A few days before his discharge from the Army, Elvis Presley was asked what impact he thought two years of military service would have on the stratospheric trajectory his career had been on before his enlistment.
“Actually, I don’t know,” said then-Sergeant Presley at a March 1, 1960, press conference in Friedberg, West Germany, where he had been stationed for the previous year and a half. “I’ve heard the trend has changed, the music has changed. … I can’t commit to whether I’ll be (as popular) or not. I don’t know. All I can say is, I’ll try.”
Any doubts that plagued Presley about his musical career were dispelled when he performed live at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii on March 25, 1961. The concert raised money for a memorial on the USS Arizona in memory of the battleship’s 1,177 crew members who died in the surprise Japanese attack that triggered the United States entry into World War II.
Elvis’s participation in the fundraiser came about after his manager, Col. Tom Parker, read a newspaper article about the Pacific War Memorial Commission’s difficulty in raising funds. The commission was only halfway to its $500,000 goal to fund the memorial, and although it had tried other methods to attract attention – including an episode of the television show “This Is Your Life” featuring Rear Admiral Samuel Fuqua, the highest-ranking officer to survive the sinking of the Arizona and a recipient of the Medal of Honor – it was far from enough.
Then Elvis intervened.
“It’s a bit like a kid who’s heard about Santa Claus and can’t believe it,” said commission chairman H. Tucker Gratz. “… It’s hard to believe that this is real.”
The excitement on the day of the concert was palpable as Presley flew out of Los Angeles that morning. When he arrived at Honolulu International Airport, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll was greeted by hordes of enthusiastic young fans. He had so many garlands of flowers wrapped around his neck that they brushed the back of his head.
“The chaos is indescribable,” said country singer Minnie Pearl, one of the opening acts, of the scene at the airport. “I’ve never seen so many women in my life. They were screaming. They were yelling. I was just horrified. I thought, ‘They’re going to kill him,’ and I’m afraid they would have if they could have gotten free.”
Tickets ranged from $3 to $100 (the most expensive seats cost the equivalent of $1,050 today), and Col. Parker stipulated that there would be no free tickets so that more money could be used for the USS Arizona Memorial. All proceeds from ticket, concession and souvenir sales would be donated to the fund, and Presley and Col. Parker waived their normal fees and covered the costs of the other entertainers, further reducing expenses.
After being introduced by Rear Admiral Robert L. Campbell, Elvis took the stage at Bloch Arena. He was greeted by a screaming crowd. Among the 4,000-strong crowd, filled to capacity, were several survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor. For them in particular, the concert was an emotional experience, and because of his military experience, Elvis — who was 26 at the time of the concert and “about the average age of the boys buried on the Arizona,” as Col. Parker pointed out — probably felt a personal connection as well. (More than 900 sailors and Marines went down with the ship.)
Elvis began his 15-song playlist with “Heartbreak Hotel” and followed it up with other crowd favorites like “All Shook Up,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” and “Love Me Tender.” He capped off the unforgettable evening with a bang by sliding two meters across the stage on his knees and belting out “Hound Dog” – the last song of the evening.
“I was glad that everyone was screaming and stuff,” Elvis said in the World War II Foundation’s 2021 documentary “Elvis and the USS Arizona.” “It covered up my mistakes, because I hadn’t had any rehearsals and I was out of practice. (I) hadn’t been on stage since 1957. … I forgot the lyrics to most of the songs. In fact, I often said the same lyrics over and over again.”
Reviews of the concert were positive, with one critic even calling Presley a “musical messiah,” but more importantly, the concert achieved its main goal. It raised over $60,000 and sparked a new flood of donations. When then-Representative Daniel Inouye, who received the Medal of Honor in 2000 for his service in World War II, helped raise $150,000 in public funds in late 1961, the Pacific War Memorial Commission’s fundraising goal was finally reached.
The USS Arizona Memorial was officially dedicated on May 30, 1962, but Presley did not have the opportunity to visit it until 1965, a year after his military obligation ended when he was discharged from the Army Reserve. When he did, he laid a wreath at the memorial.
No video of the concert exists, and a recording was not released until three years after Presley’s death in 1977 at the age of 42. Today, Pearl Harbor attracts over two million visitors annually, with the USS Arizona Memorial being one of the most popular attractions – for which Presley and his legion of fans owe a large part.
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