September 9, 2020 • 12 mins
After a 23-year-old Elvis Presley submitted to an Army barber in March 1958, rock and roll, and American life, were never quite the same.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
March twenty fourth, nineteen fifty eight. The press dubbed it
Black Monday. The tempo is HUT two three four for
Private Presley, the King of rock and Roll will be
keeping time to non hip bugle calls. That day, Elvis
Presley reported for duty in the U. S. Army and
for a hair cut at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, along with
about seventy reporters and photographers. A gyrating guitarist departure from
(00:24):
the public eye left his blue jeans fans all shook up,
so we hear, but Albus doesn't seem to mind at all.
An army barber shaved off the King's rebellious sideburns and
dark locks as the cameras flashed. Elvis joked as his
hair fell to the floor. Well, here today, gone tomorrow.
(00:48):
I'm Sean Braswell. Welcome to another bonus episode of flashback
on a fateful moment from history. Black Monday marked the
start of a two year military hiatus for the most
famous person on the planet. It was a day that
changed the course of Elvis's life and career, but it
would do even more than that. In nineteen fifty eight,
the twenty three year old sex symbol was at the
(01:09):
very peak of his era defining powers, and the loss
of that famous hair and his temporary disappearance from the
public eye would impact the course of American music and
pop culture for years to come. Here he is singing
(01:33):
sensation all over the country, Elvis pres Where you ain't
what I said? The young, hip, thrusting Elvis Presley exploded
(01:56):
out of almost every television set in America in nineteen fifty.
The cocky, handsome singer was an instant icon, one that
threatened the very conformity at the heart of nineteen fifties America.
To watch Elvis gyrate on the Milton Borough Show seems
rather tame to us today, but during the King's three
minute performance of hound Dog, you can almost feel American
(02:18):
culture shifting in real time before your very eyes. The
blowback against Pressley's animal magnetism was equally potent. Music critics
were quick to condemn Pelvis Pressley as a sexhibitionist. A
(02:39):
convention of high school principles voted to band blue jeans
and Pressley's signature ducktail hairstyle. A judge in Florida even
threatened to arrest him, and talking heads took to the
airwaves to warn the nation about him. I suspect that
some of you are going to be surprised at the
subject of this telecast. This is political journalist Drew Pearson.
On the nineteen fifties news pro Graham he hosted, called
(03:01):
the Washington Merry Go Round because today I want to
relax a that and reports some inside facts about a
young man who has become the rage of millions of teenagers,
and who has some of our experts on juvenile delinquent say,
just about as worried as the teenagers are crazy. I'd
refer to Elvis Presley. Drew Pearson was a renegade journalist,
(03:24):
one who also reported gossip and rumors and innuendo, kind
of the TMZ of his time. He'd taken on powerful figures,
from General Patton to Joseph McCarthy, whose actions he thought
pose threats to the country, and in nineteen fifty six
he put aside the political theater and turned his attention
to America's latest and greatest threat. If you look back,
(03:47):
you recall the famed Matinee Idols who preceded Presley worked
hard for their success. But Elvis Presley was a truck
driver who still can't read music and whose main appeal
appears to be frankly sex. Pearson predicted that if parents
ignored Elvis, their teenagers would too, and of Presley finally
(04:07):
learned that vulgarity is not the way to permit success.
And if it works hard, which he's never done before,
I further predict he'll find a less spectacular but steadier
place in our entertainment world. If he does not, then
I predict Elvis Presley star will fall as rapidly as
it rose. And on January seven, Elvis's twenty second birthday,
(04:33):
Pearson got his wish. The Memphis Draft Board announced that
Presley would serve two years in the U. S. Military.
A year later, he reported for duty. Elvis was on
his way to a less spectacular and steadier place in
the entertainment world, just as Pearson had predicted, and nothing
would ever quite be the same. The news of Elvis
(04:58):
being drafted raised many questions. James, how could the most
popular man in America serve his country best? Should he
entertain the troops instead of serving alongside them, And perhaps
most importantly, what did it mean for his hair? Hundreds
of concerned female citizens wrote letters to President Dwight D.
Eisenhower to plea for clemency before it went under the knife.
(05:19):
One U S. Senator even petitioned for the king to
get an exemption from the standard g I buzz cut.
Elvis tried neither to escape his service nor the mandatory haircut,
and so America Sampson was publicly short of his potent locked,
even if, as Time magazine reported afterward, the haircut left
him still looking much too dreamy for the army. Elvis
(05:41):
assigned to a base in West Germany, where he drove
a truck, drew an eighty two dollar paycheck, and remained
relatively inconspicuous. Elvis, do the other soldiers give you a
rough time because you're a famous not, sir? I was
very surprised. I've never met a better group of war
was in my life. Elvis also encountered two other things
(06:03):
in Germany that would change his life. One was his
future wife, Priscilla, the teenage daughter of a U. S.
Army colonel. The second the amphetamines shared with him by
a fellow soldier, which started a battle with drug addiction
that would last for years. Elvis Presley was honorably discharged
from active duty on March five, add Fort Dix, New Jersey,
(06:25):
and newsreels TV, the Press, the Lot told the world
how Elvis came marching home for seventeen interminable months. The
cats hadn't seen him. What a price to pay for
national events. So bring Army life? Changed your mind about
rock and roll? So bring Army life? Uh No, it hasn't.
(06:49):
It hasn't. It hasn't changed my mind because I was
in tanks for a long time to see and they
rock and roll quite a bit. Elvis might not have
changed his mind about rock and roll that rock and
roll changed rapidly while he was away. Not only was
the King out of commission, that rockers Chuck Berry and
(07:11):
Jerry Lee Lewis also fell from grace thanks to scandals
tied the teenage girls and then we interrupt this program
from Especial News Bulletin. Three young singers who soared to
the heights of shore business on the current rock and
roll craze were killed today in the crash of a
light plane in an iowasn flurry. The deaths of Buddy Holly,
(07:31):
the Big Bopper and Richie Vallen's in a ninety nine
plane crash sent the music world and the country into shock.
It was a bleak time for rock and roll, but
many held out hope that the return of the King
to his throne would change all that. They were soon disappointed.
He's the Star Wars Show. Elvis's first televised performance after
(07:55):
returning State Side was much different than the ones that
electrified the country just four years earlier. The King's hair
had grown back out, but without his trademark sideburns. Dressed
in a tuxedo, he sang mild duets with the aging
crooner Frank Sinatra beat Tender Lovely que never let Me Go,
(08:18):
You have made my life to break, and I love
you so Inger, Come given stand my very lovely. Elvis
(08:39):
looks rusty, distant, out of place. He sounds like he's
trying to sing in a foreign language. He even screws
up the lyrics to Witchcraft I Always Will. It was
(09:05):
clear to many observers that Elvis had lost more than
his sideburns and his pelvic thrusts. He lost his edge,
his own witchcraft, and worse, he'd gone mainstream. As a
New York Times critic put it, Elvis's recent liberation from
the army to co star with Sinatra was one of
the most irritating events since the invention of itching powder.
(09:32):
Elvis still had hits left in him like Are You
Lonesome Tonight in the years ahead, but he was not
the same barrier breaking performer. He descended further into drug addiction. Eventually,
he quit touring entirely for eight years to focus on
Hollywood and other projects before his untimely death from a
heart attack at age two thousands a day. Still in
(09:53):
shock over the death of singer Elvis Presley, President Carter
today called him a symbol of the vitality, rebelliousness, and
good humor of this country, and said that his death
deprives our country of a part of itself. Elvis had
a remarkable career and millions of devoted fans, But it's
hard not to wonder what if. What if he'd never
lost two years of his prime to the army. What
(10:15):
if he'd never become addicted to drugs? How might the
landscapes of rock and roll in American culture have been altered?
With the countercultural revolution that came later in the nineteen
sixties have happened much sooner, We'll never really know. Don
McClean famously called the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly
(10:38):
the Big Bopper and Richie Vallen's the Day of the
Music Died and his song American Pie, but some music
historians instead date that moment to an earlier day, the
morning when Elvis turned up for his haircut at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
That government issued haircut and the two years of service
that followed it not only blunted the sex appeal of
(10:58):
the nation's biggest bubble, but shifted his mindset as well.
The norm busting, hip thrusting singer who had unleashed teenage
riots was eager not to stand out in Germany, to
serve just like any other soldier. They had the same
haircut as everyone else, and when he returned home, Elvis
was also ready to fit in. That was like, the
(11:20):
music has changed since you've been out of the service,
I mean since you've brought in the service. Possibly, yes,
I can't say I haven't been here long enough, even
though the only thing I can say is it if
it has changed, well, I would be foolish not too
try to change with it him. Flashback has written and
(11:51):
hosted by me Sean Braswell, senior writer and executive producer
at Ozzy. He was edited by Maybe mcgarren and produced
by Tracy Moran and Negorio Didus. Chris Hoff engineered our show.
Make sure to subscribe to Flashback on the I Heart
Radio app, or listen wherever you get your podcasts m
March twenty fourth, nineteen fifty eight. The press dubbed it
Black Monday. The tempo is HUT two three four for
Private Presley, the King of rock and Roll will be
keeping time to non hip bugle calls. That day, Elvis
Presley reported for duty in the U. S. Army and
for a hair cut at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, along with
about seventy reporters and photographers. A gyrating guitarist departure from
(00:24):
the public eye left his blue jeans fans all shook up,
so we hear, but Albus doesn't seem to mind at all.
An army barber shaved off the King's rebellious sideburns and
dark locks as the cameras flashed. Elvis joked as his
hair fell to the floor. Well, here today, gone tomorrow.
(00:48):
I'm Sean Braswell. Welcome to another bonus episode of flashback
on a fateful moment from history. Black Monday marked the
start of a two year military hiatus for the most
famous person on the planet. It was a day that
changed the course of Elvis's life and career, but it
would do even more than that. In nineteen fifty eight,
the twenty three year old sex symbol was at the
(01:09):
very peak of his era defining powers, and the loss
of that famous hair and his temporary disappearance from the
public eye would impact the course of American music and
pop culture for years to come. Here he is singing
(01:33):
sensation all over the country, Elvis pres Where you ain't
what I said? The young, hip, thrusting Elvis Presley exploded
(01:56):
out of almost every television set in America in nineteen fifty.
The cocky, handsome singer was an instant icon, one that
threatened the very conformity at the heart of nineteen fifties America.
To watch Elvis gyrate on the Milton Borough Show seems
rather tame to us today, but during the King's three
minute performance of hound Dog, you can almost feel American
(02:18):
culture shifting in real time before your very eyes. The
blowback against Pressley's animal magnetism was equally potent. Music critics
were quick to condemn Pelvis Pressley as a sexhibitionist. A
(02:39):
convention of high school principles voted to band blue jeans
and Pressley's signature ducktail hairstyle. A judge in Florida even
threatened to arrest him, and talking heads took to the
airwaves to warn the nation about him. I suspect that
some of you are going to be surprised at the
subject of this telecast. This is political journalist Drew Pearson.
On the nineteen fifties news pro Graham he hosted, called
(03:01):
the Washington Merry Go Round because today I want to
relax a that and reports some inside facts about a
young man who has become the rage of millions of teenagers,
and who has some of our experts on juvenile delinquent say,
just about as worried as the teenagers are crazy. I'd
refer to Elvis Presley. Drew Pearson was a renegade journalist,
(03:24):
one who also reported gossip and rumors and innuendo, kind
of the TMZ of his time. He'd taken on powerful figures,
from General Patton to Joseph McCarthy, whose actions he thought
pose threats to the country, and in nineteen fifty six
he put aside the political theater and turned his attention
to America's latest and greatest threat. If you look back,
(03:47):
you recall the famed Matinee Idols who preceded Presley worked
hard for their success. But Elvis Presley was a truck
driver who still can't read music and whose main appeal
appears to be frankly sex. Pearson predicted that if parents
ignored Elvis, their teenagers would too, and of Presley finally
(04:07):
learned that vulgarity is not the way to permit success.
And if it works hard, which he's never done before,
I further predict he'll find a less spectacular but steadier
place in our entertainment world. If he does not, then
I predict Elvis Presley star will fall as rapidly as
it rose. And on January seven, Elvis's twenty second birthday,
(04:33):
Pearson got his wish. The Memphis Draft Board announced that
Presley would serve two years in the U. S. Military.
A year later, he reported for duty. Elvis was on
his way to a less spectacular and steadier place in
the entertainment world, just as Pearson had predicted, and nothing
would ever quite be the same. The news of Elvis
(04:58):
being drafted raised many questions. James, how could the most
popular man in America serve his country best? Should he
entertain the troops instead of serving alongside them, And perhaps
most importantly, what did it mean for his hair? Hundreds
of concerned female citizens wrote letters to President Dwight D.
Eisenhower to plea for clemency before it went under the knife.
(05:19):
One U S. Senator even petitioned for the king to
get an exemption from the standard g I buzz cut.
Elvis tried neither to escape his service nor the mandatory haircut,
and so America Sampson was publicly short of his potent locked,
even if, as Time magazine reported afterward, the haircut left
him still looking much too dreamy for the army. Elvis
(05:41):
assigned to a base in West Germany, where he drove
a truck, drew an eighty two dollar paycheck, and remained
relatively inconspicuous. Elvis, do the other soldiers give you a
rough time because you're a famous not, sir? I was
very surprised. I've never met a better group of war
was in my life. Elvis also encountered two other things
(06:03):
in Germany that would change his life. One was his
future wife, Priscilla, the teenage daughter of a U. S.
Army colonel. The second the amphetamines shared with him by
a fellow soldier, which started a battle with drug addiction
that would last for years. Elvis Presley was honorably discharged
from active duty on March five, add Fort Dix, New Jersey,
(06:25):
and newsreels TV, the Press, the Lot told the world
how Elvis came marching home for seventeen interminable months. The
cats hadn't seen him. What a price to pay for
national events. So bring Army life? Changed your mind about
rock and roll? So bring Army life? Uh No, it hasn't.
(06:49):
It hasn't. It hasn't changed my mind because I was
in tanks for a long time to see and they
rock and roll quite a bit. Elvis might not have
changed his mind about rock and roll that rock and
roll changed rapidly while he was away. Not only was
the King out of commission, that rockers Chuck Berry and
(07:11):
Jerry Lee Lewis also fell from grace thanks to scandals
tied the teenage girls and then we interrupt this program
from Especial News Bulletin. Three young singers who soared to
the heights of shore business on the current rock and
roll craze were killed today in the crash of a
light plane in an iowasn flurry. The deaths of Buddy Holly,
(07:31):
the Big Bopper and Richie Vallen's in a ninety nine
plane crash sent the music world and the country into shock.
It was a bleak time for rock and roll, but
many held out hope that the return of the King
to his throne would change all that. They were soon disappointed.
He's the Star Wars Show. Elvis's first televised performance after
(07:55):
returning State Side was much different than the ones that
electrified the country just four years earlier. The King's hair
had grown back out, but without his trademark sideburns. Dressed
in a tuxedo, he sang mild duets with the aging
crooner Frank Sinatra beat Tender Lovely que never let Me Go,
(08:18):
You have made my life to break, and I love
you so Inger, Come given stand my very lovely. Elvis
(08:39):
looks rusty, distant, out of place. He sounds like he's
trying to sing in a foreign language. He even screws
up the lyrics to Witchcraft I Always Will. It was
(09:05):
clear to many observers that Elvis had lost more than
his sideburns and his pelvic thrusts. He lost his edge,
his own witchcraft, and worse, he'd gone mainstream. As a
New York Times critic put it, Elvis's recent liberation from
the army to co star with Sinatra was one of
the most irritating events since the invention of itching powder.
(09:32):
Elvis still had hits left in him like Are You
Lonesome Tonight in the years ahead, but he was not
the same barrier breaking performer. He descended further into drug addiction. Eventually,
he quit touring entirely for eight years to focus on
Hollywood and other projects before his untimely death from a
heart attack at age two thousands a day. Still in
(09:53):
shock over the death of singer Elvis Presley, President Carter
today called him a symbol of the vitality, rebelliousness, and
good humor of this country, and said that his death
deprives our country of a part of itself. Elvis had
a remarkable career and millions of devoted fans, But it's
hard not to wonder what if. What if he'd never
lost two years of his prime to the army. What
(10:15):
if he'd never become addicted to drugs? How might the
landscapes of rock and roll in American culture have been altered?
With the countercultural revolution that came later in the nineteen
sixties have happened much sooner, We'll never really know. Don
McClean famously called the airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly
(10:38):
the Big Bopper and Richie Vallen's the Day of the
Music Died and his song American Pie, but some music
historians instead date that moment to an earlier day, the
morning when Elvis turned up for his haircut at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.
That government issued haircut and the two years of service
that followed it not only blunted the sex appeal of
(10:58):
the nation's biggest bubble, but shifted his mindset as well.
The norm busting, hip thrusting singer who had unleashed teenage
riots was eager not to stand out in Germany, to
serve just like any other soldier. They had the same
haircut as everyone else, and when he returned home, Elvis
was also ready to fit in. That was like, the
(11:20):
music has changed since you've been out of the service,
I mean since you've brought in the service. Possibly, yes,
I can't say I haven't been here long enough, even
though the only thing I can say is it if
it has changed, well, I would be foolish not too
try to change with it him. Flashback has written and
(11:51):
hosted by me Sean Braswell, senior writer and executive producer
at Ozzy. He was edited by Maybe mcgarren and produced
by Tracy Moran and Negorio Didus. Chris Hoff engineered our show.
Make sure to subscribe to Flashback on the I Heart
Radio app, or listen wherever you get your podcasts m
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