INTERVIEW:JERRY SCHILLING (THE DAY ELVIS CRIED)

"My worst memory, and the worst day of my life has to be the day Priscilla took Lisa Marie away from Graceland," says Schilling. "To this day, that image still haunts me..."

On October 9, 1973, after 5 years of marriage Elvis and Priscilla were divorced. It was Elvis who filed for the divorce, as token gesture to save Priscilla the embarrassment as she was the mother of his daughter, Lisa Marie, who only 4 years old at the time.


,"It was I very sad day for all of us," says Schilling. "I remember how Elvis just stood in Lisa's bedroom and watched in silence as Alberta (Graceland's cook) helped Priscilla pack Lisa's clothes and toys into several suitcases... Elvis said nothing, but I could see the pain in his eyes," recalls Schilling.

"Suddenly, he yelled out to me and Joe (Esposito) to help Priscilla put the baggage into the car. Elvis just couldn't bring himself to carry the bags out to the car, himself," whispers Schilling.


Unaware of the happening between her parents in her bedroom, Lisa Marie played happily with her nanny outside the grounds of Graceland.

In an aim to spare Lisa the sorry of their separation, Elvis and Priscilla had told her that she was going away on a vacation with her mother to Los Angeles, where she was going to attend school. "It broke my heart to see Elvis, a man who had everything, suddenly be lose the most important person in his life - his daughter."



"Lisa was more important than life itself to Elvis." Now she was being taken away from him," says Schilling.



Although, the court ruled Priscilla gets custody of Lisa Marie, Elvis believed his daughter would be far better off raised with small town of values in Memphis, just like he was, than in a big city like Los Angeles.



"Elvis just stood watching as we load up Priscilla's blue Mercedes.

Until that finally moment, Elvis was still composed, but when it was time to bid farewell to his daughter, Elvis broke down and cried as he swooped his beloved Lisa into his arms. Elvis held Lisa tight for a very long time. "Be a good girl, Button-head," whispered Elvis. (Button-head was Elvis' pet name for Lisa) "You come and visit often, you hear," said Elvis trying to hold back the tears. Then out of sheer desperation Elvis insisted, "Get mummy to teach you how to use the phone, so you can call me everyday, okay."


As Schilling recalls, "Lisa Marie, was always a very perceptive child. She realised this was not the usual way her daddy said goodbye. Normally, Elvis would says, 'Button-head I'm off to work. What do you want daddy to bring you back, this time?'"


"This day was strange, and Lisa knew it. She looked into her daddy's eyes and asked him, 'Are you crying, daddy?"

At the point, Elvis flashed Priscilla a look that could kill, then delivered Lisa into her mother's awaiting arms, turned on his heels, walked back into the house, without looking back.


"I'd seen that look before in Elvis eyes," says Schilling. "It a look that still sends a chill went down my spine, when I think of it... It's was a look of pain, anger, desperation and hurt."

"For the rest of that day, till about 4 am that night, Elvis closed himself up in his bedroom. He wouldn't eat or take our calls."

"We got very worried. We thought maybe he had knocked myself out with a whole lot of sleeping pills."


"From time to time, Joe and I would sneak up to his bedroom and listen at the door. Once I heard him cursing. Another times I heard him screaming. But mostly we heard Elvis just sobbing."



Finally, Schilling admitted, "I now know, that day was the beginning of the end for the Elvis I had met."