Jerry Schilling, Elvis Presley
One of my favorite insights into Elvis Presley comes from his good friend Jerry Schilling (he who was the one who accompanied Presley on his famous visit to Washington to meet President Nixon and … give Nixon a gun as a present … because of course that’s what you do when you meet the President. You knock on the White House door at 6 o’clock in the morning and say, “I’d like to give this gun to the President as a token of my appreciation.”). Schilling was a member of the “Memphis Mafia”, to be sure, but his background was a bit different than the others, as well as his political leanings, and the other guys always suspected that he was a Liberal Commie Pinko in secret. Presley ran with a more conservative crowd. But Elvis loved and trusted Jerry, and Jerry is still one of the go-to guys for information and anecdotes in any Elvis documentaries. Many of those guys cannot be trusted now, their memories are tainted by self-interest and guilt (as Dave Marsh says in his bibliography in his Elvis book: many of these guys are now the “It’s not my fault” guys – so take their word on Elvis with a huge pound of salt), but Schilling is not one of those guys. He had grown up a bit damaged, never really had a home as a child, and Elvis took him in. Bought him a home in Los Angeles (where Schilling still lives), saying to him, “Jerry, you never had a home growing up. I want you to have one.” Traveling with the Elvis entourage (he was a late-joiner, came on in the 60s) was eye-opening for him. There’s a funny story about him sleeping on the couch at Elvis’ house in Hollywood, when suddenly, middle of the night, the front door opens. Jerry is freaked out. Who is it? A woman strolls across the room and goes and knocks on Elvis’ bedroom door. Jerry has no idea who she is, how did she get in, why does she have a key, what is going on, so he calls out to her, “Miss?” scaring her half to death. She screams at the top of her lungs. Elvis opens his bedroom door, in tears of laughter, having heard the scream, and says, “Jerry, relax, it’s just Annie.” (As in Ann-Margret.) Jerry was mortified. Elvis thought it was the funniest thing and told everyone about it the next day: Jerry interrogating Ann-Margret in the middle of the night as though she was a burglar.
Jerry Schilling had the following to say about Elvis’ character, and it’s sort of lost in the shuffle of Peter Guralnick’s book, and I think it’s very important. Like I said, I trust Jerry Schilling’s opinion. His relationship with Elvis was purer than most, although many of the same rules still applied. He talks about comforting Priscilla once in the middle of an argument she was having with her husband, and Elvis’ rage when he found out, and how crushed Jerry was by all of it. He was just trying to help. Elvis said, “Don’t ever speak to Priscilla behind my back.” Etc. Jerry was in tears. Elvis came to him later that day and apologized. They loved each other.
There’s so much dirt out there about Elvis that I’ve certainly had enough of it. Enough. If by “dirt” you mean womanizing, then I think you need to get out more. The man was a sex symbol. Why is his womanizing somehow … unique? If by “dirt” you mean being addicted to prescription drugs, well then welcome to America where that is the #1 addiction in the land. Elvis hasn’t quite gone through the character assassination that, say, Joan Crawford did on the heels of her ingrate daughter’s vicious book, but something similar has occurred. Not with the fans, of course, but at least in the cultural consciousness. Can we still not forgive him for being human? Is that it? What did Elvis Presley ever do that was just so beyond-the-pale wrong? Punching a gas station attendant once? Making the mistake of dying too young? For real? Cheating on his wife? Meeting her when she was 14? But listen to her side of the story. Trust her side. Trust those who loved him over those who wanted something from him (although, granted, those lines can blur).
On to the quote.
Jerry Schilling on Elvis:
[Elvis] knew I was sensitive, and sometimes he’d get pissed at the other guys just because they’d been around so long – but then he’d wink at me, like, “Don’t worry about it.” After a while I realized he was almost as shy as I was; there were days when he would just brood over things, because he was so unhappy with the reality of his accomplishments. Then one day you’d see nothing but anger – and I’ve never seen anyone with an anger stronger than his. If he had been just a nice guy, I don’t know if I would have loved him as much, the fact was that he had all this power; he had such extreme power that he could have gotten away with anything at this point. And yet he chose to be sensitive – most of the time. And those times that he didn’t, you knew that they were very important to really understanding him.
Read those words again. “And yet he chose to be sensitive – most of the time.”
A choice. Taking enormous self-control due to his natural tendencies towards rage and anger. He held it in check. He made a choice. The majority of stories about him are about his politeness, his kindness, his generosity, and what a good listener he was. This was not an act, even though it was a choice. It was his desire to do his best on this planet, and to be someone who would make his mother proud. Very few people operate in this space, let alone stars, who often are allowed to get away with murder. Elvis Presley got away with a lot, it is true, he had been famous from the time he was 19 years old. But he realized his potential for “turning” (he spoke of it in interviews as early as 1955, of doing his best to not let fame “turn” him), and so made a choice. Every day made a choice. A lifetime of people saying “He was the kindest person I’ve ever met’, “He was the sweetest gentlest man” is not a lie foisted upon us by an entitled star pulling the wool over our eyes.
As Lisa Marie said in an interview once, “With my father, what you saw was what you got.”
This is hard for mere mortals to understand, because the image of Elvis is so mythic. There’s no mystery? No hidden truth? What you saw was what you got? Our desire to look for the dirt underneath is somewhat compulsive in our culture, especially with our beloved icons. Especially with our beloved icons who disappoint us by dying too young.
But my sense of Elvis was that he was always doing his best. Of course he didn’t succeed in every moment, which of us do, but that the attempt to be kind, be patient, be sweet, was always present for him. Not because he was a gentle saint, but because he knew the potential for going the other way was titanic in him. He understood his own worst qualities and worked to do his best against them. Those who loved him saw that.
You’re gonna see that suit! That very suit!
Ha! I know!!
Going to the White House and giving the President a gun is so 20th century.
Imagine a rapper trying to do that today.
It was not beyond-the-pale wrong for Elvis to want to be recognized by Nixon as a “Federal Agent-at-Large” for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, with a badge (he collected them), but it was weird and did real damage to his brand (as they say these days) with millions of young people then.
The Elvis/Nixon meeting was not publicized at the time, Jack Anderson broke the story 11 months later .
Tha National Security Archive at George Washington University has several original documents related to the Elvis/Nixon meeting, including a handwritten letter from Elvis to Nixon requesting the “appointment.”
Elvis wanted this to be “kept very private,” which it was for a while.
Devtob – your comment got caught in moderation because of the links.
The whole Nixon-Elvis meeting is SO AWESOME to me. It is SO PUNK ROCK.
If Elvis was saying stuff like “I have done in-depth studies of drug abuse and Communist brain-washing techniques” just so he could add a badge to his collection, that would be pre-punk awesome.
You know Elvis pretty well — did he ever tell anyone that this was an ironic stunt?
Oh, no. No irony. It was 100% sincere. Which is why I think it’s punk rock. It was also fueled by speed, and the fact that he probably hadn’t slept for 3 or 4 days. The whole thing is so insane. And that he hugged Nixon – he couldn’t stop himself – just reached out and hugged him. It had to be the weirdest day in the White House. “Excuse me, but was Elvis Presley and all of his buddies just here this morning? What the hell was THAT?”
He needed a badge. That was his thing. He was addicted to those damn badges. HE NEEDED A BADGE. PRESIDENT NIXON CAN GET ME A BADGE.
You’re also going to see the badges! CAN YOU TELL I’M EXCITED? I’M SO EXCITED!
hahahaha Counting the days, Lisa!!
I knew Jerry Schilling in college where we were good friends- he played football,me a cheerleader- at least 100 years ago- but seems like yesterday. Jerry was quite the gentleman who started out playing flag football with Elvis, never expecting anything, but friendship. Nice memories.
This is one of my favorite entries. I love this article not so much for the entire badge episode, but that it is a gentle reminder of the character of Elvis. This aspect certainly gets lost in the Elvis myth. I blame much of this natural reaction to think ill of him on Goldman, which not only painted a very mischaracterized portrait of Elvis, but once that book was published, gave license to those other ‘friends’ to just pour more oil on that fire. How Jerry was able to stay quiet for so long and continue to forge a different, truer path at EPE and the ‘myth’ is amazing. It could have been so easy to just jump on that bandwagon and rat out his friend. I often wonder if Jerry ever felt taken for granted by some biographers who were so less kind in their rendition of Elvis’s life. It would seem that a man who worked so hard to preserve Elvis’s image would be very sensitive to those less than truthful portraits of his friend.
Elvis was lucky to have a friend like Jerry. I’m not one to read comments at the end of an article, much less post a comment but the readers and posters seemed to care about Elvis and this friendship. Jerry is as caring and nice as it sounds. He also had a strong caring friendship wit Carl Wilson, who was also a great person.
ELVIS AND ANN MARIE CUT FIRST SLICE OF THEIR WEDDING CAKE OVER THE YEARS HE BECAME MY FATHER HUSBAND AND VERY GOD ANN MARIE LOUISE WHITE IN SMALL PRIVARTE CEREMONY ON MAY 1. 1967 IN LAS VEGAS NEVADA ELVIS MARRIED HIS CILLA A CARAT DIAMOND A GOLD BAND THE BRIDE WORE A WHITE SILK ORGANZA GOWN ADORNED WITH SEED PEARLS AND AIX TOPPED WITH A BLACK BROCADE JACKER AND MATCHING VERT AT A CHAMPAGNE BREAKFAST RECEPTION FOLLOWING THE NUP TIALS ROAST SUCKING PIG SOTHERM FRIED CHICKEN AND OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER WERE SERVED AS WELL AS A FIVE FOOT SIX TIER WEDDING CAKE ON FEBRUARY 1. 1968 ELVIS DAUGHTER LISA MARIE WAS BORN EXACTLY NINE MONTHS TO THE DAY AFTER THE WEDDING THE WITH THE KING DOTED ON HIS PRECIOUS GIRL SHOWERING HER WITH LOVE AND GIFTS AT EVERY OPPORTTUNITY TRAGICALLY ELVIS AND ANN MARIE WERE DIVORCED IN 1973.
I have read a lot on Elvis in the last year.Never really was a big fan but had several friends and aunts who were I graduated in 77 was seventeen liked Bon Jovi ,Kiss and oddly John Denver but knew of his songs and the great shows he put on became wanting to know more after his death.Always thought he was strange in wanting to stay like a recluse but figured he never lived a normal life due to his fans everyone wanted a picture taken with him,and knowing he never got rest even at home I thought what or who would want that kind of life the more books I read the more I became enthusaed and wanting to know more .For him to be surrounded by so many people how could he not be happy but when you look at most pictures his face shows deep thought and sometimes in a depression mode.You have to pick which book is telling the truth and which ones are not.I actually felt sorry for his dr. nick about the whole suing deal and how he lost a lot but says he would do it again just to have Elvis back and yes he would try a lot harder to talk to him about his life but dr, nick seems to have still came out on top he and his family might have lost a lot but he said he would never change anything other than talking more to Elvis on certain things. All of his friends have written books some good some sound like fiction in their own worlds back to we have to chose whos telling the truth and whos not I seen where know Ginger is even writing their last months together and yes I’ll read her book too. In the end we all to be happy need GOD in our lives to be happy not saying Elvis didn’t but in the end it was his choice to change .He was a great performer and man but he also was a human being and saying that we all fail at some point we just have to get back up would love to see how and what he would be today .
Everything I’ve heard Jerry Schilling say has been nothing but respectful of the King, our beloved King. But more importantly he speaks respectfully about Elvis the man. As Elvis once said ‘the man is one thing, the image is another’. It is heartbreaking to hear the negatives put out there by his supposed friends for their profit only. We are all many things but we are all human first. God gave us a gift. Gifts are to be treasured. I was lucky enough to see an Elvis show in the early 70’s, that is a gift I will treasure forever. Thank you Jerry for relaying the truth of who Elvis was. Very classy.
Enjoyed reading Jerry’s book. Dedicating one’s life to Elvis like Jerry did says a lot about how close their friendship was.