In 1958, Elvis Presley was one of the biggest stars in America. Then, at only 23, his career suddenly stopped.
On March 24, 1958, Elvis entered the U.S. Army. Rather than remaining home as a celebrity entertainer, he served as a regular soldier. After training at Fort Hood, he was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division in West Germany, arriving there on October 1 for what would become an 18-month overseas assignment.
But Elvis arrived in Germany already carrying enormous grief.
Only weeks earlier, his mother Gladys Presley had died on August 14, 1958, at just 46. Elvis had been granted emergency leave to see her in Memphis before her death. Graceland describes him as devastated by losing the woman to whom he had always been extraordinarily close.
Now he was thousands of miles from home, grieving his mother while wondering whether America would still care about Elvis Presley when his service ended.
That fear was real.
Before entering the Army, when asked whether his popularity could disappear while he was gone, Elvis replied, “That’s the $64 question.” Colonel Tom Parker and RCA worked carefully to keep him in the public eye, releasing previously recorded music while Elvis refused opportunities to perform during his service.
Elvis Presley Talks About Leaving for Germany
The surviving British Pathé footage captures a young Elvis talking to reporters before beginning his overseas service, offering a rare glimpse of him just before this enormous change in his life.
Germany also brought someone into Elvis’s life who would remain connected to him forever.
On September 13, 1959, Elvis met 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu through a mutual acquaintance while she was living in Germany with her military family. Elvis was 24. Their relationship continued after he returned to America, and they eventually married in 1967.
But another development from those Army years became far darker.
Major Elvis biographer Peter Guralnick reported that a fellow sergeant introduced Elvis to amphetamines during military maneuvers, where stimulants could help soldiers remain awake and energetic. Accounts from people who knew Elvis during this period say he became enthusiastic about their effects. The habit did not end when his military service did.
It would be too simple to say Germany alone caused Elvis’s later prescription-drug problems, but historians have repeatedly identified his Army service as an important early stage in that pattern.
Not everything he carried home was destructive. Elvis also became deeply interested in karate while stationed overseas, eventually earning his first-degree black belt after returning home.
On March 2, 1960, Elvis left Germany. He was officially discharged from active duty on March 5 and returned to Memphis to enormous press attention.
His fear that fans might forget him had been unnecessary.
He quickly recorded Elvis Is Back!, returned to television alongside Frank Sinatra, and resumed a career that would soon produce some of his biggest records.
But the Elvis who came home had experienced far more than military training.
He had lost his mother, met the woman he would eventually marry, discovered new interests, encountered stimulants that would follow him into civilian life and spent nearly 18 months wondering whether the world was moving on without him.
Germany did not end Elvis Presley’s career.
But it helped change the man who returned to it.