On June 9, 1972, Elvis Presley sat down in a ballroom at the New York Hilton to face a room full of reporters. It was a big moment: he was about to play Madison Square Garden, and he hadn’t performed live in New York since his television appearances back in the 1950s. Everyone expected the polite, shy Southern boy from the newspaper profiles. What they got instead was one of the funniest hours of his life — and it was all captured on camera.
The first funniest moment came when a reporter asked the question: why has Elvis outlasted every other entertainer of his generation? Elvis didn’t hesitate: “I take vitamin E!” The unexpected answer led to the whole room laughing out loud, then he immediately started laughing at himself and added, “No, I was only kidding. I just… embarrassed myself, man.”
Then somebody handed him the perfect setup. A reporter said he’d read in the press that Elvis was a shy, humble, wonderful human being — and asked if he’d agree. Elvis looked at him and said he had no idea what made them think that.
Then he stood up, unbuttoned his jacket, and revealed an enormous gold belt the Las Vegas Hilton had given him for breaking their attendance record. A photographer leaped out of her seat to get pictures. His father Vernon was sitting beside him, beaming.
Elvis – Interview Madison Square Garden De New-York En Juin 1972
He was quick all afternoon. Asked about the criticism of his hair and hip-swiveling back in the fifties, he pointed out how tame it all looked now: “Man, I was tame compared to what they do now, are you kidding… I didn’t do anything but just jiggle.” Asked why there seemed to be less grease in his hair these days, he shot back that he’d stopped using that greasy kids’ stuff, just like everybody else did. When somebody commented on being nervous, Elvis replied: “So am I, that’s why I’m sitting down, man!”
Colonel Tom Parker was hovering in the background — one reporter described him as big-bellied, straw-hatted and carrying a cigar — and even he got a laugh. A journalist asked why Elvis’s Boston concert had been filmed, but nobody was allowed to film this one. Parker, who was slightly deaf, asked what the question was. Elvis repeated it for him. Parker’s answer: “If they filmed it here, I don’t want them spreading it around!” Elvis just said, “There you go!”
But it wasn’t all jokes, and the serious bits show something too. Asked repeatedly for his opinions on politics and the draft, Elvis wouldn’t be drawn. “Honey, I’d just sooner keep my own personal views about that to myself, ’cause I’m just an entertainer and I’d rather not say.” Asked whether he’d ever consider a political career himself, the answer was short: “No sir.”
What makes the whole thing worth watching is the contrast. That evening he walked out in front of 20,000 people and became a completely different creature. He played four shows across that weekend, 80,000 people in total, all sold out — and backstage before the first one, he was reportedly pacing so nervously he nearly refused to go on. The man cracking jokes at that press conference was, by every account of the people who knew him, genuinely shy. He just happened to be very funny about it.