December 20th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Elvis Presley is drafted 1957

 

On this day in 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays at Graceland, his newly purchased Tennessee mansion, rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley receives his draft notice for the United States Army.

With a suggestive style–one writer called him “Elvis the Pelvis”–a hit movie, Love Me Tender, and a string of gold records including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel,” Presley had become a national icon, and the world’s first bona fide rock-and-roll star, by the end of 1956. As the Beatles’ John Lennon once famously remarked: “Before Elvis, there was nothing.” The following year, at the peak of his career, Presley received his draft notice for a two-year stint in the army. Fans sent tens of thousands of letters to the army asking for him to be spared, but Elvis would have none of it. He received one deferment–during which he finished working on his movie King Creole–before being sworn in as an army private in Memphis on March 24, 1958.

After six months of basic training–including an emergency leave to see his beloved mother, Gladys, before she died in August 1958–Presley sailed to Europe on the USS General Randall. For the next 18 months, he served in Company D, 32nd Tank Battalion, 3rd Armor Corps in Friedberg, Germany, where he attained the rank of sergeant. For the rest of his service, he shared an off-base residence with his father, grandmother and some Memphis friends. After working during the day, Presley returned home at night to host frequent parties and impromptu jam sessions. At one of these, an army buddy of Presley’s introduced him to 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu, whom Elvis would marry some years later. Meanwhile, Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, continued to release singles recorded before his departure, keeping the money rolling in and his most famous client fresh in the public’s mind. Widely praised for not seeking to avoid the draft or serve domestically, Presley was seen as a model for all young Americans. After he got his polio shot from an army doctor on national TV, vaccine rates among the American population shot from 2 percent to 85 percent by the time of his discharge on March 2, 1960.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1783 Virginia cedes western land to federal government

• Automotive

• 1989 “Roger & Me” opens in U.S. theaters

• Civil War

• 1862 Raid on Holly Springs, Mississippi

• Cold War

• 1963 Berlin Wall opened for first time

• Crime

• 1986 Man chased to his death in Howard Beach hate-crime

• Disaster

• 1987 Ferry collides with oil tanker near Manila

• General Interest

• 1946 French crack down on Vietnamese rebels
• 1989 The U.S. invades Panama
• 1995 NATO assumes peacekeeping duties in Bosnia

• Hollywood

• 1989 Michael Moore’s Roger & Me opens

• Literary

• 1579 John Fletcher is baptized

• Music

• 1969 “Funky Drummer” is recorded

• Old West

• 1803 The French surrender Orleans to the U.S.

• Presidential

• 1836 Jackson submits Indian treaty to Congress

• Sports

• 1983 Guy Lafleur and Steve Shutt get landmark goals in same game

• Vietnam War

• 1960 National Liberation Front formed
• 1967 President Johnson visits Australia, Thailand, and Vietnam

• World War I

• 1914 First Battle of Champagne begins

• World War II

• 1941 Hitler to Halder: No retreat!