Elvis Presley visited the White House in 1970 to request a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, which he believed would allow him to carry guns and drugs. He gifted President Nixon a Colt .45 pistol, but the Secret Service confiscated it. Elvis died of a drug overdose in 1977, and Nixon resigned in 1974.
The photography is jarring. Taken at the White House on December 21, 1970, it shows President Richard Nixon, who was summoning America’s “silent majority” in his fight against the counterculture. And then there’s Elvis Presley, the hip-swiveling music icon, who visits the Oval Office in a purple velvet suit with a huge gold belt buckle. The backstory is that Presley wanted to add a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge to his collection, and Nixon welcomed the singer’s offer to help calm “the hippies.” Elvis said he wanted to help restore respect for the flag and told Nixon that he was “on your side”.
An unlikely alliance:
Elvis brought Nixon a gift – a Colt .45 pistol in a display case – which the Secret Service confiscated.
Elvis’ ex-wife Priscilla Presley wrote in her 1985 memoirs that Elvis believed that “the narcotics badge” would allow him “to enter any country either wearing guns or carrying any drugs he desired.”
Presley died of an overdose of prescription drugs (including codeine, Valium, morphine and Demerol) in 1977. Nixon resigned in 1974, charged with obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of Congress.
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