‘Elvis Is Dead’: How we covered the passing of Las Vegas’ top act
On Dec. 12, 1976, Elvis Presley performed “Can’t Help Falling in Love” to close out an 11-day run at the Las Vegas Hilton. It was his 15th stretch of shows there dating back to the summer of 1969.
The only news in the Review-Journal about that last performance was that during it, Presley didn’t confirm “reports he might marry Tennessee beauty Ginger Alden,” whose parents he’d flown to Las Vegas for the weekend on his private plane.
Shortly after, workers began converting the Hilton showroom for Monty Hall and six days of filming “Let’s Make a Deal” that would begin Dec. 15.
They’d never again prepare the showroom for Presley, who died Aug. 16, 1977.
His personal physician, Dr. Elias Ghanem of Las Vegas, “was shocked at the news of Presley’s death,” we wrote. “He treated the singer on numerous occasions for supposedly minor ailments that sometimes kept Presley from performing at the Las Vegas Hilton.
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“I gave him a complete physical this year for insurance purposes,” said a subdued Ghanem, who flew to Memphis hours after Presley’s death to take part in an autopsy. “He’s always been in good health, really,” said Ghanem. “Maybe a little overweight …”
Ghanem would go on to serve on the Nevada Athletic Commission for 14 years, seven of them as chairman, until his death in 2001.
Hotelier Barron Hilton, meanwhile, received the news of Presley’s death with sorrow, we wrote. “Hilton’s hotel always went all out when the superstar appeared there,” we added, “with every pillar and wall in the casino boasting an Elvis banner or poster and dealers wearing hats bearing his name.”
“We are deeply shocked and saddened at the loss of this outstanding superstar,” Hilton said. “Elvis Presley was more than just a great talent; he was a good friend to all of us at the Las Vegas Hilton.”
The afternoon of his death, hours before Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas” co-star Ann-Margret was scheduled to perform there, showroom workers recalled the man who had become synonymous with Las Vegas.
Photos: Where Elvis performed in Las Vegas: Then and now
“He was concerned about people,” said Jose Torres, a showroom waiter for six years. “It was never, ‘I’m too important to talk to you.’ During a show, he would joke with us, ask us how business was.”
Torres and other waiters recalled that Presley would send a floral bouquet, sometimes shaped like a guitar, for employees on Christmas.
“He was definitely all for the common folk,” showroom captain Elia Verzilli said. “If you’d meet him in the hallway when he was on his way to his room, he would be the first to say, ‘Hi, hello, how are you.’ He wasn’t like some people who wouldn’t even look at you.”
The following day on the editorial page, we remembered Presley as “a likeable (sic) man who launched an entertainment era, one of the handful who truly deserve superstar billing in Las Vegas and around the world. No other entertainer, with perhaps the exception of Frank Sinatra, had the impact he did on the musical scene.”
We continued: “His voice caressed the women in his audience in tender love ballads. … Always, he moved, and his audiences moved with him, screaming, straining toward the stage and the sweat-browed king who commanded their movements — and their minds.”
“He touched the lives of millions, millions who now are shocked and saddened,” we wrote. “With Elvis’ death, an era has died.”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on X.