December 28, 2023 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Greg McDonald got his start in show business as a teenager after meeting Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, shortly after Parker began managing Elvis in the ‘50s. Here’s Greg with a Colonel and Elvis Christmas story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Greg McDonald's got
his start in show business as a teenager after meeting
Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, while changing
their air conditioning filters in Parker's Palm Springs, California home.
Greg went on to manage Rickey Nelson for seventeen years
(00:30):
and worked under Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly after Parker
began managing Presley in the nineteen fifties. Here's Greg with
three Elvis Presley story.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
When I was a teenager, Colonel had an office at
MGM Studios. It was called the Elvis Exploitation Office. That's
what it said on the door. In those days, an
exploitation officer was a real thing. Now it sounds terrible,
but it really wasn't. So the exploitation officer at a
(01:07):
studio was a big deal. They wouldn't give a manager
a free office, but they would give a star free
office one of the actors, So they called that Elvis's
office at NGM. Were there for years. So the colonel
had formed a club. He and Ellas formed a club
(01:27):
called the Snowman's League. Well, the Snowman's League. The first
member was Elvis and the Colonel, and you know Priscilla
and just about everybody in the Memphis Mafia, all of us.
I was in it. It was just a fictitious club,
very funny. It's a club of guys with great senses
(01:49):
of humor. Really didn't mean any So it became very,
very prestigious in Hollywood to have a snow card. For
Colonel Parker to give you a snow card, that meant
you were in Elvis's private club, and it really became something. Oh,
it became a joke, but it was also very serious.
(02:11):
All the people at the William Morris Agency, the big guys,
all belonged to the Snowman's League and they'd have luncheons
and it was just fun and great Colonel had a
great sense of humor, great sense of humor. So the
issue with the Snowman's League is you could never ask
(02:33):
for a card. You had to be offered a card.
You couldn't ask for And it cost nothing to get
in the Snowman's League, but it cost ten thousand dollars
to get out. It was a joke, but it was
all the big agents in Hollywood and producers. Pretty soon
they all started wanting to be in the Snowman's League,
(02:53):
but the colonel had to invite them. So again, I'm
just a teenager at MGM and I'm out in a
hallway answering the phone, and in through the door comes
Kirk Kakorian. Well, Kirk Kakoryan owned MGM, and Kirk Kakoryan
(03:14):
owned the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He built it
where at the time Elvis was working, so he was
not only our employer. He had made movies with Elvis
and he owned MGM Studios. So he comes up to me,
and I'm a teenage kid, and he said, he's a billionaire,
(03:35):
and he says, do you think that you could go
in there, young man and ask Colonel Parker if I
could have a snow cart. Now, this is a billionaire
asking a kid if he could have a snow card.
And I said, well, sure, you know. So I walked
in the office and the colonel had heard it over
the partition. He goes he fights him off to tell
(03:59):
me to tell him now. So I come back out
and he said he said. The colonel didn't say anything,
He didn't make an offer. Kacoryan came in three times
before he had us make up a snow card with
his namelin and he owned the building, he owned all
of MGM, but he wanted that snow card. Out Here
(04:24):
in the desert are some of our mailboxes are mounted
on little blocks in front of the house. Down you know,
you could certainly reach and grab with I'm going to run,
make a run to the hardware store. He kept stealing
Elvis's mailbox, so he decided he was going to replace
(04:47):
in himself, which of course he had no tools and
no skills either. So we went to Alan Ladd Hardware
downtown in Pump Springs, and a friend of mine that
ran and the brand of the store for Alan Hardware
and is ultimately his white. We'd wake him up at
two and three o'clock in the morning to open the
(05:08):
store so Elvis could pick a mailbox. We did it
three times. People kept stealing his mailbox. It was hilarious.
Whatever you need and a whole lot hold. They got
it all over into hardware. So and Elvis is trying
to mount the mailbox. Was hilarious. He had no mechanical
(05:31):
skills whatsoever. And I ended up putting on later, but
it was we were out. Three'd be out there all
night trying to install that mailbox. The Memphis Popia guys
used to call me at my home. Elvis and the
colonel installed a red phone in my bedroom by my bed,
and the phone would ring and one of the guys
(05:53):
would say, Elvis wants you to come up. He wants
to see Well, he really didn't, but they wanted me
to come up. So I finally figured out that they
were trying to get me to come up and stay
at the Chino Canyon house so they could go be
with their wives and girlfriends and I could stay there
with Elvis because somebody had to be at the house
(06:14):
with Elvis. So I go up there and Elvis is
off in the bedroom, and one by one the guys
all leave and I'm sitting in the living room alone,
and Elvis finally comes out, and we spend the whole
evening together sitting in the living room watching silly shows.
And he decides he wants to go down to Germaine's Liquor,
(06:36):
which is down on the corner, and he wanted some
cigarellos and some soda, and he just got a black
Stuts bearcat and he says, come on, let's go you
want to drive, You want to drive the new car?
I said, sure. It was really a cool car. It
was really a fancy potty act there. It was good looking.
(06:59):
So we get in the car and go down to
Germaine's and it's spring breaking palm springs, and there's hundreds
of kids around the store and in the store. So
Elvis is not walking the store, and he thinks he's incognito.
He's got these big glasses and his big belt in
this jumpsuit. It's a running suit, not his show jumpsuit,
so he thinks he's incognito. So we go in. He
(07:23):
goes back to the store and break the fix the
stuff up, and we go up to the checkout counter
and all these people are around the checkout and I
notice everybody is looking at Elvis, of course, but they're
watching his pants. Well, what's happening is there's a big
lump going down his leg and as it hits the
(07:47):
bottom of his pants, it's a barrel of a gun
that clinks out onto the floor. Now everybody looking at
Elvis is backing up, and the girls behind the desk
see the gun and they're scared to death. So he
looks at me he says, you should probably pick that up.
Oh man, I just got out of the army. I
(08:08):
didn't want anything to do with guns. So I reached
down and I picked this giant gun up by the barrel.
I'm holding it by the barrel, and the girls at
the counter are scared to death. They think we're robbing them,
and I go, we're not robbing you. This is Elvis.
I'm trying to tell the girls, this is Elvis. You're
really young girls. I'm not sure they knew who he was.
(08:30):
And I noticed in the down the road in the
back of the store there's a girl on the phone.
She's calling the cops. Well, I want to pay him.
They won't take my money. And I'm holding this big
pistol by the barrel, and Elvis is now backing out
of the store out the front door of the car
is parked right in front of the doors, so he
(08:52):
gets into the passenger side and I'm still guys, still
got pay the bill. They won't take my money. And
I bring that gun outside to him and I hand
it to him and he's laughing in tears, laughing, takes
it so fun. And we drive off down onto Palm Canyon,
drive and we just know the cops are going to
stop the sending man because we're so obvious. But we did.
(09:15):
And I said if we get arrested to Colonel, if
you get arrested, the Colonel's gonna kill me. So going
out with him was he never carried any money, never
carried any money, and he always had several guns on.
So it was an evening with Elvis.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler and a special thanks to
Greg McConnell. He's the author of Elvis and the Colonel
and Insider's look at the most legendary partnership in show business.
That story about the Snowmans League was just so good
in Kurt Kakori and he was like basically the first
big super rich guy, practical billionaire who was also a
(09:59):
world famous He owned MGM and the International Hotel. And
that's where Elvis did his never ending residency was at
the International Hotel. And there's Colonel Tom Parker yanking old
Grecorian's chain, wouldn't let him in the Snowman's Club turned
him now, not once, but twice. That's a sense of humor, right,
(10:21):
there folks, and also had some depth to it. Hey, look,
you may be the boss, but I represent the King.
I'm with the King, and we're going to let you
know that we don't work for you, we work together.
Three Elvis stories brought to us by Greg McDonald. Here
on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories. Greg McDonald's got
his start in show business as a teenager after meeting
Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, while changing
their air conditioning filters in Parker's Palm Springs, California home.
Greg went on to manage Rickey Nelson for seventeen years
(00:30):
and worked under Colonel Parker and Elvis shortly after Parker
began managing Presley in the nineteen fifties. Here's Greg with
three Elvis Presley story.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
When I was a teenager, Colonel had an office at
MGM Studios. It was called the Elvis Exploitation Office. That's
what it said on the door. In those days, an
exploitation officer was a real thing. Now it sounds terrible,
but it really wasn't. So the exploitation officer at a
(01:07):
studio was a big deal. They wouldn't give a manager
a free office, but they would give a star free
office one of the actors, So they called that Elvis's
office at NGM. Were there for years. So the colonel
had formed a club. He and Ellas formed a club
(01:27):
called the Snowman's League. Well, the Snowman's League. The first
member was Elvis and the Colonel, and you know Priscilla
and just about everybody in the Memphis Mafia, all of us.
I was in it. It was just a fictitious club,
very funny. It's a club of guys with great senses
(01:49):
of humor. Really didn't mean any So it became very,
very prestigious in Hollywood to have a snow card. For
Colonel Parker to give you a snow card, that meant
you were in Elvis's private club, and it really became something. Oh,
it became a joke, but it was also very serious.
(02:11):
All the people at the William Morris Agency, the big guys,
all belonged to the Snowman's League and they'd have luncheons
and it was just fun and great Colonel had a
great sense of humor, great sense of humor. So the
issue with the Snowman's League is you could never ask
(02:33):
for a card. You had to be offered a card.
You couldn't ask for And it cost nothing to get
in the Snowman's League, but it cost ten thousand dollars
to get out. It was a joke, but it was
all the big agents in Hollywood and producers. Pretty soon
they all started wanting to be in the Snowman's League,
(02:53):
but the colonel had to invite them. So again, I'm
just a teenager at MGM and I'm out in a
hallway answering the phone, and in through the door comes
Kirk Kakorian. Well, Kirk Kakoryan owned MGM, and Kirk Kakoryan
(03:14):
owned the International Hotel in Las Vegas. He built it
where at the time Elvis was working, so he was
not only our employer. He had made movies with Elvis
and he owned MGM Studios. So he comes up to me,
and I'm a teenage kid, and he said, he's a billionaire,
(03:35):
and he says, do you think that you could go
in there, young man and ask Colonel Parker if I
could have a snow cart. Now, this is a billionaire
asking a kid if he could have a snow card.
And I said, well, sure, you know. So I walked
in the office and the colonel had heard it over
the partition. He goes he fights him off to tell
(03:59):
me to tell him now. So I come back out
and he said he said. The colonel didn't say anything,
He didn't make an offer. Kacoryan came in three times
before he had us make up a snow card with
his namelin and he owned the building, he owned all
of MGM, but he wanted that snow card. Out Here
(04:24):
in the desert are some of our mailboxes are mounted
on little blocks in front of the house. Down you know,
you could certainly reach and grab with I'm going to run,
make a run to the hardware store. He kept stealing
Elvis's mailbox, so he decided he was going to replace
(04:47):
in himself, which of course he had no tools and
no skills either. So we went to Alan Ladd Hardware
downtown in Pump Springs, and a friend of mine that
ran and the brand of the store for Alan Hardware
and is ultimately his white. We'd wake him up at
two and three o'clock in the morning to open the
(05:08):
store so Elvis could pick a mailbox. We did it
three times. People kept stealing his mailbox. It was hilarious.
Whatever you need and a whole lot hold. They got
it all over into hardware. So and Elvis is trying
to mount the mailbox. Was hilarious. He had no mechanical
(05:31):
skills whatsoever. And I ended up putting on later, but
it was we were out. Three'd be out there all
night trying to install that mailbox. The Memphis Popia guys
used to call me at my home. Elvis and the
colonel installed a red phone in my bedroom by my bed,
and the phone would ring and one of the guys
(05:53):
would say, Elvis wants you to come up. He wants
to see Well, he really didn't, but they wanted me
to come up. So I finally figured out that they
were trying to get me to come up and stay
at the Chino Canyon house so they could go be
with their wives and girlfriends and I could stay there
with Elvis because somebody had to be at the house
(06:14):
with Elvis. So I go up there and Elvis is
off in the bedroom, and one by one the guys
all leave and I'm sitting in the living room alone,
and Elvis finally comes out, and we spend the whole
evening together sitting in the living room watching silly shows.
And he decides he wants to go down to Germaine's Liquor,
(06:36):
which is down on the corner, and he wanted some
cigarellos and some soda, and he just got a black
Stuts bearcat and he says, come on, let's go you
want to drive, You want to drive the new car?
I said, sure. It was really a cool car. It
was really a fancy potty act there. It was good looking.
(06:59):
So we get in the car and go down to
Germaine's and it's spring breaking palm springs, and there's hundreds
of kids around the store and in the store. So
Elvis is not walking the store, and he thinks he's incognito.
He's got these big glasses and his big belt in
this jumpsuit. It's a running suit, not his show jumpsuit,
so he thinks he's incognito. So we go in. He
(07:23):
goes back to the store and break the fix the
stuff up, and we go up to the checkout counter
and all these people are around the checkout and I
notice everybody is looking at Elvis, of course, but they're
watching his pants. Well, what's happening is there's a big
lump going down his leg and as it hits the
(07:47):
bottom of his pants, it's a barrel of a gun
that clinks out onto the floor. Now everybody looking at
Elvis is backing up, and the girls behind the desk
see the gun and they're scared to death. So he
looks at me he says, you should probably pick that up.
Oh man, I just got out of the army. I
(08:08):
didn't want anything to do with guns. So I reached
down and I picked this giant gun up by the barrel.
I'm holding it by the barrel, and the girls at
the counter are scared to death. They think we're robbing them,
and I go, we're not robbing you. This is Elvis.
I'm trying to tell the girls, this is Elvis. You're
really young girls. I'm not sure they knew who he was.
(08:30):
And I noticed in the down the road in the
back of the store there's a girl on the phone.
She's calling the cops. Well, I want to pay him.
They won't take my money. And I'm holding this big
pistol by the barrel, and Elvis is now backing out
of the store out the front door of the car
is parked right in front of the doors, so he
(08:52):
gets into the passenger side and I'm still guys, still
got pay the bill. They won't take my money. And
I bring that gun outside to him and I hand
it to him and he's laughing in tears, laughing, takes
it so fun. And we drive off down onto Palm Canyon,
drive and we just know the cops are going to
stop the sending man because we're so obvious. But we did.
(09:15):
And I said if we get arrested to Colonel, if
you get arrested, the Colonel's gonna kill me. So going
out with him was he never carried any money, never
carried any money, and he always had several guns on.
So it was an evening with Elvis.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
And a terrific job on the editing, production and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler and a special thanks to
Greg McConnell. He's the author of Elvis and the Colonel
and Insider's look at the most legendary partnership in show business.
That story about the Snowmans League was just so good
in Kurt Kakori and he was like basically the first
big super rich guy, practical billionaire who was also a
(09:59):
world famous He owned MGM and the International Hotel. And
that's where Elvis did his never ending residency was at
the International Hotel. And there's Colonel Tom Parker yanking old
Grecorian's chain, wouldn't let him in the Snowman's Club turned
him now, not once, but twice. That's a sense of humor, right,
(10:21):
there folks, and also had some depth to it. Hey, look,
you may be the boss, but I represent the King.
I'm with the King, and we're going to let you
know that we don't work for you, we work together.
Three Elvis stories brought to us by Greg McDonald. Here
on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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