Biography

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1958 - 1965

January 8, 1960
Second phone interview with Dick Clark. Birthday party for Elvis includes 200 invited guests including Priscilla. Joe Esposito and others present him with a tropy inscribed "Elvis Presley. Most Valuable Player. Bad Nauheim Sunday Afternoon Football Association, 1959.”

January 12 – 17, 1960
Second leave to Paris with his karate instructor Jurgen Seydel to study with Japanese karate teacher Tetsuji Murakami. He takes lessons every day in the shotokan technique.

January 20, 1960
Elvis is promoted to Sergeant. He leaves on maneuvers on the 24th. and will get his full sergeant's stripes on Feb. 11, 1960.

March 1960
Elvis leaves Germany on March 2, 5:25pm, arriving in New Jersey the next day for a press conference, and is officially discharged from active duty on March 5, 1960 at 9:25am. He boards a train for Memphis, arriving on March 8. Press and crowds of fans are everywhere for this historic series of events. He holds a press conference at Graceland in his father’s office behind the mansion on March 8.

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1960 Press Conference

He has served his country just like any other GI, with no special privileges his celebrity status might have afforded him. These two years away from his career have been a time to mature. He has also worried constantly that his lengthy absence might have damaged his career progress. But, he has yet to see his greatest stardom.

March 20, 1960
Elvis has his first post-army recording session. Some of the recording work is for the album Elvis is Back!, which will hit number two on the Billboard pop chart. The album included the single “Stuck On You” which was rushed to the pressing plant and packaged in a generic sleeve without waiting for orders. Debuting at #84, it took only three weeks to hit #1. (Sessions will continue in early April.)

March 26, 1960
Elvis tapes a special "Welcome Home, Elvis" edition of Frank Sinatra’s ABC-TV variety show, for which he is paid $125,000, a record sum for a variety show appearance at the time.

April 21, 1960
Elvis begins filming and recording for his first post-army movie, his fifth film, GI Blues for Paramount, the third of nine Elvis films to be produced (not consecutively) by Hal Wallis. GI Blues co-stars dancer/actress Juliet Prowse.

May 12, 1960
ABC airs Frank Sinatra’s Welcome Home, Elvis edition of his variety show, which attracts a 41.5% share of the national television audience.

July 3, 1960
Vernon Presley marries divorcee and mother of three sons, Davada (Dee) Stanley, an American whom he met Germany, where she had been stationed with her military husband. They live at Graceland briefly, then move to a home nearby.

Jusly 21, 1960
On March 21 he receives his first degree black belt in karate, an interest he developed while in the army. Elvis carries the certificate in his wallet until his death.

August/September 1960
Elvis records and films for his sixth movie, Flaming Star, a drama with limited music. Elvis plays the son of a white father and a Native American mother, torn between the two cultures in the 1800's. The film co-stars Barbara Eden.

October 1960
The soundtrack album for GI Blues enters the Billboard album chart and soon goes to number one. It remains number one for ten weeks and stays on the chart for 111 weeks. It is to be the most successful album of Elvis’ entire career on the Billboard charts. (GI Blues was the most successful album on the music chrats. However, Blue Hawaii was the biggest selling album during Elvis’ life, selling 2 million copies in the first 12 months.)

November 6, 1960
Elvis begins recording and filming for his seventh film, Wild in the Country, which will be completed in January. GI Blues opens nationally on November 23 to warm reviews and big box office sales. It was #2 the first week and  for the year on Variety’s list. By 1969 Variety reports it had grossed 4.3 million equeal to The African Q. Wild In The Country is a light comedy melodrama with lots of singing by Elvis, who is seen in uniform for most of the movie.

December 22, 1960
Flaming Star opens nationally to warm reviews, but unlike GI Blues, this dramatic film with little singing does not set the box office on fire. It was #12 for the week. However, Elvis earns recognition from a tribal council for his positive portrayal of a Native American in this racially charged drama. The film is banned in South Africa due to its interracial theme.

February 25, 1961
Elvis appears in Memphis at a luncheon in his honor, and numerous recent awards Elvis has received are shown to the press and others attending. A press conference follows. Then, Elvis performs one afternoon show and one evening show at Ellis Auditorium to benefit around thirty-eight Memphis-area charities. Other than the Sinatra television show, these shows are, so far, Elvis’ only live performances since his army discharge. “Elvis Presley Day” is proclaimed by Tennessee Governor Buford Ellington. Every year after this, Elvis donates money to a list of Memphis-area charities, eventually reaching fifty or more, usually around Christmas time. Within a few years, to show their appreciation the city gives him a massive plaque listing fifty charities.

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