(Left-right:) Steve Martin; Elvis Presley.Photo:Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Fotos International/Archive Photos/Getty
Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; Fotos International/Archive Photos/Getty
Steve Martinrecalls a funny run-in with the King in his new documentary.
In 1970, remembers Martin, Ann-Margret had a lavish dressing room where he and her guests would mingle. When Presley — who dated Ann-Margret and starred with her in 1964’sViva Las Vegas— arrived, he made quite the impression on the burgeoning comedian.
Steve Martin in “Leap of Faith”.Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett
Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett
“I see Elvis coming back to visit Ann-Margret,” narrates thePlanes, Trains and Automobilesstar. “And he was all in white, and he had the big belt.”
Presley, he continues in voiceover, “goes past my dressing room, and he says, ‘Son, you have an oblique sense of humor.’”
Complete with Presley-esque accent, Martin says that the King then added, “‘You wanna see my guns?’”
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STEVE! (Martin)charts the ups and downs of Martin honing those “oblique” sensibilities, which in the 1970s included opening for musicians and performing gigs at colleges, the Playboy Club and more — until he made “Headline, don’t open” a personal mantra.
As with all stand-up pros, the eventual honorary Oscar winner recalls several unsuccessful gigs and much existential doubt among those successful stints that gained him a cult following. After one of his Ann-Margret openers in Vegas, Martin says he went back to his dressing room only to find all his things outside in the hallway.
“I started to realize what I was doing was a parody of show business,” Martin says of his “overly confident idiot” act, which soon brought him to television on the likes ofTheSonny & CherComedy HourandThe Tonight Show StarringJohnny Carson.
On the latter talk show, Martin became a big hit. During a1974 appearance, fellow Carson guest Sammy Davis Jr. took to the stage at the end of the act to give him the “instant endorsement” of a hug, recalls Martin in the documentary. Soon afterward,Lorne Michaelsoffered him the first of several life-changingSaturday Night Livehosting gigs that would launch Martin to superstar status.
source: people.com
