Elvis From 1958-1959

July 2, 1958“King Creole,” Elvis’ fourth motion picture opens nationally and the reviews are the best he will ever have for his acting. Its impressive list of co-stars and supporting cast includes Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dean Jagger and Vic Morrow. It becomes a top five film at the box office. The movie is set in New Orleans and based upon the Harold Robbins novel, "A Stone for Danny Fisher." The film will come to be regarded as Elvis’ finest film, his greatest acting performance, and proof of his potential to have become a respected serious actor, though the realization of this desire will remain forever out of his grasp.

August 8, 1958Gladys Presley becomes ill and returns to Memphis via train to be hospitalized with acute hepatitis. Elvis is granted emergency leave and arrives in Memphis on the afternoon of August 12. He visits her that night, and the next day and night. A few hours after Elvis goes home to Graceland to rest, she dies in the early hours of August 14 at age 46. Her body lies in state at Graceland that afternoon. Services are at the Memphis Funeral Home on the 15, with the Blackwood Brothers singing "Precious Memories" and "Rock of Ages," two of Gladys Presley’s favorite hymns. She is laid to rest at Forest Hill Cemetery, a few miles down the road from Graceland. Elvis is devastated.

August 24, 1958Elvis reports back to Fort Hood.

September/October 1958Elvis boards a troop train to New York on September 19, and then later boards the USS Randall and sails to Germany, arriving on October 1. He will be stationed in Friedberg for 18 months, maintaining an off-base residence in Bad Nauheim, shared with his father, grandmother and some friends from Memphis. He finds the fans in Europe to be as enthusiastic as those in the U.S.

January 8, 1959Elvis is interviewed off-camera via trans-Atlantic telephone by Dick Clark on “American Bandstand” on ABC-TV. The show commemorates the star’s 24th birthday. Later in January, the family moves from a hotel to a rented house. Also, Elvis poses with actress Vera Tschechowa and the March of Dimes poster child. Colonel Parker continues to keep Elvis’ career alive with promotions and hit record releases.

March 3 – 5, 1959On a three-day leave, Elvis travels to Munich where he visits actress Vera Tschechow and the Moulin Rouge.

June 13 – 27, 1959Elvis visits Paris and Munich.

August 15, 1959Captain Joseph Beaulieu moves from Texas to Weisbaden Air Force Base near Friedberg, Germany, accompanied by his wife and children, including his 14 year-old stepdaughter, Priscilla Ann. Priscilla is the only child from Ann Beaulieu’s marriage to her first husband, James Wagner, a Navy pilot who was killed in a plane crash when Priscilla was an infant.

September 13, 1959Through a mutual friend, Priscilla is invited to a party at Elvis’ home soon after her arrival in Germany. They meet and the rest is history.