Speaker 1: It's a night's Eyes with Dan Ray unknowing you crazy
Speaker 1: Boston's news.
Speaker 2: Radio one hour ago, to be more specific, fifty three
Speaker 2: minutes or so to go before we wave goodbye to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four and hello to twenty twenty five. If
Speaker 2: you're out and about Boston, all the things they have
Speaker 2: for you, people celebrating First Night. And by the way,
Speaker 2: if you didn't know, the history of First Night began
Speaker 2: with Boston in nineteen seventy six. We were the first
Speaker 2: city to do it and it caught on like wildfire. Everybody
Speaker 2: after that started doing it, but we were the first.
Speaker 2: So if you're out there tonight, yes, enjoy yourselves. Be careful,
Speaker 2: pretty pretty please. I want to make sure that everybody
Speaker 2: out there tonight has an enjoyable night, but a safe night, Okay,
Speaker 2: and I thank you about that. Let's go back in
Speaker 2: our memory. You gotta go back to and I'm not
Speaker 2: sure the exact year. I think it was nineteen fifty
Speaker 2: forty nine. I'll have my guests tell us once I
Speaker 2: bring him in. And eventually, over the fifties into the sixties,
Speaker 2: you're introduced to a gentleman who had tremendous talent. His
Speaker 2: name Elvis Presley, and my next guest has made a
Speaker 2: living mimicking Elvis in front of thousands of people every
Speaker 2: year in Las Vegas. He does a show called Big Elvis.
Speaker 2: If you are anywhere near Vegas for any length of time,
Speaker 2: check out the show. You will be amazed at this
Speaker 2: gentleman's talent, his voice. Close your eyes and you hear
Speaker 2: Elvis Presley. His name is Peter Valley, and he's been
Speaker 2: doing Big Elvis as his main act in Vegas several locations.
Speaker 2: It's been at Harris Piano Bar Center Strip on the
Speaker 2: Strip for a decade or more. He used to be
Speaker 2: at Bill's Gambling Holland Saloon prior to that the Barbary Coast,
Speaker 2: which was the same place, just a different name. And
Speaker 2: I met him back in the early two thousands and
Speaker 2: we built up a fast friendship. He's been kind enough
Speaker 2: to let me do my trivia shtick as a break
Speaker 2: on his show off and on for the past I
Speaker 2: guess ten to fifteen years. Please welcome Big Elvis tonight's
Speaker 2: side Tete, How are you doing really good?
Speaker 1: Happy New Year's to your Morgan and to your people
Speaker 1: out there on the East Coast. From Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: Happy New Years to you. What is Vegas doing to
Speaker 2: celebrate New Years? All?
Speaker 1: Right? Now? The road on Las Vegas Boulevard is shut
Speaker 1: down and they are going to do a massive firework
Speaker 1: display off of all the top of a lot of
Speaker 1: the casinos thro out the city.
Speaker 2: Now, you live about thirty miles outside of the town, correct.
Speaker 1: I do. I live out on the suburbs. It's a
Speaker 1: sleepy little town called prompt but it's about forty minute drive.
Speaker 2: And the last place you want to be is anywhere
Speaker 2: near the Las Vegas Strip on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: It's wall to wall people. I mean the strip is
Speaker 1: closed off and you just say nothing, but you know
Speaker 1: there's this mass people there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and who wants to be a part of that
Speaker 2: if you live there? And I'm sure one of the
Speaker 2: TV stations KLAH or one of the other stations are
Speaker 2: covering it so you can watch it on TV and
Speaker 2: it's almost like you're really there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all the local stations are covering it, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So do me a favorite. Tell your backstory of
Speaker 2: how you get to be big Elvis.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it started probably back in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 1: I was It's just a kid, I loved Elvis music.
Speaker 1: I was fourteen and I was in a classroom where
Speaker 1: a teacher really loved Elvis, and so, you know, I
Speaker 1: started singing at church, but I started learning some of
Speaker 1: the songs and one day afternoon I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I know Elvis saying for her and she said, oh,
Speaker 1: you've got to be in the talent contest. So she
Speaker 1: he put me into being the talent contest in high school.
Speaker 1: And what I went saying there, you know, it was infectious.
Speaker 1: I knew that that's what I wanted to do totally.
Speaker 1: And then a year later my mom said, you know what,
Speaker 1: when we moved to Las Vegas, and see if that
Speaker 1: can happen for you, you know, And that's kind of
Speaker 1: how it all started.
Speaker 2: A lot of times an occupation chooses you, not the
Speaker 2: other way around. And I'm guessing the power of performing
Speaker 2: as Elvis chose you because you could do it. It did.
Speaker 1: I naturally had a you know, my voice sounded a
Speaker 1: lot like is so it just it did choose me.
Speaker 1: And that's and people really like that kind of music.
Speaker 1: They still do, but back then it was really an anomaly.
Speaker 1: So it it took off, you know, just that's how
Speaker 1: it all started.
Speaker 2: Now, Hemden hard in the beginning about this, but when
Speaker 2: is the birthdate of Elvis Presley?
Speaker 1: January the eighth of nineteen thirty five?
Speaker 2: Okay, and I was way off when I said late forties,
Speaker 2: but nineteen thirty five. And what I have tried tried
Speaker 2: to do twice a year, every January, have you on
Speaker 2: to celebrate his birth and every August to commiserate that
Speaker 2: we lost him in August of what nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 2: seventy seven, seventy seven. So I automatically call you to
Speaker 2: book you around those two times every year.
Speaker 1: You too, It's been really great. I mean, that's it's.
Speaker 1: Elvis's legacies is unbelievable. You know.
Speaker 2: So a lot of people saw that movie from a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago and felt that reflected truthfully his history,
Speaker 2: his legacy and his history. Well, anything that you know
Speaker 2: of that did not get the proper spotlight.
Speaker 1: In that movie, well there's you know, there's several different things,
Speaker 1: and of course, you know, to really do a biography,
Speaker 1: you'd be you'd be you know in Elvis, you you
Speaker 1: could go five or six hours easily. So they had
Speaker 1: to admit obviously a lot of things, and there was
Speaker 1: a lot of things in there that wasn't put in there,
Speaker 1: but you know, it basically got the uh, the drift across.
Speaker 1: It was done really well. I mean, the the the
Speaker 1: gentleman that that he worked for two years studying somebody,
Speaker 1: and he really fit the part well. And Tom Hanks,
Speaker 1: I mean he speaks for himself. I think he's a
Speaker 1: fablous actor, and he really you know, I had the
Speaker 1: part of the colonel down the way he was so
Speaker 1: and the sets were, you know, meticulous. The Hilton. I
Speaker 1: actually was in the Hilton as you were. Morgan, Yes,
Speaker 1: in the set right, So you probably realized when you
Speaker 1: saw that the Hilton. I could not believe how close
Speaker 1: that stage was replicated. It was the exact same stage
Speaker 1: because I stood on that stage back in nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: eighty two or eighty three, whatever it was. But to
Speaker 1: make a long story short, the whole movie was done
Speaker 1: really rather well, I thought, And it was it was
Speaker 1: you know, like I say, some of it's Hollywood, but
Speaker 1: a lot of it was really close to what happened.
Speaker 1: And you know, like I said, the actors and the
Speaker 1: sets and the kid that portrayed him, the young man,
Speaker 1: he did a fabless shop. So it was and it
Speaker 1: actually really got a new, you know, revital Elvis to
Speaker 1: a lot of the younger kids a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: True, and it helped boost record sales when they re
Speaker 2: released Elvis one.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: I've got a break to take, but when we come back,
Speaker 2: you've had a movie career, and we'll talk about you
Speaker 2: on the big screen. Anyone who wants to call in
Speaker 2: six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty or eight eight, eight,
Speaker 2: nine to nine, ten thirty. I guarantee you. I guarantee you,
Speaker 2: Pete will know whatever you bring up, so you're more
Speaker 2: welcome to join us here on nights Side time and
Speaker 2: temperature eleven fifteen forty four degrees.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Way live from the Window.
Speaker 2: World Light Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. Happy almost
Speaker 2: New Year, everybody. This is Morgan's filling in for Dan.
Speaker 2: Dan We'll be back tomorrow. This is his microphone. Every
Speaker 2: now and then, I just get a chance to mind
Speaker 2: it for him, and I am interviewing currently mister Peter
Speaker 2: Valley aka Big Elvis. And before I take any phone calls, Pete,
Speaker 2: you yourself have been in two movies if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1: Actually there's been there have been a two documentaries and
Speaker 1: an actual movie.
Speaker 2: Well then tell people about you on the big screen.
Speaker 1: A movie that was meaning about ten years ago was
Speaker 1: a comedy with Connor pet who begin with files. It
Speaker 1: was a takeoff of kind of a comedy kind of
Speaker 1: like two cops that are kind of like Andy Griffith, right,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of the guy in the middle where basically,
Speaker 1: you know, I get the women at the end of
Speaker 1: the show and sing a bunch of songs and through
Speaker 1: the whole thing, these guys are bumbling kind of sheriffs
Speaker 1: in a small town and it's it's just really humorful.
Speaker 1: I mean, to watch, it's funny, it's loving, it's endearing.
Speaker 1: And the thing that was great about the movie was Morgan.
Speaker 1: It was you know, really family fun, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was not swearing or not anything that was you know,
Speaker 1: you know, it was really a clean film, kind of
Speaker 1: like the way the Elvis movies were down in the sixties, right,
Speaker 1: So it was it was fun, it was it was
Speaker 1: a nice movie. And then the other two were you
Speaker 1: were part of one of them. They were a documentary
Speaker 1: that a nice gentleman out of Wisconsin has a company
Speaker 1: and he put together a documentary in My Life. And
Speaker 1: then the other one was for sun Dance with Robert
Speaker 1: Redford and had Sam Elliott narrating. And it's a short
Speaker 1: about fifteen minutes actually on the Sundance Festival, I think
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen, but it's called Big Elves fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: short of it.
Speaker 2: So little did you know that when you snouted because
Speaker 2: a Keidrin high school said you should injure a talent contest.
Speaker 2: The many years later it's your living. You are doing
Speaker 2: this infessionally.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, here's the really irony Morgan if
Speaker 1: somebody who said, you know, you'll be doing this forty
Speaker 1: years from now. But I've never thought in a million
Speaker 1: years this like you just said, this would have been
Speaker 1: my entire life. I mean, I just am shocked that
Speaker 1: this has become my entire career in the whole world,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: And you have jumped both feet into this. You have
Speaker 2: the jumpsuits that you that you wear. I don't know
Speaker 2: how many of them you have, but I've seen you
Speaker 2: in five different jumpsuits. How many do you have?
Speaker 1: Right? Oh? Sure, I've got probably probably at least ten
Speaker 1: now still like a lot of you know I've put away, but.
Speaker 2: Okay, and you style your hair the way Elvis styled
Speaker 2: his hair, the sideburns, the pompadour look. Every thing about
Speaker 2: you screams Elvis.
Speaker 1: The first time. I've still got the hair to do that.
Speaker 1: I've been tying that hair to them for forty years.
Speaker 1: But you know what it just become. You know, somebody
Speaker 1: said it best if you become that person long enough.
Speaker 1: I mean, that becomes part of your personal not that
Speaker 1: I think I'm Elvis or anything like that, but it
Speaker 1: becomes part of you. If that makes sense, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean.
Speaker 2: It does makes perfect sense. Let me take a phone call.
Speaker 2: Invite more anyone who wants to call in. Here's your
Speaker 2: chance to speak to a man who knows almost all
Speaker 2: there is about the king of rock and roll. Mister Elvis, Presley, Howard,
Speaker 2: and Randolph. You're up and you are talking with mister
Speaker 2: Peter Valley aka Big Elvis.
Speaker 3: Well happy in healthy new year, Morgan and mister Peter Valley,
Speaker 3: Big Elvis. I'm a regular of Morgan's trivia shows, and
Speaker 3: he always speaks very highly of you, with a lot
Speaker 3: of affection and respect, and we always want to be
Speaker 3: so often, you know, a segment on Elvis songs and
Speaker 3: Elvis movies.
Speaker 1: Right, He's a great time. Morgan's a great guy.
Speaker 2: Pete. Let me tell you Howard has see me do
Speaker 2: my show dozens and dozens of times, as you have
Speaker 2: seen me do my show, and the people who are
Speaker 2: in their twenties and thirties yet and still they know
Speaker 2: the facts about Elvis, and I have to be right
Speaker 2: on when I do a question about Elvis. I can't
Speaker 2: be off by a title. I can't be off by
Speaker 2: a song. And they catch me on it if I
Speaker 2: dare make a mistake. Didn't you mean to say force
Speaker 2: of habit instead of horse of habit? Not that I
Speaker 2: ever made that mistake, but the point of it is,
Speaker 2: if I do make a mistake. So I'm twenty something
Speaker 2: and thirty something kid, it is going to tell me
Speaker 2: I thought it was X and not Y. They know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's unbelievable. I see it at the show
Speaker 1: all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to tell you I've come out there
Speaker 2: a couple of times where I didn't call you and
Speaker 2: say I'm here. Can I do a break on on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I don't know when yet, when I'm going to be
Speaker 2: out there sometime in the spring, and I will let
Speaker 2: you know. And if you will allow me to, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna letting me do a lot out there. Howard, did
Speaker 2: you want to say anything else?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Peter, what is your favorite elist movie?
Speaker 1: You know, there was a couple of them. I really
Speaker 1: liked I think that and Elvis like too. And King
Speaker 1: Creole was probably one of the one of the best
Speaker 1: movies ever put out. It was it was made actually
Speaker 1: for uh, Jimmy Dean and James Dean and or Marlon Brando,
Speaker 1: and Elvis filled that role unbelievably and it really showed
Speaker 1: the character that he had as a youngster, how he
Speaker 1: could have really progressed have been a good actor. I
Speaker 1: think the rest of them, by the ten of sixties,
Speaker 1: of all the movie scripts just kept going down the hill,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, I think they were They're
Speaker 1: getting worse and worse. But if you ever watched King Creole,
Speaker 1: the movie was written by a director called Michael Curtis.
Speaker 1: Was that guy was a huge Morgan You probably know
Speaker 1: Michael Curtis was a great director for in the fifties.
Speaker 1: And sixties and forties, so he was anyhow, Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I mean it wasn't and he had Walter Matho behind him.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know he had it's really Carolyn Jones.
Speaker 1: I mean I think, who's the other guy, Dean Jagger
Speaker 1: and just did The list goes on and on. So
Speaker 1: he didn't have slouches for people underneath him. And his
Speaker 1: acting ability, I mean, he was just as good as
Speaker 1: any one of those actors. I think Elvis really really
Speaker 1: could have been an unbelievable actor given the chance.
Speaker 2: Elvis was a gift from God. He had just talent
Speaker 2: oozing out of every pore for an old phrase that
Speaker 2: I borrowed, because his singing voice better than any His
Speaker 2: ability to capture your attention on the big screen, whether
Speaker 2: he was in a scene with an actress like Anne
Speaker 2: Margaret or he was up against somebody like Walter Mathow
Speaker 2: who had great acting chops himself, Elvis could do it all.
Speaker 3: What's the question, Peter, are they doing anything for this
Speaker 3: is every year's ninetieth birthday? Are you going to be
Speaker 3: doing any kind of a special tribute above the MIGA
Speaker 3: what you normally do?
Speaker 1: You know what? We work at different places, but every
Speaker 1: time we work. On the eighth we do a tribute.
Speaker 1: It's you know, not that we don't do it every day,
Speaker 1: but we do, you know, all Elvis. At this other
Speaker 1: club I've been playing, they have fan club show up
Speaker 1: on the We do it on the sixteenth of August
Speaker 1: for his passing, and then on the eighth of January
Speaker 1: and they have all day Elvis music and then fans
Speaker 1: show up and contests and kind of things like that.
Speaker 1: So we always honor that. And I mean, of course,
Speaker 1: you know it's in Vegas. It's a big thing. All
Speaker 1: the different shows that are Elvis like there do the same.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's you know, it's a huge celebration. This
Speaker 1: year he would have been ninety years old, so it's
Speaker 1: going to be a pretty big celebration, I think, Harris,
Speaker 1: I've been working at this other club that the man,
Speaker 1: actually the regional entertainment gentlemen made this club a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, you know, you bought it and remodel it.
Speaker 1: It's called the Composer's Room. So I do play there
Speaker 1: once in a while, other than Harris. For special events.
Speaker 1: They sell tickets and you know, we have a band
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So it's a little bit more
Speaker 1: expanded to what I do just at the Piano bar.
Speaker 2: Where in Vegas is the Composers Club.
Speaker 1: It's on Sahara and right at Philas Vegas by the
Speaker 1: Sahara Hotel. It's in the Commercial Center, but they've remodeled
Speaker 1: it and it's a really really nice place now.
Speaker 2: So it's Commercial center, so.
Speaker 1: Right, they have the lotuses I am that's went in there,
Speaker 1: and they've got some really nice places going in there now.
Speaker 1: They've redone that whole area that are down there, so
Speaker 1: it's very nice.
Speaker 2: For a while, you necessarily weren't comfortable going through the
Speaker 2: Commercial Center.
Speaker 1: It was actually, you know, no, it was very rough
Speaker 1: up until the last three or four years, and then
Speaker 1: the city got involved and they've re you know, they've
Speaker 1: they've really cleaned it up, and it's really nice places
Speaker 1: in there now. So it's a very very nice area now.
Speaker 2: Right Because you know me, I know my Vegas and
Speaker 2: I just don't know your street, the streets that Sandwich
Speaker 2: to the commercial Center and right up up until as
Speaker 2: you say, the past four or five years, you had
Speaker 2: to be aware of where you were, Yeah, walked through
Speaker 2: and you kept your windows up and doors locked.
Speaker 1: You sure dead, Sure that was a rough spot.
Speaker 2: Howard, do you have anything else that you want to
Speaker 2: bring up?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: One last thing. God continued success to you. Peter and
Speaker 3: Morgan also, and both have a happy and healthy New Year.
Speaker 3: And I'll see you next year, Morgan.
Speaker 2: I look forward to that, Howard, say you take care
Speaker 2: all right? So Elvis is would have been ninety. Speculations
Speaker 2: speculate had he not have we not lost him, what
Speaker 2: would he be like at ninety? Would he still be
Speaker 2: active or just sitting on his laurels, retired collecting royalties?
Speaker 2: What would he be like?
Speaker 1: Oh? Boy, you know what, it's hard to spect it.
Speaker 1: I mean, had he been in good health still and
Speaker 1: like lot there are people that are I'm sure he
Speaker 1: would have done projects or have been behind projects. I
Speaker 1: know he loved gospels, so you might have been in
Speaker 1: the middle of that a little bit. You know. I
Speaker 1: think if Elvis would have lived, you'd have brought a
Speaker 1: lot more great music, if he could have got back
Speaker 1: into acting, and you know who knows how I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, at forty two years old had passed away,
Speaker 1: he could have gave at least another twenty thirty years
Speaker 1: with us. I mean you know, look at William Shatner,
Speaker 1: so he could have went on for goodness knows how long,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: And I just read somewhere where Dick Van Dyke just
Speaker 2: turned ninety nine years old and still the video things
Speaker 2: like a soft shoe.
Speaker 1: Yes, you did it. I can't do that now, give
Speaker 1: me Paul, I.
Speaker 2: Couldn't have done it twenty twenty five years ago. Tell
Speaker 2: you what. Let me make my news hit. Anyone who
Speaker 2: wants to speak to a gentleman who has personified everything
Speaker 2: about Elvis Presley, and he does it three or four
Speaker 2: nights a week in Las Vegas. It's his living, it's
Speaker 2: his honor to do it for you, the people that
Speaker 2: come to see him. So give a call six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine, two nine,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. And when we come back, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 2: Pete about a piece of Elvis memorabilia that I own.
Speaker 2: Here we go. Time and temperature on night Side eleven
Speaker 2: twenty no, correct that, eleven thirty forty seven degrees.
Speaker 3: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZY, Boston's
Speaker 3: news radio.
Speaker 2: Time is a dwindling. We almost have run out of
Speaker 2: time for twenty twenty four. My name is Morgan. I'm
Speaker 2: filling in for Dan Ray. I've been here for the
Speaker 2: past nine days filling in for Dan Ray. But he
Speaker 2: Dan Ray will be here tomorrow. This is his microphone.
Speaker 2: Nightside belongs to Dan, and Dan belongs to night Side,
Speaker 2: So he'll be back tomorrow eight o'clock to midnight to
Speaker 2: begin twenty twenty five. And Pete, I have in my possession.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of memorabilia I've collected over the years.
Speaker 2: And there was a poster that was put out when
Speaker 2: Elvis first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. And on
Speaker 2: that poster there's a shot of Elvis in his gold
Speaker 2: lamet suit. It's a white poster with black lettering appearing
Speaker 2: tonight at Sullivan Show, and the name Elvis Presley is
Speaker 2: in red and see him, see him sing his hits
Speaker 2: like hound Dog and Blue Sweight Shows and I forget
Speaker 2: the third song that's mentioned if and I'm not going
Speaker 2: to but if I were going to sell this, it's
Speaker 2: a replica of an original poster. Do you have any
Speaker 2: idea what that might be worth?
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's almost like a thing, right it.
Speaker 1: It depends on how many replicas are out there. If
Speaker 1: it's varied in numbers where there's not many of them,
Speaker 1: of course the price will go up. If they're been
Speaker 1: copied in mass more than then you're looking at. You
Speaker 1: know that, probably a lot less. So it would depend
Speaker 1: on how many of you know, if you had the
Speaker 1: original obviously be priceless, but they're having a copy. If
Speaker 1: there's not many made, you could probably fetching decent money
Speaker 1: for it, you know you I don't know the check.
Speaker 2: You could have said one hundred thousand dollars and I
Speaker 2: would have said, wow, nice to know, but I wouldn't say, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's my poster.
Speaker 1: Well sure, and you know what, there's probably from what
Speaker 1: you're telling me, I mean, and I'm just off the
Speaker 1: top of my head. If they were made, they might
Speaker 1: have been made a long long time ago, so there's
Speaker 1: probably I'm guessing not a lot of those around.
Speaker 2: Well, it's mine and I am not letting it go.
Speaker 2: For an example, in the room from where I'm broadcasting,
Speaker 2: I've got an original cell of Dumbo where he is
Speaker 2: talking to Timothy the Mouse right there there it is.
Speaker 2: I'm playing it against the wall. Have you seen that
Speaker 2: Lost Vegas poster? It's got all all the old casinos
Speaker 2: and the Marquee and a playing card representing eight different
Speaker 2: Vegas hotels for a top for the bottom, and the
Speaker 2: hotel from back in the old days, the Aladdin.
Speaker 1: Riviera, Sounds of Area, the Sounds, Dunes, the Dunes, Silver Slipper,
Speaker 1: Castaways all the while. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 2: And I liked that poster because it represents what Vegas was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I remember in nineteen eighty when I
Speaker 1: got to the first time when I was fifteen, But wow,
Speaker 1: what a what a different place. And the field was
Speaker 1: total it was a whole different place, you know, right,
Speaker 1: it was the field Vegas was different and personal and
Speaker 1: it was you know, like everything in the world's changed.
Speaker 1: But it's now it's just like a like a mega
Speaker 1: it's a Vegas city. It's just like you know, and
Speaker 1: it feels so corporate and so everything is just you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's behemoth, if that makes any sense.
Speaker 2: You know, it's so corporate. And yeah, there the newer
Speaker 2: hotels like within the past ten years of Cosmopolitan.
Speaker 1: The d and right, I'm going to ask you a
Speaker 1: trivia question.
Speaker 2: Now that they've torn down the Tropicana, the Flamingo is
Speaker 2: still the oldest hotel in the strip. What Hotel Casino
Speaker 2: is second to the Flamingo?
Speaker 1: Oh jeez, I would have to say the Sahara that
Speaker 1: could be very.
Speaker 2: Has been torn down, Model changed, and it came back,
Speaker 2: I mean continually up since they finished putting the last
Speaker 2: brick in the wall.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think I see what you're saying with what
Speaker 1: has remained the same?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Well, this is gonna sound weird, but I would say Harrah's,
Speaker 1: wasn't it? No, because I don't know you know what
Speaker 1: you've got me?
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll tell you one second. But you mentioned Harris.
Speaker 2: Harris used to be the holiday inn.
Speaker 1: I know that. I don't know that in the Model Ladies, right,
Speaker 1: I remember.
Speaker 2: That Caesar's Palace is second to the Flamingo.
Speaker 1: I should have thought that.
Speaker 2: Rating. Yeah, it's the same.
Speaker 1: Sixties right exactly, because I've.
Speaker 2: Been going to Vegas since nineteen seventy and it's not
Speaker 2: the same. And I missed it the way it was
Speaker 2: in the seventies and eighties as it is.
Speaker 1: Now totally totally.
Speaker 2: It leaves a lot to be desired.
Speaker 1: No, Morgan, you know what anybody that I will tell
Speaker 1: you this and this is from you know, being there
Speaker 1: in with people all the time. Anybody that I talked to,
Speaker 1: and I mean I would say ninety five percent of
Speaker 1: the people that I talked to that have been to
Speaker 1: Las Vegas the seventies, the eighties, very early nineties and
Speaker 1: so forth, everybody says, oh, man, I wish it was.
Speaker 1: Even the people that lived there that heard said, man,
Speaker 1: I wish it was the way it was when we
Speaker 1: first came here, or from what we've heard, I wish
Speaker 1: it was the way it was in the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 1: I heard that from everybody, and I since I lived
Speaker 1: there in the eighties, I know, like you were visiting
Speaker 1: all the time I lived there, So it was it
Speaker 1: was a magical time. It was you know, it was
Speaker 1: it's corporate, it was it was people. It was more personal.
Speaker 2: It was just much more personal.
Speaker 1: You would be a fantastic place.
Speaker 2: You would go sit at the bar for a drink,
Speaker 2: and the bartender would remember you from special even eight
Speaker 2: years ago. Yes, exactly, the hotel staff, the fell at,
Speaker 2: the people behind the front desk. Yeah, mister White, how
Speaker 2: are you and you rarely see that anymore?
Speaker 1: No, No, well, everything that's kiosk and everything is you know,
Speaker 1: checking out that things computer, what do you get everything?
Speaker 1: I mean, there's people, but it's just it's it's like
Speaker 1: going through an airport. I mean it really is. It's
Speaker 1: they're just it's like any mega uh you know hotel.
Speaker 1: The hotels look like hotels. I mean there's catinos in there,
Speaker 1: but everything is all kioska. You know, you get your
Speaker 1: ticket and you have waiters and stuff. But it's a
Speaker 1: whole different feel. It's just it's just and the whole
Speaker 1: world is like that now. But it's it's sad because
Speaker 1: Vegas really had that personal touch at one time, just
Speaker 1: really it really it enticed people to be here and
Speaker 1: they and they comped a little bit. They gave a
Speaker 1: little bit of drinks or whatever. I mean they gave
Speaker 1: probably you can't expect the same miss today, but at
Speaker 1: that time, you know, they comped and they gave your rooms,
Speaker 1: they gave you food, and of course you gambled a
Speaker 1: lot too. But that it used to be couple more.
Speaker 1: But now it's it's just it's just not the same
Speaker 1: all the way around.
Speaker 2: You know, I've got a personal question, and I know
Speaker 2: you don't. I'll say, over gamble, by over gamble, you've
Speaker 2: not lost your paycheck for the next three months. No,
Speaker 2: how you maintain discipline not to over gamble. Everybody has
Speaker 2: a different.
Speaker 1: Answle with you. No, I'll tell you. When I got
Speaker 1: here in Vegas, back when it came back, was in
Speaker 1: the like midnighteties, like ninety seven. I started gambling and
Speaker 1: I you know, I had a friend of mine and
Speaker 1: we you know, he turned me on to two dollar poker. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, that was the worst that you could have done,
Speaker 1: because you know, you have a couple of hits where
Speaker 1: you hit, you know, four hundred bucks, you hit a
Speaker 1: roll for what I think it was was four grand
Speaker 1: or whatever. Right, that would happen. That would happen times.
Speaker 1: And I thought, well, I'm going to get rich. And
Speaker 1: then you know, I started losing my money all the time,
Speaker 1: and I said, I got holy cow. And that went
Speaker 1: on for about, I don't know, a couple of years,
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, after a while, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm getting beat up really bad all the time.
Speaker 1: This this is going to stop. So over the years
Speaker 1: I learned to take a little bit and gamble. But
Speaker 1: then I started realizing, you know what, you're just losing
Speaker 1: money and you're just giving it away, So it's got
Speaker 1: to stop. So I finally, you know, once I finally
Speaker 1: came to it. This is what I finally did morgan
Speaker 1: once a year. I finally said, look, I'll take you know,
Speaker 1: two three thousand dollars or whatever, and I'll go out
Speaker 1: on the holidays and I'll go gamble and if it's gone,
Speaker 1: it's gone or whatever. And then two years ago I
Speaker 1: did that as a tradition and then I, you know,
Speaker 1: this is what happened to me. This is not you know,
Speaker 1: it doesn't reflect on anyone else. And they said to myself,
Speaker 1: you know what, I feel bad about gambling this money
Speaker 1: where I could have went the kids that needed, people
Speaker 1: that need it or whatever. So then I started saying,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: What I'm going to do.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to gamble anymore, but to give that
Speaker 1: money to you know whatever, I'm not going to say OOO,
Speaker 1: but I'll give it to praise that yes that I
Speaker 1: know somebody is going to really be able to use
Speaker 1: in a certific casino. So that's what ended up happening.
Speaker 1: And for me, it's worked, you know, for others, I mean,
Speaker 1: whatever works for whatever, or people enjoy gabblet that's your business,
Speaker 1: you know. But yeah, that's how it did for me.
Speaker 2: I come out once or twice a year. I bring
Speaker 2: X dollars with me, and for the most part I
Speaker 2: come home with money. Maybe not as well with every
Speaker 2: now and then I come home with a bit more.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you got to have your brains with you
Speaker 2: because it's so easy to blow you out.
Speaker 1: Oh so it's so it is because I've done it,
Speaker 1: so I know I agree with the totally agreat.
Speaker 2: Let me take my break. That'll give us about twelve
Speaker 2: more minutes of time and the next thing, you know,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be twenty twenty five. So let's talk the
Speaker 2: final break of twenty twenty four for Nightside. Dan isn't here.
Speaker 2: He'll be back tomorrow to stop the new year off right.
Speaker 2: My name is Morgan with a time and temperature eleven
Speaker 2: forty five and forty four degrees.
Speaker 3: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 3: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Imam Morgan Morgan White Junior. I'm joined by mister Peter Valley,
Speaker 2: who for decades has been entertaining people that come to
Speaker 2: Las Vegas as Big Elvis. And why the name Big
Speaker 2: because at one point he weighed nine hundred pounds. He's
Speaker 2: taken away a lot that weight. Is it around four
Speaker 2: hundred pounds now, Pete? So about that weight more than
Speaker 2: that's correct? All right? And he puts on a heck
Speaker 2: of a show. Trust me, I'm not just giving you
Speaker 2: hype because he's on. I'm not just giving you hype
Speaker 2: because I want you to spend your money and go
Speaker 2: see him. You can't spend your money. The show is free.
Speaker 2: They serve drinks, and it suggested you buy a beverage,
Speaker 2: but it could be a Coca Cola. Leave a five
Speaker 2: dollar bill that buys your coke and gives the food
Speaker 2: bartender and waitress a tip, and just be prepared to
Speaker 2: be entertained. And Pete, with the time we have left,
Speaker 2: you and I both know Elvis did around thirty movies,
Speaker 2: thirty one, thirty two great right movie? Did you hear
Speaker 2: he had the most fun filming? Because towards the end
Speaker 2: it was like a mini machine. The plots were the
Speaker 2: same except the titles were different. But which one did
Speaker 2: he have the most fun spending six to eight weeks filming?
Speaker 1: You know you love Hawaii, so I would I would
Speaker 1: definitely say what he from Blue Hawaii and then Paradise
Speaker 1: A Lion style that was that was his favorite spot.
Speaker 1: Hawaii was his favorite getaway, and toward the end of
Speaker 1: his life, that was his last vacation. So I would
Speaker 1: say those two movies he had a great time. And
Speaker 1: that's what I heard through his bodyguard and stuff.
Speaker 2: And you have spoken to people that were in Elvis's
Speaker 2: sphere of travel, his bodyguard, good friends, musicians, and we
Speaker 2: played on some of his music several of them. Yes,
Speaker 2: tell me about some of those musicians.
Speaker 1: I talked to Stump, the guy was his drummer for
Speaker 1: a while. He was a drummer. I've talked to some
Speaker 1: of the inspiration and I've talked to your friends of
Speaker 1: Jerry Chef's bass player, so you know, they all were
Speaker 1: to tour with Elvis. I've talked to it's his bodyguards.
Speaker 1: I met Joe Sposito. Linda Thompson's been at the show
Speaker 1: a couple of times. I got to talk with her.
Speaker 1: Uh So it's you know, they've talked about Elvis and
Speaker 1: his life and and legacy. It's just been you know,
Speaker 1: it's he was a phenomenal guy. You know, it's just
Speaker 1: a great, great humanitarian and a great musician, and he
Speaker 1: just he loved people, and you know, it's it's just
Speaker 1: the guy was just a phenomenon. Like you said earlier,
Speaker 1: he really was.
Speaker 2: And the rumors that he once gave a Cadillac to
Speaker 2: a stranger, is that true?
Speaker 1: One hundred percent, one hundred percent true. I mean, lady
Speaker 1: was browsing in the window around Christmas, and you know,
Speaker 1: she she's like at the car, and you know, he
Speaker 1: was she was poor. He could he could see it,
Speaker 1: and he looked at her. He goes, like that car
Speaker 1: and she goes, oh yeah, she goes that's it's a
Speaker 1: beautiful car. He goes, you really like it? He goes yeah.
Speaker 1: She goes, well, you know, I just bought it for you.
Speaker 1: And she like him and didn't recognize him, and she
Speaker 1: looked at him like he was, you know, out of
Speaker 1: the out of the cycle word or something. And he
Speaker 1: brought inside the dealership Morgan, and he bought the car
Speaker 1: on the spot, and the dealer looked over and so
Speaker 1: he goes, you know that is She goes no, because
Speaker 1: she was just wasn't into Elvis, and she goes, that's Elvis, Presley.
Speaker 1: He just bought you that car, and then he gave
Speaker 1: her ten thousand dollars on top of it, said, Mary, you.
Speaker 2: Had to pay taxes. You give somebody candy, they got
Speaker 2: to pay the taxes on that.
Speaker 1: They got it, that's right. So he was. He was
Speaker 1: a phenomenon he did. I could tell you stories all
Speaker 1: night long about what he did, and some stories people
Speaker 1: don't even know. The guy was just incredible.
Speaker 2: One give me one story right now, and that'll take
Speaker 2: us up to wave goodbye times.
Speaker 1: Here's a story that nobody knows. Elvis read this in
Speaker 1: the newspaper about this lady in a really low part
Speaker 1: attend the family. She was an older lady that didn't
Speaker 1: have a wheelchair and they had no way to get
Speaker 1: her around. So one morning Elvis's list, let's he went
Speaker 1: about the most expensive electric wheelchair and he asked Sonny
Speaker 1: West and the Red West and all the guys, how
Speaker 1: much money do we have cash? And Elvis didn't carry cash,
Speaker 1: so he had a credit card, you know, and they said, well,
Speaker 1: we have the money. He goes, well, we're going to
Speaker 1: go to the bank. So he went to the bank.
Speaker 1: I forget how much it was, it's probably ten or
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand bucks at the time, which back in those days,
Speaker 1: that was this ridiculous amount of money. So he bought
Speaker 1: the wheelchair and he went over there and once again
Speaker 1: to start part to tell me, they didn't really recognize him.
Speaker 1: And he who goes up to the door and they
Speaker 1: answered the door and Elvis, you know, he asked the
Speaker 1: name and stuff. He said yeah, and he said, well,
Speaker 1: I've got something for you. So he pulls up this
Speaker 1: wheelchair for this lady. And you know, the family came
Speaker 1: out and they started crying, and the couple of them
Speaker 1: recognized him and they said, why did you do this?
Speaker 1: He goes, wow, He goes, I was poor once and
Speaker 1: he goes, I wanted to help this your grandma, you know,
Speaker 1: and he gave her the wheelchair and then he gave
Speaker 1: it gave him the money, which was, like I said,
Speaker 1: that was obnoxious amount of money at the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: and this, and he told everybody, goes, if anybody calls
Speaker 1: the newspaper. He didn't tell them that, but he told
Speaker 1: his bodyguards. He goes, if anybody calls the newspapers, he goes,
Speaker 1: your guys are going to get fired. Because he didn't
Speaker 1: want the newspaper. He wanted, you know, people to know
Speaker 1: what he did. So wow, and that right. I have
Speaker 1: never heard that story obviously, I've heard told me, told me,
Speaker 1: I told Suddy West told me that story, and that's
Speaker 1: the true truth.
Speaker 2: Sonny West. His nickname was Red and if you watch
Speaker 2: the Wild Wild West TV series periodically, you see his
Speaker 2: name in the credits. He would always play one of
Speaker 2: the group of bad guys that would beat up Jim West,
Speaker 2: or then he Jim West would beat up all of them,
Speaker 2: three four, five of them. And he was a gentleman
Speaker 2: that became a bodyguard to Elvis. And you see him
Speaker 2: in the movie Roadhouse. He's one of the guys at
Speaker 2: the end of the film that wind up shooting Ben
Speaker 2: Cuzara's character Brad Wesley, and then all of them deny it.
Speaker 2: We don't know what happened. We don't know how this happened.
Speaker 2: And you see Patrick Swayze as his character just bleeding
Speaker 2: from his arm and a fight he had just a
Speaker 2: few minutes ago with Brad Wesley, and he's like, I
Speaker 2: don't know what happened either, and that's how that movie ended.
Speaker 2: That and Red West was one of the bad guys
Speaker 2: and I forget his name, one of the guys from
Speaker 2: Emergencies in that movie too. Pete, thank you for helping
Speaker 2: me wave goodbye.
Speaker 1: And your followers, come and see us.
Speaker 2: I will see you in the spring. It's a guarantee,
Speaker 2: all right, my friend.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Pete. Thank you to our first guest of
Speaker 2: the night, Roger Doptoiz doptka Wits. Thank you to Ken Myers.
Speaker 2: Thank you to Roger Dopkowitz. Nancy, thank you and thank
Speaker 2: you Gray. You're around here somewhere. And whether you listened,
Speaker 2: called or did both. Thank you fans of Nightside, you
Speaker 2: get your danery back tomorrow. I do hope every one
Speaker 2: of you has a happy, healthy and strong twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: That's from me. Morganwhake, Junior by Boston,