We Were There When Nixon Met Elvis

in you good evening I'm David Ferriero the archivist of the United States and I want to welcome you to the National Archives tonight and the William G McGowan theater I also want to welcome our c-span audience tonight c-span is no stranger to this building and we're always welcoming c-span to share more of the archives treasures with the American public thirty-nine years ago last month Elvis Presley the most famous popular singer of his time appeared at the White House gate he handed the guards a handwritten letter addressed to the President of the United States Richard Nixon asking to meet with him the letter was whisked inside the White House and within hours the king of rock and roll as Presley was known and the leader of the free world as all presidents are known we're meeting in the Oval Office the official White House photograph of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley in the Oval Office is one of the most requested images from the National Archives and you have if you haven't visited our shop either physically or virtually I encourage you to do so where you can buy your own reproduction of that in paper or on a coffee mug and in several different formats that is archives gov tonight you'll hear about that famous meeting from two eyewitnesses our moderator for the discussion is dr. Tim Naftali director of the Richard Nixon president Library and Museum in Yorba Linda California dr. Naphtali came to the archives in 2006 as director of our Nixon Presidential materials project then in 2007 became the director of the library after it was transferred to the National Archives by a private foundation since then dr. Naphtali has overseen the near completion of an archival edition and an increase in activity and public programs in that library we have released nearly 400 hours of Nixon tapes and more than 200 pages of Nixon textual material he's conducted 126 video oral histories and is nearly completed the Institute installation of a new exhibit on Watergate based on those oral history accounts and has managed the library through to earthquakes and the major fire before coming to the archive dr. Naftali taught history at several universities including the University of Virginia there he was also director of the presidential recordings program at the Miller center of Public Affairs he appears frequently in major print in broadcast media and has authored or co-authored four books including Khrushchev's called war the inside story of an American adversary in his most recent book George Herbert Walker Bush appeared in 2007 dr. Naftali holds an undergraduate degree in history from Yale a master's degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins and a master's and Doctorate degrees and history from Harvard and now I turn the program over to Tim thank you David David Ferriero has been with us a few months and has made a great change and we're pleased to have him with the National Archives welcome to your Belinda it's much warmer here actually this is an away game for me and I'm awfully cold first of all please join me in welcoming Eagle bud Krogh and Jerry Schilling gentlemen was it but bud Krogh was out with you wait for the while but rob was deputy to the council to the president he oversaw the war on drugs and also the District of Columbia he is perhaps the man most responsible for getting metal detectors into American airports sorry about it he isn't out seem like a girl I know I know it don't know it's it was a good start and and and but is now associated with the Center for the Study of the presidency and Congress Jerry shilling was a close friend of Elvis Presley's for 23 years and he worked for him for 10 he's also a veteran of the music industry and you're about to find out that these men are both superb reck winters so we're going to start now Gerry set this up for us okay because your ear in Los Angeles right you're not working for Elvis no okay it's 1971 what is Elvis doing flying by himself with a credit card I didn't have a clue I mean I was asleep and I get this call Hey and I go who is this he says it's me so I knew it was Elvis and I said where are you and he said I'm at the airport he said could you meet me at the at the airport he was either in Dallas or I didn't know where he was and I said well who's with you Elvis Presley always travel with an entourage and he said nobody and he said I don't want anybody in the world to know where I am and he started giving me his flight numbers and what time he was coming in things that Elvis Presley never did so that was the start of me picking him up at LAX on his Saturday night about 1:30 in the morning of course the next couple of days were quite interesting well now he calls you and he wants you to pick him up at the airport yes now how often did Elvis travel alone this was the only time in the 21 23 years then but this was the only time in the 20 years not only not along but usually you know five guys at a minimum you know he's never bought an airline ticket he's never you know we had to say Elvis it's time you know we got to get to the airport you know whatever it was so this was he was on I didn't know what mission he was on I'm not quite sure if he knew to the extent of a mission he was on but he was on a mission so om and didn't you sort of he's also running away from home a bit he's all he's only got one cracker yes and you know Elvis has been known as a quite generous guy and after I met him at the airport I found out the next day as when I realized late at night almost early morning that I was the only person in the world that knew where Elvis Presley was I couldn't go to sleep you know so Elvis goes to sleep and the next day is Sunday and we get up and we have coffee at his old home in LA and it was just two friends really catching back up and in that conversation he had told me he said you know I really got mad at Graceland he said you know people were telling me how to spend my money he was buying a lot of gifts I mean Vernon Presley and Priscilla Presley were only kind of looking out for him and I think when when the colonel got involved it always just want whoa I think he got in his car he went to the airport he had an American Express credit card I think he took the first flight out and he wound up here and see was he carrying guns with him always look but whatever what's this what is inside raised the metal detector issue what he had what did he tell you he was aspiration for but oh what happened on the plane well as I learned to the next day when he got to Washington he checked into the hotel Washington and I don't think he knew what do I do now so that's when he called me went back to the airport went through Dallas and and gotten in touch with me but he said what happened is he he was really upset about people telling him how to spend this money he I didn't know he had gotten to Washington until the next day but what happened is when he changed planes in Dallas he said there was a smart aleck little Stuart or the moustache that came up to me and said I couldn't imagine this today came but imagine the studio came up to me and said you can't carry your guns on the plane now seems reasonable she didn't do anything wrong and now now all due respect and credibility to my friend he did have concealed gun permit he did he had been collecting badges he had gotten we had gone to rifle ranges there had been threats on his life and we we were including myself we could carry concealed weapons anyway all of us got very upset stormed off the plane and the pilot came after him said Mr Presley it's okay you can carry your guns that probably wouldn't happen today well he only had three okay so when did it become clear to you this is nor in Los Angeles yes picked him up that you're going to go to Washington with him well Tim as you said I wasn't working for all of us I had worked a whole year at ABC television in a basement after quitting working for Elvis Presley trying to get in as a film editor I was an apprentice and I just got this job at paramount studios and so after this nice talk on Sunday that Elvis and I had and he said was a brown sunset because you know Jerry I need you to come to Washington with me and I go Elvis I can't I said you know I've worked this whole year as you know to get into Parramatta I got to be at work in the morning and you know he was hard to say no to it he looked like a little boy goes okay you know he said first of all he said I'll get a Learjet and fly you back well I'm thinking they were upset with him back there because he was spending too much money so so anyway I go I said all this I can't and then I thought man he had this incident flying out on the airlines with the guns and everything and I made a deal with him I said Elvis if you will let me call Graceland your father and Priscilla and let them know you're not kidnapped where you are then I will take the all-nighter flight and if I could call one of the security guys there to meet us where I can go back and hopefully still have my job so that that started the evening of us with no money Elvis never carried money taking all night flight from Los Angeles here to DC but didn't you go into the old house and he took down from the wall one of his prized gifts or one of yeah this was a this was on Hillcrest Drive in Beverly Hills and this is where he spent the night and then as we're getting ready to leave always had a little office was very very cool office and there was a world war two commemorative gun it was from Normandy and all these places and he took it off the wall he didn't give me a reason I was used to Elvis doing things without explaining him to me you know so he takes the gun with him I don't know I still don't did not know why we were going to Washington I was just making the arrangements and I've been so many places with Elvis where I didn't know where I was gone so it was kind of normal for me and now you ended up with five hundred dollars you met him yeah we delvis into letting his normal limousine driver take us to the airport who he called by the way Sir Gerald because he had found out years ago I think he was a driver for Winston Churchill yeah and Elvis was a real history buff I mean this is the thing he knew he knew his history and so it was Sunday night we had no cash I I didn't have any I didn't carry any cash but I just didn't have any I was didn't carry any cash because he didn't have to and so so anyway Sunday night I had Elvis's checkbook and and Sir Gerald found a guy at the Beverly Hilton hotel that would cast a check for $500 so I made out the check had Elvis sign it we on the way to the airport we stopped at the Beverly Hilton and I had an envelope with $500 in my coat and the brown leather jacket that I wore to the White House anyway very handsome outfit father thank you thank you I know you were good I might I was yeah I was about is out of my environment that day as I am tonight so so anyway they pre-board us on the plane for the all-nighter and there was Christmas time and there were a lot of soldiers coming back from Vietnam and the ones that saw Elvis there they would say hello he got into a real conversation with one soldier for like 10 minutes he comes back to me and I'm sitting the window seat he's here he goes where's that money I know what was going to happen I said what money and he goes the $500 I said Elvis were going to Washington that's all we've got he said you don't understand this man's been in Vietnam he's going back home for Christmas to see his family he gave him the entire $500 then you find out about senator Murphy you know I'm trying to think how the introduction was made I don't know if you know I don't all I know is senator Murphy was on the plane with us of course he was in coach we were in first class now I'm I'm on government lending out money I'm on coach now come here so but anyway we had met when Murphy came on I don't know if it had been from the guy who set up the meeting that Elvis was having with Johnson later at the Bureau of Narcotics and and the drugs yeah dangerous drugs so but when we were on the flight about halfway through Elvis went back and talked with the senator Murphy and when he came back he sat down next to me and I'd never seen Elvis Presley write a letter and he had only written three in his life at that point that's when he was in Germany in the army so he said do you think they have any stationery on the plane I said well you know let me find out and I asked the stewardess and she brought us some American airline station so I'm sitting here Elvis is over there he's writing a letter you know I respected this privacy I wouldn't look I didn't say what are you writing a letter about what's going on I'm still figuring out how I'm going to get back to my job without losing it and he finishes the letter and he goes Jerry would you proofread this for me and I said yeah and I'm reading this letter Jerry well you well you tell us that why don't we look at the first page of that letter okay yeah there's American airline station there it is what was your reaction when you read this letter I got to tell you I was pretty I was pretty impressed I mean it was I knew Elvis so well knew where his heart was and there was obviously some grammar that could have been corrected but I thought you know what this is a letter of a guy who experienced the real American story of poverty to being probably the most famous guy in the world who was writing a letter from this heart to his president and I said you know Elvis think you sent it just as it is now was it clear to you when you rented that that Elvis wanted to meet the president yeah because he stated to decide that that's the first I ever heard of that I thought we I didn't know why we're going let's look at another page from this letter and you can explain to us who John burrows is John burrows is at one point I didn't know if you know this time was a character Elvis played in a movie and it was an alias that his managers sometimes used Colonel Parker and so now you got a picture this this is Elvis telling the president that he's under an assumed name incognito and that to contact him he should contact his public relations and jury showing yeah so but you know that's that's kind of how all this you know that's how he did things all right so so so what time do you arrive in Washington it was daybreak I don't know the exact so it I yes there was a real so what are you going to do with this letter well I you know I'm thinking I knowing Elvis he's not going to put it in a mailbox you know so and I you know I just gave it back to him he would tell me what what you know what he wanted to do what he wanted to do with it so we I had called the car from ELF from LA to meet us I called the limo and I'd gotten Sir Gerald to set that up for us thank God because we had no money and so it's actually before daybreak when we land and we get in the limo and obviously I want to drop the letter by the white house and I said all this it's it's not even daylight and let's just go the hotel I want to freshen up you know I've been up two days now and and he said no no I I really wanted to deliver this I wanted to be there first thing Monday morning which it was yeah so we're driving up to the gate bud which gate is at Northwest gate Northwest I always want to call it the west wing or something it's north west gate so he said you just stay in the car I said fine so Elvis gets out of the limo and now is starting to become dawn what is he wearing you better set the scene for us he's wearing a Christian you know he's wearing a a kind of Cape coat he's got a king actually his hair was a little longer even than normal for Elvis and you know for that time of the morning it was kind of a Dracula look yeah um so he gets out and he and you know the security guards at the north north east south west northwest gain I see this is not going well so I jump out of the car and I say gentlemen please excuse me but this is mr. Presley who just wants to drop a letter off to the President and they really warmed up and they said you know a senators coming up at 7:00 and mr. press'll will make sure that your letter is carried up and to be delivered to the presidency to the president and so we got in the car and then we went to hotel Washington but when do you hear about the letter well first I just want to say Tim that this is a delight to be here today and and Jerry we haven't seen each other for a year since that day and I just oh my god I mean talk about instantly liking somebody when it when I met Jerry and vice versa and and I will just tell you what happened because I was I came in a little bit after the letter arrived because we started early in that in that lighthouse and I was sitting at my desk and I got a call from Dwight Chapin who is the president scheduling secretary and who I think we have to acknowledge tonight as the visionary for putting this whole thing together that's true Dwight Chapin at 7:15 in the morning is a genius so so he called me up around no7 37:45 and says but the king is here okay and I looked at the president's schedule and said what King there aren't the Kings on the schedule here are you talking about he said no not any two-bit King the King the king of rock Elvis Presley he's right here I said Dwight come on it's going to be a long day four days he said no I'm reading this letter he said he wants to meet with the president and he wants to help on the drug program and that's what you work on because when a Dwight's jobs was to help get people my policy area involved so he said I'll send a letter over to you could read it and tell me what what you think so White House messenger brings it over with a little red I got it I start reading this letter and I said ya know do I hear by the way Gus now full disclosure requires me to tell you that I belong to a group of eight guys who played practical jokes on each other on the White House every week and this was my turn to have one plate on me by Chapin so I figured okay well I'll go along with it I'll read this letter and as Jerry said it towards the end it's that I staying over at the Washington hotel under the name of John Burroughs would like to see you and the rest well I read and I think what do I do with this well I'm going to try this out so I called over to the hotel now with the numbers that you can see on the screen a private and confidential that stuff yeah that's a secret you can only get to me you only get to you and I get a Jerry answers the phone I said my name is bud Krogh and I had this letter here from Elvis Presley I'm laughing on the phone because I'm expecting to be talking - Dwight's daughter you know it was all part of it and he said oh yes mr. Crowe guess it was one of the letters mr. Presley has written and and we would very much like to see if we could arrange some kind of a meeting with the president well I'm still thinking all right so they got a impersonator of an aide to take the did they take this and this is still Chapin's joke I said look why don't you come on over to the White House and let's talk about this because normally when you're responsible for a meeting with the president you sort of like to know who's going to go in into the Oval Office so they said oh well we'll be right over now I think maybe a little time that elapsed from the letters delivery through the guard at the Northwest gate to Chapin's office to me reading it talking it over with my powers enemies astounded staff did you expect to hear from the White House listen all of us went to a meeting which I did I never seen him in a meeting either and he had left me a phone number and said you stay here and wait for the White House call I read a lot of Howard Hughes books where he left people in hotels for like a year he ended up staying here himself why not for the same guy so and I didn't want to hurt Elvis's feelings and tell him we weren't gonna get a call so that's how that so we were surprised when when this mr. Crowe called I was surprised and after bud called I never underestimated my friends power again yeah well since you since you mentioned Dwight Chapin let's take a look at the memo he sent to Bob Haldeman Bob Haldeman the president's chief of staff this is the memo suggesting and offering the option that the president meet Elvis Presley the the most interesting part of the memos page 2 let's go to page 2 you see the writing you must be kidding and that's that's H that means he actually said go ahead and that's what led to that's right and where he said he wanted the president start meeting young people and let's begin with Elvis Presley yeah start with the most famous man planet so let's do that and then Bob Road you must be kidding but you see his big H they're approving the meeting so so we had a go-ahead but now this came a little bit after I had had this audition meeting with Jerry and Sonny West the one thing you might tell us a little bit it's when did Sonny West join the mini entourage that came well when when I had made the deal with Elvis to have security from Memphis meet us where I could get back to California when I called Elvis who was at Finn laterz office to tell him that you wanted to meet about the meeting with the president Elvis said and this is the type of friend he was and he's going to go and his mind to the White House it was the executive offices and you know he knew if he got that meeting he knew he was you know nobody says no to all this guy so I learned that yeah yeah so what happened is he said Jerry go outside in front of the hotel and I will swing by and pick you up on the way and that's you know he included his friends and everything as I was waiting and I saw the limousine coming I saw Sonny getting out of the taxi and I said Sonny put your luggage with the bellman we're going we're going to the White House so that's how that's how Sonny got so how did the audition go well the audition went splendidly I mean I I didn't know until I got a call from the Northwest gate this is now the old executive office building from the guard right and I still did not know you guys were for real and I thought well it's going to be an impersonation he'll don't know I still don't none of us are real anyway so this guard said mr. Kord there's somebody here who looks surprisingly like Elvis Presley and he's wearing an interesting outfit you know they were tart tight-fitting purple velvet pants a silk shirt open to the navel with the gold chain and what do you want me to do with him sir I said well bring him on down to the office right they brought him on down it wasn't until they walked into my office that I realized oh my goodness this is Elvis Presley oh my Secretary's son degree no it is it is almost Presley and then you all came in and I will tell you that was one of the most lovely half hours that I've had talking to you all and hearing Elvis talk from the heart about what his country meant to him he sort of paraphrased the letter I've gotten a lot for my country yes I want to give it back I want to help the country out I could go into any group of people and be accepted by anyone yes and he had put in the letter that he would like to be made a federal agent at large we don't have federal agents in line we got Secret Service agents FBI we got all kinds of agents but not agents at large but I didn't seem to me to be a showstopper but I should also full disclosure requires me to I was the biggest Elvis fan in the 1950s never went on a date without you know I mean that save it so here he is yeah he's in the office with you guys and and I'm trying to justify how do I set this meeting up with the president cuz you have to write a script of talking points yeah and this was sort of a futile effort but I mean so I'm talking to him thinking about it and what can I say and and I think you only stayed about a half an hour and then I asked you to go back to the hotel right and I said we'll see if we can get the approvals and this memo was sent in right after I'd had that audition Dwight had already drafted up a lot of the content and the reasoning behind by say he's the visionary for this whole thing so I called him over and I said this meeting has got to take place the president has never met anyone quite like Elvis Presley Elvis hasn't met anyone quite like the president and what I'm really saying is and I want to be in this meeting and I haha and here's the memo that puts you in the meter yes it's good that participants Elvis Presley bud Krogh yeah I wrote that doesn't say we nixed no time he's a given he's like the desk don't know I said no I want to make sure that I would get in this meeting and and Dwight really wanted to set it up that way so I did this up and put some ideas about how Elvis could help us on the drug program because we wanted some support from the entertainment industry we'd had a number of other entertainers come back art Linkletter and others to help us out because the government was inherently non credible and what it would say about the risks and the dangers of drugs so we thought this this would be a helpful thing to do so and also I think we wanted him to participate in writing a musical about getting high on life rather than high on drugs I mean I wasn't it my the muse wasn't probably firing on all cylinders and that but I'm trying to find ways to justify so anyway I sent this over and then got the word back from from Dwight that the meeting was on that Haldeman had approved it and now understand that this is all going over two or three hour period and we've got a lot of people working hard to see if we can pull this thing off and so after I got the word back from from Dwight that Bob had approved it the chief of staff and I think it's probably true today approves all people that go into the Oval Office or he might delegate it to somebody I called you back at the hotel and I said the meeting is on come on back over here we're going to have the session around 11:45 there was a about an hour period of time when different guests could come in and we had reserved I think about five minutes it was going to be a drop by something like you'll have heard that Turner drop by take pictures and the rest well they came back over and I got a call from the Secret Service the head of the Secret Service and now remember what Jerry said about taking down this little thing from the wall and somehow bringing that across the country the head of the Secret Service detail said but we've got a little problem here I said what's that he said well Elvis has brought a gun with it it's a very nice gun huh it's got battles of World War two engraved in the barrel and there are bullets in the display case he said but you know that no guns in the Oval Office his standard policy around here and I said yeah I realized that and so I figured cut which he told me about that and in his letter at the bottom of the letter he said I have a gift for you which you can I can give you now or you can can give it to you later so when you can receive but it would have a nice know that he had a card but why don't we let's look at the gun there's a we have a picture of the gun we have a gift okay he has to go that there is it's not beautiful but you can see why the Secret Service would wonder you know is he's got to go on is it going to take it out of it here's how responsible he was about the guns when we were driving up to the white that drive that's to me was to the White House he took all of his guns off and put him on the floorboard of the car has accepted accept this gift you know World War two Inuk in a case there's an interesting thing though I don't know if you guys know speaking of the badge the badge he was referring to he really he called it a different thing but he knew the badge that he wanted a year before Elvis was a four years he collected badge but not but not honoring real badges and he went to rifle ranges and we had right to carry concealed weapons one night a private detective who had worked with Elvis on a couple of things set up one of the few dinners we ever went to at famous restaurant in Beverly Hills at Chasen's he wanted him to meet this guy who who worked at Disney his name was Paul fries and he did voices like Bullwinkle and stuff and I'm thinking how would Elvis want to meet this Disney voice character and we go up to a private room we have dinner and o'grady the private detective tells Paul freeze show Elvis your badge Paul reluctantly showed him his Bureau of Narcotics and dangerous drugs and Elvis from that moment on set out to get that badge yeah now that would have been helpful knowledge forbade ha ha ha but that badge was the reason he met with Finn later exactly so he who turned him down who turn it down so the first person he meets turns him down so have you know if the head of the bureau if you can't get it if you can't get it from from an agency head you go to the president well you go to Vidia or go right up the chain yeah and I'm on that route to the end of the chain so anyway I got the the I went across West executive drive and went over and I had to i took the bed of the gun yes with the Secret Service on behalf of the president by the way this gun is a featured exhibit in Yorba Linda at the Nixon Library can go see this gun out there now it's a great guy I didn't bring it with me yeah well that's not a fan that's right bad hits that's why yeah so anyway we took the gun got past that and then we're waiting there in the Roosevelt Room before the word from the Secret Service to go in and he comes out and he's mr. Kroger the president is ready now so we walked into the Oval Office and maybe you have that you might say let's go to the first first first Oval Office picture because he doesn't just he doesn't just have the gun no he has his photograph see I wasn't really tumbling to the fact that he has a lot of photographs as left hand and he's got badges the president is shaking hands with nice to see you I mean just to get Elvis over to the desk who took a little effort because he walked in the door and he looked at the Eagles engraved in the ceiling and eagles engraved in the carpets in the floor and I knew it sort of overwhelmed him I'm a poor boy from Tupelo Mississippi and I'm here in the Oval Office of the president United States so I sort of escorted him yeah put my hand on his back and moved him over to to the desk and you can see here that he's wearing his cool glasses and his cape and sure nobody was ever dressed quite that way and the president had never seen anyone quite like that that either and there's a shaking hands and all the Atkins who is the White House photographer did a phenomenal job of with these photographs and maybe what we can do is it doesn't look like he's kind of afraid to shaking well there was he's not quite sure yes but now he's the next let's look at the next photograph where Elvis is showing him the photo this is this and little book I wrote about a while back was called show and tell he is showing the president pictures of Lisa Marie a young Priscilla and some of his badges from all these different departments around the country present soldat that's beautiful and very nice and just looking over at minion I said all right and they are nice pictures that was this part of the play-by-play that you took actually I am really going to resign as a script writer because not one thing that I put in my talking points were actually said during the video but anyway I'm standing off to the right a little bit watching this how many of you have seen the film Forrest Gump okay a lot of you probably a lot of people watching in c-span remember that line in Forrest Gump we sitting on the park bench he said my mama told me that life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you're going to get well this was my box of chocolates moment my Forrest Gump a cherry shall we look at Forrest Gump let's take a look at Forrest Gump please there you hear is fourth era just like haha that's your car that's right well they make a remake of that it's not Tom Hanson but Kroger for stuff that drove their we I can see all this he's showing cufflinks that the vice-president present beautiful complex really nice cufflinks there and I yeah those are those are really nice mr. president so then after we are going through show-and-tell like this and cufflinks and I'm having a good time and I actually you can see in my left hand I've got this pad because you take notes so that you can write the memoranda of the meeting afterwards they start talking about things that Elvis has been studied and he had put this in his letter to that I made a study of communist brainwashing President you have not and yes and I am really been getting into that and he's so okay and then he said something about the Beatles that wasn't that flattering he said you know the Beatles came over here made a lot of money and said some anti-american stuff and present Beatles have done that and and I didn't I'll get right on it mr. president find out what they're doing you know it says and then he talked about how difficult it was to play Las Vegas and president said yes I understand that so that's a hard hard gig to do out there and go how does he know that good sister so this stuff is going back and forth and and I'm just watching this amazing conversation unfold and then as Jerry has set this up so perfectly the eldest turns to the president and he said mr. president can you get me a badge from the bureau of narcotics today now I ask this audience if you don't know the answer to that question what is the right answer as the staff person responsible for the meeting what should I have said anybody help me here I'll wait or don't go yeah I'll look into it let me check it out let me find out if it's legal you know I mean a lot of things that you want to find out in advance what do you think I said mr. president if you want to get him a badge we can get it okay so and so at that point the president said getting a badge I wanted to have one Elvis is overcome and he steps forward and he grabs the president and he hugs him which wasn't the norm in that White House you know it's tough and I'm watching this probably the last meeting they're going to let me run around this guy I'm out of here and then after that he turned to the president and this shows what Jerry was talking about in terms of Elvis's loyalty to his friends and he turned the president said mr. president do you have time to meet my friends it would mean a great deal to them and the president looks at me said but do we have time for that already we are far beyond anything anybody thought about this meeting and I said well yes sir we do he said fine so I went out and I think I brought you guys back in you did yeah there was a phone call that the aide that stayed with us well you took Elvis in first and he was explaining to sunny and I how you know it was even above the president it was a Secret Service thing and and the phone rang and he got the call that the president wants to meet mr. Presley's friends now I have to interject one thing Elvis did like the Beatles oh good now this was had and EAC will want to know this yet yeah he did Elvis if you looked underlying was trying in his mind to say everything to President Nixon because the government was after John at the time and asleep in and all that kind of stuff he was trying and he brilliantly did get the President to was relating to the President on his level he saw that's why he liked he recorded three of their records but he loved the beauties that's right so so anyway then you might go on to the next sort of the picture the next picture with and the friends come in that friends come in yeah there they are there's your cool leather jacket is that cool which one of yeah Elvis sunny and sunny is wearing his dashing black-tie suits and shirt and he was just out at the library wasn't he sunny west just about 2 or 3 months ago and you've been invited back I found that today oh willing to come back so here they're all in there talking to each other and what you're doing and presidents got his hands on his hips and he said you got a couple of big ones here Elvis Lee you know what when we walked in until if I could talk about the first impression I was I was a history major and I was in my my last semester I was going to be practice teaching I was the one student who got to do that and when you took us down to the Oval room if you remember it wasn't a staff guy or he opened the door with Elvis and so pictures are flattened right and all the stuff I had seen at the White House when Elvis opened the door and said come on you know I looked down and there was the president at his desk at that point and I realized the oval room was oval that was my first one and Elvis thought I was afraid which I was intimidated and he kind of pushed me in as and Sonny comes in and as we're going over the president kind of did a little thing like that on my show yeah then goes look like some football players it wasn't not a technical assault no no you know no product but I then I realized there was a human side of President Nelson well and what was so fun about this part of it too is that after the president has met with some guests he often likes when the meetings coming to an end he wants to give gifts to the people that have been there now let's say that you've won the award for best cow for the 4-h club in King County Washington and you come to the Oval Office president oh go on his bottom drawer and give you a golf ball here's your ball yeah that's no there's no connection between ball cow for agent yeah there's Abed it's nice and energy no this is one of the most abiding memories that I have of this entire episode the president went behind his desk he opens the bottom left-hand drawer I wonder if you could go back to a picture with the desk can we go back to OKC the telephone and what is on your left side the bottom drawer on that side of the desk is where he had the gifts and they're arranged by golf balls through cufflinks two bracelets two pins and I don't know if it's an ascending order of value from the cheapest to the 16 karat gold that you give to the big hitters but but anyway he's behind his desk starting to reach down now Elvis didn't get to be the king of rock by not knowing where the gold is he went behind the desk with the president the KGB can't do this you know but Elvis Presley is diving into the president's door and the president's looking at me excluding me out yeah I mean you saw I was saw everything what he said remember mr. president they have lifes to sweethearts yeah and Elvis wasn't clear about what inside there but I don't remember this sweet eyes maybe just what and so out come all these present this is four days before Christmas they did all the Christmas shopping in the president war and I'm watching us all there's a florist over there were looks pretty good to me I'd say so anyway what did you get by the way I always wondered what I got I got a set of cufflinks and then when Elvis said you know they have wives there was a gold president pennant for my wife yeah and and I think those are the 16 karat gold ones that were towards because Elvis could immediately I mean we'll get those out there yeah so anyway they that you all left pretty Laden down you know this was this was a gift period and we walked across the oh this is a good picture to show you going across the Oval Office we went out just to the right of that little cruel work which is the symbol of the seal of the president United States that Julie the president's daughter had had done for him during the campaign and gave it to him when Nixon went over the top that night when he was elected it was just to the right of that you can see that door and then we went down to lunch in the in the mess now the White House mess is a place that has seen many famous people movie stars famous senators even heads of state would like to be able to eat there but when I walked in to the White House mess with Jerry and Sonny West and Elvis Presley in his green outfit people the jaws disrupt and of course I went over did you hold his chair to Sonny hope I did i-i-i-i was so proud of him at that point he'd done I didn't usually pull out a chair for Elvis but you know and remember you got the table we didn't have it was in the center up yeah the center of the place yeah that's right and I saw I was kind of just I kind of pulled out the chair and you know he sat down Saturday yeah and do you remember what you ate god no always a cheeseburger I've been up almost three days and that's right so we had a great lunch together and then afterwards now you have to understand halfway through this meeting the president and Elvis concluded that it ought to be kept secret because they weren't sure that their respective constituencies would understand why we were all together yes a and so Elvis was saying well you know it's I think we need to keep this confidential in presence a good oh yes that's a good idea we'll do that well after lunch I called John Finn later over at the Bureau of Narcotics and dangerous drugs and he made this decision to give a the badge was not my finest hour I just want you to know I just said yes I went along with it I should have thought it through but I said John the president has decided that he would like to give an authentic badge to Elvis Presley and John Finn leaders response was well I guess it's not so bad to be overruled by the president and he had given the correct answer before right and so he brought a badge over and that's why we had lunch because Elvis was not going to legally without it yeah that's right ha ha got that right oh good week could we see that badge yeah let's look let's take a look at the badge there it is yeah that's a beautiful the real champ it's a so so he brought that badge over and and you did you did leave with that now when I said it was secret it was secret not just for a week it was a secret for 13 months so amazing now here's the way Washington works some people will write memoirs and somehow those memoirs those drafts might get into the possession of an investigative reporter Jack Anderson was a very popular I mean remember Jack Anderson they're all you all do merry-go-round merry-go-round you turn to that first and there was a story that came out in January 25th 1972 and I will get you can't see this I don't think we have a slide presents bro badge now this is not exactly a hot news story this happened a year and a month earlier but thin leaders memoirs had gotten to Jack Anderson and it was like he got a narcotics badge what's this all about and I wondered how he got it that's how he got it from John Finn later and then John Finn leaders memoirs he describes the first meeting that he had with with Ellison and then my call later on John and I were good friends and I felt badly about really making the call but not so bad not so bad right now Jerry could you tell us you've got a bit of a tour the White House what did Elvis say when he saw the Situation Room well you know Elvis was a huge film buff and there was a film called dr. Strangelove and which we we saw oh I guess 15 times at our private screenings and Elvis could play every part he could pay we could play Peter Sellers choking himself he could he could do George see Scott well mr. president and all that stuff he was he was he was a great actor actually and so there's a part in there where they go in the situation Situation Room and Peter Sellers says you can't fight in the war room so we go in the Situation Room and Elvis says you can't fight in the war room yeah he had a great sense of humor too he did I think we can see an image of the Jack Anderson uh there it is article Oh is it not that's so maybe we I'm looking at it but I'm not sure we're looking at it oh it isn't Presley gets Narcotics Bureau you have everything at the National Archives you're amazing what did you get that that's amazing stuff so it and you know when you you have a meeting like this cry I thought or it's a great meeting and surest it's secret I didn't say anything to anybody now imagine this the king of rock comes to the White House in the morning and we weren't secreting him through tunnels or anything like that I mean we were moving him through the Roosevelt Room into the Oval Office afterwards we went down the hall and Elvis was friendly with a lot of the employees a couple who kissed a couple of the girls you know uh and they remembered that and and so it was something where to keep that confidential is almost I mean it's incredible how did how could that happen top secret material floats out of that place every day you know but having this man come in with you and with Sonny and have that be kept secret for thirteen months was incredible and I think that's what really peaked Jack Anderson's our interest like you get special bragging rights in the Nixon White House because absolutely you had met oh and I have just you know I've milked this as much as possible we still are oh yeah that's right as you know of course he's not live but through the magic of video we we can now listen to President Richard Nixon remember meeting Elvis Presley so we could play that clip now Elvis was clutching some badges from various police departments and sheriff's departments around the country when Elvis starts showing the president his cufflinks and presents looking at those oh those are nice cufflinks well he was very flamboyant President Nixon recalled the meeting in a 1990 interview I didn't know that much about him except what I had read but as I talked to him I sensed - that basically he's a very shy man the flamboyance was covering up the shyness people say that because later on it was found that he had used drugs that therefore he could not be a good example they overlooked the fact that he never used illegal drugs it was always drugs prescribed by his physician but I think that he was a very sincere and decent man you know you know there's an interesting uh I'll let you well you know it's a there's an interesting thing and and you know what the president said is true actually is there is a difference between street drugs and prescription drugs you can certainly abuse prescription drugs but you know my observation of this meeting when I saw a most powerful person in the world who you know personally politically I was on the other side at that time and I saw a meeting the most popular person in the world and I saw there was these two great men when you think of the world in history both who were at the benefit at the top of their professions but weren't at that moment you know Elvis was you know it was okay at the time and the president wasn't that popular at the time but my observation of seeing two great men connect on a human level and I think they really got the loneliness of both of their position the world and it wasn't just that me they stayed in touch and I admired first of all if there was ever an American story that was Elvis Presley we grew up in North Memphis poor section if you ever saw a movie called hustle and flow that's where Elvis and I grew up and Sonny and here we were in the Oval room of the White House with the President of the United States and they really had a human the president got as you did in the pre meeting God what Elvis's intentions were Elvis and he in his own way understood the certain amount of pressures of the presidency and it was a real there's so many funny things about that meeting but the real thing about that meeting to me if there was ever a true American story I think that's one of the top Gerry tell a little bit of when when Richard Nixon went into the hospital what Elvis did Elvis called them when the President had phlebitis and when Elvis went in the hospital the president contacted him and there was a really mutual respect and you know it was nice to know that a person so powerful as the president United States was a human being yeah you know I got to put you know witnessed that personally we we of course have a clip from President Nixon do you recall I was Presley later talking to you about the effect that this visit had won his life well you know he was what he was really proud about was that he got the badge yeah it's right yeah he good that was his main and he was very particularly with this badge though he wasn't you know like you know we met on tours and stuff we had a lot of security and I was like to hang out with with the police officers or some became good friends of ours various parts of the country and he would always as he did to the president but he would get a briefcase of real badges from different states and he was very particular who he showed this badge to it carried it home always and that's on display at Graceland right now in that long hall of awards yeah it's up on the wall of gold wall go yeah now we'd like to open this up to questions yeah so there are mics on left and on the right if you have any questions for Jerry or bud and by the way I think we have copies I hope we have enough here of Elvis Nixon in the Oval Office this is the one that the David was referring to and I think we brought a few hundred of them are they back there Melanie in the back so if you want to pick this up on the way out this is on a pamphlet that I wrote a few years ago and the book that I wrote the day Elvis met Nixon 15 years ago is going to be reprinted by the Nixon Library and it should be out the next few months it-it's a great book it is really this is the it has everything it's a great pizza yeah it has very few words which is good because I don't write but it's got lots of the pictures that you've seen tonight and some more that you that you haven't seen so that hopefully will be out but you might want to take this one because as David said this is one of the most requested most requested photographs yes yeah and but you sell them right so I win oh okay even much better quality yeah what can I say these are cheap owes but you might have fun with this it's a start over there um so of course we all hear about the White House tapes is there a tape of this visit and has it been released no because the taping system did not start until February of 1971 yeah that's because no was it because of us because it rot there how it had better notes of it now we wish we wish there were a tape this would be a wonderful this would be the most requested why does it a set of transcripts in the video clip with the president he said he only knew about Elvis when he had read and I had heard that he really didn't know very much about him at all that can you comment on that chair he Howard I won't bother button well you know I think you know he was very much in tune with I think America Americana what was going on he certainly knew who Elvis Presley was I don't know whether he followed the career completely but he certainly understood his place in American culture his importance I think Haldeman understood that I think obviously Dwight Chapin who conceived this whole thing this would not have happened without Dwight's foresight and vision but I think that the president was aware of him but I don't think he played the tunes at night he played Rachmaninoff Bobby tender but a few others would have been good but certain the question for Jerry just wanted to know if you had any insight or details of the logistics of Elvis leaving Memphis and his first trip to Washington as far as you know it just it's mind-boggling to think that Elvis gets on a plane in Memphis comes to Washington you know if I was walking through the airport I'd you know I'd be standing there probably still just staring and waiting for Elvis to do or say something but as far as him arriving in Washington and checking into the hotel and he did he give you any details as far as anything happening his taxi ride his you know I just curious if any details on that oh there was a couple of details one one was you know what I mentioned earlier about the flight coming back to meet me and the gun situation but there was to tell you what a great actor all this was there was a situation where on that first trip as the car was taking him to the hotel he stopped at a donut shop and you know Elvis he didn't care where things were it wasn't in a really good neighborhood and it was predominantly a pretty rough place as I found out later he was just telling me stopped at this doughnut shop and he had all the jewelry on you know the Rings and everything and so these kind of Superfly guys were going hey man that's a really nice jewelry and obviously it goes in his gun and his boot pulls out a little snub nosed gun and says he had aimed to keep it and they all laugh now how good actor he was there's a famous author named Peter Guralnick who is the best music author he's searching for Robert shots and everything and he did last train to Memphis and as I did 11 years of interviews with him for these two books he kept calling me back and saying how were you at the donut shop when this happened because and he and I kept telling him you know I don't know but you know and Elvis had told that story so much this was before he came and got me I thought I was there you know I feel I had you know I had to resend my thought about being here sir this questions for Jerry was the soldier that you guys gave the money to on the plane was he white or black uh God you know we didn't really think in those terms that much actually I had heard that I heard both you know I don't really remember it I they wouldn't I don't know let me know no the house think it wasn't it made any difference then I wouldn't I didn't do the house that uh always met you at I was a gift to you from Elvis no no this was his house on Hillcrest I was worth a few million dollars he bought me my home in 1974 live up and West Hollywood Hills and for no reason nobody knew except the inner circle and Elvis in Nuuk known that I had lost my mother when I was like a little over a year old and just out of the blue he said you know you never really had a home I wouldn't be the one to give it to you so I still live there so but that's the type of real person he was Thanks sir mr. Schilling mr. Crowe I'd like to thank you very much for coming to Washington to tell this story and you've talked about in this meeting we we saw the human side of both President Nixon and Elvis Presley and I don't mean this to be a hostile question but more of a sympathetic one wasn't Richard Nixon a bit of a hypocrite to rail against drug abuse when it was alleged that early in his presidency he was taking anticonvulsant medication to relieve stress and I believe it's been well-documented that he was abusing alcohol as the Watergate scandal began to unravel well I would I would have to take issue I think with the premise of the question I don't think that Philly's to my knowledge that there was any history of abuse of alcohol at all I mean and in terms of the drugs that he used I think they were all prescribed drugs I did work on the narcotics programs for Richard Nixon for four years and he focused very specifically on what he thought were the most dangerous drugs heroin in particular and he shifted the national policy from a primarily law enforcement policy to treatment rehabilitation research education because he saw that is where we could get the greatest value and it was done I think because he felt that was the best policy it would have the greatest effect would also reduce crime so I don't see that there was real hypocrisy I didn't think that it was an antagonist aquestion it's a good question I just read in a newspaper a few days ago of a woman who was working at the White House and apparently she claims that Elvis was having an affair with her for three years and that was the reason why he came to DC we'd have to ask Jack Anderson I guess I have no no I don't know what happened before he came to LA to meet me so I don't know what his intentions were coming here originally I don't know but we did have a friend in Washington that we had met in Vegas two sisters and that's probably where that came from because she had worked with the government as well so that never got to my office's and he never mentioned that to me and I you know I spent three days with him and he he told me everything that had happened but I don't you know what I don't remember him mentioning that at all yeah and this question is for Jerry I understand that 10 days after his White House visit Elvis was in Washington and toured the FBI headquarters and wanted to meet with J Edgar Hoover who was on vacation at the time do you know anything about this did he stay in Washington the whole time did he fly back to Memphis and fly um to Washington again no he after we left he personally in the car dropped me off at the airport where I could get back to my job and then he and sunny took a commercial another commercial flight back to Memphis I think in his excitement about the visit and we had a good friend bill Morris who was the mayor back there and he was the one that got Elvis as one of the ten outstanding young Americans which Elvis mentioned to the president who was one of those as well I then Elvis and I'm back in LA but he did make another trip and brought bill Morris and a couple of people and he did not meet Hoover but it was a lot harder to meet with J Edgar Hoover then when the president III can vouch for that I was about Simon sir thank you sir I'm just wondering did you get to keep your job in LA you know and how did have the explanation go right that's a great quote I did I did keep my job in LA and there was no way I was going to tell them the truth they would never believe they would have fired me you know so I just reported I meant to call I was sick and and I worked there for another few months and then Elvis he liked the way I'd set up things with you and everybody bud and he had told me on the way the airport that he wanted me to come back to work for him and if I did then I could be an editor on his films and I didn't answer him and then I get in the mail business cards Jerry Schilling personal public relations to all the hahahaha and I thought you know if he wants me to come back this bad and I did love working for him a few months later I quit Kerala and went back to work for elves don't think there any other questions so do you have some final thoughts well I just like to say that the story probably is doesn't have many redeeming scholarly literary historical philosophical importance but it's pure Americana and that these two people could come together and you know given Dwight's vision and the fact that I was a crazy fan of Elvis and and you were terrific and talking to on the phone and these are just a bunch of guys trying to make something happen and not knowing at the time that it was really significant I mean this was just wow look at these two people together and then watch them as Jerry said relate to each other person a person and like each other and and in the book you know what we tried to do is show some of the parallels they came from absolutely dire poverty and rose to the pinnacle in their particular professions and what did it take to do that I mean the drive and the talent that Elvis had that voice and Nixon's Drive and and their a lot of similarities in a way that they lived their mansions in their their gestures you know Elvis with the guitar and Nixon you know he said they say and it just it was just a beautiful thing to watch and you don't want to overstate its significance but it's really part of our country that you can have somebody like Elvis come in and meet the president and have them relate to each other in a very positive way and and be kind to each other and then I want to follow up I just I love the story as you can probably see yeah Jerry well God you know there's so many thoughts that go on my mind I guess to sum it up to be able to have a friend like Elvis Presley I could have never dreamed of as a young child and to live in a country that something like this could happen I've been very fortunate and very proud to be here at the National Archives it's a wonderful feeling it's almost intimidating and I don't think an experience in life these experiences that I got to have because of my friend and and certainly this historical one life doesn't get much better and thank you guys for being here - well when I want to I want to thank Tom nastic for organizing this and Jeffery Jackson who's back there and he was the wizard with all these wonderful images and of course but and Jerry this has been a superb evening and as I said weren't they wonderful rec on tours

Channel: US National Archives

Views: 218,626

Rating: 4.8104377 out of 5

Keywords: national archives, NARA, richard nixon, elvis presley, oval office, white house, timothy naftali, presidential library, egil krogh, jerry schilling, music industry, Jerry Schilling, Egil Bud Krogh

Id: ZaMyHw6NeXo

Length: 75min 13sec (4513 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 25 2010