Elvis mega-fan Pat Staltari celebrates his 100th birthday

Is this Australia’s oldest Elvis fan? An Adelaide Cadillac collector will turn 100 two days before Presley’s own 90th birthday.

On the eve of his 100th birthday, Pat Staltari reckons he’s Australia’s biggest – and almost certainly its oldest – Elvis Presley fan.

His birthday on Monday falls just two days before Presley’s, though Mr Staltari is actually a decade older than Elvis, who would have turned 90 on January 8.

“Elvis is alive,” said the cheeky Adelaide centenarian, in whom the spirit of the King of rock’n’roll certainly survives. “He was a very good singer and he was nice to people, too.”

Mr Staltari’s Warradale home is like a shrine to his idol – and to his own family, whose photos compete for space on the walls and shelves, among the bronzed busts, porcelain statues and posters of Elvis.

Elvis fan Pat Staltari, who turns 100 on Monday, with his great-grandson Carter Snow, 6, and his red 1959 Cadillac convertible. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Elvis fan Pat Staltari, wo will turn 100 on January 6, with some of his memorabilia. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Pat Staltari in a souvenir photo from one of his trips to Elvis’s home of Graceland in Memphis.

The old rocker has three children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, but his other “family” members are a trio of Cadillacs with the number-plates ELVIS 1, ELVIS 2 and ELVIS 3. They include his prized red 1959 convertible, which he imported from the US and restored.

Mr Staltari frequently drove the vehicle to appear at events such as the Rock’n’Roll Rendezvous at Birdwood’s National Motor Museum in the 1990s.

He also would regularly drive a friend, who dressed as Father Christmas, to visit Adelaide hospitals and care homes – where they would serenade the patients and residents.

Elvis famously loved Cadillacs and would buy the cars to give away to family and friends. Mr Staltari even has South Australian number-plates up to ELVIS 6 adorning other vehicles, including a Chevrolet Caprice and even a white Suzuki work van.

His family moved to Australia from Italy by ship when Mr Staltari was about 12, and settled in Adelaide.

“I was only a kid,” he said.

Pat Staltari preparing his 1959 “Elvis 1” Cadillac convertible for the Rock’n’Roll Rendezvous at Birdwood in 1995, when he was aged 70. Picture: The Advertiser

Starting in 1974 on a holiday with his family, Mr Staltari has made half a dozen visits to Las Vegas and Elvis’s home Graceland in Memphis, where the King died in 1977, aged just 42. There he says he talked with Elvis’s uncle Vester Presley, who regularly guarded the gates at Graceland and enjoyed interacting with fans.

“He was singing in Las Vegas, he was singing in Hawaii … Elvis was everywhere,” Mr Staltari said.

“Everybody loved him. Those were the days.”

Mr Staltari said his favourite Elvis song was Jailhouse Rock, pointing above the mantelpiece to a framed poster of Elvis from the 1957 movie of the same title.

The former builder still lives independently in the home he shared with his late wife Rosina, and was out until midnight on New Year’s Eve.

He will celebrate his 100th birthday with a family gathering on Monday.

Then he plans to go on a cruise with two of his children as a present to mark the milestone in February.

Mr Staltari said the secret to his longevity was that he remained active and did as much as possible.

“You can’t give in … if you keep on doing things, you live longer. You’ve got to get up and go,” he said.