The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The day the King came to Scotland
Follow in Elvis’s blue-suede footsteps from Ayrshire to Vegas – with Chris Leadbeater
It is a fairly short and relatively scenic journey. A 45-minute, 32-mile drive out of central Glasgow will do it, heading south-west along the M77 towards Kilmarnock, with a final blast towards Ayr where the motorway tapers down into the A77. Just before you arrive, you should be able to spot a silvery-grey swell of water where the Firth of Clyde begins to merge with the Irish Sea.
It is a relatively niche journey, too. In non-pandemic years, only around 670,000 passengers make it. But then, Prestwick is only the second biggest airport in Scotland’s second city and only the fifth busiest in Scotland as a whole. Although it has been in operation since 1938, it currently plays host to just one airline – Ryanair – which uses it as a hub for flights to Portugal, mainland Spain, and the Canary and Balearic islands.
Still, Prestwick is fine with “niche” because it has a claim to fame that no other airport in Scotland or indeed the UK can match. It is the only place in Britain ever to have a verified visit by Elvis Presley, whose plane touched down to refuel on March 3 1960 as he returned home to the United States from two years of military service in West Germany. During the 90-minute stopover, he met a small crowd of fans on the runway and signed autographs.
Presley was back in the spotlight this week – assuming you think he ever left it – via yesterday’s cinematic release of Elvis. If the tale is largely familiar, its telling is spectacular, with rising American actor Austin Butler in the title role, Tom Hanks as the singer’s ruthlessly ambitious manager Colonel Tom Parker, and Baz Luhrmann – director of Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge – behind the camera, bringing his trademark sparkle to a story that was never really lacking in glamour.
Indeed, Presley was the biggest star on the planet when he passed through Ayrshire. He had been two years earlier, too, when he bowed to his duty to be conscripted into the armed forces. America would not abolish “the draft” until 1973, meaning that, come March 1958, the world witnessed a musical groundbreaker donning uniform and having his head shaved as he was inducted into the US Army. His career was already soaring at this point: in the previous two years he had released his self-titled debut album (March 1956), with its opening track Blue Suede Shoes; made his seismic first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (September 1956); and hit the big screen in both Love Me Tender (November 1956) and Jailhouse Rock (November 1957). Every lock of his black hair buzzed away felt like a branch being chopped from the fledgling tree of rock ’n’ roll.
It didn’t work out that way. Parker had perceived that two years on the Cold War frontline would realign his charge’s image, sweeping away an older America’s fears that Elvis’s singing and dancing had a corrosive effect on his teenage fans. In its stead would come a broader approval for a young man who did what his country asked of him – while still topping the charts. The decision that Presley would enter the army properly, rather than take the easy option of the “Special Services”, with 24 months of performing shows for the troops, was also shrewd. He returned as a hero as well as an icon – even if he was also carrying a reliance on barbiturates that would so damage him in later life.
There was a postscript to the Prestwick story in 2008, when it was claimed that Presley had visited London in 1958 for a secret tour of the city with the UK’s own heart-throb of the era, Tommy Steele. Details remain vague. Steele has declared his regret that the story emerged, and so busy was Presley’s schedule in that year that it is difficult to gauge when he might have had the chance to hop across the Atlantic. So, for now, if you wish to walk in his shoes on British soil, there is but one option.
A small plaque at Prestwick airport marks his brief presence, while the Elvis Presley Bar will allow you to raise a glass in his name. The bar lies beyond security, however, so you will need to order a chaser – a flight to Faro or Malaga, perhaps.