The Story of Two Italian Fans Who Met Elvis Presley in Las Vegas, in August 1972

These two Italian fans in the photos had the great honor of meeting Elvis Presley in Las Vegas, in August 1972. The woman is Nikla Crippa, the man was and still is the president of the Italian Elvis fan club, Livio Monari. Livio founded the Italian FC in 1962. Together with Nikla, a friend and member of his fan club, they met Elvis just after the midnight show on August 26, 1972.

Nicla said the following about the meeting:

“1972 was a special year for me, I picked up all my saving of a year and together with Livio Monari at that time president of the E.P.F.C. of Italy, I flew to Las Vegas in August to see Elvis performing.

“When we arrived we were so excited that we started immediately to ask anybody of Elvis entourage if we could meet Elvis, crook Col. Parker was at a gambling table with his cigar and he said very rude ‘NO, you cannot met Elvis,’ then Joe Esposito who said No too, and when I told him ‘Hey Joe you are Italian like us’ he answered ‘I’m not Italian, I was born in Chicago’ very rude too... until I saw the name of Emilio Muscelli on an office door, I knocked and entered and I said with all my 18 years old enthusiasm (in fact I was not yet 18, I would have turned 18 on December 30). ‘Hi Emilio, we are Italians and we are here to see Elvis concerts and meet him.’ Well he took it good to his heart and from that point on he treated me like his daughter, he was 50 years old.

“We saw 14 concerts in 7 days and we met Elvis twice, the first time on August 26 but the pictures Joe Esposito took with Livio’s camera did not come out as Livio due the emotion charged an already used film in the camera. The second time on August 28, this time we called a professional photographer to take the 2 pictures to be sure.

“When I saw Elvis the first time coming out of his dressing room I ran towards him and I almost jumped on him, I hugged and kissed him and he returned the hugs and kisses to me and he asked me ‘Hey baby how old are you’ I answered ‘18’ and he said ‘And you came all the way from Italy just to see me?’ ‘Yes Elvis’ and he ‘Oh baby’ and he hugged me again very tight.

“We stayed with him for 15 minutes, we gave him a trophy we brought from Italy – unfortunately we have no picture of Elvis with our trophy but I saw it at Graceland Trophy Room in 1987–- he wrote a dedication to me, and one to Livio, on 2 LPs we brought with us, he gave us a yellow scarf each, but especially I held his right hand in my hands for a long time, and he did not withdraw it, on the contrary he caressed my hands. He was such a gentle, sweet and tender person, he made us feel at ease and he slowed down speaking English as at that time I could not speak English well.

“We asked ‘when will you come to Europe’ he said looking at Joe ‘I definitely wanna go, after a project I have for January 1973 (Aloha from Hawaii) I’ll ask Parker to organize a tour to Europe.’ The night after Emilio gave us seats in the first row, Elvis saw me from stage and he stooped down and he put a red scarf around my neck, and on August 28 we met him again same place backstage and he said ‘Hey you are still here, good.’ He had such a sense of humor.”