[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Mera, Radio Entertainment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christmas, I can't do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_01]: The glasses, the glasses, the glasses.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are my officially, look, they come in a case.
[SPEAKER_01]: My officially licensed Elvis Presley sunglasses.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone needs to go at least check out the first 30 seconds of this episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: Simply for the way your head's moving around in those glasses.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Elvis ever had alopecia and lost all his hair, this is what it would look like.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, this is scary audience.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, all right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, as a favor to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll go back to regular glasses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I can see how fantastic Christmas as you know, oh, by the way, welcome everybody to this special edition of the Michael Marisho.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hope you're enjoying your holiday season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Told you you'd get new contact
[SPEAKER_01]: this is fun for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christmas is truly a time of tradition.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you have family traditions as I do.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean even stupid things like Christmas Eve, our family always has grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just a tradition that has existed for here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so there you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have any traditions in your family that you think sort of stick out for Christmas?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, because we've had to, I feel like I had my kids growing up and I feel like after the divorce and figuring that out and then remarriage and figuring that out and blend in three families, I'm just lucky to get us all together for Christmas one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know what, and that's a solid enough tradition right there.
[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that you're still getting over here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, when it works, it's great though, but one of my favorite traditions going back through all the years goes back to the days of the Don and Mike show, and it is the story of hamburger James.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I asked a few people on the cruise if anyone would be interested in hearing the story again, and I got
[SPEAKER_01]: really an overwhelming yes, and I love the story, and I know you've probably heard of the story, but have you ever heard the whole story of Elvis Presley and Hamburger James?
[SPEAKER_02]: I've heard the story reference to so many times on the Donna Mike show and the Mike of Mayor Show.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I don't believe I ever heard the actual story.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's remarkable.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to oversell it, but it's crazy.
[SPEAKER_01]: As an Elvis fan, it brings me great joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, to make your Christmas time complete, for the first time in many years, we're going to tell the hamburger James story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, for a little background on who hamburger James is, do you have a guess as to who hamburger James is?
[SPEAKER_01]: And how he fits into Elvis' lore?
[SPEAKER_02]: I know he's related to Elvis and though he's one of those guys hanging around.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know nothing else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, he's not related to Elvis.
[SPEAKER_01]: His name was James Koffley and Well, I'm not just associated.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he has associated, but you see this story comes from Elvis's step brother Rick Stanley who became Elvis's step brother when Elvis's dad remarried and the story goes like this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hamburger James was a guy who wanted to be in the Memphis Mafia, and eventually was initiated as a member, but unlike Red West and some of the others, his role in the Memphis Mafia was somewhat limited.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mainly, he was just the guy who went out for hamburgers at 3am or whatever Elvis had a sudden desire for one.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Elvis wanted something, he wanted it right then and there and it didn't matter if he was in a car or if he was on a horse, if he wanted a hamburger, he wanted a hamburger and it didn't matter if places were open or
[SPEAKER_01]: uh, he just wanted that burger.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, this is why James was given the name hamburger James because it was his primary job to get hamburgers on Elvis's whim.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a pretty good job.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a bad job because you know every time we got a hamburger he got to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this, um, story, you can actually see hamburger James in the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis on tour.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's one of the guys hanging around Elvis, but now the story itself, this is hamburger James and the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: This comes from People Magazine, August 21st, 1989, as told by Rick Stanley, Elvis's step brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: Once upon a time, in a southern state, not so far away.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was Elvis, and his bestest brother says, I felt very much at home when I was at Grayson.
[SPEAKER_01]: We lived with Vernon in a house next door, now Vernon is Elvis's father, just so you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when Elvis was home, I would go over to see him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis loved to throw the football.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd go out on past patterns, and we do that for hours and hours in the backyard.
[SPEAKER_01]: One evening, he decided he wanted to mend some fences.
[SPEAKER_01]: in the literal sense he wanted to actually mend offense and they went out with a hammer and nails where he just hammered about ten nails into a board like a little kid didn't fix the fence just wanted to swing a hammer so Elvis was sort of simplistic in that way so Ricky goes on when I was 17 I was getting into drugs that's bad right generally yeah but Elvis figured out
[SPEAKER_02]: from everything I know about all this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, that's one thing I've never heard.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted to work with him as his personal aid, but I knew he would have a difficult time convincing Ricky's mother to let me go out on the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I told her I would have a private tutor, I would be in church every morning, and all these different things.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of them lies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ricky's first trip and I do this in Ricky's words, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: My first trip to Washington, D.C. We were sitting on the plane, he's on the island, I'm right beside him, and Elvis just looked at me and goes, I'm the teacher, and I'm going to teach you everything you need to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, you see in here on the road, you don't say anything about that at home, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ricky's 17 and he's getting sort of trial by fire here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now.
[SPEAKER_01]: You could head?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, he's got good connections to get B-17 and get that roadie job immediately.
[SPEAKER_02]: So prime job.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ricky continues.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got to the hotel when we were there for five minutes and all these girls were there.
[SPEAKER_01]: All these guys have got girls waiting.
[SPEAKER_01]: None of the wives were ever allowed to go on the road with us and that was one of the reasons Elvis why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis is one of the reasons why.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis looks at me and says there are two girls that I've dated that are going to be here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joyce and Janis.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought, wow, he's a married man, and he's not only got one girl, but two.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like this point Ricky is probably a little naive about what goes on the road, the fact that Elvis being married and having a girl, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that or their Mormon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, oh, this was not a Mormon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, yeah, I think it's pretty naive.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of all the forces pointed him not being Mormon.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, Ricky continues, that was the night that Elvis initiated me into what was called the Memphis Mafia by calling me at four o'clock in the morning and asking me to find a cheeseburger in downtown Washington, D.C.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was December of 1970 right before I was born freezing weather that was me interjecting Ricky was already born and when he said he wanted cheeseburgers I said well, where do I get him and Elvis said that's your responsibility find out so I called the bellman and the bellman didn't know
[SPEAKER_01]: So I literally went out on the streets of DC to find a place, and I put the cheeseburgers inside my coat to keep them home warm, and ran all the way to the back to the hotel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get upstairs, go into the room, and the girls were there, and I pulled the hamburgers out and handed them the Elvis, and he said, I don't want them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just wanted to see if you could do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was the test.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did it bring that to Smavia?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now he's a member of the Memphis Mafia, Ricky continues.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is all background, of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually I took care of him when we were traveling.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I made sure all the meals were taken care of.
[SPEAKER_01]: I took care of his wardrobe and his jewelry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I taped up the windows with tin foil, so the sun couldn't get in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Set up the room and carried the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the first time we've heard about the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: The kit that contained all of his medication.
[SPEAKER_01]: lot of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: When he came off stage, it was my responsibility to get a towel around his neck, a glass of water in his hand, a coat on his back, just like we do with Mike.
[SPEAKER_01]: After the show, tell him to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what Carla carries the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then get him into the car and make sure those vents weren't blowing on him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis, not a big fan of air conditioning.
[SPEAKER_01]: And usually in the car, it was mostly just him and me in the back seat with someone else driving.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now girls were always available.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just a matter of picking which ones Elvis wanted, and he wanted one every night.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had to have someone in bed with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think sex was involved lots of the time, he just hated to be alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: If there wasn't a girl there, I'd sometimes have to sleep at the foot of the bed.
[SPEAKER_02]: at least the I do like the foot of the bed and I'm starting to wonder why they don't feature this guy in the movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, um, when Elvis wanted a girl, sometimes it was our job to go find one.
[SPEAKER_01]: We called it trolling.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now Elvis would look around and say, it's time to go trolling.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we knew what that meant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone had to go downstairs in the hotel and select four or five girls to look him over.
[SPEAKER_01]: I introduced him to a lot of girls and members of the ontarage introduced him to some.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was usually me because I knew his taste.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's really gross.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis like tall, clean girls.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, but everyone did like those expressions gross, but of course he knows Elvis's taste.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's still gross.
[SPEAKER_01]: And believe me, apparently I know gross.
[SPEAKER_01]: In one of the Vegas hotels they gather together in a lounge area and sit around on sofas and wait.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, how do you think this makes the girls feel?
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to go put you on a sofa and maybe Elvis will come out.
[SPEAKER_02]: the type of girls who are out there to try to sleep without us to begin with.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not like they're just hanging out at a party.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is what they want.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they'll go into there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Elvis wanted somebody to go trolling, I'd go down and look them over, pick out four or five.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just told them Elvis wants to meet them and I asked if they'd like to come up to the sweet.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was all pretty cool, but everyone knew what was up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the girls knew they were playing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, the girls knew.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is all just background.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've not even really gotten the hamburger James yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So stay tuned.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, Josh, feel free to pepper me with questions throughout because it's nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: This must be what it's like when you take someone to church for the first time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're seeing them see God through their eyes, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, same experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, there was a whole routine Ricky continues when I was gone Elvis would get out stuff to talk to me about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: He carried books on astrology and numerology and that kind of thing so he could make conversation with the girls.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, what do you think of the number eight?
[SPEAKER_02]: He looks like he's got to find something to send him apart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the fact that he's the most famous person in the world and the greatest singer in rock and roll at the time, that probably could have said him apart.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he doesn't have to open his mouth, but he wants to feel like he's doing something.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's your sign?
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, anyway, Ricky says I take them up and there he'd be all smiles and very gracious.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis would make women feel wonderful.
[SPEAKER_01]: They'd sit around in the sweet for a while while Elvis would look them over and talk to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he'd let me know which one he wanted to stay.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the visit wore down, I'd escort the others to the door and the one that was chosen would get to stay behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost mathematical in its precision, you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's, I know it's, it's so basic and you're like now to what every rockstar is showing as and I'm maybe, but why not if you're the most famous guy and you have those girls hanging out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you've got a guy who's the top of your married.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, there's that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then I'd instruct that one girl and tell her what Elvis liked and didn't like.
[SPEAKER_01]: I tell her that if things worked out in a way she decided she wanted to stay the night, and I knew they'd already decided or they wouldn't be there, that there might be some things she'd want to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told them Elvis always liked to eat in bed, so I'd set a table in the bed, like Mike.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I tell them that Elvis always ate and slept in pajamas.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I love some of his pajama tops in the bathroom, just for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I tell them Elvis insisted everyone around him be very clean, so they might want to take his shower before they put on the pajama.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, call a clean woman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, at least they need to be clean before they get the Elvis.
[SPEAKER_02]: We know how they are downstairs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who knows?
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you say that you mean downstairs in the hotel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not downstairs on their book.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you heard the gross one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's about to get, I'm reading a quote here.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is not me being gross, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Rickie Stanley continues, I told them they could order anything they wanted to eat, but Elvis hated the smell of fish, so get whatever you wanted, but stay away from fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: Treat into that what you will.
[SPEAKER_01]: I told them they could question questions.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I know That way I Told them they should brush their teeth after they ate because Elvis always did that and I put a new toothbrush in the bathroom for them I'd always take a big patch of toothbrushes on the road with us a big double handful
[SPEAKER_01]: I told him that Elvis loved to have his back and shoulders rub.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd serve him and then I'd leave.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny, there's actual footage in some of the documentaries of Elvis preparing to go on tour.
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the jobs is they'd have to pack dozens and hundreds of scarves, because he gave scarves away on the tour.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now add to that, of course, all the toothbrushes.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, makes sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this is the good part, guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: The kit, and I'm saying it in a way that is in quotation marks Ricky Stanley says, the kit went everywhere with Elvis, and I was the guy designated to take care of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he went out for a drive, that meant I brought the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: It all kinds of uppers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Decks of dream, black beauties.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you've got the class A Perkadan, Demarode Codine.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were barbitruits, two-in-all, second-all, NEMBETAL, Carbittal.
[SPEAKER_01]: And towards the end, Liquid Demarole.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were needles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plus he had money inside the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: $10,000 in a wallet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make up a driver's license and a lot of jewelry.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all about the stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, that's, that's why these guys have so such big enterprises.
[SPEAKER_02]: I suppose because of stuff like this kid, you need your drug guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Money guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: True fact that when Elvis was really out of control, he used to pay a jeweler.
[SPEAKER_01]: to travel with him in case he wanted to buy jewelry in the middle of the night.
[SPEAKER_01]: He literally brought a jeweler with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: That seems a bit excessive.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do lot of bring up the fact that one time my mom donated a kidney to her sister, and I went into the hospital, the visitor, and the doctor mentioned something about a liquid demoral.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I knew too much about it because I know about Elvis Presley, and the doctor was very shocked that I knew so much about liquid dimmer all like, maybe I had a problem.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, no, I just, I just like music.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, Elvis started, this is Ricky continues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis started taking prescribed drugs from his mother when he was a young man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anti-depressants and uppers.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was depressed, always overweight, and taking diet pills.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he just got them from her pillow cabinet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need it.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, for ever a bit of drugs or whatever he took, there was always a reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: Quote, I need this because I sprained my back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis and his sprained back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need this because I've got a rest tonight.
[SPEAKER_01]: His daddy confronted him about it and he'd always say, I know what I'm doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Use an abuse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are two different things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, a lot of big money performers think it's a lot of fun to have servants hanging around them all the time, like the Mafia, the Memphis Mafia, the entourage.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a guy that ended up working for Elvis helping me, but he didn't have much of a job.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mainly he went for stuff like hamburgers, and we all called him hamburger James.
[SPEAKER_01]: Aha, now I'm at Elvis's sweet one day, and he yells out from the bathroom that somebody has been in the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: to add news.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, some things were missing, some money and some pictures, and we all ran over the place, and there was one person we could not find.
[SPEAKER_02]: The pictures are left in the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's never really said, but it's implied that they might be intimate photos.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe with Priscilla, which maybe not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would you carry around things that could blackmail you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would you travel with a jeweler?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean it's all, it's, you have to accept this because it's Elvis and as they ran around trying to figure out what was going on with the kit there was only one person they couldn't find.
[SPEAKER_01]: hamburger James.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they obviously know he is up to no good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would he travel with all that stuff and actually have like a guy that is in charge of the kit?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'd love to think some of this has been exaggerated or falsified.
[SPEAKER_01]: but I've read enough accounts from different sources of this story that I genuinely feel it's real.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're about to get to the, uh, to the, I would say the most exciting part of the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's take a short break.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we come back, we're going to find out how Elvis got his kit back.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, when they found out that hamburger James had the kit, Elvis was more than mad.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was in a wild rage, and it's spread to everybody, keep mine there in a hotel room in Las Vegas.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis had some pictures in the kit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't look at them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they were pictures of Priscilla.
[SPEAKER_01]: Aha.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hamburger James took some of those too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis was hot, man.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was hot.
[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody's running around looking for hamburger James, and someone says, I bet he's at the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: of course he is so we were in Las Vegas at the time and Elvis screams give the car and we race out of the hotel and pile into a couple of cars there were six or seven of us and we're driving like crazy because someone found out that a plane is supposed to leave for Memphis in a few minutes at this point Josh the story sounds like
[SPEAKER_01]: like a movie that you'd see on the hallmark channel.
[SPEAKER_01]: They say they're finding things out in amazing and very convenient order.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: They assume he's at the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they go to the airport.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's worth stealing 10k at that time, remember?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's probably worth like 70, 80, 100k now.
[SPEAKER_01]: probably, not even mentioned the pictures.
[SPEAKER_01]: We come screeching up to the airport and everyone piles out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some people are wearing guns and shoulder holsters and they don't have their coats on.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, two cars pull up to the airport and then with guns, just run into the airport.
[SPEAKER_02]: FBI happens to be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have, Elvis is right there with us and everybody is running to all the different counters and jumping up and down to look over the heads of the crowd trying to find hamburger James.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone in the place is freaking out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I suppose they are with seven guns running around an airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: Women are grabbing their kids and hugging them while all these guys run over the place with their guns.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, this was Las Vegas in 1974 and stars like Elvis are protected in places like Las Vegas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, it happened pretty fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, 1974 is before my time, and it's certainly before 9-11 and all the increased security, but the notion of someone running, you know, McCarran's not a very big airport.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think, but I mean, I think back to even how flights were in the 90s before 9-11, and could have gotten away with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you could have gotten away with running around with seven men's with guns.
[SPEAKER_01]: That seems a bit much.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you could run through crazy back then you could get away with all this stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: They didn't know drugs were bad They didn't know oh yeah, guns were so bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: I suppose you're right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you think red ones are smoking at the same time while in there?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you think red and sunny west of the Memphis mafia had their real ID that would have helped?
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess what all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't see what the point of anything is, so they're chasing them through the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right, finally, someone runs up and says we found the plane for Memphis, and it's leaving the gate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh no!
[SPEAKER_01]: So everybody runs like mad to get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: The guys are all pounding on the glass and Elvis runs up to the girl at the gate desk and starts yelling, stop that plane, stop that plane!
[SPEAKER_01]: She ignores him for a second or two, and then starts to get a little hysterical in screens.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't!
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, before we move on, you have to know that one of the things that Elvis collected was badges.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis loved badge.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: He, the reason he hit that picture of him and Nixon exists is he flew into Washington, DC because he wanted a DEA badge.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's what he wanted.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, back to the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: At that point, after the woman yells, I can't, I can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis pulls out a police badge.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the bunch he had been given over the years and flashes at her and yells, I'm a federal officer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said stop that plane.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's coming to the...
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, even if it wasn't Elvis Presley screaming, I'm a federal officer, that's not okay behavior to scream you're a federal officer.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then she sees its Elvis and goes all buttery and starts to kind of whimper things like, oh, it's you, oh, it's you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I have your autograph, oh Elvis?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's yelling, stop that play, I'm a federal officer, I tell you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a cartoon, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the
[SPEAKER_01]: The very notion this happened is mind-bending.
[SPEAKER_01]: They opened the door and Elvis's body guards ran down the aisles and there in the back was Hamburger James, all huddled down and hiding in the back of the plane.
[SPEAKER_01]: They dragged him right up the aisle off the plane and out of the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, can you imagine being a person on this plane to see all of Elvis's henchmen guns out, run in and drag someone out?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an exciting flight right there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he could use pre 9-11.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe anything I did airport hamburger James was wailing and crying and trying to get away Some of the guys are punching him in the face what's in a while just to try to get him to be quiet Just an occasion to the face.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay
[SPEAKER_01]: They've sure he thought they were going to take him out into the desert somewhere and dig him a grave.
[SPEAKER_01]: But instead, we race back to the hotel and Elvis's people drag hamburger James into the elevator up to Elvis's suite and throw him down on the couch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis walks up and the crowd of people, parts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hamburger James is there sobbing like crazy and he scared to death.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis walks up.
[SPEAKER_02]: People were at the airport.
[SPEAKER_02]: They could have done this in the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, but they got to get back to the sweet because once again this is like a motion picture you have to be in the and besides what's about to happen couldn't happen in the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: John Hangerbridge, I am sorry, hamburger James is sobbing like crazy and scared to death, Elvis walks up in front of him, leans down, picks up a huge coffee table, doesn't say anything, he's dead quiet and I'm thinking oh my god, he's going to murder him with the coffee table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is funny because there's seven guns in the suite, but he's gonna murder him with a coffee table.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, how are we ever gonna talk out of this when we see him smash someone's head with a coffee table?
[SPEAKER_01]: But Elvis put the table down to one side.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he walks up to hamburger James and looks at him real cold and real quiet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Elvis reaches over while Hamburger James is looking straight at him, scared to death, and Elvis slaps him twice, just like in the movie's slap.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then a backhand pal, then slap again, then the most amazing thing happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hamburger James got a funny look in his face and wilted like a baby.
[SPEAKER_01]: He cried and cried, like his heart was broken.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said he was sorry he stole, and he would give it all back, and he knew he had done something that he couldn't ever be forgiven for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis looked at him for a minute, and then Elvis broke down and started crying too.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just sobbed and sobbed.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went down on his knees in front of hamburger James, and then Elvis said he was sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: He kept saying to him, what did he let me know you need of the money?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why didn't you let me know you wanted to go back to Memphis?
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have given you money.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to steal from me.
[SPEAKER_01]: They both cried and cried and cried like that for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Elvis kept telling Hamburger James that he didn't have to leave that he could keep his job and everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Hamburger James wanted to go, so Elvis gave him a few weeks salary and someone took him back to the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis wanted to be a tough guy, but he couldn't really.
[SPEAKER_01]: He always seemed to care.
[SPEAKER_01]: He seemed to care about people, and his acts of generosity towards complete strangers.
[SPEAKER_01]: or something else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is the story of Hamburger James.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no way it's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not the case.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, this is a case of you say the same lie over and over again to the point that everyone thinks it's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because they've heard by lie way more than the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's other sources, but it just jives of it now.
[SPEAKER_01]: The thing that I was thinking about on this most recent telling of it,
[SPEAKER_01]: is Hamburger James made quite a scene when he was being removed from the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember he was screaming and crying and being punched in the face by men with guns.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just two hours later he goes back to the airport.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm wondering are they, is everything okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: How are you doing?
[SPEAKER_02]: I also don't think there's that many flights to Memphis.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's true that there would be another one there.
[SPEAKER_02]: That can catch another.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think to make the movie better, he should have ended it with Elvis Aspen for another hamburger.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said him out.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's why they didn't stick.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why they didn't get the movie deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think the movie could still happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that, uh...
[SPEAKER_01]: Badz Lerman has the big Elvis movie coming out the beginning of 2026 called Epic.
[SPEAKER_01]: Elvis Presley in concert.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe Hamburger James will be mentioned in that, but you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hamburger James doesn't come up in any of the motion pictures.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know what, every Elvis movie does wrong.
[SPEAKER_02]: What?
[SPEAKER_02]: They focus too much on the music.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's the boring thing we were right behind the scenes stuff you're right i mean you can go buy the music anywhere but the stuff that the stuff that dreams are made of that's hamburger James um i hope this leaves you with a warm feeling for Christmas and uh knowing that even at two in the morning you can still get a hamburger.
[SPEAKER_02]: outside.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I'm trying to think of how what this has to do with Christmas.
[SPEAKER_02]: How did this become a Christmas tradition?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, but I think you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good story with a happy ending.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have any takeaways from this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does there a lesson learned?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there a call to action from that hamburger James story?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's fake.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we're not, have you heard the story from hamburger James?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hamburger James is past.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, but before he passed.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I did have his number and I tried to call him once and the man hung up on me.
[SPEAKER_02]: How many people you think call him and ask for a hamburger?
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably quite a few if I'm sure that's what you were gonna do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, no, I was gonna ask him to verify some things I wasn't gonna be rude if nothing else.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a polite old as fam So folks Merry Christmas and happy new year and this isn't real.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is so real Josh You might as well sit here and tell me there is no Santa Claus when you tell me this story is fake
[SPEAKER_01]: you got to know it's real.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would never say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have more bonus material to come out through the full of the upcoming weeks and we do appreciate you supporting the Michael Marisho all year round and God bless us everyone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for enjoying the story of hamburger James and Josh, we're going to make you a real Elvis fan yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, they will never happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will.
[SPEAKER_01]: I promise you it will.
[SPEAKER_01]: So everybody have a great day.
[SPEAKER_03]: He is true, there's more energy, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
[UNKNOWN]: You