Elvis Presley: The King and I…50 years on

Published on Wednesday 3 March 2010 21:55

HE CAME down the aircraft steps in the uniform of a sergeant but was greeted as the King.

• An Elvis impersonator recreates the scene yesterday. Picture: Getty

It was 50 years ago yesterday that Elvis Presley set foot on British soil for the only time, at Prestwick airport in Ayrshire.

To mark the occasion, an Elvis impersonator recreated what was known as "the King's pitstop". It all brought back memories for one loyal subject of the king of rock 'n' roll who vividly remembers that day in 1960.

Ann Murphy was a 16-year-old who used to babysit for a sergeant at a US base next to Prestwick, and he alerted her to the imminent arrival of the singer. Presley was returning to the US after two years' military service in Germany when his plane stopped to refuel.

Yesterday, Mrs Murphy, now 66, recalled how her friend Muriel leapt on to the wrong car.

She said: "When we got to the base, there was a small group of people already there, standing at the barrier in front of two huge Cadillac cars.

"Muriel and I were right at the barrier. We were so excited and suddenly the plane was in front of us. The door opened and there was Elvis. He was so handsome in his uniform. He waved and we started screaming.

"He shouted, 'Where am I?' and people shouted back, 'Prestwick'. But I was shouting, 'I love you'.

"He came down the stairs and looked fantastic with that beautiful smile. We could hardly believe we were looking at him. We could nearly touch him.

"Then Muriel did an amazing thing. She jumped over the barrier and threw herself on the Cadillac. A couple of huge military policemen scraped her off and put her back over the barrier. The next thing we knew, he was away."

Presley spent an hour at the airport, during which time he signed a chip poke for Bobby Ghee, a young buildings inspector who had agreed to act as an assistant to his younger brother, Ian, a military photographer based at the Ayrshire airport.

Mr Ghee, now 79, said when he asked for the star's autograph, he realised the only piece of paper he had on him was a piece of chip poke paper.

"Before Ian phoned me to come down, somebody had broken into my friend's chip shop and I'd measured a window for him," he said. "I'd written the sizes down on a fish and chip poke and that was the only thing I had on my person that I could get Elvis to sign."

After an hour, during which Presley spoke by phone to his then girlfriend Priscilla, who was back in Germany, the singer went back up the steps of the DC-7 transporter plane and waved goodbye.

Despite his fame, Presley never toured outside the US, except for a few dates in Canada, as his manager, Col Tom Parker, did not have a passport. Parker was, in fact, a Dutchman, Andreas Cornelis Van Kuijik, and, although eligible for a US passport as he had served in the US army and was married to an American woman, he did not wish to reveal his true identity.

The Scotsman, as the nation's paper of record, wasn't too excited about Presley's visit – it devoted a mere 48 words to the story.