Graceland exhibit marks 50th anniversary of meeting
In the long history of the U.S. presidency, you’d be hard pressed to name anyone who showed up unannounced at the gates of the White House and got a meeting with the Commander in Chief. But Elvis wasn’t just anyone.
Fifty years ago — on Dec. 21, 1970 — a rather impromptu meeting was held between The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis A. Presley, and the President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon.
Over the last half century, the confab has become the stuff of legend, a strange summit of two of the 20th century’s most discussed, if seemingly disparate, figures. A photograph capturing the iconic handshake between Presley and Nixon remains one of the most requested images in the history of the National Archives. And the events of that day have spawned various books and even a feature film, 2016’s “Elvis & Nixon.”
Elvis Presley’s Graceland marked the anniversary with the opening of a new pop-up exhibit, “Dear Mr. President… Elvis and Nixon.” Among the artifacts displayed are the outfit Elvis wore to the Oval Office, the presidential cufflinks, and the federal narcotics badge Nixon presented to him.
While it’s not quite on par with the Yalta Conference or the Vienna Summit in terms of its import, the meeting between Elvis and Nixon remains a singular, and singularly fascinating, episode in presidential history and American culture.
Elvis’ arrival at the White House
Earlier this year, Nixon administration staffer Egil “Bud” Krogh — the man who largely helped facilitate the meeting — died at the age of 80. In a 2012 interview with The Commercial Appeal, Krogh reflected on how unlikely it was that Presley could show up at the White House with no advanced warning and manage to secure a face-to-face meeting with the most powerful man in the world.
“I had never heard of that happening before, and I have never heard of it since,” noted Krogh. “It was an absolutely unique moment, but Elvis was a unique person.”
For Krogh — who wrote a short book of the Elvis/nixon meeting in 1994, and often appeared at Elvis panels discussing the experience — the whole thing seemed, at first, like a big gag.
As Krogh recalled, Presley arrived wearing a purple jumpsuit, a white shirt open to the navel with a big gold chain and thick-rimmed sunglasses. His very presence was unusual, especially given that this was a different, less celebrity-heavy era at the White House.
Presley had flown to D.C. with his friends/bodyguards Jerry Schilling and Sonny West and arrived at the White House gates in the early morning, wanting to hand-deliver a letter he’d written to President Nixon and the gift of a framed World War Ii-era Colt pistol.
In the letter, Presley expressed his support for Nixon and offered to help the administration, intimating that he could serve as a bridge to the youth counterculture.
Once the initial surprise at Presley’s request wore off, the wheels were set in motion to seek approval for a meeting with Nixon.
‘Dear Mr. President... ’
The whole episode had started a couple days earlier when Elvis left Memphis rather dramatically.
At the time, Schilling — who’d met Presley in 1954 playing sandlot football and eventually became one of his close friends — was working as a film editor in Hollywood. He was fast asleep when he was awoken by a late-night call from Presley. “He was changing planes in Dallas, and he asked me if I would pick him up at the [Los Angeles] airport” recalled Schilling.
Schilling dutifully picked up Elvis at LAX, and they drove to one of the King’s houses in Beverly Hills. As it turned out Presley had blown out of Memphis in a huff, after his wife, Priscilla, and father, Vernon, had harangued him over his Christmas spending.
The next morning, Elvis told him: “I need you to go to Washington with me.’”
Schilling discovered Elvis wanted to go to the nation’s capital in order to get a new badge to add to his growing collection of law enforcement IDS.
Strange as it sounds — given he was the most identifiable entertainer in America, if not the world — Schilling said, “Elvis always wanted to be an undercover agent. He felt it was his way to give back to the country.”
But Presley may have had other motives. “Elvis was planning on traveling overseas... And he wanted a badge that was honored overseas, where he could carry his guns. He had a couple of serious death threats. So I think that was the motivation.”
Presley had a very specific federal badge in mind. “He had a contact for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, a guy named [deputy director] John Finlator,” said Schilling. “And that was the badge he was going after.”
Schilling agreed to accompany Presley to Washington, on the condition that he be allowed to call Priscilla and Vernon and tell them where Elvis was. Schilling also arranged for one of Elvis’ security guards, Memphis Mafia member Sonny West, to fly into Washington and meet them.
On a redeye flight from L.A. to D.C., Presley dashed off a five-page missive to Nixon on American Airlines stationery (which can be viewed as part of an online exhibit at the National Archives website).
“Dear Mr. President,” he began, “First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Elvis Presley and admire you and have great respect for your office. I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country. The drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do not consider me as their enemy or as they call it the establishment. I call it America and I love it. Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help the country out. I have no concern or motives other than helping the country out.”
Eventually, Presley made his request to be a roving if unofficial agent for the government.
Presley, Schilling and West arrived in Washington at dawn. They took a limo to the White House and dropped the letter off with officers at the security gate. They then headed over to the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Presley had already secured a meeting with Finlator. But Finlator refused his request for a bureau badge.
Disappointed, but still hopeful, Presley checked into the Washington Hotel and awaited word on whether the meeting with the President would happen.
A boy from Tupelo in the Oval Office
For whatever reason, Nixon agreed to meet with Presley that day. Just a few hours after he’d delivered his letter, Elvis was being ushered into the Oval Office and shaking hands with the president.
As he took in his surroundings, Presley initially seemed overwhelmed. “It was interesting,” said Krogh. “He came in and it hit him, ‘Here I am a boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, standing in the Oval Office meeting the president.’ But it took him less than five minutes until he owned the room.”
“I was actually struck by how well the president and Elvis got along. Something obviously happened when they met,” said Krough. “Maybe there was some recognition that they had each come from desperately poor backgrounds, that they didn’t have anything growing up. And just on the strength of their talent and drive and persistence reached sort of a pinnacle of their respective fields.”
At one point, Elvis proudly showed Nixon a pair of cufflinks Vice President Spiro Agnew had given him, as well as the various honorary badges he’d been given by different law enforcement agencies.
Nixon and Presley chatted on a variety of topics from the difficulties of performing to crowds in Las Vegas to the Beatles.
Not beating around the bush, Presley asked Nixon if he could get the badge he sought from the Bureau of Narcotics. Nixon turned to Krogh and asked if it was possible.
“’Well, Mr. President, if you want to get him a badge, we can do that,’” recalled Krogh. “The President said, ‘Well, then, get him a badge.’”