I have many great Memories of the years I spent with Elvis. The stories are endless! Here are some of the stories - read and enjoy! I have tried to included dates whenever possible.
We were coming home from a football game, when we were caught by a train over on South Parkway. Elvis had chartered a bus because we had all gone to the football game from his house. He got tired of waiting. So he went up to the front of the bus and, when no one was looking, he jumped off the bus. He jumped in a car in front of us that had two guys in it. All of a sudden they made a U-turn and took off. The guards, who were hired to protect him, didn't have any idea what was going on, and nobody knew where he was until we got back to Graceland. He was there laughing and joking about how he had hired these two guys to bring him home.
Another time we were at a football game and Elvis met a hostess at the game that he liked. She was coming on to him, so he asked her if she would like to go to Dallas to see the Lisa Marie under construction. She said she would. We went to the airport and got on his leased airplane and flew to Dallas. We looked over the Lisa Marie and then Elvis decided he didn't want to go back to Graceland. He wanted to take this girl with him, so we flew to Palm Springs, California on a two-motor turbo prop. It took us all night to get to Palm Springs. We spent four or five days in Palm Springs and then came back to Memphis.
To keep things chronologically in order, on July the 6th, 1975 is when I delivered Elvis the TCB ring, it is on display at Graceland. On July the 8th, we left on tour. Everything was normal until we got to Greensboro, North Carolina. During this show, July the 20th, Elvis told the Sweet Inspirations that they smell like catfish. Two of them walked off the stage. When they did, he said something smart to Kathy Westmoreland, and she walked off the stage. Then he popped off to J. D. Sumner and the Stans Quartet. It was like the whole band was breaking up right there in the middle of a concert. After the show, Elvis went back to the hotel and went to bed immediately.
We were called early to have our bags ready to leave the next day. Well, Elvis never left early, and we didn't believe he would that day either. So, we got on the bus to the airport, we figured we were going to be sitting at the airport for two or three hours waiting for Elvis. We were riding along in the bus and saw a frozen custard stand. We told the bus driver we wanted to stop and get an ice cream cone. The bus pulled over, and we went into the frozen custard place. Meanwhile, Elvis went by in his limo. We couldn't believe it, and we jumped on the bus to catch Elvis. When we got to the airport, Elvis was already on the plane. He was standing in the door of the plane and he said, "I told y'all to get out here and get this stuff loaded because I want to leave early. What are you doing eating ice cream cones?" He was really mad, and he was telling us all off. So when the plane left Greensboro for Asheville, he left us all standing on the runway. The only person he let on the plane was Dr. Nick. Elvis flew the Lisa Marie to Asheville, got off, and sent it back for the rest of us. He was so mad, and we had to sit in Greensboro and wait for hours. When I arrived in Asheville, the first thing I heard was Elvis was looking for me. So, I went to the hotel and Elvis said, "I have made a big mess of my band, and I am apologizing to all these people." He said, "I want to buy the girls all something, let me see your case." So, he starting going through my case, and he bought almost everyone in the band a piece of jewelry. I didn't have enough jewelry with me, and I called my brother in Memphis who flew a private plane to Asheville and brought me more jewelry. Elvis spent $137,616 that night, and he gave J. D. Sumner his big diamond ring I had just made him. (Not the TCB ring, another ring.) After the concert on July the 26th, we flew back to Memphis.
In 1973, I was in Vegas with Elvis and I was sitting in Elvis' booth watching the show. Two men jumped up on the stage on the right side and were coming at Elvis like they were going to attack him. All of the bodyguards jumped up and grabbed those two guys which left the other side of the stage wide open. I looked up and a third guy was coming up the other side of the stage toward Elvis. Well, I am not a bodyguard; I'm just a jeweler, however, I wasn't going to let anyone attack Elvis on the stage, so I jumped up on the stage and threw the guy off the stage. I couldn't believe I did it, but I did and then climbed back down and got back in my seat. After the show that night, in Elvis' suite, everyone was laughing and joking about how the jeweler became a bodyguard. Elvis was griping at his bodyguards about, "What were y'all going to do, let that guy get me? Lowell had to jump up there and save me." So it was kind of fun.
On June the 9th, 1972, I flew to New York with Elvis for the Madison Square Garden show. There were four shows,all sellouts. We stayed on the top floor of the New York Hilton Hotel. We had the entire top floor. The show at Madison Square Garden was incredible. During one of the intermissions, (I always walked around.) I was wandering around and ran into a man backstage who stopped me to talk. I discovered he was the manager of the Garden, and I told him I was a jeweler. I really wasn't part of the show; I was just a friend. He shared with me that in all of the years of experience he had with the Garden, no one had ever pre-sold the whole Madison Square Garden for four shows in a row, but Elvis.
Elvis gave me a second car shortly before he died. It was a navy blue Lincoln Mark V. He called Schilling Motors and had the car delivered to the house. When it came, we went outside and walked out the front door of his house together. He said, "Well there it is. How do you like it?" "Well," I said, "anybody would love it. Thank you very much. Let's go for a ride in it. You drive." He said, "Well, okay." So he got in behind the steering wheel and I jumped in the front seat. A couple of the body guards got in the back seat and a car followed us and we drove around Graceland, out onto the street, around the block, and back. I'll never forget the fact that he nearly had a wreck turning in the driveway. Someone yelled at him, they probably didn't know it was Elvis. I believe it was probably the last car that Elvis ever drove.
On January 26th, 1972, I took my mother to Las Vegas, and we attended Elvis' opening at the Hilton. After the show, Elvis always had all of his guests backstage for a party for the opening event in Vegas. So, I took Mother backstage, where she met Elvis. Elvis kept looking at me and looking at my mother, and I think he was really surprised that I would bring my mother to Las Vegas. I have always believed that sealed my friendship with Elvis in the beginning. He loved his mother, and when he saw that I brought my mother to Vegas he was impressed.
I remember when Elvis first started going with Ginger Alden. We went out to her house one afternoon. There was a big game on TV. I think it was football, and Ginger did not have a big color television set. Elvis asked us to go buy her a color TV, but it was Sunday and nothing was open. We went back to Graceland, and got a color TV out of the den, and brought it back over to her house.
In April of 1973, we were doing tours out of Anaheim, California, because there were about seven or eight shows in that area, and we stayed at the same hotel. While we were there, April 23, 1973, Dr. Nick, Priscilla, and I went to Disneyland. I had never been to Disneyland. I spent the day with Priscilla in Disneyland and got to know her. She is a great lady.
Elvis' wildest year was 1975. I spent most of spring and summer with Elvis. Between flying back and forth from Memphis and tour, I had to run a business, I had a chance to spend some personal time with Elvis attending football games and we made half a dozen trips to Dallas to check on the remodeling of the Lisa Marie.
Another one of my favorite things to do was ride in the jump seat of the Lisa Marie. We had a pilot, co-pilot and a stewardess, who were regulars on board. It was really neat to ride up front in a big airplane, especially when it was landing and coming into a city. One of the interesting things was air traffic controllers would track us all the way across the country if we were going from California to Memphis. Every time we would enter another air traffic control area, the air traffic controllers of course knew the Lisa Marie, and they would ask the pilot, "Do you have Elvis on board?" And of course we'd say we did and then we would get all kinds of messages for him from the air traffic controllers- "Tell Elvis this . . . Tell Elvis that . . . Tell Elvis we love him."
I told you the story about the Asheville, North Carolina incident. Elvis gave everyone jewelry. That night in Asheville, I was sitting right by the end of the stage with Felton Jarvis. Felton controlled the sound system, and he was the liaison between Elvis and RCA, also one of Elvis' dearest and one of my dearest friends. Elvis came over to me on the stage and he bent and said, "Where's your case?" I said, "It's right here." He replied, "Well set it up here." I set it up on the stage and while he was singing, he reached down in the case, got out a ring, and walked over to this girl that was standing there with a rose in her hand. He took the rose and handed her the ring. And the crowd saw what he did and they just went wild. So he came back and he gave away about ten or fifteen pieces of jewelry standing on the stage that night in Asheville, North Carolina.
I was really embarrassed, and I thought, "I don't know what's going on with him." He left us standing on the runway. He had gotten mad at everybody, then he made up with everybody. There was a lot of money involved and I felt really bad about it. I wished that for once in my life I wasn't there. If I hadn't been there, he wouldn't have been able to throw away all that money. After the show, I usually rode in the limo that followed his limo when we'd leave the coliseum on our way back to the hotel. This particular time I jumped in the car with him, and I said, " Elvis, I'm really embarrassed that you did that. I wish I hadn't been here. I don't follow you around to sell you jewelry, but I come along because I have such a wonderful time and I enjoy being here. I am a jeweler and I have jewelry with me for special needs, but not to give it away on stage. You gave away a lot of money tonight on stage." Elvis looked at me and patted me on the knee and laughed and said, "Lowell, do you know what I'm going to have to do?" I said, "What's that?" He said, "I'm going to have to sing five minutes longer tomorrow night to pay for that jewelry." Then he just laughed and I thought about it, he was right. He made so much money, and he had so much money, and he loved his fans and he loved the people he sang for so much, that he tried to give everything he made back to his fans.
Elvis always had tickets to his concerts, wherever we went, there were a block of tickets, usually on the second or third row, that were Elvis'. Sometimes it would be a whole row, but they were his to give to whomever he chose. Many times there were numerous tickets left, and Joe Esposito would let me have the tickets. I would go out in front of the coliseum, after the show started, when Jackie Cahane was doing the comedy warm up part before Elvis came on. When I was out front everybody knew I was with Elvis, I had my badge on and I would talk to people, and I would decide who wanted to get in the most, and would give them those tickets. It was unbelievable to give tickets to a small group of people or a family who were there just hoping to get a glimpse of him. Not only did they get to see Elvis, but they had the best seats in the house.
SPECIAL PIECES
He had me make a waist chain for Linda Thompson with sawed out letters that said, "My love, my life," and then a chain that went around her waist. We brought her to the store and put a piece of asbestos between her body and the chain and welded it on her where she couldn't take it off.
Elvis liked colored stones. Sapphires were his favorite, and he liked rubies and emeralds. So I sold a lot of rings that had colored stones in them, a lot of different shapes and styles. He would always buy sapphire rings. Elvis bought a big garnet cross from me. He had it with him when we were in Jackson, Mississippi, and someone told him about a little boy who was dying. It was a Make-A-Wish thing, and he wanted to see Elvis. So, Elvis said, "Great," and they loaded the limo and went to the hospital where the little boy was staying. Elvis visited with him and gave him that cross. I heard later that someone auctioned that cross or sold it for a lot of money.
I delivered the big cross necklace, which is on display at Graceland, to Linda Thompson on December the 20th, 1973. Linda had drawn a sketch of the pendant the way she wanted it made, set with diamonds in the arms of the Cross, and then it was to have two hearts which were touching at the points with a circle around them like an eternity band. The hearts were set with Elvis' birthstone and Linda's birthstone. Again, this piece was totally hand-made and hand-set. The base of the pendant was white gold, the border of the cross was trimmed in yellow gold, and the wedding band that circles the two hearts is yellow. It was a very beautiful showpiece, and Elvis wore it proudly on all tours and all performances that he did.
Another piece of jewelry that I made for Elvis was the tube bracelet. It was a rope chain with a piece of tubing in the center and a box catch in the back. We would usually engrave the person's name on the front, like Lowell or Dr. Nick or Joe, but on the back we would always put their nickname or some little saying or something that Elvis called them. Those were very personal bracelets and usually only members of the entourage got those bracelets.
There are many of other pieces of jewelry I made for Elvis. Now that I have closed my retail location, I am going to have time to reproduce many of the pieces. Watch for new pieces!
We were coming home from a football game, when we were caught by a train over on South Parkway. Elvis had chartered a bus because we had all gone to the football game from his house. He got tired of waiting. So he went up to the front of the bus and, when no one was looking, he jumped off the bus. He jumped in a car in front of us that had two guys in it. All of a sudden they made a U-turn and took off. The guards, who were hired to protect him, didn't have any idea what was going on, and nobody knew where he was until we got back to Graceland. He was there laughing and joking about how he had hired these two guys to bring him home.
Another time we were at a football game and Elvis met a hostess at the game that he liked. She was coming on to him, so he asked her if she would like to go to Dallas to see the Lisa Marie under construction. She said she would. We went to the airport and got on his leased airplane and flew to Dallas. We looked over the Lisa Marie and then Elvis decided he didn't want to go back to Graceland. He wanted to take this girl with him, so we flew to Palm Springs, California on a two-motor turbo prop. It took us all night to get to Palm Springs. We spent four or five days in Palm Springs and then came back to Memphis.
To keep things chronologically in order, on July the 6th, 1975 is when I delivered Elvis the TCB ring, it is on display at Graceland. On July the 8th, we left on tour. Everything was normal until we got to Greensboro, North Carolina. During this show, July the 20th, Elvis told the Sweet Inspirations that they smell like catfish. Two of them walked off the stage. When they did, he said something smart to Kathy Westmoreland, and she walked off the stage. Then he popped off to J. D. Sumner and the Stans Quartet. It was like the whole band was breaking up right there in the middle of a concert. After the show, Elvis went back to the hotel and went to bed immediately.
We were called early to have our bags ready to leave the next day. Well, Elvis never left early, and we didn't believe he would that day either. So, we got on the bus to the airport, we figured we were going to be sitting at the airport for two or three hours waiting for Elvis. We were riding along in the bus and saw a frozen custard stand. We told the bus driver we wanted to stop and get an ice cream cone. The bus pulled over, and we went into the frozen custard place. Meanwhile, Elvis went by in his limo. We couldn't believe it, and we jumped on the bus to catch Elvis. When we got to the airport, Elvis was already on the plane. He was standing in the door of the plane and he said, "I told y'all to get out here and get this stuff loaded because I want to leave early. What are you doing eating ice cream cones?" He was really mad, and he was telling us all off. So when the plane left Greensboro for Asheville, he left us all standing on the runway. The only person he let on the plane was Dr. Nick. Elvis flew the Lisa Marie to Asheville, got off, and sent it back for the rest of us. He was so mad, and we had to sit in Greensboro and wait for hours. When I arrived in Asheville, the first thing I heard was Elvis was looking for me. So, I went to the hotel and Elvis said, "I have made a big mess of my band, and I am apologizing to all these people." He said, "I want to buy the girls all something, let me see your case." So, he starting going through my case, and he bought almost everyone in the band a piece of jewelry. I didn't have enough jewelry with me, and I called my brother in Memphis who flew a private plane to Asheville and brought me more jewelry. Elvis spent $137,616 that night, and he gave J. D. Sumner his big diamond ring I had just made him. (Not the TCB ring, another ring.) After the concert on July the 26th, we flew back to Memphis.
In 1973, I was in Vegas with Elvis and I was sitting in Elvis' booth watching the show. Two men jumped up on the stage on the right side and were coming at Elvis like they were going to attack him. All of the bodyguards jumped up and grabbed those two guys which left the other side of the stage wide open. I looked up and a third guy was coming up the other side of the stage toward Elvis. Well, I am not a bodyguard; I'm just a jeweler, however, I wasn't going to let anyone attack Elvis on the stage, so I jumped up on the stage and threw the guy off the stage. I couldn't believe I did it, but I did and then climbed back down and got back in my seat. After the show that night, in Elvis' suite, everyone was laughing and joking about how the jeweler became a bodyguard. Elvis was griping at his bodyguards about, "What were y'all going to do, let that guy get me? Lowell had to jump up there and save me." So it was kind of fun.
On June the 9th, 1972, I flew to New York with Elvis for the Madison Square Garden show. There were four shows,all sellouts. We stayed on the top floor of the New York Hilton Hotel. We had the entire top floor. The show at Madison Square Garden was incredible. During one of the intermissions, (I always walked around.) I was wandering around and ran into a man backstage who stopped me to talk. I discovered he was the manager of the Garden, and I told him I was a jeweler. I really wasn't part of the show; I was just a friend. He shared with me that in all of the years of experience he had with the Garden, no one had ever pre-sold the whole Madison Square Garden for four shows in a row, but Elvis.
Elvis gave me a second car shortly before he died. It was a navy blue Lincoln Mark V. He called Schilling Motors and had the car delivered to the house. When it came, we went outside and walked out the front door of his house together. He said, "Well there it is. How do you like it?" "Well," I said, "anybody would love it. Thank you very much. Let's go for a ride in it. You drive." He said, "Well, okay." So he got in behind the steering wheel and I jumped in the front seat. A couple of the body guards got in the back seat and a car followed us and we drove around Graceland, out onto the street, around the block, and back. I'll never forget the fact that he nearly had a wreck turning in the driveway. Someone yelled at him, they probably didn't know it was Elvis. I believe it was probably the last car that Elvis ever drove.
On January 26th, 1972, I took my mother to Las Vegas, and we attended Elvis' opening at the Hilton. After the show, Elvis always had all of his guests backstage for a party for the opening event in Vegas. So, I took Mother backstage, where she met Elvis. Elvis kept looking at me and looking at my mother, and I think he was really surprised that I would bring my mother to Las Vegas. I have always believed that sealed my friendship with Elvis in the beginning. He loved his mother, and when he saw that I brought my mother to Vegas he was impressed.
I remember when Elvis first started going with Ginger Alden. We went out to her house one afternoon. There was a big game on TV. I think it was football, and Ginger did not have a big color television set. Elvis asked us to go buy her a color TV, but it was Sunday and nothing was open. We went back to Graceland, and got a color TV out of the den, and brought it back over to her house.
In April of 1973, we were doing tours out of Anaheim, California, because there were about seven or eight shows in that area, and we stayed at the same hotel. While we were there, April 23, 1973, Dr. Nick, Priscilla, and I went to Disneyland. I had never been to Disneyland. I spent the day with Priscilla in Disneyland and got to know her. She is a great lady.
Elvis' wildest year was 1975. I spent most of spring and summer with Elvis. Between flying back and forth from Memphis and tour, I had to run a business, I had a chance to spend some personal time with Elvis attending football games and we made half a dozen trips to Dallas to check on the remodeling of the Lisa Marie.
Another one of my favorite things to do was ride in the jump seat of the Lisa Marie. We had a pilot, co-pilot and a stewardess, who were regulars on board. It was really neat to ride up front in a big airplane, especially when it was landing and coming into a city. One of the interesting things was air traffic controllers would track us all the way across the country if we were going from California to Memphis. Every time we would enter another air traffic control area, the air traffic controllers of course knew the Lisa Marie, and they would ask the pilot, "Do you have Elvis on board?" And of course we'd say we did and then we would get all kinds of messages for him from the air traffic controllers- "Tell Elvis this . . . Tell Elvis that . . . Tell Elvis we love him."
I told you the story about the Asheville, North Carolina incident. Elvis gave everyone jewelry. That night in Asheville, I was sitting right by the end of the stage with Felton Jarvis. Felton controlled the sound system, and he was the liaison between Elvis and RCA, also one of Elvis' dearest and one of my dearest friends. Elvis came over to me on the stage and he bent and said, "Where's your case?" I said, "It's right here." He replied, "Well set it up here." I set it up on the stage and while he was singing, he reached down in the case, got out a ring, and walked over to this girl that was standing there with a rose in her hand. He took the rose and handed her the ring. And the crowd saw what he did and they just went wild. So he came back and he gave away about ten or fifteen pieces of jewelry standing on the stage that night in Asheville, North Carolina.
I was really embarrassed, and I thought, "I don't know what's going on with him." He left us standing on the runway. He had gotten mad at everybody, then he made up with everybody. There was a lot of money involved and I felt really bad about it. I wished that for once in my life I wasn't there. If I hadn't been there, he wouldn't have been able to throw away all that money. After the show, I usually rode in the limo that followed his limo when we'd leave the coliseum on our way back to the hotel. This particular time I jumped in the car with him, and I said, " Elvis, I'm really embarrassed that you did that. I wish I hadn't been here. I don't follow you around to sell you jewelry, but I come along because I have such a wonderful time and I enjoy being here. I am a jeweler and I have jewelry with me for special needs, but not to give it away on stage. You gave away a lot of money tonight on stage." Elvis looked at me and patted me on the knee and laughed and said, "Lowell, do you know what I'm going to have to do?" I said, "What's that?" He said, "I'm going to have to sing five minutes longer tomorrow night to pay for that jewelry." Then he just laughed and I thought about it, he was right. He made so much money, and he had so much money, and he loved his fans and he loved the people he sang for so much, that he tried to give everything he made back to his fans.
Elvis always had tickets to his concerts, wherever we went, there were a block of tickets, usually on the second or third row, that were Elvis'. Sometimes it would be a whole row, but they were his to give to whomever he chose. Many times there were numerous tickets left, and Joe Esposito would let me have the tickets. I would go out in front of the coliseum, after the show started, when Jackie Cahane was doing the comedy warm up part before Elvis came on. When I was out front everybody knew I was with Elvis, I had my badge on and I would talk to people, and I would decide who wanted to get in the most, and would give them those tickets. It was unbelievable to give tickets to a small group of people or a family who were there just hoping to get a glimpse of him. Not only did they get to see Elvis, but they had the best seats in the house.
SPECIAL PIECES
He had me make a waist chain for Linda Thompson with sawed out letters that said, "My love, my life," and then a chain that went around her waist. We brought her to the store and put a piece of asbestos between her body and the chain and welded it on her where she couldn't take it off.
Elvis liked colored stones. Sapphires were his favorite, and he liked rubies and emeralds. So I sold a lot of rings that had colored stones in them, a lot of different shapes and styles. He would always buy sapphire rings. Elvis bought a big garnet cross from me. He had it with him when we were in Jackson, Mississippi, and someone told him about a little boy who was dying. It was a Make-A-Wish thing, and he wanted to see Elvis. So, Elvis said, "Great," and they loaded the limo and went to the hospital where the little boy was staying. Elvis visited with him and gave him that cross. I heard later that someone auctioned that cross or sold it for a lot of money.
I delivered the big cross necklace, which is on display at Graceland, to Linda Thompson on December the 20th, 1973. Linda had drawn a sketch of the pendant the way she wanted it made, set with diamonds in the arms of the Cross, and then it was to have two hearts which were touching at the points with a circle around them like an eternity band. The hearts were set with Elvis' birthstone and Linda's birthstone. Again, this piece was totally hand-made and hand-set. The base of the pendant was white gold, the border of the cross was trimmed in yellow gold, and the wedding band that circles the two hearts is yellow. It was a very beautiful showpiece, and Elvis wore it proudly on all tours and all performances that he did.
Another piece of jewelry that I made for Elvis was the tube bracelet. It was a rope chain with a piece of tubing in the center and a box catch in the back. We would usually engrave the person's name on the front, like Lowell or Dr. Nick or Joe, but on the back we would always put their nickname or some little saying or something that Elvis called them. Those were very personal bracelets and usually only members of the entourage got those bracelets.
There are many of other pieces of jewelry I made for Elvis. Now that I have closed my retail location, I am going to have time to reproduce many of the pieces. Watch for new pieces!
