Elvis Presley had plenty of ways to relax at Graceland, but one reported pastime looked more like a scene from a movie than an afternoon at home. He would sit beside a swimming pool, snack on watermelon and use floating flashbulbs as targets. For one of the biggest entertainers in America, apparently even quiet time could become a little unpredictable.
The story fits a much better documented side of Elvis. He loved firearms and had a reputation for randomly shooting objects rather than simply keeping his collection on display. Mental Floss reports that he even had a firing range at Graceland, while friends and employees remembered his fondness for spontaneous target practice.
Elvis Shoots the TV and the Robert Goulet Story
The pool story involved flashbulbs floating on the water. According to the published account, Elvis would shoot at them while eating watermelon, turning something as ordinary as sitting beside the pool into target practice. It was another example of how differently Elvis could behave once he was away from audiences and surrounded by people he trusted.
His television habit became far more famous. One surviving RCA television associated with Elvis has a bullet hole in its screen after he fired at it while Robert Goulet was appearing on television. Graceland spokesman Kevin Kern later stressed that Elvis and Goulet were friends and said Elvis simply had a habit of shooting things randomly.
That makes the floating flashbulb story feel less unbelievable than it first sounds. Elvis lived at Graceland from the explosion of his 1950s fame until his death in 1977, and the estate became the private world where he could escape the pressures surrounding one of the most recognizable performers of his generation.
Elvis Presley changed popular music with records like “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock,” but stories from inside Graceland reveal a man far removed from the polished stage image. Sometimes the King apparently just wanted watermelon, a swimming pool and something to shoot at. Watch the clip and discover why the bullet-damaged television became one of the strangest surviving pieces of Elvis history.