50 Years Ago Today, Elvis Meets President Nixon
National Archives
On December 21, 1970, America’s biggest celebrity met the sitting President of the United States on a whim. Elvis penned a hand-written letter to the President expressing his genuine concern about the hippie culture and drug influence from the musicians of the day. He was prepared to help the country fight this cause in any way, but what he wanted in return was a narc badge from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
National Archives
Elvis’s wife, Priscilla, and father, Vernon, were upset that Elvis spent roughly $100,000 on Christmas gifts for family and friends and Elvis decided to leave the house. His big shopping spree included 10 Mercedes cars, 32 handguns and other luxurious things. He decided to go to Los Angeles and then met up with his good friend, Jerry Schilling, and asked him to go with him to the Capital City; Red West met them in Washington. Early in the morning on this day 50 years ago, he handed his hand-written letter to the guard at the gate and within just a few hours, he met the President.
National Archives
Elvis gifted the President a WWII Colt 45 pistol and the two discussed the drug culture that was being influenced by the celebrities of that time. The conversation wasn’t recorded and things aren’t totally clear as to what the whole conversation entailed, but apparently The Beatles were brought up as a topic and Elvis viewed them as a bad influence for Americans. One of the quotes from the conversation cracks me up every time I hear about it and here it is below.
At the end of the meeting, Elvis was awarded the badge and they also left with some cool White House cuff links and brooches for their wives. I think the most interesting thing about this meeting is the fact that it was kept a secret for a full year. Nobody knew about it. Also, even 50 years later, this photo is still the most requested picture from the National Archives.
National Archives
It is difficult to imagine something like this happening today as randomly as this event took place and it just goes to show how different things were only 50 years ago.
Yacs