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Late January- Early March, 1958
Elvis films and records for his fourth motion picture,
King
Creole.
March 15, 1958
Elvis performs two shows in Memphis. These are to be his last
stage performances until after his army release in 1960.
March 24, 1958
Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army at the Memphis
Draft Board and is assigned serial number 53310761.
March 25, 1958
Elvis gets his famous G.I. haircut at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
March 29, 1958
Private Presley arrives at Fort Hood, Texas for basic training
and is stationed there for six months. His parents soon move to
a temporary home near the base.
June 10, 1958
After basic training, while on his first leave, Elvis has a
recording session, his last until 1960.
July, 1958
King
Creole, Elvis’ fourth motion picture opens
nationally and the reviews are the best he will ever have for
his acting. Its impressive list of co-stars and supporting cast
includes Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dean Jagger and Vic
Morrow. It becomes a top five film at the box office.
To see more photos of Elvis
in
King
Creole, check the
Gallery.
This Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz-directed movie,
set in New Orleans and based upon the Harold Robbins novel, "A
Stone for Danny Fisher," will come to be regarded as Elvis’
finest film, his greatest acting performance, and proof positive
of his potential to have become a respected serious actor,
though the realization of this desire will remain forever out of
his grasp.
August, 1958
Gladys Presley becomes ill and returns to Memphis to be
hospitalized with acute hepatitis. Elvis is granted emergency
leave and arrives in Memphis on the afternoon of August 12th.
He visits her that night, and the next day and
night. A few hours after Elvis goes home to Graceland to rest,
she dies in the early hours of August 14 at age 46.
Her body lies in state at Graceland that
afternoon. Services are at the Memphis Funeral Home on the 15th,
with the Blackwood Brothers singing "Precious Memories" and
"Rock of Ages," two of Gladys Presley’s favourite hymns.
She is laid to rest at Forest Hill Cemetery, a
few miles down the road from Graceland. Elvis is devastated.
August 25, 1958
Elvis reports back to Fort Hood.
September/October 1958
September 19, Elvis boards a troop train to New York, later
boards the USS. Randall and sails to Germany, arriving on
October 1.
He will be stationed in Friedberg for 18 months,
maintaining an off-base residence in Bad Nauheim, shared with
his father and grandmother, and some friends from Memphis. He
finds the fans in Europe to be as enthusiastic as those in
America.
January 8, 1959
Elvis is interviewed off-camera via trans-Atlantic telephone by
Dick Clark on his American Bandstand show on ABC-TV. The
show commemorates the star’s twenty-fourth birthday. (Elvis
never performed on American Bandstand.)
On a two-week leave, Elvis visits Munich, then
goes clubbing in Paris, which includes a visit to the Lido.
Colonel Parker continues to keep Elvis’ career
alive with promotions and hit record releases.
November 1959
Captain Joseph Beaulieu is transferred from Texas to Weisbaden
Air Force Base near Friedberg, accompanied by his wife and
children, including his fourteen-and-a-half- year-old
stepdaughter, Priscilla Ann.
(Priscilla is the only child from Ann Beaulieu’s
marriage to her first husband, James Wagner, a Navy pilot who
was killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was an infant.)
Through a mutual friend, Priscilla is invited to a party at
Elvis’ home soon after her arrival in Germany. They meet, and
the rest is history.
January 20, 1960
Elvis is promoted to Sergeant.
March 1960
Elvis leaves Germany on March 1, arriving in New Jersey the next
day for a press conference, and is officially discharged from
active duty on March 5, 1960. He boards a train for Memphis,
arriving on March 7. Press and crowds of fans are everywhere for
this historic series of events. He holds a press conference at
Graceland in his father’s office behind the mansion on March 8.
He has served his country just like any other GI, with no
special privileges his celebrity status might have afforded him.
These two years away from his career have been a time to mature.
He has also worried constantly that his lengthy absence might
have damaged his career progress. But, he has yet to see his
greatest stardom.
Late March, 1960
Elvis has his first post-army recording session. Some of the
recording work is for the album
Elvis is Back!, which
will hit number two on the Billboard pop chart. (Sessions will
continue in early April.)
On March 21 he receives his first degree black belt in karate,
an interest he developed while in the army. On March 26 he tapes
a special "Welcome Home, Elvis" edition of Frank Sinatra’s
ABC-TV variety show, for which he is paid $125,000, a record sum
for a variety show appearance at the time.
Late April, 1960
Elvis begins filming and recording for his first post-army
movie, his fifth film, G.I. Blues for Paramount, the first of
nine to be produced (not consecutively) by Hal Wallis.
G.I. Blues co-stars dancer/actress Juliet Prowse.
May 8, 1960
ABC airs Frank Sinatra’s Welcome Home, Elvis edition of
his variety show, which attracts a 41.5% share of the national
television audience.
July 3, 1960
Vernon Presley marries divorcee and mother of three sons, Davada
(Dee) Stanley, an American whom he met Germany, where she had
been stationed with her military husband. They live at Graceland
briefly, then move to a home nearby.
August/September 1960
Elvis records and films for his sixth movie,
Flaming Star,
a drama with limited music. Elvis plays the son of a white
father and a Native American mother, torn between the two
cultures in the 1800's.
The film co-stars
Barbara Eden.
October, 1960
The soundtrack album for G.I. Blues enters the Billboard
album chart and soon goes to number one. It remains number one
for ten weeks and stays on the chart for 111 weeks. It is to be
the most successful album of Elvis’ entire career on the
Billboard charts. (In terms of total record sales over time, it
is uncertain which album stands as the most successful.)
November 1960
Elvis begins recording and filming for his seventh film, Wild
in the Country, which will be completed in January.
G.I. Blues opens nationally to warm reviews and big box
office sales and is among the fifteen top-grossing films of the
year. It is a light comedy melodrama with lots of singing by
Elvis, who is seen in uniform for most of the movie.
To see more photos of
G.I. Blues, check
out the Gallery.
Late December, 1960
Flaming Star opens nationally to warm reviews, but unlike
G.I. Blues, this dramatic film with little singing does
not set the box office on fire.
However, Elvis earns recognition from a tribal council for his
positive portrayal of a Native American in this racially charged
drama. The film is banned in South Africa due to its interracial
theme.
To see more photos of
Flaming Star, check
out the Gallery. |
Elvis, in a break, in King Creole.
Elvis, with Carolyn Jones, in King Creole.
Elvis, leaving for the Army.
The famous haircut.
Vernon and Elvis, after Gladys Presley's death.
Elvis arrives in Germany.
Priscilla Beaulieu, with her mother and siblings.
Elvis, in Graceland, gives a press conference.
Elvis in Welcome Home, Elvis, with Frank Sinatra.
Elvis, with Juliet Prowse, in G.I. Blues.
Elvis, in Flaming Star.
Elvis, with Tuesday Weld, in Wild In The Country.
Elvis, being recognized by a tribal council for his poistive portrayal
in Flaming Star.
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