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Short Stuff: When Elvis Met Nixon · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, and there's Jerry, and Elvis is in the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: building in spirit at least, and so is Richard Nixon.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Everybody's mad about that. So this is short stuff. Like
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I said, that's right, and this is about the very
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: famous meeting of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon. And uh
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: we got this information from uh December two thousands ten
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: article in Smithsonian magazine by Peter Carlson which had some
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: great details about this very famous meeting on December twenty one. Yes,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: which is that you might have thought was photoshopped. Well,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: do you remember one of the first photoshops we ever
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: got from our pal Van Nostrin was of us as
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Elvis and Nixon. That's right. And then totally unrelated to it,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: our other pale who photoshops as sometimes as Aaron Cooper,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: actually he does it all the time, and he um
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: photoshopped us as Elvis and Nixon too, and I think
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: they were swapped. Pretty amazing stuff. Well, the wonders of technology.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: The thing is, though, right, The thing is is this
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: is not a photoshop to image. It's a very famous
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: image that you could get well before photoshop was ever
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: around back in the eighties. But it is of a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: meeting that very few people knew about until a Chicago
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: newspaper in said hey, everybody, the National Archives has a
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: bunch of pictures of Elvis and Nixon together shaking hands,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and you can buy them if you want, and it
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: became the most requested picture in National Archives history in
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: like a week. Yeah, and like Elvis as Elvis, it
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: wasn't like he wore He's like, well, I'm gonna I'm
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: gonna wear my suit today and just tone it down
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: like he's fully Elvis purple lure suit with a cape
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: if I remember correctly. And there's a movie about this too,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: by the way. There's two of them, Oh really, there's
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: one from ninety seven and one from I think like
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: two thousand something. Well, the one that I saw was
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the most recent one with Michael Shannon, Yes, as as Elvis. Yes,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: so not about it wasn't great, but Michael Shannon's awesome
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and everything, so it was worth it for that. Did
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: they make like is it a fink feature length movie? Yeah? Weird,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: But I followed the story, you know, um, because I
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: mean this is about like forty eight hours is the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: whole story. Yeah, so here's how it goes. Is it's
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Christmas time. Wait, I'm sorry, hold on one more thing, Chuck,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I want to interject before you get started. It helps
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: a lot to imagine Elvis totally wasted on speed throughout
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: this entire story. Okay, okay, just better than mine. So
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: it starts on Christmas. There's a fight at the house
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: between Elvis's dad, Vernon, and Elvis's wife, apparently about just
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Christmas spending, which I think is interesting. I got the
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: impression that they were on the same side against Elvis. Oh,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I think so maybe. But at any regard,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Elvis leaves, he's not too happy. So he does that
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: that movie trope thing where you just go to the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: airport and say, put me on the next flight to anywhere. Uh,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and that happened to be Washington. D C goes to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: d Cious, stays there for a little while, and then
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: decides to fly to l Ah to his house in
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Beverly Hills, which, by the way, is an Airbnb now
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: is it? It is? But it's not. It's it's on airbnb.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: But you all the dates were blacked out and it
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: didn't give a price, because I was like, I'm totally
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: gonna try and stay there one night at some point
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: in my life. But yeah, I don't know what the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: deal is, but you can go look at the house.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: It's pretty sweet as you would imagine. Okay. Uh So,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Elvis's buddy and confidante and assistant, Jerry Shilling, gets a call.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: He's like, I'm going to be in l a man,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: pick me up. That's the great Jerry Shilling. He died.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: He does pick him up. And here's where we should
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: just say that Elvis at this point in his life
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: was obsessed with martial arts, guns and weirdly law enforcement
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and collecting law enforcement like honorary sheriff's and honorary badges,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that kind of thing. And the thing that bound all
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: of these common or these interests together was drugs. Being
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: on lots and lots of drugs. Yeah, And Priscilla says
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: this in her book. He was obsessed with the narcotics badge,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: the narc badge, and she said he felt that if
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: you had that narc badge, then you could fly to
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: any country right with your guns and your drugs and
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: get away with it no questions. I asked Wow. So
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: that is the that is the fantasy of a drug
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: adult brain, probably yeature and also but it solves a
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: practical problem too. I love my guns and I love
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: my drugs, and I need to get them around. So
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I got it. I'll bet a Federal Narcotics Bureau badge,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: which is the predecessor to the d E A. I'll
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: bet I could just flash one of those, add that
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I'm Elvis Pressley and that I got this from Richard Nixon,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and boom right through with all my big garbage bag
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: full of pills. All right. So he's in l A.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: He says to his his uh, Jerry Shilling, He's like,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: now I want to go back to d C. He
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: didn't tell him why. And then on the way on
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the flight, Elvis writes a letter to President Nixon, uh
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: sor if I can be in any service, do you?
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I want to help the country out and I would
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: love to meet you. Stays in d C under a
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: pseudonym and tells Nixon. His pseudonym said he's gonna be
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: there in d C. And I want credentials of a
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: federal agent. Yes, so he writes this letter. They take
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the red eye from l A to d c UH.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: They drop a letter off at six thirty a m.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: They check into a hotel. Personally, Elvis dropped this off
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: at the gate of the White House, yea. And they
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: check into a hotel, and Elvis gets restless. He's not
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: slapped by the way, and he he decides he's going
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to go to the Bureau of Narcotics himself and just
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: kind of sniff around and see what they've got going
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: on there. So, while I'm guessing Jerry Shilling was getting
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: some rest in a shower at the hotel room, Elvis
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: is off at the Federal Narcotics Bureau, hasn't slept, probably
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: out of his mind on drugs, talking to them about
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: badges and stuff and how we'd like to meet Richard
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Nixon and get a badge from him. What's amazing, although
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: it's really not amazing if you stop and think about it,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: is that when they dropped the letter off at six thirty,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: within five and a half hours, Elvis was on his
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: way to the White House to meet with the President.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: All right, let's take a break there. We'll tell you
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: about the further details of the story right after this. Alright,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: So the letter is delivered to an aid of Nixon
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: named Bud. That's his nickname, Bud Crow or Krog. I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I think Crow probably k R O G. H. Kroc. Right,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: So he delivers this or he gets this letter to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Bud Croc because the front Gate people are like, Elvis
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: delivered a letter. Uh, and it's not just like if
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: any normal American had delivered a letter like this. One
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: actually got to Nixon's aid pretty quickly. Uh. He was
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a fan of Elvis, and he's like, you know what,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: this is a great idea, Like Richard Nixon is not
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: cool at all, and um, if he met with Elvis Presley,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: like that's really good for his image because Elvis is
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the coolest guy on the planet ish well nine seventy
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: he was, he was up there. Um, so he likes
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: this idea. He persuades eventually the Chief of Staff, Bob
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Haldeman to make this happen. And uh, at noon that day,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Elvis shows up at the White House ready to go
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: with a gift of a gun. He brought a cult
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: forty five I've in a display case to give the Nixon,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: which he just took from the wall of his house
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: in l A. He's like, quick and I agree, Oh,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: this will this will do, and it is it's it's
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a beautifully mounted firearm. If you're into that kind of thing,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: you would be like yes, especially if it came directly
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: from Elvis's personal collection. I'm not a gun guy, but
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I would love Elvis. Sure. So Um, the Secret Service,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: of course says yes, thank you very much, we'll take
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: that before you can go into the Oval office. And
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: from what what do we say? Bug crows? Um? Is
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: it crow crows? Where do we settle one? Let's just
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: how about bug Ka? So bug Ka recounted his impressions
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: of the story because he's in the room. He made
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: this thing happen, because he's in elvis fan and an
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: aide to Nixon. And he said that when Elvis walked
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: into that Oval office, he it was plain that he
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: was awestruck, but he regained his footing pretty quickly. And
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: it's like, you know, mixing it up with the president
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: um having a talk with him, a very serious talk
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: about the problem of counter culture in the United States. Right,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: It's very interesting. The whole thing was so odd because
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Elvis was a drug addict, and he talked about the
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: problems of drugs, and he from what I understand had
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: a clearly distinct line between being riddled with prescription drugs
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: uh and and illegal like street drugs, right right, because naively,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: if it's a prescription drug and it comes from a doctor,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: it's legitimized, like it's fine, it's legal. You know, even
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: if you have a totally illegal amount of them on you,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: it's still legal. It's still a prescription drug. But a
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: street drug. I've heard before, and I don't remember where
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I read. It. May have been the Uncle John's bathroom
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: reader that he used to get so worked up about
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the idea of drug dealers in Memphis down the street
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: that his he'd want to go out and shoot him
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: and his his and he'd be heastit on drugs at
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the time, and his entourage would have to like calm
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: him down and keep him, keep the guns away from
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and keep him just in his house to keep him
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: from going out in exacting vigilante justice of the local
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Memphis street drug dealers around town. Yeah, I mean, I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: think I said this in the Graceland episode. You know,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: my family's from Memphis, and my my dear sweet grandmother
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: passed away like fully believing and saying out loud like, well,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: you know, Elvis's doctors killed him. He didn't, he didn't
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: know what was going on. They had him going every
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: which way but loose because of his their prescriptions. And
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I'm like, no, Grandmoma, I mean, tell her on her deathbed. No.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: He was like, Elvis was a junkie right now and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: whispered into her here. So all right, so Elvis is
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: all struck. Uh. This guy bud k Is is taking
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: notes because this is pretty uh Oval office taping by Nixon.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Elvis is all struck. And they're talking about the counterculture.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Elvis is talking about the Beatles, how they're anti Americans
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: and they're bad for America, and they're talking about drugs,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: and Elvis is showing up his collection of badges and
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: then basically saying he basically asked him flat out, I
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: would like a narcotics batche Can you make that happen? Yeah?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: How you let's coach with the chaise man pretty much? Yeah?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And if Heson says well, I don't know, can we
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: bud k And bud k was like, yeah, we can
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: probably make that happen. He's like, all right, let's get
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: it done. Then. So that was it, I mean within um,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: probably about an hour, bug K and Elvis went to lunch,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and bug K produced the badge for him, um, like
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: before the end of lunch or right after lunch ended.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: So funny. He also got some other like he had
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: his bodyguard and chilling with him and Nixon. Nixon gave
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: them some what do you give him? Cuff links? And
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: then Elvis's was like, well, Mr presidently have wives too,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: you know, so he went and got him White House brooches,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and Elvis just like leaves the White House of all
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: these gifts basically right, he made a basket out of
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: his shirt. Uh. But like we said, there was that
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: one very famous photo. Uh, and no one knew about this.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Elvis wanted to keep it quiet. Um. I imagine Nixon
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: wasn't uh sadly wasn't able to use it as like
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a as a pr move. Yeah, which although I think
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: also he was probably like what just happened? After Elvis
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: came and went? He was just available. Yeah, it isn't
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: little crazy. The whole thing is pretty crazy, Chuck for sure.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: But the year after, a columnist named Jack Anderson broke
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: the story and apparently nobody really it didn't go anywhere,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: No one, it didn't become part of the cultural memory.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And it wasn't until that that Chicago newspaper reported about
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the photos. That that was when it hit just right.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I think in people were like, it didn't there, it
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: wasn't kitchy yet, but in people were ready to be
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: blown away by the idea of Nixon and and Elvis together.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: That's right, And so it was in the National Archives.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, you can make a request
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: for the copy of that photo, and uh, within one week,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: eight thousand people requested that. And it's still I'm not
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: sure if it still is, but for a while it
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: was the most requested photograph in the history of the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: National Archives. Pretty amazing, there you go. Yeah, it was
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: finally supplanted by Obama meeting with that alien in the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Oval Office, that famous photograph. That's right. No, when Obama
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: met with the lead singer of corn A right here
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: you go. Yeah, you got anything else? Nope? Well good
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: because we don't have time for it anyway. It's a
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: short stuff. We'll see you guys later for more on
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works?
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Dot Com