Karate and Alice Cooper: The moment Liza Minnelli met Elvis Presley
As far as first impressions go, Elvis Presley sure knows how to make an entrance, which comes with the territory for one of the most iconic entertainers in history.
Tom Jones, Elliott Gould, Steve Martin, and even The Beatles have all spoken publicly about their strange initial encounters with Presley. From meeting fresh out of the shower to awkward live interviews and silent jam sessions, ‘The King’ has garnered a reputation for being somewhat eccentric and unconventional, with Liza Minnelli having a strange encounter of her own.
The legend was performing in Las Vegas when Presley came backstage and asked to watch the show. Minnelli revealed that she suspected he had a crush on one of her backup dancers, so he came to get the live experience before inviting them all to his hotel suite.
Naturally, Alice Cooper, Chubby Checker, and Linda Lovelace waited inside the suite, which sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. Aptly referring to the former as “the kid with the snake” due to his habit of incorporating the animal into his shows, Elvis then went on to pull a gun out from the kitchen and ask Cooper if he knew how to disarm someone.
“There’s a little devil on my shoulder here that says, ‘Shoot him,'” Cooper admitted of being asked to try and forcibly remove a firearm from Presley’s hands. “And a little angel over here that said, ‘Don’t kill him, just wound him.'” However, Cooper’s intrusive thoughts didn’t get the better of him, with Elvis saving him from the choice by throwing him to the ground and allegedly standing on his neck.
So, they all sat: Cooper, Lovelace, Checker, and Minnelli in Elvis’ hotel room. Minnelli recalled that Presley disappeared, and despite the bizarre circumstances, they all tried to continue a conversation until suddenly, he burst back into the room.
Describing the moment as “something from a Peter Sellers movie,” ‘The King’ re-entered performing karate moves in full regalia and making exaggerated noises as he waved his arms and legs around. Naturally, they were all completely taken aback, with Minnelli exclaiming, “Wow, do you do this every night?”
Honestly, the entire scenario raises many questions. Maybe it was Presley’s own version of a mating call? Minnelli had said that she thought he had taken a fancy to one of her backup dancers, so maybe this was his way of impressing them. Or perhaps it was a routine he was trying to perfect for one of his own performances?
Presley did, in fact, star in a karate documentary called The New Gladiators in 1973, which was directed by Bob Hammer, and the singer also had a black belt, so perhaps his surprising skill in that arena was something he wanted to show off on that particular evening, and in the company of other talented performers, it’s easy to see why he would want to diversify. Maybe it isn’t strange after all, then, and in the weird world of Presley, it actually makes quite a lot of sense.
