Sandi was a "gate fan" and I used to buy her candid photos many years ago...when I was still "Christine Hayes"
I found these particular memories SO appropriate for ELC Forums that I am posting here:
I was trying to remember some of the incidents that would show how connected Elvis was with many of his fans and I think this is just one of many examples.
At the Hillcrest home there was an older couple that used to come up one or twice a month (We thought of them as older at the time, but now, looking back, they probably were mid 50's at the time) Extremely nice couple and Elvis always seemed to enjoy chatting with them, especially the husband.
Months went by without them showing up and one day Elvis asked about them - had we seen them, or heard from them? We didn't know much about them, other than their first names and that they lived in Van Nuys. Months later we ran into the woman at the Hilton- she was there for the Elvis show and she relayed the following: Her husband had died from a heart attack and it turns out, that after not showing up at the gates for so long, somewhere along the line, Elvis had remembered their Lisc. plate number (he did that every so often we found out as time went by) and thru that plate, had tracked down her address and actually drove out to Van Nuys because he suspected something might be wrong. It wasn't a secret to even us, that her husband was not a well person in the first place and apparently that occured to Elvis as well.
She said he showed up alone...at her home....then both her and her neighbor proceeded to pull photos out of their purses that each had taken of the other with Elvis. Tell me how many other ordinary citizens would go thru that much trouble, much less a celebrity! And Elvis never said a word about it!!!
Totally unrelated but going back to the 60's - during the summer, when it could get quite hot, especially up in Bel Air, and fans of course are standing there at that gate literally all day long - one could get very thirsty. Nearest place to go to get anything to drink would have been the Bel Air Hotel and that's only if you wanted to pay a small fortune for a sip of anything. Next choice would be Westwood Village --- waay too long to be gone in case he should leave or come home.
Not to worry- Elvis often would send out cases of cold soft drinks or lemonade for everyone standing out there. He'd have one of the boys get on the speaker to ask how many were out there and then one of the boys would come down the drive with all the beverages in the back seat of their car. When everyone was done, they'd pick up the empties.
It's a small thing - but still makes me smile to this day. Once he got on the speaker and tried to disguise his voice - didn't work but it was a nice try.
ELVIS & SANDI MILLER
