According to Marty Lacker, Parker made things pay off for the hotel by allowing them to seat eight people at showroom tables that normally sat four.

He got Elvis $150,000 for the two-week engagement, $25,000 more than in Vegas. Still, according to Guralnick, Elvis seemed to enjoy himself on the more intimate Sahara Tahoe showroom stage. Presley insider Lamar Fike added, “It’s 6,200 feet at the lake. “The high altitude left him and the band out of breath at times,” noted Guralnick. According to Presley biographer Peter Guralnick, “Everyone appreciated the change of pace-things were a lot looser in Tahoe, there was less pressure, considerably less media scrutiny.” Elvis paid a price on stage, however. The high altitude setting provided both positive and negative side effects.

He would come back again in 1973, 1974, and 1976, ultimately giving a total of 98 sold out performances in the High Sierra Theatre. In the summer of 1971, rather than send Elvis on a tour of one-nighters between the two stints in Vegas, Parker booked him into the Sahara Tahoe for two weeks leading into his August run at the International Hotel in Vegas.Įlvis opened the first of 28 shows at the Sahara in Stateline on July 20, 1971. Starting in August 1969, Colonel Parker committed Elvis to month-long Las Vegas engagements twice a year. Neither could I imagine that just four short years later, Elvis would be back on top of his game and appearing before sold out crowds in the Sahara Tahoe showroom. It was, after all, the “Summer of Love.” One day I drove into San Francisco to see what was happening there, but, as an Elvis addict, I couldn’t imagine ever wearing flowers in my hair.

The Beatles and Bob Dylan had taken music in a completely different direction.

Besides, at that time Elvis had reached the depths of insignificance in the pop music world. I couldn’t even listen to my Elvis records, having left them at home in Spokane. Like any Nevada vacation area, Tahoe is a drag when you’re not old enough to gamble. My dad, who was a card room supervisor in the Sahara Tahoe’s casino, got me a job as a bus boy in the hotel’s coffee shop.

Bears at harrah's casino lake tahoe