Elvis’ Cocky Response After Giving a ‘Huge Amount of Money’ to an Audience
Elvis Presley’s career brought him immense wealth, but he spent money nearly as quickly as he earned it. He racked up expenses for fleeting hobbies and gifted friends, family members, and even strangers lavish presents. Elvis also turned his generosity on his fans. During one concert, he gave away so much expensive jewelry that he embarrassed his jeweler. This didn’t concern him much, though.
Elvis alarmed his jeweler when he gave a large amount of money to an audience
In the 1970s, Elvis thought the crowd at one show was a little too quiet. To win them over — and pitch them into the frenzy at which he liked his audiences to operate — he brought his jeweler onstage. Elvis began reaching into the case and handing out the expensive items inside, much to his jeweler’s horror.
“He started taking pieces of jewelry out of the case and going over and was giving them to these girls on the front row and just giving the jewelry away,” jeweler Lowell Hays said, per Page Six. “He gave away a lot of jewelry that night; he was in one of those moods, and I was frankly embarrassed and wished it hadn’t been there because to me, it was a huge amount of money.”
After the show, Hays rushed to speak with Elvis. He didn’t feel comfortable with the amount of money Elvis had nonchalantly handed out.
“So when the show ended,” Hays said, “I ran out the back door and jumped in Elvis’ car and I said, ‘Elvis, I’m embarrassed. I just wish I hadn’t been here and then you wouldn’t have lost all that money, you just gave away all that money out there!’”
Elvis didn’t seem bothered. While it may have been a lot of money to Hays, it wasn’t to the singer.
“He looked at me and he laughed that little Elvis laugh he has and he said, ‘You know what, Lowell? I’m going to have to sing five minutes more tomorrow night to pay for it.’”
Elvis’ father was appalled by the way his son spent money
While Elvis spent money without much thought, his father, who handled his finances, was consistently in disbelief at his son’s spending habits.
“Old Vernon would look like he was going to die whenever Elvis started that gift giving business,” bodyguard Red West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “We used to crack up when we would see him get that look on his face and he would clap his hands to his head.”
Vernon Presley even begged his son to stop spending money, but Elvis just laughed at his pleas. He felt he could always count on another large paycheck.
He enjoyed spending money on other people
Elvis spent money frivolously, but he was also incredibly generous to the people in his life. He loved giving gifts, no matter how extravagant, if he thought they could brighten someone’s day.
“Elvis always came through for [his entourage], lending them the one thousand or five thousand or ten thousand dollars they asked for,” Priscilla Presley wrote in her book Elvis and Me. “He was rarely if ever paid back. There was also no limit to the expensive gifts he gave them — television consoles for Christmas, bonus checks, Cadillac convertibles, Mercedes-Benzes. If he heard someone was sad or depressed, he loved to surprise them with a gift, usually a brand-new car. When he gave to one, he would usually end up giving to all.”
