George Klein: “I’ll Never Forget It.”

Elvis and his buddies in high school

George Klein and Elvis Presley

George Klein, high school friend, Memphis DJ:

Very first memory and recollection of Elvis was 1948, Humes High School music class. It was Christmastime, and the teacher invited some of the students if they wanted to to get up in front of the class and sing. I’ll never forget it. I was on the right hand side of the room, Elvis was on the left. I was amazed that someone could get up with a guitar and sing, sing two country songs, and I’ll never forget it. We didn’t even want to be in the class because we were learning about the three B’s, Brahms, Beethoven and Bach, and here was a guy that could not only sing but play a guitar at the same time, and I was totally amazed. That was my first great impression of Elvis. He would dress differently. Whereas everybody else would wear T shirts and jeans to school, Elvis would wear maybe a sport coat with the collar turned up, or a pair of black pants with a white stripe down the side. And also, if you look at Elvis’ high school pictures, you’ll notice his hair was long, or longer than the Beatles when they came over in 64. He was the only guy in high school with long hair and sideburns. I had no earthly idea that he would ever become a professional singer. The only inkling I had was a senior class talent show which he won. I remember I was on the front row and it was a funny thing because all through high school some of the guys had been kidding Elvis and giving him a hard time because of the way he dressed and the way he wore his hair. That happens in school but it was a funny thing, I’ll never forget that night of the talent show. It was like, ‘Hey, this guy – he took the kidding in good nature, he’s a good guy’ and all the people who’d been kidding and ripping him in high school were on the front row cheering for him. All the football players who had been kidding him all these last couple of years in high school, they were all there hollering and screaming for him, and he won the talent show, and it was a great feeling for him. Elvis said that he did the Ed Sullivan show and when he came off, went into his dressing room, there was a girl who was on the show, a big actress, a dancer, and she sexually harassed him if you will, in the dressing room, but he enjoyed it. He was having a great time. He said, too, that he was very impressed by Ed Sullivan. He said Mr. Sullivan was very nice and kind to him, that he had gone to Mr. Sullivan’s house for dinner, they got to know each other before the first show. Elvis didn’t know in advance that they were gonna shoot him from the waist up. I think that would have upset him had he known that, and he probably at that point of his career – he was starting to express points of situations – Before, he kept very quiet. But when he started making those big time network TV shows, Elvis started giving his ideas and his input, and I think had he told them that they were only gonna shoot him from the waist up, he might have complained a little bit. Elvis wasn’t a complainer, but he might have said something to Colonel Parker about it, but I think the best thing to do with Elvis was to let him do his thing and then afterwards discuss it with him, and that’s what they did. Elvis was pretty smart about show business. He really analyzed things. He thought at first that it was kind of ridiculous and silly but after talking to Colonel Parker he realized it was a great ploy.