30th September 1956, Sunday

[Graeme]

Day number 7937Site Date Map

Yesterday << 30th September 1956, Sunday >> Tomorrow

[ColinB]

Elvis, cousin Gene Smith & Nick Adams fly to Los Angeles where Elvis & Gene check into the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel.

Sporting Police Badge he received yesterday
		With Barbara Hearn
	With Gene Vincent & Paul Peek	With Gene Smith & Nick Adams

[Alan]

      
Text from The Rebel & The King by Nick Adams
      
I hated to leave Memphis because it introduced me to a happy home and family that made me feel glad to be alive to know that such people
existed like the Presley family. As we drove toward the airport I felt like I was leaving the happiest eight days of my life back there in the house on Audubon Drive. My only consolation was that when I left, Mrs. Presley hugged me and said, “You come back home with Elvis when he comes, because we love you like a son.”
      
The airport was packed with people and they all kept yelling, “Hurry back home, Elvis and Nick.” And it made me feel as though this were my own hometown. We said goodbye again at the gate to the plane and Elvis said, “Bye, Mamma, Daddy. I'll call you as soon as we land.”
      
We walked toward the plane, up the steps and a few minutes later we saw Memphis from the air. I can’t ever remember feeling so bad when I left a place. I had the blues the whole trip.
      
Everyone in the plane recognized Elvis and so the entire trip for him was spent signing autographs and answering everyone the questions they asked of him and he never gets bored either. Elvis stands and talks to his fans sometimes for an hour or two, and he tells them anything and everything they want to know. I don’t think that in the entire history of show business there has ever been anyone who has been more loyal to his fans.
      
We stopped over in Dallas for about twenty minutes and got off the plane long enough to be mobbed by a couple of hundred people and we nearly missed the plane because Elvis was busy signing autographs. Just before boarding the plane Elvis obliged a couple of stewardesses by posing for a picture with them.
      
We didn’t sleep much on the way to Los Angeles. Elvis and I stayed up and talked about a lot of things. I feel good after talking to Elvis. He’s got a good head on his shoulders and you know he speaks the truth.
      
Just before landing at International Airport in Los Angeles, an old lady came out of the ladies room and was sort of stumbling around in the dimly lighted airplane, looking for her seat. Elvis was the only one in that entire plane that jumped up and helped her find her seat.
      
We were mobbed again at the airport and we finally managed to get a cab and off we headed toward the Beverly Wilshire hotel where Gene and Elvis were staying and where my car was. Hollywood still looked the same and even though I like it better than anyplace else, I thought to myself, how I would rather be back in Memphis.
      

      

[Private Presley]