Presley Slips Into Town, Nearly Slips In Kitchen
The Macon Telegraph
April 24, 1975

Elvis Presley arrived at Lewis B. Wilson Airport at 10:05 p.m. Wednesday and began making last minute preparations for his Macon concert.

Presley is scheduled to perform in the Macon Coliseum at 8:30 p.m. Thursday before a sell out crowd of 10,200 persons. The singer staged two coliseum concerts in april 72 and drew a combines total of about 23,000.

The Presley plane was a BAC 111, a British plane similar to the DC-9. The aircraft was hangered at Lowe Aviation just after the landing.

Presley and his party climbed into a blue Cadillac and followed a yellow Cadillac limousine to the Macon Hilton. The party arrived at the Hilton at 10:25 pm. The singer slipped through the kitchen and avoided the people waiting to see him.

Police officer Mike Becham said there were only about 10 people around the airport when Presley arrived. He reported that one woman bolted the fenced area and ran toward the plane after it landed. He stopped her and she left.

The woman, Mrs. Robbie Shifflet, said, "God knows,honey, if you've seen him. you can't get enough of him, I said "come here", and he waved. I was going to try to get on the plane and steal some of his garbage and sell it."

Mrs. Shifflet works in the airport restaurant.

The officer warned the few people who were waiting not to leave the fenced area or they would be arrested. "But if the got out of hand, I wasn't going to let them trample me," he said.

Of the people who were waiting at the airport, about five men said they just took a shot in the dark that he was coming because he landed at night the last time he was here.

The others said they had heard rumors that Presley was going to land. Bechman said a rumor spread that Presley was going to land at 3 a.m., so he expected a number of people to show up then to meet the plane.

In the terminal, word spread quickly among passengers that Presley's arrival was eminent. Many began straining to see through plane glass windows that front the building. By this time, Presley was miles away.

After Presley left, a Greyhound bus about two-thirds full of people left for the Hilton. It also was loaded with baggage and musical instruments.

A woman and two teenaged girls awaited Presley's arrival at a side entrance to the Hilton. One of the girls said they were waiting there because Presley would have to come that way in order to enter the building.

The trio expressed bitter disapointment a few minutes later when a police officer informed them that Presley had slipped past them through a back entrance.

David Lowery, a Hilton waiter, said Presley came through the kitchen with "a honey" and two body guards. He said a policeman led the group through.

Lowery said Presley wearing tinted glasses and a "big heavy coat" that was colored burned orange, almost fell when he waled across the kitchen floor.

Presley joked that there was "something slippery" on the floor, Lowery said.

A 20-man security guard is scheduled to protect Presley during his two-night stay at the Macon Hilton. He has rented the two top floors at the Hilton.

Courtesy of Scott