Elvis Presley Once Left A Generous Tip For A Waitress And It Wasn't In The Form Of Money

Elvis Presley was the multi-faceted King of Rock and Roll, recognized for having an incredible voice, a unique style, and a fondness for Southern cooking. In addition, he was also a king of generosity, as he often gave back to his fans. Throughout the annals of Elvis' history, he gifted around 200 Cadillacs in his lifetime. Among all of them, one very famous story took place in the Formosa Cafe in West Hollywood, California.

As the story goes, Elvis was dining at the Formosa with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. After enjoying a full meal, the two paid their bills and left the cafe. As they were chatting on their way out, Elvis learned that, although the King had given a tip for the waitress' good service, his manager had left nothing. Furious about Parker's actions, Elvis went back into the cafe and tracked the waitress down. He apologized to her for his manager's actions (or lack thereof) and offered to leave her a better one by way of a Cadillac. There isn't much detail outside of this, but this tale — and Elvis' continued patronage at the Formosa — earned him a permanent booth at the cafe, which you can visit to this day.

As incredible as Elvis Presley's tip to the waitress was, it's far from the only example of his legendary generosity. One of the first acts of kindness Elvis performed was for his mother, Gladys, when he gifted her a pink Cadillac that was repainted for him following his hit song "Baby Let's Play House." Unfortunately, Gladys didn't have a license, leading Elvis to use the car; it then became the iconic pink Cadillac that Elvis would be associated with from then on. In another fabled entry of Elvis' lore, the King gifted a newlywed couple a Cadillac and $10,000 after learning that they had nearly postponed their wedding to attend his show. And in perhaps the most random event, Elvis bought Mennie Person, a bank teller who was simply admiring his car parked at a Cadillac dealership, a gold-and-white Cadillac Eldorado.

If the cars weren't enough, Elvis also gifted Mary Jenkins Langston, his longtime cook, a three-bedroom house (along with four cars, of course). His undying loyalty to Langston makes perfect sense, as she was his cook for 14 years and made him many of his favorite dishes at Graceland, including the iconic fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches (and certainly not the meal he hated so much that he banned it from the mansion). Elvis not only had a royal legacy in music, but also in having an altruistic soul.