Elvis Presley is drafted
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 styleone writer called him Elvis the Pelvisa hit movie Love Me Tender and a string of gold records including Heartbreak Hotel Blue Suede Shoes Hound Dog and Dont Be Cruel Presley had become a national icon and the worlds 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 defermentduring which he finished working on his movie King Creolebefore being sworn in as an army private in Memphis on March 24 1958.After six months of basic trainingincluding an emergency leave to see his beloved mother Gladys before she died in August 1958Presley 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 Presleys introduced him to 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu whom Elvis would marry some years later.
Meanwhile Presleys 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 publics 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.
