Elvis Presley Meets With President Nixon To Join Fight Against Drugs

It is ironic that Elvis Presley wrote a letter to President Nixon, to set up a meeting at the White House, so the president could declare Presley a federal agent in the war against drugs.

The meeting was held on December 21, 1970 and Presley was designated a federal agent at large in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

The irony comes in, when Presley becomes a drug addict himself, which led to him dying in August of 1977 from an apparent drug overdose.

In the time between the meeting and his death Presley had become a drug addict of the worst magnitude.

After the meeting President Nixon thanks Presley for the gift of a Colt .45 in a letter written to Elvis. However, the president did not sign the letter but had his name stamped at the end of the letter.

Presley mentions in one of the documents that the Beatles came to United States, earning a lot of money, then returned to England taking an anti-American stand. It is clear that Presley disliked the Beatles from his comments about them. After all his career took a hit when the Beatles led the British invasion that changed the American music scene.

The following article from the National Archives documents the meeting between President Nixon and Elvis Presley. There are eight documents and 26 photos commemorating the meeting at this website:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/elvis/elnix.html#meet

After reading these documents, it is sad to think of what happened to both participants of this meeting. Less than four years later the Watergate scandal would threaten President Nixon with impeachment, thereby causing him to resign from the office of president in August of 1974.

Less than seven years later, Elvis would die at the young ago of 42. It is sad that Elvis instead of fighting drug use, became a user himself, ending his life way too soon.

Elvis Presley: How Great Thou Art

Elvis Presley singing How Great Thou Art in June of 1977. Elvis died two months after singing this song.

Elvis’ Granddaughter in Mad Max

Riley Keough the granddaughter of Elvis Presley is up for a role in the fourth Mad Max movie.

Riley Keough the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and daughter of Lisa Marie Presley is following up her movie debut  in Runaways with a chance for a role in the fourth Mad Max movie.

The following article gives more details about her acting career and includes a red carpet interview in which she seems reluctant to talk about her being part of the Presley family which includes her grandfather Elvis and grandmother Priscilla who were both in the acting profession.

http://www.examiner.com/x-27339-Cincinnati-Pop-Culture-Examiner~y2010m8d10-Elvis-Presleys-Granddaughter-an-up-and-coming-movie-star

One No.1 Hit For Elvis After Beatles Invasion

Elvis Presley only had one No.1 hit after the Beatles invaded America in 1964.

Elvis Presley’s recording career was not going that well before the Beatles landed in the United States in 1964 but their arrival made it even more difficult for Elvis to go to the top of the charts.

He had a No.1 hit in 1962 in Good Luck Charm but wouldn’t have another No.1 hit till 1969 when Suspicious Minds reached No.1.

With the flood of British artists and groups hitting American shores Elvis was still popular but not to the extent when he had 16 of his 18 No.1 hits from 1956-1961.

Elvis made 15 of his 31 movies after the Beatles made their American debut so he was still in the public eye but just wasn’t recording hit songs much.

The Beatles changed music in America along with the other British performers. Clean cut American groups like the Beach Boys became a scruffy looking group after the British invasion.

I can’t recall Elvis having the scruffy look with a beard like most singers back then. He looked the same until he started wearing flashy costumes when he appeared in concerts.

There was still electricity in the air when Elvis was about to hit the stage and I still recall the excitement of seeing him appear in concert in Monroe, Louisiana in 1974 and in Alexandria, Louisiana five months before his death in 1977.

Elvis continued to make new recordings but his time as an artist recording No.1 hits was over except for the No.1 hit of Suspicious Minds in 1969.

This list shows the decline in his No.1 hits over the last years of his recording career:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_presley#Number_one_singles

Elvis Loved To Give Away Cadillacs

One of the pink Cadillacs that Elvis owned parked in front of Graceland.

Elvis Presley spent a lot of money on himself by buying Cadillacs, but also gave a lot of Cadillacs, to band members, bodyguards, his doctor and complete strangers.

One of my favorite stories is when Elvis was watching a story, on the local NBC station in Denver Colorado, about him gaving away cars, and the anchorman Don Kinney mentioned, that if Elvis was watching he wanted a new car too. The next morning a blue Cadillac Seville was delivered to the station to Kenney.

He gave many cars to Charlie Hodge the band member, who handed Elvis scarves during the concerts,because he would give a car Hodge was driving to someone, and then buy him another one, since Hodge lived at Graceland until the day Elvis died.

Elvis gave Mary Jenkins his maid and cook six cars including three Cadillacs. He also gave his dentist and jeweler cars.

One car dealer honored him, by giving him a plaque for being the World’s Best Car Buyer, with the names of 31 people he had given cars to.

I think it is safe to say that no other entertainer was as generous as Elvis Presley. I don’t think any other entertainer bought 14 Cadillacs for $140,000, in one trip to an auto dealer like Elvis did two years before his death. $140,000 today might buy 3 or 4 Cadillacs.

This website has more details about the generosity of Elvis when it came to giving away cars:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29597/elvis-presley-world%E2%80%99s-best-car-buyer

Complete Elvis Masters To Be Released October 19

CompleteElvis.com will release the complete collection of Elvis Presley masters on October 19.

All 711 remastered tracks released by Elvis Presley will be released by CompleteElvis.com on October 19. The collection will include 30 compact discs that will have 35 hours of his music plus a 240 page book about the songs with information about each song including charting position.

The website also states there are 103 additional rarities for a total of 814 tracks in the collection:

Also included are 103 rarities: additional masters, alternate takes, session outtakes, demos, rehearsal jams, home recordings, live performances and radio recordings This triumph of musicology is the definitive document – a magnificent audio chronicle of the inspiration, pain and genius that make Elvis the world’s most enduring musical and cultural icon.

The collection is being released in commemoration of his 75th birthday on January 8 of this year.

The website also includes a list of songs on each compact disc.

There is nothing cheap about the set since it will cost $749 plus tax and shipping. It can be pre-ordered now  but won’t be released till October 19. If they sell only 10,000 of these sets which is unlikely $7.49 million will be made from those sales not including the cost for tax and shipping.

The usual disclaimer applies in that I am in no way connected with the sale of this collection and am only letting potential buyers know of the release on October 19.

Elvis Presley’s First Four Years: 1935-1939

Elvis Presley and his parents Vernon and Gladys Presley at the age of three.

Elvis Presley is one of the best examples of a rags to riches story. His mother was making $2 a day working for a garment company seven months before his birth. His dad used a $180 loan from Orville Bean his boss at a dairy farm to build the house Elvis was to be born in the next year in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Gladys Presley gave birth to Jesse Garon Presley on January 8, 1935  who was born stillborn before Elvis was born later in the two room house built by his father.

Vernon Presley would be jailed only two years after Elvis was born for altering a check from Bean for a cow Vernon had sold him. He thought the $4 check was not close to what the value of the cow was so added some numbers to it and was charged for forgery. Nobody knows for sure but some say the check was altered to read for $14 or $40.

Vernon along with his brother-in-law Travis Smith and friend Lether Gable were charged with forgery. It is estimated that Vernon spent a total of 15 months in prison on the forgery charge since he couldn’t afford bond while awaiting trial.

With his wife Gladys unable to keep up the payments with Vernon in prison they lost the house and her and Elvis moved in with relatives and so ended the first four years of the life of the one of the most significant entertainers of the 20th century.

Elvis Presley went from living with relatives to being able to buy a $100,000 house named Graceland for his parents about 18 years later.