Frank Sinatra Lent Elvis and Priscilla Presley His Plane After Their Wedding
Priscilla and Elvis Presley had known each other for nearly a decade before they decided to take their relationship to the next level. However, by the time they got hitched, there was so much buzz about them that they could no longer keep things hidden. After their wedding, the famous pair ditched their means of transport as Frank Sinatra lent them his plane to give them some privacy.
Frank Sinatra helped Elvis and Priscilla Presley have some privacy after their wedding
Priscilla and Elvis met in 1959 in West Germany, where the singer was stationed. Nearly a decade later, Elvis would get down on one knee and ask his longtime friend to marry him. Priscilla, then 20 years old, accepted the proposal made through a three-carat diamond ring. The pair chose Las Vegas for their wedding on May 1, 1967.
Given how high-profile the wedding was, Priscilla and Elvis knew they had to take the necessary precautions to avoid media attention that may have sullied their big day. According to Brides, the pair flew by private jet from Palm Springs to Las Vegas at 3 am, secured their marriage license at 4 am, and by 9 am, they were man and wife after an eight-minute ceremony.
The wedding was attended by 14 of the couple’s closest friends and family at the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas. They were then joined by the rest of the guests for an over-the-top breakfast reception. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Priscilla revealed that one of their high-profile friends, legendary singer Frank Sinatra, helped them attain some much-needed privacy following their wedding.
Looking back at a picture of her and Elvis preparing to board a plane headed for Palm Springs, Priscilla said:
“This is Frank Sinatra’s plane. Frank had offered us the plane so that we could keep everything low-key and keep it private … It was very gracious of him to do this because it helped a lot because, after the wedding, the paparazzi definitely was after us. It was a nice treat for us.”
Elvis Presley’s former bodyguard thought the star’s rise threatened Frank Sinatra
When Elvis broke into the music industry, he brought with him a revolution in how music was perceived. He and the likes of Chuck Berry and Bill Haley spearheaded the phenomenon that’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the implosion of the genre was met with alarm and suspicion from established singers like Sinatra.
According to Elvis’s former bodyguard, Sonny West, Sinatra once said of Elvis, “His music is deplorable, a rancid-smelling aphrodisiac. It’s the most brutal, ugly, degenerate, vicious form of expression it has been my displeasure to hear.”
West speculated that Sinatra, like other industry veterans, felt threatened by Elvis’s celebrity and thought the young singer would steal the limelight. However, West acknowledged that Sinatra remained cordial with Elvis and never exchanged harsh words with him, but that’s not to say that the King wasn’t hurt by his idol’s words.
Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley’s friendship brought together two generations
Sinatra had a change of heart down the road and began embracing Elvis. This turnaround helped bridge the generational gap between them and their audiences, and when Sinatra asked Elvis to star in his TV show, it was an immense success, with ratings skyrocketing.
Discover Music reports that by asking Elvis to appear alongside him on the show, Sinatra gave the “Stuck On You” singer a sense of belonging. Despite them having a 20-year age difference, Sinatra and Elvis became very good friends, and when Sinatra learned about Elvis’s passing in 1977, he said, “I shall miss him dearly as a friend. He was a warm, considerate, and generous man.”
