The King is Shorn

It was one of the fastest demotions in entertainment history. On this day in 1958 Elvis Presley went from The King to a lowly private in a matter of seconds as he signed up for a stint in the US Army. Elvis’s manager thought a spell in the services would convince older Americans that his boy wasn’t a hip-swilling devil in tight trousers, but a decent god-fearing patriot, willing to shoot at people in the name of Uncle Sam. Crazy as it sounds, it sort of worked. Two years later Elvis left the army and released a series of dodgy ballads and even dodgier films that the oldies lapped up.