Apr 23, 2008 3:41 pm US/Eastern
Producer Says Elvis Made Secret Visit To England
The King of Rock and Roll in England? Maybe so.
For decades Elvis Presley's English fans have accepted that the King
of Rock and Roll's only known visit to Britain was a quick stop at
Glasgow Prestwick Airport in Scotland. An Elvis lounge and a plaque
commemorates his 1960 stopover there.
Now a prominent theater producer says Presley made a secret visit to
London in 1958 to see the sights with popular British rocker Tommy
Steele, and he promised never to reveal that they had gone to famous
landmarks together.
However, a spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises in Memphis,
Tenn., denied the secret trip ever took place, and insisted that the
only time Presley was on British soil was when he was returning to the
U.S. to wrap up an army tour.
"Sgt. Elvis Presley made his only appearance in the U.K. when he
stepped off a U.S. Air Force plane at the Prestwick Airport in March of
1960," spokesman Kevin Kern said in a statement. "The aircraft made a
brief stop to refuel."
The theater producer, Bill Kenwright, told a BBC radio show that
Steele had told him that Presley flew in for a day after calling out of
the blue to say he liked the British rocker's music.
Steele, now 71, said in a written note to London's Daily Mail that he wished the secret had never come out.
"I can only hope he can forgive me," he said of Presley, who died in
1977 at the age of 42. "It was an event shared by two young men sharing
the same love of their music and the same thrill of achieving something
unimaginable."
The alleged visit was apparently kept secret at the time so that
Presley wouldn't be mobbed by fans, but it was not clear why Steele
would want to keep it secret now.
The call to Steele came while Presley was stationed at a U.S. Army base in Germany, Kenwright said.
Presley had been known to visit Paris while stationed in Germany,
attracting hundreds of fans, and went to some well-known Parisian
nightspots. But there have been no prior reports of him touring
England, where he never performed.
The news was not welcomed at Scotland's Glasgow Prestwick Airport, where officials are proud of their Elvis connection.
The bartender at the Elvis-themed lounge hung up the phone Tuesday
when asked about the King's visit to London, and airport Chief
Executive Mark Rodwell told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he
wants photographic proof that Presley was actually in London.
"As far as we are concerned, until it is proved otherwise Prestwick
Airport remains the only place in the United Kingdom that Elvis Presley
ever set foot," he said.
