18/12/2023
Richard never wrote a book, but he did do a few interviews.
From an interview with Elvis Australia Fan Club:
But the first time I actually met him, where he would remember me, was in 1961. Two friends of mine were already working for Elvis, Alan Fortas and Sonny West. They asked me if I wanted to come up to Graceland and meet Elvis, and I said, 'Well yeah, sure, I'd love to'.
So they took me up to the house one night and I got up to the house and Elvis welcomed me at the house (Graceland) and we sat around and shot pool all night long and had sodas and watched movies and told jokes and everything. And when I got ready to leave he said, 'Look, you know, anytime I'm in town you're always welcome to come back'. And I said, 'Well, thank you very much'. And so I kinda took advantage of his hospitality. So every time he'd come back in town between movies I'd go out to the house. I’d go to the gate and Vester or Harold or whoever was at the gate I'd say, 'Well, you know, call up to the house and tell him Richard's here'. And they'd call up to the house, say, 'Richard's here’ -- Oh, yeah, let him come on up'.
So I just started kinda running around with Elvis and the guys that worked for him at the time. Although I wasn't working for him I became a good friend. Apparently he liked me 'cause he was always inviting me to come to whatever they were doing, whatever functions he was doing. He was always doing something, whether it was going to the movies all night long or the roller skating rink or the amusement park or whatever he was doing, playing football, whatever. He'd always invite me to come along.
And then in 1962 I was up at the house one night and he said, 'I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Los Angeles, to start a new movie ('It Happened at the World's Fair'). And I said, 'Jimmy Kingsley and I are leaving about a week after you leave and we're going to California on vacation'. And he said, 'Here's my phone number and my address, give me a call and let me know when you get there, and come see me'.
So when Jimmy and I got to California, and got settled in, we called him. He said, 'Come on up to the house'. Well, we couldn't find the house. And if you've been to Bel Air, you know what I'm talking about, the streets are -- they have no sidewalks. It's all hedges and big fences and walls and everything. You can't find anything. So we couldn't find the house, so we drove back down to the security gate and called on the phone and told Elvis, 'we can't find the house'. He said, 'Don't worry about it, I'm gonna send Lamar Fike down to get you'. So Lamar comes down in a Rolls Royce limousine and we follow him back to the house.
So Elvis, he meets us at the door, and tells us, 'Come in, have a good time, enjoy yourself, you know, whatever'. And so here's two little country boys and this big, beautiful mansion, big crystal chandelier, marble hallways, stairways going up both sides -- and all these beautiful girls walking around. Every one of 'em was like a movie star. I'm thinking, 'Oh, my gosh. You know, we've made it now. We have actually made it, right?'
So later on that night Elvis walks over and he says, 'Richard, you guys stick around. Don't leave when everybody starts leaving, I want to talk to you'. And so everybody started leaving and he gets up and he goes back to his bathroom. He's back there about five minutes and then he calls for Joe Esposito. And Joe was like his foreman, right hand man. And so Joe goes back there and Joe's back there about five minutes. And then Joe comes out and he calls me and Jimmy back there. So we walk in the bathroom and Joe locks the door. Now here's four grown men standing in a bathroom, right? But it was a BIG bathroom.
So Elvis says, 'I've been talking to Joe and we're leaving tomorrow to go film 'It Happened at the World's Fair' and we're gonna be filming inside the World's Fair while it's actually going on'.
'Now I could actually use some more security while we're there. If you and Jimmy would consider going to work for me I'd love to have you come to work for me as security'. Well I don't know what was going through Jimmy's mind, but I know what was going through mine, and I immediately said, 'Oh, yeah! That's great!' Because I've never been to a World's Fair before in my life, I'm a little country boy, and working for Elvis would be fantastic. So we both said yes. And Elvis says, 'Okay. It's only gonna be for two weeks now, while we're filming actually on location. When we get through we are gonna film the rest of it in the studio, and I really won't need you then'. And we said, 'That's okay. That's great'. Well, we finished location, we came back to L.A., both me and Jimmy were expecting to get fired, but we didn't. So my job just went on and on and on, for like 15 years.
📸 Photo is of the home where Richard was hired by Elvis in the bathroom. He used to say he thought he was probably the only person to ever be hired “in the john”. This home is at 10539 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, California. Today, it is valued at 34 million dollars. Wow!!! So unbelievable that Richard got to live in places like this, thanks to his friend, Elvis.
