Elvis’ Outfit to Go Incognito Was ‘One of the Funniest Things’ His Bodyguard Had Ever Seen
A major part of Elvis Presley’s legacy is his outfits. Elvis’ heavily rhinestoned jumpsuits and oversized sunglasses are a key part of his image. Sometimes, though, he used clothing as a way to hide from the public. Elvis was so famous that he couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized. He once tried to go incognito with the police, but his choice of outfit was so outrageous that it only made him stand out more.
Elvis’ outfit to go undercover was so outrageous that his bodyguard couldn’t help but laugh
Elvis liked ingratiating himself with local police departments whenever he traveled. He also had many friends in the Memphis police department, as he spent much of his downtime in the city. Because of these connections, Elvis once had the opportunity to tag along on a drug bust.
Elvis prepared to go incognito by donning a jumpsuit, a snowsuit, a ski mask with holes for his mouth and eyes, and a hat. He topped off the look with a gun at his hip and a cigar in his mouth. The resulting look was anything but inconspicuous.
“Jesus,” bodyguard Dave Hebler said in the book Elvis: What Happened?, “you may not have noticed him before, but now he looks like a damn neon sign. It took an amazing amount of self-control to keep myself from laughing. It was, honestly, one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It was hysterical. The narc cop arrives and doesn’t take any notice of this bizarre outfit. In Memphis, they are pretty used to this sort of stuff from Elvis.”
Hebler said Elvis looked so ridiculous that he almost felt like he’d entered a different reality.
“Anyway, I get in the back of the narc’s car, and Elvis and the cop are in the front. I am cracking up, man. I can’t hold it in any longer,” he said, adding, “I had to pretend I was laughing at something else. Anyway, apparently the drug bust had already gone down. So we go into the police station. The sight of Elvis was wild, man. It was like I had fallen down a well, and there is a rabbit and he invited me on a raid and suddenly I made it to Wonderland.”
Elvis didn’t end up needing the outfit
Hebler believed it was a good thing that Elvis wasn’t present for the drug bust. He was using so much energy trying not to laugh that he would have had a hard time keeping the musician safe.
“Apparently the drug bust when it happened was pretty funny,” he said. “They grab these guys and they make a break for it. One of the cops goes to fire a shotgun, and it doesn’t go off, and then the getaway car runs over a cop’s foot. Just as well Elvis wasn’t there. In that crazy outfit, I don’t think I could have controlled myself.”
He tried to stare down the suspects when they got to the station, but he likely wasn’t all that intimidating.
“At the police station, we sat around shooting the breeze to these cops, and Elvis was baking in that outfit. It was like a sauna bath,” Hebler said. “He gives the two suspects his Duty Harry look, and that’s about all that happened.”
The musician liked dramatic clothing
While this particular outfit was not a hit, Elvis’ jumpsuits have become an iconic part of his image. These were heavy, jewel-encrusted looks that defined Elvis’ career in the 1970s.
“He wasn’t going to go out there in a tux or a suit,” Graceland archivist Angie Marchese told Commercial Appeal. “He needed something special. He was Elvis.”
