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CHAPTER 6

My Debut as Elvis

Speaking of divorce, I was on the verge of it and was separated. That’s when I started frequenting a place over the bridge in Pennsylvania. The place was called Washington Crossing Inn. There was a keyboard player named Dave Boyd who played there every weekend. He would call different people up to sing, including me. Every time I got up, people yelled for me to sing Elvis Presley’s songs. Dave started telling me that I should get a costume and impersonate Elvis. He hounded me for four months until I finally gave in. I was going out at the time with a woman who did seamstress work, and she offered to make me a costume. That’s how it started.

Lou was the name of the guy who owned the Washington Crossing Inn at the time, and he was an avid Elvis fan. He was such a fan that he wore out the Aloha from Hawaii video tape and had to go buy another one! He was planning to have a luau at the Washington Crossing Inn. I asked him if he would be interested in me doing a show with Dave. I told him that I didn’t want any money, but I would take a couple of bottles of beer. He agreed to it, and finally the day came.

The place was packed with all the regulars plus a lot of people I had never seen before. I didn’t know at the time that Lou was telling everyone about my show. I went upstairs to change, and then the big moment came. It was time for my debut as an Elvis Presley impersonator. Down the stairs I came dressed in full regalia with a big intro! I brought the house down! I was absolutely dumbfounded! I had never gotten such a reception! The show went so well that I could hardly believe it! The people wanted all kinds of pictures, and they were asking for my autographs. All Dave kept saying was, “I told you, Bob, I told you, Bob!”

I had always wanted to be a star working in Las Vegas being myself but never was able to get there. I figured that this was God’s way of making me a star. I was now an official Elvis Presley impersonator, and nothing was going to hold me back!

Then the need came for new costumes. I knew that I was going to do all the shows I could, and I would need more than one. My girlfriend made me a couple more, which helped, then we broke up. Now I had to find someone else to make them. I found a seamstress at a local dry cleaner. She made me a couple more. One of my problems was the stones to put on them. I searched all the local fabric stores and managed to get the things I needed. It was a lot of work putting all those stones on one by one with a little bit of glue. It was very time-consuming. I also found an Oriental woman who did a nice job on them. By this time, I had about half a dozen costume.

Dave got me in touch with an agent named Jerry Samuels who had an agency in Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jerry was a real character, to say the least. At the time I met him, I was running my own deli in Trenton. He would call me in the middle of the day just to tell me a joke. I would say, “That’s what you called me for?” but that was Jerry. Jerry had been a record producer, played a piano, and did a little singing. He had traveled the country for years playing and singing before he decided to settle down with the agency. And that’s how he got such a rapport with about five hundred nursing homes.

When he was fourteen years old, he wrote a song titled “To Every Girl, to Every Boy (The Meaning of Love)” for a guy named Johnny Ray. He managed to get this song to Johnny and saw him perform the song. What a thrill for a fourteen-year-old kid. Jerry also had a number one hit at one time called “They’re Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Ha” which he recorded under the name of Napoleon XIV, it was novelty record. All talking really but went to number one on the charts. To show you how crazy he was, if you flip the forty-five-record over, the song was all in reverse. He followed it up with several other novelty songs and an album, none were every successful as that first hit. He is still something of a cult figure to fans of the sixties novelty music.

Jerry primarily booked me at nursing homes and occasionally private parties. He loved Chinese food, so when we got together, we always went to his favorite Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia. He would call each facility when I was finished with my shows, as he did all his other bookings, to make sure everything went well. He would call me and say that they loved me and then tell me that they had no taste! It was not always easy getting around to these different facilities. His directions left a lot to be desired. One nursing home he sent me to was way out in the country somewhere where they didn’t have names on the roads. I wound up getting there late but did the job and made a lot of senior citizens happy. It was a lot easier getting around after the cell phones were developed.

The nursing homes were a real experience. This was a different audience than I was used to. Some of them were attentive while others seemed to drift away. At times it was sad to see how some of them were. My heart went out to them and I always wished I could do more for them. My theme has always been “I loved making people happy with what I do.” There were times when I was singing and some senior in the back of the room were holding their ears saying I was too loud (which by the way I wasn’t, and if I was, I would have been told to tone down). At the same time, there would be someone in the front row sleeping! This always amused me! They loved the scarves I handed out! They always asked when I would back. One woman asked me when I’d be back, and I told her probably the following year. All she said to me was, “I might be dead by then.” For once in my life I was speechless.

I’ll never forget that one facility I was working for Jerry Samuels. A lot of times I brought my girlfriend with me, which was a big help setting up and helping with directions. Anyways, we were setting up one time, and one of the women yelled out, “He brought his girlfriend!” I didn’t know how to react to that one, I guess she thought she had a chance with me and didn’t want the competition. I guess I should take it as a compliment.

At times, one of my sons would go to the nursing homes with me. We got to one day and got all set up. The administrator came up to me and asked what I was doing. I said, “We are supposed to play here today.” She proceeded to tell me that she did not book us for that day! Then I called Jerry and found out that we were in the wrong place! We packed it all up again and did get to the other place we were supposed to be and did the gig! What a day that was.

Every year, Jerry would ask me if I could work at the Carousel House in Philadelphia. He would try to get all the entertainers from the agency to work there. It was a freebie thing to entertain poor children, disabled children, and all kinds of children in distress. I would do it every chance I could though sometimes I had a previous engagement. One time I was there as the emcee, which turned out to be interesting. Another time they had the mummers there, and we had a nice picture session. All the mummers wanted their pictures with me. The most interesting thing that happened to me at the Carousel House was meeting Donna Summers. What a nice, lovely woman. I asked her how she was doing and what she was doing. She proceeded to tell me that she got out of the recording industry and went into the ministry. I had no idea that she had done that, but I’m sure it was what she wanted. I wished her luck, said goodbye, and that it was nice meeting her.