Elvis Presley’s cousin Danny Smith was asked this week about his memories of growing up around his superstar relative.
Danny is the son of Billy Smith, who was Elvis’ maternal first cousin and moved to Memphis with him when their families left Tupelo in 1948.
When he grew up, Billy became part of the star’s inner circle, the Memphis Mafia, and often lived on or near the grounds of Graceland, where he raised his son.
In the latest video on his Memphis Mafia Kid Youtube channel, Danny was asked by fans if Elvis had ever wanted to tour overseas.
The King reputedly never set foot outside of the US, apart from concerts in Canada and military service in Germany – and even turned down an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II.
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Billy said: “Sure, he definitely wanted to do it… That is something that I think, had he lived, things would have changed… He would have done a world tour.
“I don’t know how much bigger Elvis Presley could get than he is now, but think about it, a world tour. In his heart, in his mind, he definitely wanted to… I’m sure many a times they talked about it. That was a definite.”
It is generally accepted that there was only ever one person standing in the way of Elvis going on tour outside the US.
Parker was a born hustler, who told everyone he was born in the Appalachian mountains. In fact, his real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, a Dutch carnival and docks worker born in Breda in 1909. He had an act that forced chickens to ‘dance’ on a red-hot plate.
He had mysteriously disappeared overnight on May 17, 1929, leaving behind all his belongings, including expensive clothes, his ID papers and money. The same evening, a local woman, Anna an den Enden, was brutally killed at the greengrocers on the street where the ‘Parker’s’ family lived. She was battered horrifically violently in the head.
The crime has never been solved, but Parker suspiciously completely erased his history and had no contact with his family back home for many years.
It has always been thought that a primary reason Elvis never toured was that Parker also knew his illegal alien status would be discovered if he left and tried to re-enter the US.
It was reason enough for Parker to turn down all overseas touring offers, despite the fact that both he and his client desperately needed the money through the 1970s, thanks to Elvis’ profligate spending and Parker’s major gambling habit which left him owing the Las Vegas Hilton over $30million ($135million today) when The King died in 1977.
At Parker’s 1997 funeral, Priscilla Presley ended her eulogy: “And now I need to locate my wallet, because I noticed there was no ticket booth on the way in here, but I’m sure that the Colonel must have arranged for some toll on the way out.”
MEMPHIS MAFIA KIDS YOUTUBE CHANNEL
