When Elvis Met Nixon
A bizarre encounter between the president and the king of rock and roll
- By Peter Carlson
- Smithsonian magazine, December 2010, Subscribe
The image looks like a computer-generated joke, or maybe a snapshot from some parallel universe where the dead icons of the 20th century hang out together—even Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon.
But the picture is genuine, an official White House photograph of a bizarre encounter that occurred in this universe, in the Oval Office on December 21, 1970.
The story began in Memphis a few days earlier, when Elvis' father, Vernon, and wife, Priscilla, complained that he'd spent too much on Christmas presents—more than $100,000 for 32 handguns and ten Mercedes-Benzes. Peeved, Elvis drove to the airport and caught the next available flight, which happened to be bound for Washington. He checked into a hotel, then got bored and decided to fly to Los Angeles.
"Elvis called and asked me to pick him up at the airport," recalls Jerry Schilling, Presley's longtime aide, who dutifully arrived at the Los Angeles airport at 3 a.m. to chauffeur the King to his mansion there.
Elvis was traveling with some guns and his collection of police badges, and he decided that what he really wanted was a badge from the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs back in Washington. "The narc badge represented some kind of ultimate power to him," Priscilla Presley would write in her memoir, Elvis and Me. "With the federal narcotics badge, he [believed he] could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished."
After just one day in Los Angeles, Elvis asked Schilling to fly with him back to the capital. "He didn't say why," Schilling recalls, "but I thought the badge might be part of the reason."
On the red-eye to Washington, Elvis scribbled a letter to President Nixon. "Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help the country out," he wrote. All he wanted in return was a federal agent's badge. "I would love to meet you," he added, informing Nixon that he'd be staying at the Washington Hotel under the alias Jon Burrows. "I will be here for as long as it takes to get the credentials of a federal agent."
After they landed, Elvis and Schilling took a limo to the White House, and Elvis dropped off his letter at an entrance gate at about 6:30 a.m. Once they checked in at their hotel, Elvis left for the offices of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. He got a meeting with a deputy director, but not approval for a bureau badge.
Meanwhile, his letter was delivered to Nixon aide Egil "Bud" Krogh, who happened to be an Elvis fan. Krogh loved the idea of a Nixon-Presley summit and persuaded his bosses, including White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, to make it happen. Krogh called the Washington Hotel and set up a meeting through Schilling.
Around noon, Elvis arrived at the White House with Schilling and bodyguard Sonny West, who'd just arrived from Memphis. Arrayed in a purple velvet suit with a huge gold belt buckle and amber sunglasses, Elvis came bearing a gift—a Colt .45 pistol mounted in a display case that Elvis had plucked off the wall of his Los Angeles mansion.
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Comments (10)
elvis you have very beautiful clothes and your hair is beautiful too eyes everything and you are very rich
Posted by derja on December 15,2012 | 05:13 PM
Cool story.
Posted by the O on November 1,2012 | 11:33 AM
Typical Elvis. Classic.
Posted by dean on November 16,2011 | 12:01 AM
Great article and pictures. Two men who reached the very pinnacles of their professions, yet terribly flawed with tragic consequences. Elvis can blame drugs although thats hardly an excuse.
Posted by Randy on January 2,2011 | 09:42 PM
I thought Rock and Roll music of the early years much better then that woodstock rock music of the preiod when the metting took place between Elvis and Nixon. No dout Elvis was a better show men then of the Rock act of that time. Plus he was in the army in his early years and not sing songs against america and Nixon knew that that why he shook his hands.It is very good that picture.
Posted by Walter Barbera on December 7,2010 | 09:43 PM
I find it interesting Elvis, according to the source cited, actually thought the badge would allow him to carry weapons and drugs into foreign countries without creating an incident.
Elvis is definitely an icon of the mid 20th century to people from all walks of life and even from other countries. I believe he started out as a decent human being with solid morals. As he grew more powerful, the people he created as an inner circle were basically yes men who were addicted to their own power generated by being so close to him.
As an addict, he withdrew further and further from other people and isolated himself from having to deal with any issue he didn't want to deal with. This is a classic behavior pattern of those who are addicted. He also let himself go physically and the lack of maturity on his part are again classic symptoms of addicts. The percentage of people who survive active addiction is extremely small. Those who recover and stay on the path of recovery is about 5.00%.
I believe at the end of his life Elvis was just a shell of a person. Most of his behaviors were scripted to take advantage of his charisma. Handlers of celebrities get paid tremendous sums of money to make that happen. Lastly, I feel Elvis was a truly gifted human being who in the ups and downs of life truly lost his way and it cost him his life.
Posted by Brian Polvado on December 7,2010 | 10:45 AM
I love Beatles!!!
Posted by Lisette on December 7,2010 | 08:25 AM
Regarding the 11/23 and 11/24 comments: You can write unkind things about Elvis Presley because this is a free country and you are free to be as ugly and mean as you like. But I know that Elvis Presley was a patriotic American. He was hard working and a gifted artist. He was a good man who loved the Lord. I will always love and respect Elvis Aaron Presley. May he rest in peace.
Posted by DM on December 5,2010 | 04:27 PM
Please, what's the point of the Smithsonian if not to put odd stories like this into just a little historical context. The fact is, by 1970, Elvis Presley's music was considered hopelessly passé by anyone under 30; we'd long since moved on to much newer forms of Rock. Nixon might just as well have invited Lawrence Welk in for this hokey phoney handshake. And also keep in mind what this country's youth thought of Nixon. America was being roiled by massive anti-war protests in 1970, and Richard Nixon was universally despised on college campuses for keeping the hated & despicable Vietnam War going. So it's pretty sickening to read Presley's cutesty little suck-up note to Tricky Dick.
Posted by RussBBinVegas@aol.com on November 24,2010 | 10:11 PM
Hello,
I hope everyone interested in this strange historical "happening" to use the parlannce of the time reads Gillian Gaar's new book. She freshly interviewed "Bud" Krogh. It seemed that for perhaps for the first time, he realized that he'd "been had" by a drug addict looking for a "get out of jail free card" from the Prez.
Even Nixon saw that Elvis was using what Nixon later called "junk." During the meeting, though, Elvis was quite the pest, taking expensive jewelry from the desk, etc. Nixon gave him his drug badge.
Sadly, Nixon's aggressive drug policy, pushed heavily by his Veep, who made vitriolic speeches, one IN LAS VEGAS, condemning rock music, The Beatles {Agnew clearly didn't know they'd already broken up; Elvis did}, "brainwashing" etc. as the "cause" of drug abuse. Elvis rang "agnew"'s doorbell for more info. Thus, parts of The Letter are copped almost word-for-word from one of Agnew's Vegas speeches.
Schilling has recently said: "I knew what Elvis was doing," but admits that, in hindsight, "it was embarrassing." Well, it was worse than that. Nixon's "war on drugs" was a terrible and tragic failure. In 1970, there were approximately 300,000 hard drug addicts in the U.S.; today there are over 3 million. And the casualties: one of whom was a musician named Elvis Presley. Elvis was just 35 when he visited the 60-ish President. Nixon died 17 years after Elvis Presley's life ended. {The official autopsy report ruled the cause "polypharmacy."}
So, yeah, it's "funny," but it is also quite tragic: Nixon gave a narcotics badge to a drug addict. Within a short time, he was totally lost to hard drugs; then he died, leaving behind a child and an inconsolable father.
As President Carter {Elvis also asked him for a favor, but he thought better of it} put it, the death of Elvis Presley "deprives the country a part of itself." 'nuff said.
All the best,
RM
Posted by RM on November 23,2010 | 06:54 AM