September 9: Elvis flies to Phoenix for the beginning of his first proper American stadium tour, made up of several dates secure by several different promoters. Tonight's show is again filmed for the Way It Is film.
September 21: The Sheriff of Memphis, Roy Nixon, makes Elvis an honorary deputy, starting the King on his near-obsession with collecting official police and government badges. Presley would later use this badge to pull over cars on the street, mainly just to converse with the driver.
September 24: Having viewed a rough cut of That's The Way It Is, Colonel Parker writes a scathing three-page memo to the studio, MGM, claiming that there are too many edits in the live footage, detracting from spontaneity. His main objection, however, is what he sees as the film's mocking attitude towards two of Elvis' more popular movies of the Sixties, Blue Hawaii and G.I. Blues.
October 9: At a Pontiac dealership in Los Angeles, Elvis spies a new Stutz Blackhawk, the first of its kind in the city. Despite the fact that the car is being held for Frank Sinatra, Presley convinces the dealer to let him have it instead.
October 17: While attending the Gospel Quartet Convention in Memphis, Elvis indulges himself in a lifelong passion by singing backstage with members of the legendary Blackwood Brothers and the equally notable Statesmen Quartet, both major early influences on the singer.
October 19: Working from a design sketched out by Priscilla and Elvis, the King orders a dozen 14-karat gold pendants from a Beverly Hills jeweler featuring the letters "TCB" set around a lightning bolt. Designed as totems for the Memphis Mafia (and also for security issues), the symbol stands, in Elvis' words, for "Taking Care of Business in a Flash." They would eventually come to symbolize the '70s Era for Elvis Presley.
On the same day, just across town, Pat Parker gives birth to her son, which she names Jason Peter Presley.
November 14: Between tonight's two shows at the Forum in Los Angeles, Elvis is served a subpoena in the ongoing paternity suit by a process server posing as a fan.
November 18: Elvis meets famed voice actor Paul Frees, who shows the King his official badge from the US Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (a predecessor to today's DEA). Presley becomes determined to get one of his own.
November 21: Vacationing in Palm Springs, Elvis seeks out Vice President Spiro Agnew, also vacationing at the same resort, and begins to ingratiate himself.
December 3: After secretly donating $7,000 to the LAPD, Elvis is rewarded with a commissioner's badge. Later, he visits a local gun store and buys over $20,000 worth of guns over a three-day period, some for random strangers.
December 9: The Colonel, not having heard from Elvis for weeks, sends a memo to him reminding him that his TCB slogan "only works if you use it."
December 16: Elvis countersues Patricia Parker in her paternity suit and views the final cut of That's The Way It Is while in L.A.
December 19: Back at Graceland, and echoing the sentiments that have caused Presley to stay away from the Colonel, Priscilla and Elvis' father Vernon attempt to corner him to express disapproval over his lavish spending habits. Infuriated, Elvis flies to Washington D.C., then Dallas, then Los Angeles, where he contacts Mafioso Jerry Schilling and essentially disappears from his wife and family. Later, fellow Mafioso Sonny West will be allowed to tell his family that he is safe, but no more.
December 20: Flying back to Washington, Elvis finds himself sharing the commercial flight with senator George Murphy of California. The two begin to talk about the tumult in American society, and Elvis composes a hand-written letter to President Richard Nixon, essentially asking for a Bureau of Narcotics badge. Murphy delivers the note when he lands.
December 21: After futile attempts to contact the BNDD director in Washington, Nixon's deputy counsel Egil Krogh calls Schilling's hotel, as Elvis instructed in the note; Elvis meets Nixon in the Oval Office a mere forty-five minutes later.
The meeting is short but productive; The King presents the President with a Colt 45 pistol of WWII vintage (complete with silver bullets), and Nixon gives Elvis his coveted BNDD badge, essentially giving him official permission to report to the US Government on drug-related activities (although the badge is officially more of a goodwill effort to reach the "young people" through the singer).
December 28: Elvis is best man at Sonny West's wedding in Memphis.
December 31: Back in Washington, D.C., Elvis tours the FBI headquarters and attempts an abortive meeting with Director J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover promises to get back in touch with the singer, but never does. That night, back in Memphis, Elvis once again entertains the entourage at the hangout T.J.s, once again featuring music by house headliner Ronnie Milsap.
Next... Elvis 1970 recording sessions
