Elvis and Nixon

Above, Nixon and Elvis in the Oval Office. Ollie Atkins/White House photo.

One of the most requested photographs from the National Archives is the one above of President Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley in the Oval Office of the White House.

What led Presley to seek a meeting with the President? Strangely enough, it was to get a badge!

According to Time:

Though Elvis Presley’s music has largely been responsible for sustaining fans’ burning love for the 40 years that have passed since his Aug. 16, 1977, death, one of the most popular photos of the star is not an image of him performing. 

Instead, it was taken with Richard Nixon in the Oval Office at 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 21, 1970 — and it was, as of 2015 at least, the most-requested photograph in the entire U.S. National Archives. 

Both men were at the top in their careers at this point. As The Telegraph has pointed out, Presley was in the middle of a successful comeback, selling out shows in Las Vegas and had just been nominated as one of the country’s Ten Outstanding Young Men by the United States Junior Chamber, an award he was particularly proud to have received. Nixon, meanwhile, who had not yet been tainted by Watergate, was experiencing a wave of popularity for vowing to get America out of Vietnam and to desegregate schools. 

Presley, a collector of police badges, wanted a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs and to be named a “Federal Agent at Large.”

Above, President Nixon greets Elvis Presley at the Oval Office. Ollie Atkins/White House photo.

After Nixon's resignation due to the Watergate scandal, Presley and Nixon remained in contact until Presley's death in 1977.

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