Elvis Presley Acted Like a ‘Spoiled Kid’ on His 41st Birthday: ‘It Was a Nightmare’
Elvis Presley spent his 41st birthday upset with his entourage. He took his group of friends and employees to Colorado for a ski trip and spent much of their time together in a miserable mood. After a disappointing birthday celebration, he scolded his friends. One bodyguard said he behaved like a spoiled child.
Elvis Presley spent 1 birthday terrorizing his entourage
After a draining run of performances, Elvis brought his entourage to Colorado for what everyone hoped would be a relaxing vacation. Instead, the trip was incredibly stressful.
“He took us to Vail, Colorado, for what he said was going to be a dream vacation,” bodyguard Sonny West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “Well, it was a nightmare. He was heavy into pills.”
Elvis stayed in separate accommodations from his entourage. As a result, they weren’t there when he had his birthday cake, which Elvis did not appreciate.
“On January 8, it was his birthday,” West said. “We drove up to Vail in a bus and we congratulated him on his forty-first birthday that night. Well, Linda [Thompson] got a cake, but we were staying in another condominium, so we didn’t know she was going to present it to him. Well, she did and he called a big meeting complaining about none of the bodyguards being there. He was like a spoiled kid.”
Elvis Presley spent his birthday recounting the plot of a movie
His bodyguards didn’t miss much. The people who were present for cake — Thompson, Jerry Schilling, and Myrna Smith — said Elvis spent hours recounting the plot of his favorite movie Across 110th Street.
“I made the mistake of saying [I hadn’t seen it], and he told me the entire story, acted out every role, recited practically every line,” Smith said, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick.
At the very least, they agreed that Elvis’ performance was good.
He eventually realized he pushed at least one friend too far
Elvis caused further drama on the trip when he asked to switch rooms with Schilling. He woke Schilling up in the middle of the night and told him he wanted to switch. An exhausted Schilling gave Elvis the larger bedroom, but he refused to leave the condo altogether.
“He said he was coming over, so I moved into the small bedroom to give him the master bedroom,” Schilling said. “When he showed up with Billy and Red, he was just totally wired. He said, ‘I thought I told you I wanted to move back into the house.’ I said, ‘Jesus, I’ve been working to find a place for three days straight. I need to get some sleep.’ He said, ‘You do?’ I was really getting mad now, but he was like someone I didn’t know.”
While Elvis was initially angry that Schilling didn’t follow his orders, he eventually realized he’d pushed his friend too far. Schilling told Elvis he would leave Colorado the following morning.
“He said, ‘Well, I said you could stay,’” Schilling recalled. “His voice was shaking. He knew he had pushed me too far. I said, ‘No, I’m leaving. I’m going home.’”
