Yet another Swedish Connection

Living in Sweden, I'm always on the lookout for new connections between Elvis and my country. There are more of them than one might think, and last week I discovered another one. Or rather, a colleague at work made me aware of it.

It's not the first morning I've found something waiting for me in my post-office box having to do with Elvis. This time it was an article from a daily newspaper (DN) about a Swedish ashtray and a meeting that took place between a freelance journalist from Sweden and Elvis in Hollywood 1963.

The journalist, Bo Hanson, had a tough time getting through the entire wall of agents and studios people, but was finally granted a ten minute interview. After waiting for two hours, the doors were thrown open and there he was: Elvis Presley. Bo Hanson later described the meeting in an article published in the Swedish magazine Allers, on May 3, 1964. 

He' so handsome, so beautiful in his white, tight pants, his bright red shirt and the most adorable little white bolero jacket, that it almost isn't true. 

Elvis understood how disappointed the Swede was that the meeting was so short, so he suggested that they should meet in his dressing room when he was done shooting for the day. That they did, resulting in a two hour long interview.

In it, Elvis talked about his record debut, his military service in Germany and his love for his house in Memphis, Graceland. Bo Hanson also learned that Elvis didn't feel ready to marry yet, but that his co-star Ann-Margret (yet another Swedish connection!) in the movie Viva Las Vegas, is a wonderful girl, although they are just friends. 

At the meeting, Bo Hanson presented Elvis with an ashtray from the famous Boda glass factory. The resulting photograph of Elvis with the ashtray, designed by Erik Höglund, is nowadays used as advertising for the glass factory. But where the ashtray itself is located today, the article doesn't say. On a table in Graceland, perhaps?