The Day
Nixon Met Elvis
By
John
William Tuohy
On Saturday, December 19, 1970,
Elvis Presley, the quickly fading king of Rock and Roll had an ugly
confrontation with his father, Vernon, who was his money manager and chief
advisor after Colonel Tom Parker, and Elvis’s wife, over money and Presley’s lavish
spending habits. That month, Elvis had
spent more than $100,000 on Christmas presents that included 32 handguns and
ten Mercedes-Benzes.
Elvis, not used to being told
what to do or how much to spend, stormed out of his Graceland mansion in outer
Memphis and began the odd series of events that would lead him to a meeting, in
the Oval Office of the White House, with the President of the United
States.
Still angry when he reached
airport, Elvis, alone, simply booked a seat on the next flight out, a flight
that happened to be going to Washington DC. (Another theory has it that Elvis
flew to DC to be close to a woman friend named Joyce Bova, who lived in the
District.)
On board the plane, an airline
steward saw that Elvis was carrying a pistol and told him he couldn’t bring it
on the plane. Elvis refused to leave the gun behind and was asked to leave the
plane, however, the plane’s pilot, chased Elvis through the airport and
catching up to him, said “I’m sorry, Mr. Presley, of course you can keep your
gun.”
Once in DC, Elvis booked a room
at the old Hotel Washington and then flew to Los Angeles where he kept a second
home. "Elvis called and asked me to pick him up at the airport,"
Presley aide Jerry Schilling and at 3 AM chilling arrived at the LA airport to
drive Presley to his west coast home at Hillcrest Drive in Beverly Hills.
Schilling had been living in LA for the previous year, working as an apprentice
film editor.
At that point, Elvis was
already talking about having the federal government issue him a badge. Elvis
had a large badge collection, but the Federal Agents credentials and badge, he
would ask government officials for them no less than ten times in two
days" represented some kind of ultimate power to him," Priscilla
Presley later wrote "With the federal narcotics badge, he [believed he]
could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he
wished."
The next day Elvis told
Schilling that they were flying to Washington DC "He didn't say why,"
Schilling recalls, "but I thought the badge might be part of the
reason."
Schilling booked the flight and
then realized they had no cash. Elvis found a check book he had stored in the
LA home but it was Sunday night and the banks were closed. Money machines were
still a thing of the future. Elvis
called his limo driver, Gerald Peters,
whom Elvis employed while filming in Los Angeles.
Peters, Elvis called him Sir
Gerald because he had once been a driver for Winston Churchill, was well known
to the management of the exclusive Beverly Hilton Hotel and on the way to the
airport, they stopped at the Beverly Hilton where they cashed a $500 check for
the King of Rock and Roll.
On the flight, Elvis moved
around the cabin and socialized with the passengers, stopping to speak to a
G.I. returning home for the holidays.
“He (Elvis) comes back to me
and he goes, “Where’s that money?” Jerry Schilling said “I know what’s going to
happen, so I said, “What money?”
And he goes, “The 500 dollars.”
I said, “Elvis, we’re going to
Washington. That’s all we’ve got.”
He said, “You don’t understand.
This man’s been in Viet Nam. He’s going back home for Christmas.” Schilling handed over the money to Elvis who
gave it to the solider.
Elvis lived most of his short
life in a celebrity bubble and he was almost always surrounded by members of
the infamous Memphis Mafia, old high school friends and other characters who
took care of every detail for the king. When Elvis rushed out of Graceland that
Saturday morning, all he carried was his wallet, several dollars and an unused
credit card.
When Elvis arrived at the
Memphis Airport, he marched over to the Pan Am ticket counter to book a flight
to DC. The counter clerk asked how he would like to pay for the ticket and
Elvis, realizing only then that he had no money, asked if the airline would
send the bill to his manager “Colonel” Tom Parker. The clerk said she couldn’t
do that. A supervisor was called and
Elvis offered the supervisor a chance to use the Kings new Cadillac while he
was gone, all he had to do was get him a ticket to DC but the supervisor
declined the offer. Finally, Elvis remembered that he had been given a credit
card for just such emergencies and the ticket to DC was purchased.
On the jet to Washington,
Elvis, then 35-years-old, wrote a rambling six-page letter to President Richard
M. Nixon.
Dear Mr. President.
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.
So I wish not to be given a title or an
appointed position. I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent
at Large and I will help out by doing it my way through my communications with
people of all ages. First and foremost, I am an entertainer, but all I need is
the Federal credentials. I am on this plane with Senator George Murphy and we
have been discussing the problems that our country is faced with.
Sir, I am staying at the Washington Hotel,
Room 505-506-507. I have two men who work with me by the name of Jerry
Schilling and Sonny West. I am registered under the name of Jon Burrows.
I will be here for as long as long as it
takes to get the credentials of a Federal Agent. I have done an in-depth study
of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the
middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good. I am Glad to help
just so long as it is kept very Private. You can have your staff or whomever
call me anytime today, tonight, or tomorrow. I was nominated this coming year
one of America's Ten Most Outstanding Young Men. That will be in January 18 in
my home town of Memphis, Tennessee. I am sending you the short autobiography
about myself so you can better
Respectfully,
Elvis
Presley
P. S. I believe that you, Sir, were one of
the Top Ten Outstanding Men of America also. I have a personal gift for you
which I would like to present to you and you can accept it or I will keep it
for you until you can take it.
Landing again at National
Airport and Elvis and Jerry Schilling rented a limo and had the driver take
them by the main gate at the White House where Elvis dropped off his letter. It
was 6:30 a.m.
“I don’t think this is such a good idea,”
Schilling told Elvis about dropping off the letter. Still, Elvis ordered the
limo driver pull up to the White House’s northwest gate, where he got out and
handed the letter to a uniformed Secret Service officer
Schilling looked at Elvis and realized that
wearing his black cape in the dark of the night that “Elvis looks a lot like
Dracula” so Schilling climbed out of the limo and explained the note to the cop
who agreed to deliver the letter to the president.
The pair returned do the Hotel,
which is across the street from the US Treasury Department and a half block
from the White House. Elvis took three rooms, and then left to visit the Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs for unscheduled meeting with a deputy director
who would not approve one of the coveted bureau badges for the superstar.
Meanwhile, somehow, not only
was Presley’s letter to the President letter was delivered to the inner
sanctums of the White House, it was delivered that day and handed off to White
House aide Dwight Chapman who sent a quick memo with Elvis’s letter attached to
Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman.
Chapin’s note to Haldeman said
that he thought it would be good for the President to meet Presley because the
entertainer was "very pro" Nixon. “In addition” he wrote, “if the
president wants to meet with some bright young people outside of the
government, Presley might be a perfect one to start with,"
In turn Halderman passed the
issue to senior Presidential aide Egil "Bud" Krogh, White House
Deputy for Domestic Affairs. As fate should have it, Krogh was an avid Elvis
fan as well.
Krogh was intrigued by the idea
of a Nixon-Presley summit and with Haldeman’s consent scheduled the meeting for
12:30 that afternoon. Krogh then called
the Washington Hotel and set up a meeting through Schilling.
Krogh recalled the events of
the meeting:
“It was December 21, 1970. I got a call from
Dwight Chapin, who was one of my best friends on the White House staff. And he
said, 'The King is here'. And I said, 'King who?' I looked at the President's
schedule and said, 'There aren't any kings on the president's schedule'.
He said, 'No, not just any two-bit king, the
real king. The King of Rock--Elvis. He's right here in Washington and he wants
to see the president'. And I thought that was just an elaborate practical joke.
. . . We did those things in those days. I felt that this is just a joke, that
this wasn't true. But he sent over a letter that he said had been written by
Elvis Presley, asking to meet with the president to help him with the drug
problem…..
In about an hour, through the
OMB security office of the Oval Executive Office building I get a call saying
that 'Elvis Presley is here with his two bodyguards'. And they came down the
hall to my office and he really was Elvis Presley, dressed in a purple jumpsuit
and a white shirt open to the navel with a big gold chain and thick-rimmed
sunglasses. And he came in and I must say, I was very impressed with him. I had
been a big fan of his during the 1950s.
He proceeded to tell me about how much he felt
for his country. He wanted to help the country, to do what he could. He felt he
had an obligation because he'd been given so much. He talked about serving in
the military, and felt that that was his duty.
And I thought, 'Well, you
know, this guy seems to be saying the things that that Richard Nixon would like
to hear, so let's see if we can't set up a meeting'. So I wrote a memo to the
president suggesting some talking points and, and Dwight Chapin wrote a memo to
then-Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, to get approval for this meeting. And it came
back approved. So I called back over to their hotel and said, 'The meeting's
on. Come on over'.
The meeting was scheduled to last for five
minute in the Oval office.
A few hours later, at 11:45, Jeff Donfeld, a White House aide,
recalled Elvis’ arrival to the White House. He said that another aide called
him and said "The king is at the gate. I said, 'What are you talking
about? 'He said, 'The king is at the gate.' I didn't have a clue. He said,
'Elvis Presley.' I said, "You've got to be kidding me.' "
It was Elvis at the gates,
wearing a tight purple velvet pants, the matching cape, a white point collared
shirt unbuttoned to reveal two enormous gold chains. He came bearing gifts,
photos of his family and a World War II commemorative Colt .45 pistol with seven
silver bullets. mounted in a display case that Elvis had taken from his Los
Angeles mansion. Elvis and Schilling were now joined by Elvis bodyguard Sonny
West.
Krogh continued;
“I got a call from the Secret Service telling
me we had a little problem, because Elvis had brought a gun in to give the
president, a nice Colt automatic with bullets in the display case. I had to go
over and explain to them that 'No guns in the Oval Office' was standard policy
around here. I hoped he'd understand. .... And he seemed to take that in good
grace.
The President’s staff prepared
a list of talking points for him that focused on drug abuse and a suggestion
that Elvis "Record an album with the theme 'get high on life' at the
federal narcotic rehabilitation and research facility at Lexington, Kentucky.”
Finally Elvis was shown into
the Oval office, with Jerry Schilling and Sonny West waiting outside. A White
House photographer followed Bud Krogh into the meeting.
“We walked in a half an hour
later into the Oval Office” Krogh said “and the president got up. It was a
little bit awkward at first, because I'm not sure that Elvis really believed
that he was there. They had a really weird discussion about a lot of things
that had nothing to do with the talking points I had written. Elvis was telling
the president how difficult it was to play in Las Vegas. The president said, 'I
understand, Las Vegas is a tough town'. And then Elvis said, 'And you know, the
Beatles came over here and made a lot of money and said some un-American things'.
And the president looked at me, like, 'Well, what's this about the Beatles?'
And then the real reason for
the trip finally came out as Elvis said, 'Mr. President, can you get me a badge
from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs?' And the president looked and
he said, 'Bud, can we get him a badge?' And I said, 'Well, Mr. President, if
you want to get him a badge, we can do that'. He said, 'Well, get him a badge'.
Well, Elvis was so happy about
this, he steps around the side of the desk and he goes over and he grabs him.
And one of my abiding memories while thinking, 'This is probably the last thing
I'll ever do in the Oval Office', was Elvis Presley hugging Richard Nixon,
who's sort of standing there looking up, thinking, 'Oh, my God!' You know? And
they parted. And then Elvis asked if he could bring in his bodyguards, to which
the president said, 'Bud, do we have time for that?' And I thought, 'You're
this far into it, why not finish it off'. So, I said, 'Yes, sir, you've got a
few more minutes'.
So [Jerry Schilling and Sonny
West ] came in and, and the president shook hands with them and told Elvis,
'You've got some big ones here, Elvis'. And he said, 'Yes', and the president
went behind his desk, and opened up the bottom drawer to give them each a gift.
Well, Elvis just sensed that there was a lot of stuff in that drawer. So he
went behind the desk and, as the president is taking out the cufflinks and the
paperweights and the golf balls, Elvis is reaching in towards the back of the
drawer and taking out the real gold stuff, the valuable presents--because they
were sort of lined up in order of expense, or cost. The higher the roller, the
more expensive the present.
So Elvis starts taking all
these things out, and he says, 'Mr. President, they have wives'. And so he
dived back into the drawer again and outcome the presents for the wives. And
they walked out of there--of course, this was four days before Christmas--with
their hands filled with all of these presidential goodies.
And after that, we got him a
badge, which Elvis, apparently, carried with him for a long time. It's on
display at Graceland. I went down there after I wrote a little book about this,
and the wallet in which the badge had been carried was well worn. It showed
that he felt that he'd been given more authority than the badge really
suggested. This was just an honorary badge, but he took it like he'd been given
a real agent's badge. We had to tell him that there were no federal
agents-at-large. That's what he'd asked me about. But that remains one of the
more humorous incidents of my time in the White House.”
At Elvis' request, the meeting
was never made public, however a year later, attack columnist Jack Anderson ran
the story under the headline “Presley Gets Narcotics Bureau Badge" but the
story died in the paper.
After lunch and a tour of the
White House, Elvis was presented with the badge by Bureau of Narcotics director
John Finlator in Bud Krogh’s office.
Finlator promised to send along additional credentials.
Neither Elvis nor the President
would survive the 1970s. Almost four years later, Watergate brought down the
Nixon presidency. Elvis continued on his road to self-destruction. He died on
his bathroom on August 16, 1977. He suffered from glaucoma, high blood
pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon all of which were possibly caused
by his drug abuse.
Presley immediately began
showing the President his law enforcement paraphernalia including badges from
police departments in California, Colorado and Tennessee. Presley indicated
that he had been playing Las Vegas and the President indicated that he was
aware of how difficult it is to perform in Las Vegas.
The President mentioned that he thought
Presley could reach young people, and that it was important for Presley to retain
his credibility. Presley responded that he did his thing by singing. He said he
could not get to the kids if he made a speech on stage, that he had to reach
them in his own way. The President nodded agreement.
Presley indicated that he
thought the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit. He said
that the Beatles came to this country, made their money, and then returned to
England where they promoted an anti-American theme. The President nodded in
agreement and expressed some surprise. The President then indicated that those
who use drugs are also those in the vanguard of anti-American protest.
Violence, drug usage, dissent, protest all seem to merge in generally the same
group of young people.
Presley indicated to the
President in a very emotional manner that he was 'on your side.' Presley kept
repeating that he wanted to be helpful, that he wanted to restore some respect
for the flag which was being lost. He mentioned that he was just a poor boy
from Tennessee who had gotten a lot from his country, which in some way he
wanted to repay. He also mentioned that he is studying Communist brainwashing
and the drug culture for over ten years. He mentioned that he knew a lot about
this and was accepted by the hippies. He said he could go right into a group of
young people or hippies and be accepted which he felt could be helpful to him
in his drug drive. The President indicated again his concern that Presley
retain his credibility.
At the conclusion of the
meeting, Presley again told the President how much he supported him, and then
in a surprising, spontaneous gesture, put his left arm around the President and
hugged him.
In going out, Presley asked the
President if he would see his two associates. The President agreed and they
came over and shook hands with the President briefly. At this meeting, the
President thanked them for their efforts and again mentioned his concern for
Presley's credibility."