Elvis Presley Saved Life of a Chimp Named Scatter

Elvis Presley was known for many things, among them a fondness for animals, especially horses and dogs. An early canine named Tex was so beloved that he inspired one of Presley’s earliest and most heartfelt ballads, “Old Shep.” Tex, you see, contracted mange, and had to be put down. The sadness of that event is remembered in Elvis’ tender 1956 reading of theRed Foley country number. That same year he bought a spider monkey named Jayhew, who lived in a cage at 1034 Audubon in Memphis.

Fast-forward five years, to the fall of 1961, and Elvis adopted a new pet. But it wasn’t another dog or spider monkey. It was a chimpanzee named Scatter. Most sites make scant mention of how he came to join the Presley family, but it turns out the ape was originally part of a local, Saturday morning TV show in Memphis hosted by “Cap’n Bill” Killebrew. Sponsored by Hart’s Bread, Killebrew decided he wanted to have one less chimp on the program, and somehow Presley friend Alan Fortas got Elvis to take him. And so, a legend was born. Below is a Memphis blog which reveals more about Cap’n Bill and his talented TV companion. Don’t miss the part where Scatter bites Dee Presley, which I’m sure will please some here to no end.

At last, the secret origin of Scatter is revealed

Bill, who often told reporters, “that monkey is smarter than most people I know,” taught him all sorts of tricks, and one of his best-known stunts was to take Scatter driving around town — with the monkey doing the driving. Bill, you see, would lie low in the front seat, while Scatter pretended to turn the wheel. As you might expect, it caused a commotion wherever they went.

But it made Scatter’s World incredibly popular with Memphis audiences, and any kids who wrote in could become members of the Scatter Club. I was delighted to discover that the University of Memphis Special Collections kept an original membership card (shown here) in their archives. It’s strange that the members were apparently given numbers, not names, but even stranger is this: I don’t know who scribbled “Bill Killebrew” in ink across the top of the card, but look at the bottom and you’ll see that Bill’s signature looks suspiciously like Scatter’s. I hate to destroy another childhood memory, but it looks like Scatter could not actually write his name. Oh, the shame of it.

Now, no good Memphis story is complete without an Elvis connection, and here it is. After about a year, Bill sold the chimp to the King of Rock-and-Roll, where it lived for years at Graceland. Being surrounded constantly by the guys who made up Elvis’ retinue wasn’t exactly the best environment for a growing monkey, and Scatter quickly developed bad habits. One day, the monkey bit Vernon Presley’s new wife on the finger.

When Elvis called Bill to ask if the monkey had his rabies shots, Bill retorted, “Yes, Scatter had his shots. Does Mrs. Presley have hers?” Among other things, Scatter ripped up the curtains at Graceland, yanked up the skirts of Elvis’ female visitors, and when he was in a really playful mood, tended to throw . . . you know, things . . . at visitors. Nasty things that made everyone scream and, well, scatter.

The chimp even went along when Elvis toured, and that prompted Bill to complain to reporters, “I’ve been on television for 11 years. That dad-blamed monkey was only on television for one year. Now he’s in Hollywood, and I’m still a broken-down bread salesman. It’s just a monkey’s world.”

But back to Bill. He stayed on television forever, it seems, first on Channel 5 and then moving to Channel 13. When Captain Bill’s Cliff Hanger Club ended, he claimed that he sent out more than 196,000 letters to the little “Cliff Hangers” who watched the show. He set up a booth at Libertyland and the Mid-South Fair and told reporters that he drew more than 5,000 caricatures one year alone. He visited nursing homes and hospitals and drew pictures for the patients. Even when he was in the hospital himself one year, he wandered the hallways in his pajamas, giving out caricatures of everyone he met. “I can’t help it,” he told reporters. “I have drawing sickness.”

When he finally left the world of television, he started a newspaper comic strip called Orbie Orbit, about the adventures of a little moon boy who wanted to visit earth, but I’m not sure what newspapers carried it. In later life, a series of strokes slowed him down, and he continued to draw even after losing his vision in one eye. In his whole life, he only made one oil painting. His wife, Helen, asked him to paint a picture of their home in Whitehaven. He complied, producing a lovely wintry scene — with their home depicted as an outhouse with a television antenna.

Cap’n Bill Killebrew passed away on January 14, 1987, at the age of 75 and was laid to rest in his hometown of Dresden. He certainly left thousands of drawings — and good memories — behind.

Elvis surely felt a wave of nostalgia in 1975, when The Return of the Pink Panther hit theaters.

“Try and do something about your filthy minkey.”

With Delbert West (obscured), Alan Fortas, Gig Young and Scatter – set of “Kid Galahad,” October 1961

The publicity for this is probably what caused former trainer Bill Killebrew to lament that “I’ve been on television for 11 years. That dad-blamed monkey was only on television for one year. Now he’s in Hollywood, and I’m still a broken-down bread salesman. It’s just a monkey’s world.”

Scatter was probably the first and the last Presley pet who was a star (albeit locally, on Memphis TV) before Elvis took him in.

Elvis surely felt a wave of nostalgia in 1975, when The Return of the Pink Panther hit theaters.

“Try and do something about your filthy minkey.”

Elvis Presley with Joyce Bova