Larry Geller knows a thing or two about Elvis Presley.
The 84-year-old writer and speaker was one of the singer’s best friends and closest confidantes going back to 1964 when he was hired by Elvis on the spot to be his personal hairstylist.
Their working relationship and friendship would last until Presley’s dying day on August 16, 1977.
Now on what would have been the singer’s 89th birthday, his ‘spiritual brother’ Geller spoke with DailyMail.com about his friend and how they spent his last birthday together in January 1977.
Elvis Presley would have turned 89 today, January 8. His personal hairdresser tells DailyMail.com how he spent his final birthday in 1977
Larry Geller, 84, was Elvis Presley’s personal hairstylist and spent two hours a day with The King of Rock from 1964 until his dying day on August 16, 1977
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Geller said he spent Elvis’s final birthday with him when the singer ‘was very positive about the coming year’
‘We were talking interestingly enough about the future and he was very positive about the coming year because he was going to make a lot of changes,’ Geller said of The King’s final birthday on January 8, 1977. ‘He was going to quit touring and get out of show business for a while.’
‘We just came off a tour. Elvis was in Palm Springs at his home with a bunch of the guys and it was his birthday. There were some of the girlfriends, a couple of wives. Elvis and I went to his bedroom for me to do his hair,’ Geller recalled.
Geller said Elvis spent his final birthday reading passages from the book The Prophet to friends
‘He looked beautiful. He really did. He had a black suit on and a blue shirt. He said to me, ‘You know this is my birthday and on your birthday you get to do what you want,” so he goes to his dresser and there was a big stack of hundred dollar bills, brand new, crisp.
‘He goes in the other room, he takes a book with him and he says to all the guys. ”Listen you guys I want to talk to the girls alone.”
Geller said he took about six or seven women, including Geller’s ex-wife, into a separate room where Elvis told them he wanted to give gifts rather than receive gifts.
‘He gave them all hundred dollar bills, more than one to each one. He said, ”I’m going to have Robinson’s (department store) open tonight. You go there and get whatever you want.”
But before the shopping excursion, Elvis read passages from the book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran to the women for 30 to 40 minutes.
‘He happened to know most of the book by heart anyway. He had a phenomenal memory. That’s what he did on his last birthday,’ Geller said.
Elvis became a voracious reader and with Geller amassed a spiritual library.
Geller has written two books about his friend. If I Can Dream: Elvis’ Own Story was released in 1989. The book is hard to come by and sells for nearly $140 on Amazon.
His more recent book is Leaves of Elvis’ Garden: The Song of His Soul.
In 1964, Geller received a phone call that would change his life forever – it was Elvis calling for him to do his hair
Geller, pictured crouched down, said after he washed, trimmed and styled Elvis’s hair for the first time, they spent nearly two hours talking about spiritual subjects and life’s bigger questions
New York-born Geller started off his career as an apprentice to famed hairdresser Jay Sebring – who was responsible for opening the very first hair salon for men located in West Hollywood in 1964, where young Geller would quickly become a star stylist himself.
Sebring would later be killed by members of Charles Manson’s ‘family’.
‘Who was our clientele? Sinatra, Brando, Steve McQueen, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, Glen CampbelI. Every major star in Hollywood came to us,’ Geller told DailyMail.com.
Geller has written two books about his friend. If I Can Dream: Elvis’ Own Story and Leaves of Elvis’ Garden: The Song of His Soul
‘I did Henry Fonda’s hair. Roy Orbison. Paul Newman was fabulous. I was nervous at first. Everything was good, I was learning my craft, but behind the scenes in my personal life, I got into yoga, meditation, I became a vegetarian, I realized the importance of eating properly, not eating meat. I read every book under the sun.’
In 1964, Geller received a phone call that would change his life forever.
‘One afternoon, I am sitting at the salon and I get a call. A voice from the other end, with a Southern drawl, says ”Larry, I am sitting here with Elvis Presley at his home here in Bel Air and he wants to know if you would like to come up and fix his hair.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing because Elvis was the celebrity of celebrities, hands down.’
After getting the directions and packing his bag, Gellar was off to Elvis’ home. New York born Geller met The King once as a teenage fan at a concert in West Hollywood.
‘When I was running out the door, the receptionist said she had Peter Sellers on the phone. ”He wants you right now,” she said. I didn’t care if it was Moses. Tell Peter I’ll call him later.’
‘When I arrived, Elvis put out his hand and said ”Hi, I’m Elvis Presley.” Same thing he said to me eight years earlier when we first met, but now I’m taller than him. He explained that he couldn’t have too much hair cut off because he was in the middle of filming the movie Roustabout with Barbara Stanwyck.’
Geller said after he washed, trimmed and styled Elvis’ hair, they spent nearly two hours talking about spiritual subjects and life’s bigger questions.
Geller is seen stepping off a private plane in front of Elvis. ‘He was going to make a lot of changes. He was going to quit touring and get out of show business for a while,’ Geller said
From the time Geller first did The King’s hair, he spent at least two hours every day with the singer
‘I told him about the books I was reading, what I believed in and he replied, ”What you’re talking about is what I secretly think about every day of my life, especially at night when I am going to bed. Why me? Why did I become Elvis Presley?”
‘He was a seeker and a learner. He said to me: ”Why was I plucked out of the millions and millions of lives to become Elvis? There’s got to be a reason”.’
‘A couple of hours went by, and I’ll never forget someone knocked on the door and said, ”Hey boss, are you alright in there?” And Elvis yelled out, ”Yeah, I am alright. What do you think is going to happen to me in my own bathroom?”
‘Ironic, huh?
‘Before I left, Elvis said ”go back to work and tell them you are quitting because you are working for Elvis full-time. What do you think?” I said yes! What was there to think about it. That moment was probably one of the most magical, unreal, cosmic conscious shifts in my life.’
From then on, Geller spent at least two hours every day with the singer. ‘We did three movies a year.
‘We would go to Hollywood make the movie and then go back to Memphis for a couple of months. Every time we did a movie, I would have to do his hair ten times a day because his hair didn’t have a lot of body and needed be tended to.
‘Elvis had a full head of hair, but it lacked body, but my magic worked. I gave him body. I dyed his hair black every three weeks or so.’
‘Elvis had a full head of hair, but it lacked body, but my magic worked. I gave him body. I dyed his hair black every three weeks or so,’ Geller said of Elvis’ signature locks
When asked if Elvis ever used black polish on his hair, Geller laughed and said absolutely not. He went on to explain where that myth originated from.
‘When Elvis died, his father asked me to go to the mortuary to do his hair. I never did anything like that in my life, but I had to. This is where the shoe polish rumor emanated from.
‘I went to the mortuary, Elvis is lying there. I walk up to him. To say I was in shock is a euphemism. I look at him and I couldn’t believe it.’
‘We were on hiatus. We were leaving the next day to go on tour, so I was going to dye his hair, but he died so I couldn’t. He had a regrowth of about a 1/4 of an inch and I am thinking to myself, what am I going to do? He’s going to lie there for all the fans to see him, and how am I going to get his hair black?
‘There was a female mortician and I called her over and I said, do you have your mascara kit with you and she said yes. I got her mascara and I spit into the wax. She had a tiny brush and I smeared it on Elvis’ sideburns and around the front of his lobes a little bit and I blended it in. That was for his funeral.
‘Isn’t that something? And no one ever knew.’
‘A few hours before Elvis passed away, I was at Graceland and I gave him a book called A Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus by Frank O. Adams and it was about the holy shroud which is the wrapping of Jesus’s body after the crucifixion.
‘And Elvis’s body was found a few hours later on the floor. His body was in the fetal position with the book clutched to his chest.’
