Gary James' Interview With Elvis Presley's Personal Aide
Jerry Schilling



Jerry Schilling met Elvis Presley in 1954. He was 11 years old. He went on to become one of Elvis's closest friends and a personal aide. He served as the Creative Affairs Director for the Presley Estate from 1987 to 1991. Jerry was also the Personal Manager of Lisa Marie Presley from 1989 to 1991. Just recently Jerry Schilling co-wrote and produced Elvis In Hollywood, which is the only tribute to Elvis in the movies ever sanctioned by the Presley Estate. Included are previously unreleased home movies and photos from the movie sets lost for three decades.

We spoke with Jerry Schilling about his memories of the King of Rock 'n' Roll, and Elvis In Hollywood.

Q - This new video Elvis In Hollywood contains material that we have never seen before?

A - Absolutely. Some of it is home videos of him taking a vacation in '56, after his screen test down in Biloxi, Mississippi with his girlfriend and their families. Then we've got some never before seen out-takes from Jailhouse Rock, which was a great find there. Then, where Elvis used to stay at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, when he was filming back in the '50s, we've got some footage of him around the pool, and some of the guys. That's a pretty good highlight of the footage. We've got stuff here and there, but those are the three main pieces.

Q - How do you acquire this material?

A - Well, when we start to do a production, like Elvis In Hollywood, we get a researcher. Some stuff will come because they hear we're doing the project. A lot of people know what we're doing through the Graceland Express. You get a lot of leads, sometime without any payoff. Our researcher flew to Biloxi because they wouldn't let this footage go. You've got Elvis water-skiing, his mother and father making sandwiches. It's really a rare piece.

Q - Would you imagine there's a lot of material like that still out there?

A - You know, it's amazing because for the last six years I've been working on projects. Every time I think we have the last piece of anything there is on Elvis, other very credible finds come up. So, I will never say it's the last good find anymore.

Q - This video of yours is sanctioned by the Presley Estate. Does that mean it has to meet with the approval of Priscilla, Lisa Marie and their attorneys?

A - No. There's a whole team of people, me being one, on this particular project. What it means is we help the producers of the show, which I became the producer of the show in this case because the executive producer felt it was best for the project, but we work with the people in all aspects of licensing footage. What it means is, if somebody's trying to do an Elvis project, first of all, you have to get an okay from Elvis Presley Enterprises. Second of all, our philosophy was, let's just not sanction or not sanction productions if it's something that's our idea or sometimes it may come to us. But let's be part of it, and therefore we can help with the film studios, and now with R.C.A. So, we can be a tremendous help, and at the same time we have such a wealth of knowledge because of Elvis Presley Enterprises. People that you may want to interview, such as a Scotty Moore, feel much more comfortable knowing it's sanctioned by the company and then knowing that that group of people working on behalf of the family are going to make sure it's a true production.

Q - When you were the Creative Affairs Director of the Presley Estate, was it your job to find new ways to bring the Elvis likeness to the marketplace?

A - Well, my proposal to Elvis Presley Enterprises was that I would like to work with them in bringing new projects into the estate, in film and recordings. I am not involved in the marketing of Elvis, so to speak. That's certainly an aspect of it. But, I'm not involved with merchandising or Graceland. Mine is strictly an involvement in the entertainment section of recordings and films and plays, things of that nature. But yeah, we did want to open things up a bit more. With the team of people at Elvis Presley Enterprises, we were quite lucky and it worked good. We had the TV series that lasted one year, the Buena Vista Great Performance on video, and we're working on a third performance right now, and the Elvis In Hollywoodproject. We did one with Disney, "Heartbreak Hotel." So we started doing more projects rather that just being a policeman so to speak. We're now involved, and it just works out better. You get a better product. A lot of people will come to the estate with a find, and then we'll direct it to the production company. There's a wealth of archives at Graceland. So, we can have people pulling those, whether they're still pictures, pieces of footage, or whatever.

Q - Where did you first meet Elvis?

A - Well, I lived a couple of blocks from him. I went to a local playground one Sunday afternoon, and there were five older boys getting ready to play a football game, and they needed a sixth person. So, since there was nobody but this younger kid, which was me, I played with him. One of the guys was Elvis. And those football games become weekly Sunday events. But, that's how unpopular Elvis was at that time. He couldn't get enough guys to play a football game. (Laughs)

Q - Was Elvis somewhat of a local hero on the day you met him?

A - Actually, I used to listen to Dewey Phillips on the Red, Hot and Blue Radio Show. I was very much into music as a young kid. That week, he had played Elvis's record for the very first time. I was listening to the show. When we played on that Sunday, we knew there had been a little talk on the night it was played. Then Dewey played it the next night. But nobody knew who he was. People who were really into music were calling in to request it. But it wasn't like the city was going crazy. How I got in the football game was, my older brother had a friend named Red West. And Red knew me through my brother, and that's when he said, "Jerry, do you want to play with us?" So I went to get in the huddle and I realized this guy was Elvis Presley, the guy I had heard on the radio. All these people went to Humes High (School), and all of my older cousins, who were in the same neighborhood, went.

Q - You joined up with Elvis as a personal aide in 1964 and you left him in 1975. What were your assigned duties as part of that job?

A - Well, it's a long, long story. I did various things over the years, from personal aide to personal public relations to film editing on some of his projects. It's just a whole other story.

Q - Did Elvis ever express his dissatisfaction with his movie roles to you over the years?

A - Yes, he did. That's exactly what the heart of this movie is about. It's about a young guy who grew up in the south, who dreamed of becoming a movie star, who hung around theaters all of his youth, and eventually worked as an usher in one. And what this movie does is tell the type of actor Elvis wanted to be, the type of roles he wanted to play. In fact, we have in one portion of the video, his original screen test, which he read for the Rainmaker. Then we have Elvis in his own words saying he's doing a radio interview a couple of weeks after the screen test, and they say "Are you going to sing in your movies?" and Elvis says, "No. I took a strictly dramatic screen test, and I really wouldn't care for singing in my movies. I'm going to be doing a movie with Burt Lancaster and Katherine Hepburn called The Rainmaker." So, we have that in his own voice. So, he pretty much tells the story here. And when he's not telling the story, we have one of his directors, the co-stars, guys who worked with Elvis. When you go through all of these people in the interviews, they all said the same thing. He could've been a great actor, he was a great actor, he just was too successful. They couldn't see, the production companies, because his music career was going so big, how it couldn't help the films and vice-versa. So, it started the formula movies, which some of those Elvis did like. He didn't just like the first four films of his career. But, there was a point in time where he wanted to do heavier roles. He asked to do heavier roles. He was even asked to do them by certain production companies. It just never came to fruition for various reasons.

Q - One of those reasons was probably Colonel Parker. I'm just wondering why Elvis didn't have it out with the Colonel on that one, or did he?

A - Well, that's really a pretty deep subject right there. I must tell you, it wasn't just Colonel Parker. You had Hal Wallis, who was really the movie guy here. The Colonel always told me, "Jerry, I didn't know anything about the movies. That's why I hired the William Morris Agency." The Colonel knew how to make money and how to promote, and he was all for that. He wasn't into the scripts or the artistic part of the movie. That wasn't the Colonel, nor did he ever claim to be that. But I know Elvis, at one time did go to Hal Wallis and said, "Mr. Wallis, you're making all this money on my movies, and then you go out and spend it and make a great movie, Beckett. When am I going to get my Beckett?"

Q - Did he ever tell you what Mr. Wallis said?

A - Well, he didn't have to. He never got a Beckett.

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

The views and opinions expressed by individuals interviewed for this web site are the sole responsibility of the individual making the comment and / or appearing in interviews and do not necessarily represent the opinions of anyone associated with the website ClassicBands.com.