can you think of actors that you've worked with some of the more surreal experiences elvis presley
king creole was that a little bit of a different movie to work on well that was acting for me you
know i was playing maxi fields the gangster what was your your impressions of elvis well
actually he was a very modest kid or at least he behaved that way with me and uh very polite
the first thing he said to me was mr matthau he said if you could help me out this acting
i sure would appreciate it and i said elvis i've seen you hack you don't need any help from me
well i have a one question about your stand-up days uh when you're in las vegas is it true
that elvis presley came and visited you backstage yes yes he i was opening the show for ann margret
and he knew anne margaret and he came backstage and he passed by me in the
hall and he looked at me and he said son you have an oblique sense of humor
what was your reaction to that i was just like thank you mr presley
whitney you're a mother quite a singer in her own right now she was a member of the
sweet inspirations group that backed up elvis presley now what memories do you have of that
i remember when um
i remember when i was i don't really know how old i was at the time but i remember my mother
uh receiving a phone call from whomever elvis had employed to call people with
and saying that he wanted the sweets back to do his comeback show in vegas
i remember my mother being very enthusiastic about it but very concerned that she'd have to leave her
children for a month and i remember her she was so like you know well you know her whole her whole
thing was you know mommy loves you and mommy wants to stay home but mommy's got to go to work to make
sure that you have this and make sure that you all take well taken care of so me and daddy have to go
and we you know my my father was my mother's manager me and daddy have to go and you know
that whole thing and i just remember how she was leaving how she really didn't want to leave
us you know but she had to go and i remember that month and i remember all the hoopla about elvis in
vegas and i was so proud that my mother was there with him you know because it was a very big event
i'm the kid who kicks elvis in the shins that's what i've done with my life i guess
it was uh really the only reason i had a chance at it was um
a casting woman named joyce selznick who said i think
i think i've got an idea for this i think i got an idea of a guy who could play it and
joyce and i knew each other from having met with each other five or six times
on different projects i'd never done a show never been hired by choice and it was basically her idea
and and it worked into working i know you've always been fascinated with elvis presley uh if
you could if he was still alive and you two were to sit down like what would you talk about i don't
know you know one of the things that's fascinating about elvis is uh is how he became consumed by
fame and how fame destroyed him that's one of the things that's fascinating i mean i mean i
have the regular fan thing too you know i like the jailhouse rock number but uh what's fascinating
about him as i've become older you know and it's gotten past you know oh he looks he's cool elvis
it's like wow everything you know and how the people around him just let him destroy himself and
and how he was still famous and then after he's dead then you hear all of this stuff you know it's
like wow all that was going on we was thinking he was super cool elvis you know so it was just
it's just elvis is fascinating just because it's like this is what fame can do to you now