in Vegas. It's a big thing. All
the different shows that are Elvis like there do the same.
I mean, it's you know, it's a huge celebration. This
year he would have been ninety years old, so it's
going to be a pretty big celebration, I think, Harris,
(18:33):
I've been working at this other club that the man,
actually the regional entertainment gentlemen made this club a couple
of years ago, you know, you bought it and remodel it.
It's called the Composer's Room. So I do play there
once in a while, other than Harris. For special events.
(18:55):
They sell tickets and you know, we have a band
and stuff like that. So it's a little bit more
expanded to what I do just at the Piano bar.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Where in Vegas is the Composers Club.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's on Sahara and right at Philas Vegas by the
Sahara Hotel. It's in the Commercial Center, but they've remodeled
it and it's a really really nice place now.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So it's Commercial center, so.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Right, they have the lotuses I am that's went in there,
and they've got some really nice places going in there now.
They've redone that whole area that are down there, so
it's very nice.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
For a while, you necessarily weren't comfortable going through the
Commercial Center.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It was actually, you know, no, it was very rough
up until the last three or four years, and then
the city got involved and they've re you know, they've
they've really cleaned it up, and it's really nice places
in there now. So it's a very very nice area now.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Right Because you know me, I know my Vegas and
I just don't know your street, the streets that Sandwich
to the commercial Center and right up up until as
you say, the past four or five years, you had
to be aware of where you were, Yeah, walked through
(20:18):
and you kept your windows up and doors locked.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
You sure dead, Sure that was a rough spot.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Howard, do you have anything else that you want to
bring up?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
One last thing. God continued success to you. Peter and
Morgan also, and both have a happy and healthy New Year.
And I'll see you next year, Morgan.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I look forward to that, Howard, say you take care
all right? So Elvis is would have been ninety. Speculations
speculate had he not have we not lost him, what
(20:59):
would he be like at ninety? Would he still be
active or just sitting on his laurels, retired collecting royalties?
What would he be like?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Oh? Boy, you know what, it's hard to spect it.
I mean, had he been in good health still and
like lot there are people that are I'm sure he
would have done projects or have been behind projects. I
know he loved gospels, so you might have been in
the middle of that a little bit. You know. I
think if Elvis would have lived, you'd have brought a
(21:28):
lot more great music, if he could have got back
into acting, and you know who knows how I mean,
I know, at forty two years old had passed away,
he could have gave at least another twenty thirty years
with us. I mean you know, look at William Shatner,
so he could have went on for goodness knows how long,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And I just read somewhere where Dick Van Dyke just
turned ninety nine years old and still the video things
like a soft shoe.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yes, you did it. I can't do that now, give
me Paul, I.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Couldn't have done it twenty twenty five years ago. Tell
you what. Let me make my news hit. Anyone who
wants to speak to a gentleman who has personified everything
about Elvis Presley, and he does it three or four
nights a week in Las Vegas. It's his living, it's
(22:25):
his honor to do it for you, the people that
come to see him. So give a call six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two nine,
ten thirty. And when we come back, I'm gonna tell
Pete about a piece of Elvis memorabilia that I own.
(22:46):
Here we go. Time and temperature on night Side eleven
twenty no, correct that, eleven thirty forty seven degrees.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Time is a dwindling. We almost have run out of
time for twenty twenty four. My name is Morgan. I'm
filling in for Dan Ray. I've been here for the
past nine days filling in for Dan Ray. But he
Dan Ray will be here tomorrow. This is his microphone.
Nightside belongs to Dan, and Dan belongs to night Side,
So he'll be back tomorrow eight o'clock to midnight to
(23:29):
begin twenty twenty five. And Pete, I have in my possession.
I have a lot of memorabilia I've collected over the years.
And there was a poster that was put out when
Elvis first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. And on
that poster there's a shot of Elvis in his gold
(23:52):
lamet suit. It's a white poster with black lettering appearing
tonight at Sullivan Show, and the name Elvis Presley is
in red and see him, see him sing his hits
(24:13):
like hound Dog and Blue Sweight Shows and I forget
the third song that's mentioned if and I'm not going
to but if I were going to sell this, it's
a replica of an original poster. Do you have any
idea what that might be worth?
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Well, you know, it's almost like a thing, right it.
It depends on how many replicas are out there. If
it's varied in numbers where there's not many of them,
of course the price will go up. If they're been
copied in mass more than then you're looking at. You
know that, probably a lot less. So it would depend
(24:56):
on how many of you know, if you had the
original obviously be priceless, but they're having a copy. If
there's not many made, you could probably fetching decent money
for it, you know you I don't know the check.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You could have said one hundred thousand dollars and I
would have said, wow, nice to know, but I wouldn't say, yeah,
that's my poster.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Well sure, and you know what, there's probably from what
you're telling me, I mean, and I'm just off the
top of my head. If they were made, they might
have been made a long long time ago, so there's
probably I'm guessing not a lot of those around.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Well, it's mine and I am not letting it go.
For an example, in the room from where I'm broadcasting,
I've got an original cell of Dumbo where he is
talking to Timothy the Mouse right there there it is.
I'm playing it against the wall. Have you seen that
(25:55):
Lost Vegas poster? It's got all all the old casinos
and the Marquee and a playing card representing eight different
Vegas hotels for a top for the bottom, and the
hotel from back in the old days, the Aladdin.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Riviera, Sounds of Area, the Sounds, Dunes, the Dunes, Silver Slipper,
Castaways all the while. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
And I liked that poster because it represents what Vegas was.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, I know, I remember in nineteen eighty when I
got to the first time when I was fifteen, But wow,
what a what a different place. And the field was
total it was a whole different place, you know, right,
it was the field Vegas was different and personal and
it was you know, like everything in the world's changed.
But it's now it's just like a like a mega
(26:56):
it's a Vegas city. It's just like you know, and
it feels so corporate and so everything is just you know,
it's it's behemoth, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You know, it's so corporate. And yeah, there the newer
hotels like within the past ten years of Cosmopolitan.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
The d and right, I'm going to ask you a
trivia question.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Now that they've torn down the Tropicana, the Flamingo is
still the oldest hotel in the strip. What Hotel Casino
is second to the Flamingo?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Oh jeez, I would have to say the Sahara that
could be very.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Has been torn down, Model changed, and it came back,
I mean continually up since they finished putting the last
brick in the wall.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Okay, I think I see what you're saying with what
has remained the same?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Right?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well, this is gonna sound weird, but I would say Harrah's,
wasn't it? No, because I don't know you know what
you've got me?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Okay, I'll tell you one second. But you mentioned Harris.
Harris used to be the holiday inn.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I know that. I don't know that in the Model Ladies, right,
I remember.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That Caesar's Palace is second to the Flamingo.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I should have thought that.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Rating. Yeah, it's the same.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Sixties right exactly, because I've.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Been going to Vegas since nineteen seventy and it's not
the same. And I missed it the way it was
in the seventies and eighties as it is.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Now totally totally.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
It leaves a lot to be desired.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
No, Morgan, you know what anybody that I will tell
you this and this is from you know, being there
in with people all the time. Anybody that I talked to,
and I mean I would say ninety five percent of
the people that I talked to that have been to
Las Vegas the seventies, the eighties, very early nineties and
so forth, everybody says, oh, man, I wish it was.
(29:16):
Even the people that lived there that heard said, man,
I wish it was the way it was when we
first came here, or from what we've heard, I wish
it was the way it was in the seventies and eighties.
I heard that from everybody, and I since I lived
there in the eighties, I know, like you were visiting
all the time I lived there, So it was it
was a magical time. It was you know, it was
(29:38):
it's corporate, it was it was people. It was more personal.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It was just much more personal.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You would be a fantastic place.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
You would go sit at the bar for a drink,
and the bartender would remember you from special even eight
years ago. Yes, exactly, the hotel staff, the fell at,
the people behind the front desk. Yeah, mister White, how
are you and you rarely see that anymore?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
No, No, well, everything that's kiosk and everything is you know,
checking out that things computer, what do you get everything?
I mean, there's people, but it's just it's it's like
going through an airport. I mean it really is. It's
they're just it's like any mega uh you know hotel.
The hotels look like hotels. I mean there's catinos in there,
but everything is all kioska. You know, you get your
(30:32):
ticket and you have waiters and stuff. But it's a
whole different feel. It's just it's just and the whole
world is like that now. But it's it's sad because
Vegas really had that personal touch at one time, just
really it really it enticed people to be here and
they and they comped a little bit. They gave a
little bit of drinks or whatever. I mean they gave
(30:53):
probably you can't expect the same miss today, but at
that time, you know, they comped and they gave your rooms,
they gave you food, and of course you gambled a
lot too. But that it used to be couple more.
But now it's it's just it's just not the same
all the way around.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
You know, I've got a personal question, and I know
you don't. I'll say, over gamble, by over gamble, you've
not lost your paycheck for the next three months. No,
how you maintain discipline not to over gamble. Everybody has
(31:32):
a different.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Answle with you. No, I'll tell you. When I got
here in Vegas, back when it came back, was in
the like midnighteties, like ninety seven. I started gambling and
I you know, I had a friend of mine and
we you know, he turned me on to two dollar poker. Well,
you know, that was the worst that you could have done,
because you know, you have a couple of hits where
(31:53):
you hit, you know, four hundred bucks, you hit a
roll for what I think it was was four grand
or whatever. Right, that would happen. That would happen times.
And I thought, well, I'm going to get rich. And
then you know, I started losing my money all the time,
and I said, I got holy cow. And that went
on for about, I don't know, a couple of years,
(32:14):
and I said, you know, after a while, I was like,
you know, I'm getting beat up really bad all the time.
This this is going to stop. So over the years
I learned to take a little bit and gamble. But
then I started realizing, you know what, you're just losing
money and you're just giving it away, So it's got
to stop. So I finally, you know, once I finally
(32:35):
came to it. This is what I finally did morgan
once a year. I finally said, look, I'll take you know,
two three thousand dollars or whatever, and I'll go out
on the holidays and I'll go gamble and if it's gone,
it's gone or whatever. And then two years ago I
did that as a tradition and then I, you know,
this is what happened to me. This is not you know,
(32:57):
it doesn't reflect on anyone else. And they said to myself,
you know what, I feel bad about gambling this money
where I could have went the kids that needed, people
that need it or whatever. So then I started saying,
you know.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
What I'm going to do.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I'm not going to gamble anymore, but to give that
money to you know whatever, I'm not going to say OOO,
but I'll give it to praise that yes that I
know somebody is going to really be able to use
in a certific casino. So that's what ended up happening.
And for me, it's worked, you know, for others, I mean,
whatever works for whatever, or people enjoy gabblet that's your business,
(33:29):
you know. But yeah, that's how it did for me.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I come out once or twice a year. I bring
X dollars with me, and for the most part I
come home with money. Maybe not as well with every
now and then I come home with a bit more.
But yeah, you got to have your brains with you
(33:53):
because it's so easy to blow you out.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Oh so it's so it is because I've done it,
so I know I agree with the totally agreat.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Let me take my break. That'll give us about twelve
more minutes of time and the next thing, you know,
it's gonna be twenty twenty five. So let's talk the
final break of twenty twenty four for Nightside. Dan isn't here.
He'll be back tomorrow to stop the new year off right.
My name is Morgan with a time and temperature eleven
(34:26):
forty five and forty four degrees.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Imam Morgan Morgan White Junior. I'm joined by mister Peter Valley,
who for decades has been entertaining people that come to
Las Vegas as Big Elvis. And why the name Big
because at one point he weighed nine hundred pounds. He's
taken away a lot that weight. Is it around four
(35:02):
hundred pounds now, Pete? So about that weight more than
that's correct? All right? And he puts on a heck
of a show. Trust me, I'm not just giving you
hype because he's on. I'm not just giving you hype
because I want you to spend your money and go
see him. You can't spend your money. The show is free.
(35:24):
They serve drinks, and it suggested you buy a beverage,
but it could be a Coca Cola. Leave a five
dollar bill that buys your coke and gives the food
bartender and waitress a tip, and just be prepared to
be entertained. And Pete, with the time we have left,
you and I both know Elvis did around thirty movies,
(35:48):
thirty one, thirty two great right movie? Did you hear
he had the most fun filming? Because towards the end
it was like a mini machine. The plots were the
same except the titles were different. But which one did
he have the most fun spending six to eight weeks filming?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
You know you love Hawaii, so I would I would
definitely say what he from Blue Hawaii and then Paradise
A Lion style that was that was his favorite spot.
Hawaii was his favorite getaway, and toward the end of
his life, that was his last vacation. So I would
say those two movies he had a great time. And
that's what I heard through his bodyguard and stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
And you have spoken to people that were in Elvis's
sphere of travel, his bodyguard, good friends, musicians, and we
played on some of his music several of them. Yes,
tell me about some of those musicians.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
I talked to Stump, the guy was his drummer for
a while. He was a drummer. I've talked to some
of the inspiration and I've talked to your friends of
Jerry Chef's bass player, so you know, they all were
to tour with Elvis. I've talked to it's his bodyguards.
I met Joe Sposito. Linda Thompson's been at the show
(37:16):
a couple of times. I got to talk with her.
Uh So it's you know, they've talked about Elvis and
his life and and legacy. It's just been you know,
it's he was a phenomenal guy. You know, it's just
a great, great humanitarian and a great musician, and he
just he loved people, and you know, it's it's just
the guy was just a phenomenon. Like you said earlier,
(37:38):
he really was.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
And the rumors that he once gave a Cadillac to
a stranger, is that true?
Speaker 1 (37:48):
One hundred percent, one hundred percent true. I mean, lady
was browsing in the window around Christmas, and you know,
she she's like at the car, and you know, he
was she was poor. He could he could see it,
and he looked at her. He goes, like that car
and she goes, oh yeah, she goes that's it's a
beautiful car. He goes, you really like it? He goes yeah.
She goes, well, you know, I just bought it for you.
And she like him and didn't recognize him, and she
(38:11):
looked at him like he was, you know, out of
the out of the cycle word or something. And he
brought inside the dealership Morgan, and he bought the car
on the spot, and the dealer looked over and so
he goes, you know that is She goes no, because
she was just wasn't into Elvis, and she goes, that's Elvis, Presley.
He just bought you that car, and then he gave
her ten thousand dollars on top of it, said, Mary, you.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Had to pay taxes. You give somebody candy, they got
to pay the taxes on that.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
They got it, that's right. So he was. He was
a phenomenon he did. I could tell you stories all
night long about what he did, and some stories people
don't even know. The guy was just incredible.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
One give me one story right now, and that'll take
us up to wave goodbye times.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Here's a story that nobody knows. Elvis read this in
the newspaper about this lady in a really low part
attend the family. She was an older lady that didn't
have a wheelchair and they had no way to get
her around. So one morning Elvis's list, let's he went
about the most expensive electric wheelchair and he asked Sonny
West and the Red West and all the guys, how
(39:22):
much money do we have cash? And Elvis didn't carry cash,
so he had a credit card, you know, and they said, well,
we have the money. He goes, well, we're going to
go to the bank. So he went to the bank.
I forget how much it was, it's probably ten or
fifteen thousand bucks at the time, which back in those days,
that was this ridiculous amount of money. So he bought
the wheelchair and he went over there and once again
(39:44):
to start part to tell me, they didn't really recognize him.
And he who goes up to the door and they
answered the door and Elvis, you know, he asked the
name and stuff. He said yeah, and he said, well,
I've got something for you. So he pulls up this
wheelchair for this lady. And you know, the family came
out and they started crying, and the couple of them
(40:05):
recognized him and they said, why did you do this?
He goes, wow, He goes, I was poor once and
he goes, I wanted to help this your grandma, you know,
and he gave her the wheelchair and then he gave
it gave him the money, which was, like I said,
that was obnoxious amount of money at the time. I mean,
and this, and he told everybody, goes, if anybody calls
(40:26):
the newspaper. He didn't tell them that, but he told
his bodyguards. He goes, if anybody calls the newspapers, he goes,
your guys are going to get fired. Because he didn't
want the newspaper. He wanted, you know, people to know
what he did. So wow, and that right. I have
never heard that story obviously, I've heard told me, told me,
(40:47):
I told Suddy West told me that story, and that's
the true truth.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Sonny West. His nickname was Red and if you watch
the Wild Wild West TV series periodically, you see his
name in the credits. He would always play one of
the group of bad guys that would beat up Jim West,
or then he Jim West would beat up all of them,
(41:16):
three four, five of them. And he was a gentleman
that became a bodyguard to Elvis. And you see him
in the movie Roadhouse. He's one of the guys at
the end of the film that wind up shooting Ben
Cuzara's character Brad Wesley, and then all of them deny it.
(41:44):
We don't know what happened. We don't know how this happened.
And you see Patrick Swayze as his character just bleeding
from his arm and a fight he had just a
few minutes ago with Brad Wesley, and he's like, I
(42:05):
don't know what happened either, and that's how that movie ended.
That and Red West was one of the bad guys
and I forget his name, one of the guys from
Emergencies in that movie too. Pete, thank you for helping
me wave goodbye.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And your followers, come and see us.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
I will see you in the spring. It's a guarantee,
all right, my friend.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Thank you, Pete. Thank you to our first guest of
the night, Roger Doptoiz doptka Wits. Thank you to Ken Myers.
Thank you to Roger Dopkowitz. Nancy, thank you and thank
you Gray. You're around here somewhere. And whether you listened,
(42:56):
called or did both. Thank you fans of Nightside, you
get your danery back tomorrow. I do hope every one
of you has a happy, healthy and strong twenty twenty five.
That's from me. Morganwhake, Junior by Boston,
It's a night's Eyes with Dan Ray unknowing you crazy
Boston's news.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Radio one hour ago, to be more specific, fifty three
minutes or so to go before we wave goodbye to
twenty twenty four and hello to twenty twenty five. If
you're out and about Boston, all the things they have
(00:26):
for you, people celebrating First Night. And by the way,
if you didn't know, the history of First Night began
with Boston in nineteen seventy six. We were the first
city to do it and it caught on like wildfire. Everybody
after that started doing it, but we were the first.
(00:47):
So if you're out there tonight, yes, enjoy yourselves. Be careful,
pretty pretty please. I want to make sure that everybody
out there tonight has an enjoyable night, but a safe night, Okay,
and I thank you about that. Let's go back in
(01:09):
our memory. You gotta go back to and I'm not
sure the exact year. I think it was nineteen fifty
forty nine. I'll have my guests tell us once I
bring him in. And eventually, over the fifties into the sixties,
(01:30):
you're introduced to a gentleman who had tremendous talent. His
name Elvis Presley, and my next guest has made a
living mimicking Elvis in front of thousands of people every
(01:50):
year in Las Vegas. He does a show called Big Elvis.
If you are anywhere near Vegas for any length of time,
check out the show. You will be amazed at this
gentleman's talent, his voice. Close your eyes and you hear
Elvis Presley. His name is Peter Valley, and he's been
(02:15):
doing Big Elvis as his main act in Vegas several locations.
It's been at Harris Piano Bar Center Strip on the
Strip for a decade or more. He used to be
at Bill's Gambling Holland Saloon prior to that the Barbary Coast,
(02:40):
which was the same place, just a different name. And
I met him back in the early two thousands and
we built up a fast friendship. He's been kind enough
to let me do my trivia shtick as a break
on his show off and on for the past I
(03:01):
guess ten to fifteen years. Please welcome Big Elvis tonight's
side Tete, How are you doing really good?
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Happy New Year's to your Morgan and to your people
out there on the East Coast. From Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Happy New Years to you. What is Vegas doing to
celebrate New Years? All?
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Right? Now? The road on Las Vegas Boulevard is shut
down and they are going to do a massive firework
display off of all the top of a lot of
the casinos thro out the city.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Now, you live about thirty miles outside of the town, correct.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I do. I live out on the suburbs. It's a
sleepy little town called prompt but it's about forty minute drive.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
And the last place you want to be is anywhere
near the Las Vegas Strip on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
It's wall to wall people. I mean the strip is
closed off and you just say nothing, but you know
there's this mass people there.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, and who wants to be a part of that
if you live there? And I'm sure one of the
TV stations KLAH or one of the other stations are
covering it so you can watch it on TV and
it's almost like you're really there.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, all the local stations are covering it, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah. So do me a favorite. Tell your backstory of
how you get to be big Elvis.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Well, you know, it started probably back in nineteen seventy nine.
I was It's just a kid, I loved Elvis music.
I was fourteen and I was in a classroom where
a teacher really loved Elvis, and so, you know, I
started singing at church, but I started learning some of
the songs and one day afternoon I said, you know,
(04:58):
I know Elvis saying for her and she said, oh,
you've got to be in the talent contest. So she
he put me into being the talent contest in high school.
And what I went saying there, you know, it was infectious.
I knew that that's what I wanted to do totally.
And then a year later my mom said, you know what,
when we moved to Las Vegas, and see if that
(05:19):
can happen for you, you know, And that's kind of
how it all started.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
A lot of times an occupation chooses you, not the
other way around. And I'm guessing the power of performing
as Elvis chose you because you could do it. It did.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I naturally had a you know, my voice sounded a
lot like is so it just it did choose me.
And that's and people really like that kind of music.
They still do, but back then it was really an anomaly.
So it it took off, you know, just that's how
it all started.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Now, Hemden hard in the beginning about this, but when
is the birthdate of Elvis Presley?
Speaker 1 (06:09):
January the eighth of nineteen thirty five?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Okay, and I was way off when I said late forties,
but nineteen thirty five. And what I have tried tried
to do twice a year, every January, have you on
to celebrate his birth and every August to commiserate that
(06:37):
we lost him in August of what nineteen seventy five,
seventy seven, seventy seven. So I automatically call you to
book you around those two times every year.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You too, It's been really great. I mean, that's it's.
Elvis's legacies is unbelievable. You know.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So a lot of people saw that movie from a
couple of years ago and felt that reflected truthfully his history,
his legacy and his history. Well, anything that you know
of that did not get the proper spotlight.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
In that movie, well there's you know, there's several different things,
and of course, you know, to really do a biography,
you'd be you'd be you know in Elvis, you you
could go five or six hours easily. So they had
to admit obviously a lot of things, and there was
a lot of things in there that wasn't put in there,
(07:45):
but you know, it basically got the uh, the drift across.
It was done really well. I mean, the the the
gentleman that that he worked for two years studying somebody,
and he really fit the part well. And Tom Hanks,
I mean he speaks for himself. I think he's a
fablous actor, and he really you know, I had the
part of the colonel down the way he was so
(08:07):
and the sets were, you know, meticulous. The Hilton. I
actually was in the Hilton as you were. Morgan, Yes,
in the set right, So you probably realized when you
saw that the Hilton. I could not believe how close
that stage was replicated. It was the exact same stage
(08:28):
because I stood on that stage back in nineteen eighty
eighty two or eighty three, whatever it was. But to
make a long story short, the whole movie was done
really rather well, I thought, And it was it was
you know, like I say, some of it's Hollywood, but
a lot of it was really close to what happened.
And you know, like I said, the actors and the
(08:51):
sets and the kid that portrayed him, the young man,
he did a fabless shop. So it was and it
actually really got a new, you know, revital Elvis to
a lot of the younger kids a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
True, and it helped boost record sales when they re
released Elvis one.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
I've got a break to take, but when we come back,
you've had a movie career, and we'll talk about you
on the big screen. Anyone who wants to call in
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty or eight eight, eight,
nine to nine, ten thirty. I guarantee you. I guarantee you,
(09:35):
Pete will know whatever you bring up, so you're more
welcome to join us here on nights Side time and
temperature eleven fifteen forty four degrees.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Now back to Dan Way live from the Window.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
World Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Happy almost
New Year, everybody. This is Morgan's filling in for Dan.
Dan We'll be back tomorrow. This is his microphone. Every
now and then, I just get a chance to mind
it for him, and I am interviewing currently mister Peter
Valley aka Big Elvis. And before I take any phone calls, Pete,
(10:13):
you yourself have been in two movies if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Actually there's been there have been a two documentaries and
an actual movie.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Well then tell people about you on the big screen.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
A movie that was meaning about ten years ago was
a comedy with Connor pet who begin with files. It
was a takeoff of kind of a comedy kind of
like two cops that are kind of like Andy Griffith, right,
and I'm kind of the guy in the middle where basically,
(10:49):
you know, I get the women at the end of
the show and sing a bunch of songs and through
the whole thing, these guys are bumbling kind of sheriffs
in a small town and it's it's just really humorful.
I mean, to watch, it's funny, it's loving, it's endearing.
And the thing that was great about the movie was Morgan.
It was you know, really family fun, you know, I mean,
(11:09):
it was not swearing or not anything that was you know,
you know, it was really a clean film, kind of
like the way the Elvis movies were down in the sixties, right,
So it was it was fun, it was it was
a nice movie. And then the other two were you
were part of one of them. They were a documentary
that a nice gentleman out of Wisconsin has a company
(11:31):
and he put together a documentary in My Life. And
then the other one was for sun Dance with Robert
Redford and had Sam Elliott narrating. And it's a short
about fifteen minutes actually on the Sundance Festival, I think
in twenty eighteen, but it's called Big Elves fifteen minutes
short of it.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
So little did you know that when you snouted because
a Keidrin high school said you should injure a talent contest.
The many years later it's your living. You are doing
this infessionally.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah. And you know, here's the really irony Morgan if
somebody who said, you know, you'll be doing this forty
years from now. But I've never thought in a million
years this like you just said, this would have been
my entire life. I mean, I just am shocked that
this has become my entire career in the whole world,
you know.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And you have jumped both feet into this. You have
the jumpsuits that you that you wear. I don't know
how many of them you have, but I've seen you
in five different jumpsuits. How many do you have?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Right? Oh? Sure, I've got probably probably at least ten
now still like a lot of you know I've put away, but.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Okay, and you style your hair the way Elvis styled
his hair, the sideburns, the pompadour look. Every thing about
you screams Elvis.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
The first time. I've still got the hair to do that.
I've been tying that hair to them for forty years.
But you know what it just become. You know, somebody
said it best if you become that person long enough.
I mean, that becomes part of your personal not that
I think I'm Elvis or anything like that, but it
becomes part of you. If that makes sense, you know
(13:25):
what I mean.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
It does makes perfect sense. Let me take a phone call.
Invite more anyone who wants to call in. Here's your
chance to speak to a man who knows almost all
there is about the king of rock and roll. Mister Elvis, Presley, Howard,
and Randolph. You're up and you are talking with mister
Peter Valley aka Big Elvis.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Well happy in healthy new year, Morgan and mister Peter Valley,
Big Elvis. I'm a regular of Morgan's trivia shows, and
he always speaks very highly of you, with a lot
of affection and respect, and we always want to be
so often, you know, a segment on Elvis songs and
Elvis movies.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right, He's a great time. Morgan's a great guy.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
Pete. Let me tell you Howard has see me do
my show dozens and dozens of times, as you have
seen me do my show, and the people who are
in their twenties and thirties yet and still they know
the facts about Elvis, and I have to be right
(14:31):
on when I do a question about Elvis. I can't
be off by a title. I can't be off by
a song. And they catch me on it if I
dare make a mistake. Didn't you mean to say force
of habit instead of horse of habit? Not that I
(14:51):
ever made that mistake, but the point of it is,
if I do make a mistake. So I'm twenty something
and thirty something kid, it is going to tell me
I thought it was X and not Y. They know.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, no, it's unbelievable. I see it at the show
all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
And I'm going to tell you I've come out there
a couple of times where I didn't call you and
say I'm here. Can I do a break on on Wednesday.
I don't know when yet, when I'm going to be
out there sometime in the spring, and I will let
you know. And if you will allow me to, I'm
gonna letting me do a lot out there. Howard, did
(15:36):
you want to say anything else?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, Peter, what is your favorite elist movie?
Speaker 1 (15:43):
You know, there was a couple of them. I really
liked I think that and Elvis like too. And King
Creole was probably one of the one of the best
movies ever put out. It was it was made actually
for uh, Jimmy Dean and James Dean and or Marlon Brando,
and Elvis filled that role unbelievably and it really showed
(16:04):
the character that he had as a youngster, how he
could have really progressed have been a good actor. I
think the rest of them, by the ten of sixties,
of all the movie scripts just kept going down the hill,
you know what I mean, I think they were They're
getting worse and worse. But if you ever watched King Creole,
the movie was written by a director called Michael Curtis.
Was that guy was a huge Morgan You probably know
(16:26):
Michael Curtis was a great director for in the fifties.
And sixties and forties, so he was anyhow, Yeah, so
I mean it wasn't and he had Walter Matho behind him.
I mean, you know he had it's really Carolyn Jones.
I mean I think, who's the other guy, Dean Jagger
and just did The list goes on and on. So
he didn't have slouches for people underneath him. And his
(16:49):
acting ability, I mean, he was just as good as
any one of those actors. I think Elvis really really
could have been an unbelievable actor given the chance.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Elvis was a gift from God. He had just talent
oozing out of every pore for an old phrase that
I borrowed, because his singing voice better than any His
ability to capture your attention on the big screen, whether
he was in a scene with an actress like Anne
(17:25):
Margaret or he was up against somebody like Walter Mathow
who had great acting chops himself, Elvis could do it all.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
What's the question, Peter, are they doing anything for this
is every year's ninetieth birthday? Are you going to be
doing any kind of a special tribute above the MIGA
what you normally do?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
You know what? We work at different places, but every
time we work. On the eighth we do a tribute.
It's you know, not that we don't do it every day,
but we do, you know, all Elvis. At this other
club I've been playing, they have fan club show up
on the We do it on the sixteenth of August
for his passing, and then on the eighth of January
and they have all day Elvis music and then fans
(18:10):
show up and contests and kind of things like that.
So we always honor that. And I mean, of course,
you know it's in Vegas. It's a big thing. All
the different shows that are Elvis like there do the same.
I mean, it's you know, it's a huge celebration. This
year he would have been ninety years old, so it's
going to be a pretty big celebration, I think, Harris,
(18:33):
I've been working at this other club that the man,
actually the regional entertainment gentlemen made this club a couple
of years ago, you know, you bought it and remodel it.
It's called the Composer's Room. So I do play there
once in a while, other than Harris. For special events.
(18:55):
They sell tickets and you know, we have a band
and stuff like that. So it's a little bit more
expanded to what I do just at the Piano bar.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Where in Vegas is the Composers Club.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's on Sahara and right at Philas Vegas by the
Sahara Hotel. It's in the Commercial Center, but they've remodeled
it and it's a really really nice place now.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
So it's Commercial center, so.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Right, they have the lotuses I am that's went in there,
and they've got some really nice places going in there now.
They've redone that whole area that are down there, so
it's very nice.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
For a while, you necessarily weren't comfortable going through the
Commercial Center.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It was actually, you know, no, it was very rough
up until the last three or four years, and then
the city got involved and they've re you know, they've
they've really cleaned it up, and it's really nice places
in there now. So it's a very very nice area now.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Right Because you know me, I know my Vegas and
I just don't know your street, the streets that Sandwich
to the commercial Center and right up up until as
you say, the past four or five years, you had
to be aware of where you were, Yeah, walked through
(20:18):
and you kept your windows up and doors locked.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
You sure dead, Sure that was a rough spot.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Howard, do you have anything else that you want to
bring up?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
One last thing. God continued success to you. Peter and
Morgan also, and both have a happy and healthy New Year.
And I'll see you next year, Morgan.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I look forward to that, Howard, say you take care
all right? So Elvis is would have been ninety. Speculations
speculate had he not have we not lost him, what
(20:59):
would he be like at ninety? Would he still be
active or just sitting on his laurels, retired collecting royalties?
What would he be like?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Oh? Boy, you know what, it's hard to spect it.
I mean, had he been in good health still and
like lot there are people that are I'm sure he
would have done projects or have been behind projects. I
know he loved gospels, so you might have been in
the middle of that a little bit. You know. I
think if Elvis would have lived, you'd have brought a
(21:28):
lot more great music, if he could have got back
into acting, and you know who knows how I mean,
I know, at forty two years old had passed away,
he could have gave at least another twenty thirty years
with us. I mean you know, look at William Shatner,
so he could have went on for goodness knows how long,
you know.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And I just read somewhere where Dick Van Dyke just
turned ninety nine years old and still the video things
like a soft shoe.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yes, you did it. I can't do that now, give
me Paul, I.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Couldn't have done it twenty twenty five years ago. Tell
you what. Let me make my news hit. Anyone who
wants to speak to a gentleman who has personified everything
about Elvis Presley, and he does it three or four
nights a week in Las Vegas. It's his living, it's
(22:25):
his honor to do it for you, the people that
come to see him. So give a call six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two nine,
ten thirty. And when we come back, I'm gonna tell
Pete about a piece of Elvis memorabilia that I own.
(22:46):
Here we go. Time and temperature on night Side eleven
twenty no, correct that, eleven thirty forty seven degrees.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Time is a dwindling. We almost have run out of
time for twenty twenty four. My name is Morgan. I'm
filling in for Dan Ray. I've been here for the
past nine days filling in for Dan Ray. But he
Dan Ray will be here tomorrow. This is his microphone.
Nightside belongs to Dan, and Dan belongs to night Side,
So he'll be back tomorrow eight o'clock to midnight to
(23:29):
begin twenty twenty five. And Pete, I have in my possession.
I have a lot of memorabilia I've collected over the years.
And there was a poster that was put out when
Elvis first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. And on
that poster there's a shot of Elvis in his gold
(23:52):
lamet suit. It's a white poster with black lettering appearing
tonight at Sullivan Show, and the name Elvis Presley is
in red and see him, see him sing his hits
(24:13):
like hound Dog and Blue Sweight Shows and I forget
the third song that's mentioned if and I'm not going
to but if I were going to sell this, it's
a replica of an original poster. Do you have any
idea what that might be worth?
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Well, you know, it's almost like a thing, right it.
It depends on how many replicas are out there. If
it's varied in numbers where there's not many of them,
of course the price will go up. If they're been
copied in mass more than then you're looking at. You
know that, probably a lot less. So it would depend
(24:56):
on how many of you know, if you had the
original obviously be priceless, but they're having a copy. If
there's not many made, you could probably fetching decent money
for it, you know you I don't know the check.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
You could have said one hundred thousand dollars and I
would have said, wow, nice to know, but I wouldn't say, yeah,
that's my poster.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Well sure, and you know what, there's probably from what
you're telling me, I mean, and I'm just off the
top of my head. If they were made, they might
have been made a long long time ago, so there's
probably I'm guessing not a lot of those around.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Well, it's mine and I am not letting it go.
For an example, in the room from where I'm broadcasting,
I've got an original cell of Dumbo where he is
talking to Timothy the Mouse right there there it is.
I'm playing it against the wall. Have you seen that
(25:55):
Lost Vegas poster? It's got all all the old casinos
and the Marquee and a playing card representing eight different
Vegas hotels for a top for the bottom, and the
hotel from back in the old days, the Aladdin.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Riviera, Sounds of Area, the Sounds, Dunes, the Dunes, Silver Slipper,
Castaways all the while. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
And I liked that poster because it represents what Vegas was.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, I know, I remember in nineteen eighty when I
got to the first time when I was fifteen, But wow,
what a what a different place. And the field was
total it was a whole different place, you know, right,
it was the field Vegas was different and personal and
it was you know, like everything in the world's changed.
But it's now it's just like a like a mega
(26:56):
it's a Vegas city. It's just like you know, and
it feels so corporate and so everything is just you know,
it's it's behemoth, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
You know, it's so corporate. And yeah, there the newer
hotels like within the past ten years of Cosmopolitan.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
The d and right, I'm going to ask you a
trivia question.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Now that they've torn down the Tropicana, the Flamingo is
still the oldest hotel in the strip. What Hotel Casino
is second to the Flamingo?
Speaker 1 (27:35):
Oh jeez, I would have to say the Sahara that
could be very.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Has been torn down, Model changed, and it came back,
I mean continually up since they finished putting the last
brick in the wall.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Okay, I think I see what you're saying with what
has remained the same?
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Right?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well, this is gonna sound weird, but I would say Harrah's,
wasn't it? No, because I don't know you know what
you've got me?
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Okay, I'll tell you one second. But you mentioned Harris.
Harris used to be the holiday inn.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
I know that. I don't know that in the Model Ladies, right,
I remember.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
That Caesar's Palace is second to the Flamingo.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
I should have thought that.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Rating. Yeah, it's the same.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Sixties right exactly, because I've.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Been going to Vegas since nineteen seventy and it's not
the same. And I missed it the way it was
in the seventies and eighties as it is.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Now totally totally.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
It leaves a lot to be desired.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
No, Morgan, you know what anybody that I will tell
you this and this is from you know, being there
in with people all the time. Anybody that I talked to,
and I mean I would say ninety five percent of
the people that I talked to that have been to
Las Vegas the seventies, the eighties, very early nineties and
so forth, everybody says, oh, man, I wish it was.
(29:16):
Even the people that lived there that heard said, man,
I wish it was the way it was when we
first came here, or from what we've heard, I wish
it was the way it was in the seventies and eighties.
I heard that from everybody, and I since I lived
there in the eighties, I know, like you were visiting
all the time I lived there, So it was it
was a magical time. It was you know, it was
(29:38):
it's corporate, it was it was people. It was more personal.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
It was just much more personal.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You would be a fantastic place.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
You would go sit at the bar for a drink,
and the bartender would remember you from special even eight
years ago. Yes, exactly, the hotel staff, the fell at,
the people behind the front desk. Yeah, mister White, how
are you and you rarely see that anymore?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
No, No, well, everything that's kiosk and everything is you know,
checking out that things computer, what do you get everything?
I mean, there's people, but it's just it's it's like
going through an airport. I mean it really is. It's
they're just it's like any mega uh you know hotel.
The hotels look like hotels. I mean there's catinos in there,
but everything is all kioska. You know, you get your
(30:32):
ticket and you have waiters and stuff. But it's a
whole different feel. It's just it's just and the whole
world is like that now. But it's it's sad because
Vegas really had that personal touch at one time, just
really it really it enticed people to be here and
they and they comped a little bit. They gave a
little bit of drinks or whatever. I mean they gave
(30:53):
probably you can't expect the same miss today, but at
that time, you know, they comped and they gave your rooms,
they gave you food, and of course you gambled a
lot too. But that it used to be couple more.
But now it's it's just it's just not the same
all the way around.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
You know, I've got a personal question, and I know
you don't. I'll say, over gamble, by over gamble, you've
not lost your paycheck for the next three months. No,
how you maintain discipline not to over gamble. Everybody has
(31:32):
a different.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
Answle with you. No, I'll tell you. When I got
here in Vegas, back when it came back, was in
the like midnighteties, like ninety seven. I started gambling and
I you know, I had a friend of mine and
we you know, he turned me on to two dollar poker. Well,
you know, that was the worst that you could have done,
because you know, you have a couple of hits where
(31:53):
you hit, you know, four hundred bucks, you hit a
roll for what I think it was was four grand
or whatever. Right, that would happen. That would happen times.
And I thought, well, I'm going to get rich. And
then you know, I started losing my money all the time,
and I said, I got holy cow. And that went
on for about, I don't know, a couple of years,
(32:14):
and I said, you know, after a while, I was like,
you know, I'm getting beat up really bad all the time.
This this is going to stop. So over the years
I learned to take a little bit and gamble. But
then I started realizing, you know what, you're just losing
money and you're just giving it away, So it's got
to stop. So I finally, you know, once I finally
(32:35):
came to it. This is what I finally did morgan
once a year. I finally said, look, I'll take you know,
two three thousand dollars or whatever, and I'll go out
on the holidays and I'll go gamble and if it's gone,
it's gone or whatever. And then two years ago I
did that as a tradition and then I, you know,
this is what happened to me. This is not you know,
(32:57):
it doesn't reflect on anyone else. And they said to myself,
you know what, I feel bad about gambling this money
where I could have went the kids that needed, people
that need it or whatever. So then I started saying,
you know.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
What I'm going to do.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I'm not going to gamble anymore, but to give that
money to you know whatever, I'm not going to say OOO,
but I'll give it to praise that yes that I
know somebody is going to really be able to use
in a certific casino. So that's what ended up happening.
And for me, it's worked, you know, for others, I mean,
whatever works for whatever, or people enjoy gabblet that's your business,
(33:29):
you know. But yeah, that's how it did for me.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I come out once or twice a year. I bring
X dollars with me, and for the most part I
come home with money. Maybe not as well with every
now and then I come home with a bit more.
But yeah, you got to have your brains with you
(33:53):
because it's so easy to blow you out.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Oh so it's so it is because I've done it,
so I know I agree with the totally agreat.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Let me take my break. That'll give us about twelve
more minutes of time and the next thing, you know,
it's gonna be twenty twenty five. So let's talk the
final break of twenty twenty four for Nightside. Dan isn't here.
He'll be back tomorrow to stop the new year off right.
My name is Morgan with a time and temperature eleven
(34:26):
forty five and forty four degrees.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Imam Morgan Morgan White Junior. I'm joined by mister Peter Valley,
who for decades has been entertaining people that come to
Las Vegas as Big Elvis. And why the name Big
because at one point he weighed nine hundred pounds. He's
taken away a lot that weight. Is it around four
(35:02):
hundred pounds now, Pete? So about that weight more than
that's correct? All right? And he puts on a heck
of a show. Trust me, I'm not just giving you
hype because he's on. I'm not just giving you hype
because I want you to spend your money and go
see him. You can't spend your money. The show is free.
(35:24):
They serve drinks, and it suggested you buy a beverage,
but it could be a Coca Cola. Leave a five
dollar bill that buys your coke and gives the food
bartender and waitress a tip, and just be prepared to
be entertained. And Pete, with the time we have left,
you and I both know Elvis did around thirty movies,
(35:48):
thirty one, thirty two great right movie? Did you hear
he had the most fun filming? Because towards the end
it was like a mini machine. The plots were the
same except the titles were different. But which one did
he have the most fun spending six to eight weeks filming?
Speaker 1 (36:11):
You know you love Hawaii, so I would I would
definitely say what he from Blue Hawaii and then Paradise
A Lion style that was that was his favorite spot.
Hawaii was his favorite getaway, and toward the end of
his life, that was his last vacation. So I would
say those two movies he had a great time. And
that's what I heard through his bodyguard and stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
And you have spoken to people that were in Elvis's
sphere of travel, his bodyguard, good friends, musicians, and we
played on some of his music several of them. Yes,
tell me about some of those musicians.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
I talked to Stump, the guy was his drummer for
a while. He was a drummer. I've talked to some
of the inspiration and I've talked to your friends of
Jerry Chef's bass player, so you know, they all were
to tour with Elvis. I've talked to it's his bodyguards.
I met Joe Sposito. Linda Thompson's been at the show
(37:16):
a couple of times. I got to talk with her.
Uh So it's you know, they've talked about Elvis and
his life and and legacy. It's just been you know,
it's he was a phenomenal guy. You know, it's just
a great, great humanitarian and a great musician, and he
just he loved people, and you know, it's it's just
the guy was just a phenomenon. Like you said earlier,
(37:38):
he really was.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
And the rumors that he once gave a Cadillac to
a stranger, is that true?
Speaker 1 (37:48):
One hundred percent, one hundred percent true. I mean, lady
was browsing in the window around Christmas, and you know,
she she's like at the car, and you know, he
was she was poor. He could he could see it,
and he looked at her. He goes, like that car
and she goes, oh yeah, she goes that's it's a
beautiful car. He goes, you really like it? He goes yeah.
She goes, well, you know, I just bought it for you.
And she like him and didn't recognize him, and she
(38:11):
looked at him like he was, you know, out of
the out of the cycle word or something. And he
brought inside the dealership Morgan, and he bought the car
on the spot, and the dealer looked over and so
he goes, you know that is She goes no, because
she was just wasn't into Elvis, and she goes, that's Elvis, Presley.
He just bought you that car, and then he gave
her ten thousand dollars on top of it, said, Mary, you.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Had to pay taxes. You give somebody candy, they got
to pay the taxes on that.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
They got it, that's right. So he was. He was
a phenomenon he did. I could tell you stories all
night long about what he did, and some stories people
don't even know. The guy was just incredible.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
One give me one story right now, and that'll take
us up to wave goodbye times.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
Here's a story that nobody knows. Elvis read this in
the newspaper about this lady in a really low part
attend the family. She was an older lady that didn't
have a wheelchair and they had no way to get
her around. So one morning Elvis's list, let's he went
about the most expensive electric wheelchair and he asked Sonny
West and the Red West and all the guys, how
(39:22):
much money do we have cash? And Elvis didn't carry cash,
so he had a credit card, you know, and they said, well,
we have the money. He goes, well, we're going to
go to the bank. So he went to the bank.
I forget how much it was, it's probably ten or
fifteen thousand bucks at the time, which back in those days,
that was this ridiculous amount of money. So he bought
the wheelchair and he went over there and once again
(39:44):
to start part to tell me, they didn't really recognize him.
And he who goes up to the door and they
answered the door and Elvis, you know, he asked the
name and stuff. He said yeah, and he said, well,
I've got something for you. So he pulls up this
wheelchair for this lady. And you know, the family came
out and they started crying, and the couple of them
(40:05):
recognized him and they said, why did you do this?
He goes, wow, He goes, I was poor once and
he goes, I wanted to help this your grandma, you know,
and he gave her the wheelchair and then he gave
it gave him the money, which was, like I said,
that was obnoxious amount of money at the time. I mean,
and this, and he told everybody, goes, if anybody calls
(40:26):
the newspaper. He didn't tell them that, but he told
his bodyguards. He goes, if anybody calls the newspapers, he goes,
your guys are going to get fired. Because he didn't
want the newspaper. He wanted, you know, people to know
what he did. So wow, and that right. I have
never heard that story obviously, I've heard told me, told me,
(40:47):
I told Suddy West told me that story, and that's
the true truth.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Sonny West. His nickname was Red and if you watch
the Wild Wild West TV series periodically, you see his
name in the credits. He would always play one of
the group of bad guys that would beat up Jim West,
or then he Jim West would beat up all of them,
(41:16):
three four, five of them. And he was a gentleman
that became a bodyguard to Elvis. And you see him
in the movie Roadhouse. He's one of the guys at
the end of the film that wind up shooting Ben
Cuzara's character Brad Wesley, and then all of them deny it.
(41:44):
We don't know what happened. We don't know how this happened.
And you see Patrick Swayze as his character just bleeding
from his arm and a fight he had just a
few minutes ago with Brad Wesley, and he's like, I
(42:05):
don't know what happened either, and that's how that movie ended.
That and Red West was one of the bad guys
and I forget his name, one of the guys from
Emergencies in that movie too. Pete, thank you for helping
me wave goodbye.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
And your followers, come and see us.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
I will see you in the spring. It's a guarantee,
all right, my friend.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
Thank you, Pete. Thank you to our first guest of
the night, Roger Doptoiz doptka Wits. Thank you to Ken Myers.
Thank you to Roger Dopkowitz. Nancy, thank you and thank
you Gray. You're around here somewhere. And whether you listened,
(42:56):
called or did both. Thank you fans of Nightside, you
get your danery back tomorrow. I do hope every one
of you has a happy, healthy and strong twenty twenty five.
That's from me. Morganwhake, Junior by Boston,
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