In the summer of 1977, Lisa Marie Presley was nine years old and staying with her father at Graceland. And one of the last things Elvis was busy trying to arrange wasn’t a concert or a record at all. It was a treat for his little girl.
She had fallen for a brand new movie that year, a film called Star Wars, and she wanted to see it again. So Elvis, being Elvis, set out to make that happen in the grandest way he could. He wanted to rent a cinema and put on a private screening of Star Wars, just for her.
Elvis in his final months
There was just one problem, and it’s a small and very human one. He couldn’t get his hands on a print of the film in time. Even Elvis, who could usually get hold of almost anything, couldn’t pull this particular favor off quickly enough.
So he did the next best thing. He took Lisa Marie and his fiancee out to a local Memphis cinema to catch a different film that was playing, and gave her a night at the movies anyway.
The family’s own account of Elvis
It’s a tiny detail in the middle of a much bigger story. A father quietly working the phones, trying to surprise his daughter with her favorite movie, right near the very end.
Elvis spent his life giving the whole world something to cheer about. Some of his very last efforts went into giving one little girl a good night out.