Last bit on EL
Last bit on EL
Last thing I know on Elvis, and I think I should say it. I met and talked to Elvis for a few moments in front of the PX at Grafenvehr. He was in a jeep. I got his autograph for my two younger sisters. I was embarrassed to ask for it and he was embarrassed to do it for me. What really amazed me about him was how stunningly good looking he was. He was also very slim. Apparently cameras add 20 or 30 pounds to your appearance. But what I really noticed were his hands and fingers. They were delicate, with long straight fingers like a concert piano player. He looked nothing like he did in the movies.
Oh yeah, when he went into the snack bar for a hamburger, the German girls who were working there rioted and attacked him like banshees. He was wearing a pancho without a name tag and thought he might go unrecognized. Never happened. The girls knew he was around somewhere and spotted him in an instant. Believe it or not, it was a dangerous encounter. They were looking to tear his hair out, or dig up pieces of his skin to keep. They chased him out to his jeep, and he needed much help to escape getting mauled.
It was then that I understood why he wouldnt go out in public for the rest of his life.
He had already stopped doing concerts soon after an appearance at the International Amphitheater in Chicago, before he went into the service. A neighborhood pal who was working as an usher at the event got knocked cold trying to stop the swarm of girls who rushed the stage. They were wiping their panties on the dirt floor of the stage that he had walked on. My friend, Big Anthony, Race Track Phil's cousin, got conked on the head by some girls purse. He made the evening news as they showed him getting carried out on a stretcher. Anthony was about 6'2 and weighed about 240. We guessed the girl must have had a bowling ball in her purse.
Beard
