It takes a lot of money to raise a family. We all know that. It has not been easy for me and the missus and it will not be easy for my sons, and I will bet it is not easy for you either.

There are occasions when I look back at the environment in which I was raised, and I do not really understand how my parents did it at all. In our family situation my dad was the only one with an income. He and mom had both worked at Parker’s on Water Street. He was a shoe clerk, and she was a sales assistant. When I was born mom stopped working. Now dad never made more than fifty-five dollars a week. When I was just eighteen, I was working at the railway, and I was making more money than he ever made. Now here is the amazing part. Dad owned his own home. How is that possible?

How do you own a home?

If you are a single salary family with two children and your only income is a single salary from a shoe store, then how do you get to own a home. I still do not understand it.

It is true things were very different then and I at least have a better understanding of it all. In my own case all three of my boys played minor hockey and that cost a fortune. All their equipment was second hand, but registrations alone were crippling.  I noticed early on that most of the vehicles at the arenas seemed to be vans or SUVs and most of the parents appeared to be “well to do.”

When my brother and me were growing up hockey cost our family nothing. The Royal Canadian Legion ran all the hockey. They paid for it. We had to sell tickets each year. The teams reflected the war that ended just five or six years previously. The Gunners, the Sappers, Home, Hood, Liberators etc. All names from World War Two. Not a cent did it cost us.

How things change

That is just an example of how things were then. Another example was childcare. One year we paid 15 thousand dollars in after care and day care for my three boys. Think about that.  It cost a fortune. On the contrary my brother and me in our time went home after school. Mom was there to meet us and if she was not then my grand mother, my aunt, and my uncle lived next door to us.

That is just two examples of how things were different. Society was of a different shape. The family was a different shape. Grand mother was not in “a home.” We did not need paid day care. Supper was cooked and we could play hockey.

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians came home for Come Home 2022 celebrations and the province welcomed many first time visitors too.  The weather coorperated with record breaking sunshine for one record setting NL  summer.

There was a little something for everyone to enjoy. Wonderbolt Productions celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022, and they dazzled and delighted audiences all summer long. The George Street Festival was a huge hit and so was the Churchill Park Music Festival with both attracting huge and enthusiastic crowds. 

But whether it’s the large concerts on George Street or the smaller gatherings on an outport wharf, it’s been quite a summer to celebrate, Premier Andrew Furey said. “To see this (Come Home 2022) come from a concept to reality, and then to see the return, well the actual numbers speak for themselves,” he said as he launched into some cheerful chatter about the rise in tourism numbers throughout Come Home 2022. And the fun continues through the fall too with Come From Away: The Concert and Tell Tale Harbour yet to be celebrated and enjoyed. 

What was your favourite Come Home 2022 experience? Was it the Stanley Cup or a concert? Was it seeing family or friends or was it a wedding celebration that was delayed due to the pandemic. 

Share your super summer story with us at letters@nfldherald.com 

Charles & Camilla’s 2022 Royal Tour

Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, arrived St. John’s on May 17th to begin a three-day Canadian tour largely focused on reconciliation with Indigenous people. 

The couple attended a welcome ceremony at the provincial legislature with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Gov. Gen. Mary Simon then it was off to Gov. House and Quidi Vidi.

Photos provided by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, taken by Alick Tsui Photography.

Kellie Loder Proves They’re Fearless

Not only is Kellie Loder selling out shows, but they are selling totally out of merch at these performances as well, they added when The Herald swung by for a chat. “The opportunity to be on a national television show, what that has done for me is amazing. People stop you on the side of the road and people shout at you from their cars. And it’s so positive,” they said of appearing on Canada’s Got Talent. 

 Had reality set in yet? Since being a  national sensation on CGT, so much had changed. “You work so, so hard for so long to get that sort of recognition that when you finally get it it’s a bit wild. Like, I still feel like I’m a small town kid from Badger and now people are wanting to carry my things and bring me water and food and steam my clothes. And I’m like, ‘What’s happening right now?’” 

Loder also felt “different” seeing their face on a NL Herald cover. “I would go to the store and The Herald would always be on the front counter, and I would see different faces every week on the cover and I always wondered if I was ever going to make the cover, do you know what I mean? I always wondered that, even when nobody knew who I was.” Well, now they certainly do! 

Show Your Pride in NL

Irma Gerd made NL proud as one of the contestants of the third season of Canada’s Drag Race. 

Gerd told The Herald that “The amount of support that I’ve gotten from all of Atlantic Canada, not just Newfoundland, has been overwhelming. Just positively overwhelming in the best way.” 

Pride events throughout NL recognized and celebrated the diversity of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community within the province and the Provincial Government sponsored St. John’s Pride Week as a part of Come Home 2022. Sponsored events included Drag on Water held on Saturday, July 23 as well as the St. John’s Pride Parade

Staycation with the OZFM Summer CREW

Kali Kenny and Noah Perchard hit the road in the OZFM Staycation Summer Cruiser and brought the cheer and the joy to many as they travelled the province throughout the summer of 2022.

Kenny told The Herald that being a member of the Staycation Summer Cruiser Team was a “dream come true.” 

The Regatta Returns

For the very first time in Royal St. John’s Regatta history, there was a Women’s Long course race. 

North America’s oldest annual sporting event concluded with repeat champions in both the men’s and women’s races. NTV were winners of the Men’s Championship Race and Hyflodraulic won Stirling Communications Women’s Championship Race with a time of 5:11.

This year’s Regatta saw crowds return to the banks of Quidi Vidi Lake for the first time since 2019.

Jaida Lee Makes History

At 16 years old, Jaida Lee became the first female to compete in Men’s Baseball at the Canada Summer Games in 2022. The teenage baseball sensation and her father, Dave Lee, shared with media how “unreal” the experience was,  included the fact that she got to throw an opening pitch at a Blue Jays game.

Alex Newhook Brings Home Lord Stanley

Colorado Avalanche forward and St. John’s native Alex Newhook couldn’t stop smiling the day he brought the Stanley Cup home to St. John’s! 

The timing couldn’t have been better and fans young and old couldn’t get enough of the party that came with Lord Stanley held during Come Home 2022 celebrations.

About being only the third player from Newfoundland and Labrador to win the Stanley Cup, Newhook shared how he received congratulations from the other two who had done so before he did – Daniel Cleary and Michael Ryder. Newhook cheered along with fans so loudly as he yelled, ’Our fans are the best in the world’ that Newhook seemed to  have lost his voice during part of the Stanley Cup parade.

Was it emotion or cheering along with fans that cause the brief quiet spell? Probably a bit of both, but whatever the reason, it was a grand day in the province and an unforgettable day for Alex Newhook and his family and friends. Congratulations! 

We were ripped away from mummies apron strings when we were seven years old. No play groups or such. We were brought to the door of the big concrete school glowering down on Bonaventure Avenue and thrown inside. 

We were greeted by the Irish Christian Brothers, a black robed group of men that were given power over us and power was the right word. There visited upon us smacks across the head, smacks across the face and later punishment by the wail of the strap.

It did not start right away. Seven year-olds were not beaten to be honest. It would be later. I was terrified from day one, but I did good. I didn’t cry. I can still remember the parents gathered outside of the Grade One classroom looking in. I could see my mom. It must have been hard on her too.   She told me later it broke her heart. There were eighty-two children in class. That’s a student teacher ratio for you! 

Some little boys were sobbing. Others were screeching. The Christian Brother in charge then moved to the front of the classroom and closed the door and it shut us out from the outside world. The noise grew.  Weeping and gnashing of teeth. I will bet it was like that when the Titanic went under. 

You must remember this was 1953. The family unit was strong. I do not think I was ever in the care of someone other than my parents till then.  This was the first time I had been away from mom and dad and there I was all alone!  It was all so different and horrible. The décor in the classroom was grim with a twelve-foot ceiling and walls dominated by statues and a giant grey dark painting of an angel with wings watching over two little children crossing a bridge. 

No neighbourhood watch or anything; just dark images to frighten children. Statues all over the place. There were crucifixes and crowns of thorns and things like that to make you afraid. That is the way the whole thing worked, instill the “fear of God” into you.   

I survived. I did well in class. A few beatings both deserved and undeserved. So you will know, the Irish Christian Brother who greeted us did a little time in jail some years later for “interfering” with boys. He is dead now. He was my favourite teacher and always kind to me. I will never figure all this out but at the beginning of the school year I remember the path from there to here and I still think about it.

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

The Provincial Government delighted islanders when they announced they would be bringing Come From Away The Concert and the new musical comedy Tell Tale Harbour to Newfoundland and Labrador as part of the Arts and Culture Centres’ program line up for Come Home 2022.

The Tony and Olivier Award-winning international hit musical Come From Away  returns to the Steele Community Centre in Gander and premiers at the Mary Brown’s Centre in St. John’s reuniting  members of the Toronto cast and band along with original Broadway cast member, the province’s own Petrina Bromley. 

Come From Away The Concert will be presented in Gander, from Sept.13-15 and in St. John’s from September 19-20, as marquee events for Come Home 2022.

Later in October, the province’s Arts and Culture Centres’ present Tell Tale Harbour, based on the screenplay, The Grand Seduction. This new musical comedy from the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Prince Edward Island will see its Newfoundland and Labrador debut as another marquee event for Come Home 2022. 

Co-written by and starring the province’s own musical icon Alan Doyle, Tell Tale Harbour also features the talents of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians Jillian Keiley and Edward Riche.

“Exciting things are happening in Newfoundland and Labrador for Come Home 2022. The stage is set for some incredible performances. Along with the impressive performances that will grace the stages of our Arts and Culture Centres province-wide, we are thrilled to be bringing Come From Away The Concert and the Tell Tale Harbour musical home to our province,” said Premier Andrew Furey at the announcement. 

“We are beyond thrilled to bring Come From Away back to its home in Newfoundland this year. When we first performed our show there, it was a life-changing experience for us – and the Come From Away Company – and we are grateful to be invited back with a Canadian cast including several Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, like Petrina Bromley, coming home from Broadway. It means the world to us to share these stories with the community that was so generous with us and has now inspired millions around the globe,” said Irene Sankoff and David Hein, Come From Away’s creators. 

The Herald spoke to Bromley who said she was “excited” to be returning to ‘The Rock.’ “The idea of bringing the show home to Newfoundland for people to see is an incredible experience. Sharing that story and seeing that it gets told so that everyone can get a sense of how important it is and how big a moment it was is just magical,” she said.

Bromley’s favourite memories of the show’s run are the performances on home soil, she added. “It was just the most unbelievable experience to be welcomed and embraced into the community and to have that feeling of pure nervous joy. I always say for me it was like bringing your new boyfriend home to meet the family.”

I was down to Argentia last week. It’s completely different now and I had not been there since the naval base closed. In fact I have only been there a couple of times before. 

Memory is a funny thing. When I first went to Argentia it was by sea around 1960. I was “working” on the cargo vessel Blue Cloud. That was a Blue Peter Steamships ship hauling frozen cod blocks from Witless Bay to Gloucester, Massachusetts. Technically I was employed by Blue Peter, but really I was a guest of the company. 

Signed on as crew

They weren’t licensed to carry passengers, so I was signed on as crew with very light duties. We arrived at Argentia at night in the rain and awoke the next morning to the reality of being in a small American town with the Stars and Stripes flying overhead. We watched military types around our ship. They were all acting purposefully. I had to ask permission to get off the ship and dump garbage in the dockside bin. 

What sticks in my memory was how clean everything was at Argentia. You could eat off the roads and all the military personnel were dressed “neat as a pin.” It was the first time I had really been “somewhere else.” 

To this day I don’t know if we took on cargo or discharged it. We were gone on to Gloucester the next morning. 

There we discharged our cod blocks to a fish processing plant and picked up a mixed cargo to go back to Newfoundland. The cargo included bananas which are shipped “not quite ripe.”

On the way back some bananas were put out on deck in the sun. We had bananas for breakfast dinner and supper. We stopped again at Argentia and dropped off salt beef. I didn’t even know the military ate that stuff. 

Liquor & cigarettes

The next time I was at the base was decades later and I was there to play softball in a tournament mostly in the rain. The Americans were good ball players. I stayed overnight at the bachelors quarter which was Strain Memorial Hall, at one time the second highest building in Newfoundland. Hotel Newfoundland was higher.

The food on the base was great and there was lots of it. Liquor and cigarettes were almost free, and I had a great time. We didn’t win, but we had a nice barbecue. I didn’t set foot in Argentia again until last week.

There was still a familiarity to Argentia. The curved road and the little guard house were still there. A few buildings looked familiar and some bunkers remained, but the area was industrial now not military and it wasn’t nearly so clean.

It was raining last week. All three times I was in Argentia over sixty years it rained.  I remember that.    

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

On the evening of August 30th, 1997, Princess Diana  – known far and wide as The People’s Princess for her kindness, generosity and unshakable connection to both commoner and aristocrat alike – was the victim of a high speed car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.

Diana, 36, was pronounced dead in the early hours of August 31st, alongside her then partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul. 

A firestorm of celebrity-hounding, blood-sucking paparazzi had chased the couple’s black Mercedes Benz from the Ritz Hotel in Paris to their inevitable fate against the 13th pillar of the Pont d’Alma tunnel. 

It was a tragic end to a beloved and – realistically – deeply troubled life for a figure who seemingly never fit the mold of the prim, proper, and perfectly conformed British Royal.

Diana, rather, was a trend-setter, a norm-buster, opting to connect to the people rather than stand aloft from them. 25 years following her horrifically unjust end, The People’s Princess is still looked at in deity-like status, with fascination on her life, loss and legacy still at a fever pitch all these years removed from her final moments.

Discovering Diana

Fascination has not wained in the two and a half decades since Diana Spencer left this mortal coil. Rather, it has only grown. In the last three years, for example, Diana has been immortalized in film and television, with the recently acclaimed HBO max documentary The Princess buoyed by stunning portrayals in The Crown by Emma Corrin (and soon to be Elizabeth Debicki), as well as an Oscar nominated-turn by Kristen Stewart in the biopic Spencer.

A Breathe Of Fresh Air

Many royal pundits have viewed the entry of Diana into the royal household as a breathe of fresh air for the, at times, stuffy and seemingly unreachable British monarchs. The wedding of Diana and Charles, for example, was viewed by 17 million viewers around the globe. But it would not stop there.

Something as simple as opting for round tables as opposed to tradition regal banquet halls, and eating standing up in the kitchen, were down-to-earth and very human qualities that endeared Diana to Britain and beyond, earning her the title ‘The People’s Princess. It has been said that Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle have taken up some of Diana’s trait of bucking royal norms.

Diana’s Pride

By all accounts, Diana Spencer had no love in her life more profound than that for her sons, William and Harry. Royal observers have often speculated that, if she were still alive today, Diana would be a doting grandmother to what would be her five grandchildren, Prince George, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte and Archie and Lilibet. 

Giving Back

Charitable organizations were always close to the heart of Princess Diana. Among her many philanthropic endeavours over the years, Diana’s Lady Diana Foundation continues on today with the mission to continue the Samaritan deeds of the People’s Princess, with a fond memory of her bright personality and the ability to unify people in a single cause – the development and prosperity of humankind as a whole, as per the organization itself. A continued nod to her kind heart.

A Symbol of Life

There are monuments and symbols dedicated to the life and lasting love and legacy of Princess Diana across from globe. Just last year one particularly poignant memorial was erected in London. Prince’s William and Harry gathered in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace in commemoration of what would have been their mother’s 60th birthday. 

The statue unveiling, which was sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley, “aimed to reflect her warmth, elegance and energy, in addition to her work and the effect she had on many people,” according to spokespersons at Kensington Garden. 

This is just one of many gestures and tokens that reflects the warm, laughter and love Diana Spencer brought to everyone she met throughout her brief life.

Legendary guitarist and instrumental musician in Canada’s rock culture, Randy Bachman is animated in recounting the story of how he was reunited with his long-lost Gretsch guitar after 45 years.

“A guy emailed us from one of our YouTube (live streams) and said ‘I found your lost Gretsch.’ I’d been searching for it for 45 years.”

The icon behind The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive first bought his 1957 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins, in a gorgeous orange, when he was a 19-year-old upstart in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It would be stolen from a locked hotel room during a BTO performance in Toronto in 1977.

The Gretsch

Decades later, and a fan out of B.C., William Long, used facial recognition technology to track down the exact Gretsch, tracing it all the way to Japan, where it was now in possession of renowned guitarist Takeshi. 

With the help of his daughter-in-law Bachman would contact Takeshi, and over a zoom call would see his treasured instrument for the first time in four and a half decades.

“The guy brings my guitar on the zoom and I can’t breathe. I haven’t seen this guitar for four plus decades. He shows me the guitar and I say ‘that’s my guitar!” He says ‘I’m an honourable guy, I’ll give it back to you’. I said, ‘Well, I’ll give you a brand new Gretsch’, and he says ‘I don’t want a brand new Gretsch.’ ‘Well what do you want?’ ‘I want the same guitar. Can you find its sister?’

Easier said than done, but when you’re Randy Bachman, corners of the musical community are more easily reached. 

Through a vintage guitar dealer in Ohio, Bachman would procure a 1957 Gretsch with only two digits off from the serial number of his original. 

Takeshi, overjoyed, agreed to the trade, but with one caveat. Bachman would have to travel to Japan to collect. 

The swap would take place on Canada Day in the Canadian Embassy at Tokyo’s Oscar Peterson Theatre.

“They won’t let me see him until the day. And I say why not? They said ‘this must be like a wedding. The bride does not see the groom until she walks down the aisle with her father and he goes, Oh, man, is she rockin’ beautiful!’

“So they wanted that first reaction, so I don’t get to see this guy or my guitar. So on Canada Day (Takeshi) goes up and plays a couple of songs,” Bachman recalls, emotionally. “Then he plays Takin’ Care of Business a little bit and he stops. I walk out, meet him on stage. I look at him, he’s got my guitar. I’ve got the twin sister guitar. I get my guitar back. I can’t move, I can’t breathe. I’ve got it. It’s beautiful. He gets the twin sister. We both finished playing Takin’ Care of Business. We’re both in tears. We’re both pretty verklempt. This is like a really incredible moment.”

The entire situation – from the loss, to the long-awaited reclamation – has the noted storyteller nearly lost for words.

“I tried to find the guitar for 40 years and couldn’t. And then the guitar found me,” he shares with a smile.

Lost & Found

The incredible story will be the subject of an independent documentary, with Randy and his son, fellow rock-star success Tal Bachman, set to write songs for the proposed film, Lost and Found, with the famed guitar-god joking that his son contends that his father “lost his magic” when his guitar was stolen in 1977.

“Tal contends that when that guitar was stolen in ‘77, they stole my magic. With that guitar, I learned to play guitar. I learned my vocabulary, so to speak…

“And then every song I wrote and recorded; These Eyes, Laughing, is all on this guitar. So when it was stolen my son said to me, ‘You haven’t had a number one hit since American Woman and You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet. Your magic is gone, but when it gets back!’”

Overcoming COVID-19, whooping cough and double pneumonia in recent years, Bachman, at age 78, is as active now as he was in his heyday between reunion-esque tours alongside Burton Cummings, continued successes in radio (Vinyl Tap anyone?) and perhaps most notably, his father-son tandem Bachman & Bachman.

“We wrote basically a retrospective album as what has happened to me as the father, what’s happened to my son who’s followed kind of in my footsteps in and out of bands and up and down and good manager, bad manager, label signing, label dropping, all that stuff. What we went through with our family, with our domestic divorces, because all rock and roll leads to divorce. 

Bachman & Bachman

“You’re never with your wife or your family all the time. Unfortunately, that’s the big downside of it. And you look at these women you loved and they loved you, but you stopped the love because of the gigantic distance between you physically and in mileage, if you know what I mean, like not being there. And so we wrote what you call an Americana album with very touching lyrics.”

Pillars of our rock n roll history like Bachman continue to reap the rewards of a lifetime of entertaining adoring fans. Catching up with The Herald before his island return at the Churchill Park Music Festival (which he rocked!!!), the architect of American Woman and Let it Ride explained that, in the pandemic era, the world seems primed for a rock renaissance.

“I think the Roaring Twenties are coming back because if you look at the Roaring Twenties a century ago, it was after a war, it was after a pandemic. People were dying from the flu and everything, and they were all restricted. They couldn’t go out. They were all vaccinated. It’s happening again,” Bachman shared, impassioned.

As for the man who more than a few musicians can call mentor, role model and overall inspiration, there’s more than enough gas in the tank for a man who’s still Takin’ Care of Business. “I always said I don’t want people saying, ‘I wonder what he’s doing now?’ I want people saying ‘look at what he’s doing now!’”

For all things Randy Bachman visit randybachman.com. For part one of our interview visit our website at nfldherald.com

It was just past five in the morning of what promised to be another lovely summer day. I was out on the deck having coffee and looking at the paper in the half light of a new day. When you are older you have time for these things. Getting up early, coffee, the paper. Sitting around seeing things. Time is a real luxury.

Sounds of morning

The air was filled with the sounds of morning. From the lake was the sound of a loon. It’s a sad sound, second only to the haunting sound of the whistle of a far-away train that you no longer hear in Newfoundland. 

As I sat at the little table on the deck there was another sound I have not heard in a while. I did not recognize it at first. It was far away. Then it came to me. It was the sound of a rooster crowing. It might have been down in Topsail or ever further up the shore, but I knew the sound. Suddenly, I was transported back to another time. I was twelve-years-old then and the remembered sound was that of a rooster across the gardens in Witless Bay that told me the new day had arrived that would be filled with the adventure of an outport day to a twelve-year-old. 

The rooster was the start, but there would be other morning sounds. From the harbour would come the unmistakable sound of a 5 HP Acadia engine. It would power a trap skiff. In that world there were boats “on the collar.” There were boats going out to the traps and boats coming back low in the water.

‘Looks like a full skiff’

“It looks like a full skiff and dory load,” we would say trying to be older than we were.  We would guess from the look of the boat as she headed to the fish plant how many quintals were on board. The boat would be off-loaded by hand and pronged up to the stage head. Thne the fish would be cleaned and somewhere down the chain there would be a chance for little boys to make a few cents cutting out tongues. 

That world is long gone, and I do not even think about it very much except on summer mornings when the sound of a rooster drifts up from somewhere far away and reminds me of twine lofts and salt fish and flakes and a time past. Much has happened since then, but the sound of an early morning rooster brought it all back to me and reminded me of a mid- summer morning when I was a little boy.

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

It was an image that became iconic to a decade. But the story of how the picture happened is more bizarre than the photo itself

It was December of 1970, most Americans were in holiday mode, heading to malls and shops for presents. Comedian Red Skelton, variety host Ed Sullivan, TV impresario Jackie Gleason, and screen legend Doris Day, all had Christmas specials on TV.

Over 300 workers had been exposed to radiation at a Nevada nuclear test site. The father of NHL player, Brian Spencer, was killed in a shootout with RCMP in Prince George, after he held CBC-TV staff at gunpoint to protest the station not airing his son’s game with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The movie, Love Story, starring Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal debuted in cinemas.

Monday the 21st was eventful for two reasons. The Supreme Court lowered and set the voting age in the U.S. to 18. And staff at the White House had to scramble with an unscheduled visit from Elvis Presley.

Elvis’ journey to see then-President Richard Nixon followed a Presley family squabble. His wife, Priscilla and his parents scolded the King of Rock & Roll for spending over $100,000 on Christmas presents (32 handguns and 10 Mercedes-Benzes… as you do).

In a huff, Elvis took a plane out of Memphis, arriving at Los Angeles airport on Saturday, Dec 19. There, he called up an old friend and former employee, Jerry Schilling.

“He had some guns with him,“ Schilling remembered years later, “and a collection of his police badges.”

[It should be mentioned that when you happen to be Elvis Presley in 1970, airport security was a very different thing.]

“Elvis always travelled with an entourage,” Schilling told an audience at the National Archives in 2010. But this time, the music executive was surprised to hear that Elvis was travelling alone.

THE KING’S ROAD TRIP

“I don’t want anybody in the world to know where I am,” the music icon confided.

“He started giving me his flight numbers and what time he was coming in,” Schilling said. “Things that Elvis Presley never did. So on a Saturday night, about 1:30 in the morning, I picked him up at LAX. “We spent Sunday catching up and he told me, ‘I really got mad at Graceland. People were telling me how to spend my money.’

“I mean, [his father] Vernon and Priscilla were only looking out for him. But I think when the Colonel [Tom Parker, his manager] got involved, he got in his car and went to the airport. He just had an American Express credit card.”

Elvis was fixed on getting to Washington, intent on meeting President Nixon in order to get a badge from the federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.

Schilling and Presley caught a late-night flight from LAX destined for the nation’s capital. On the way, Elvis commandeered two pages of American Airlines letterhead. 

His handwritten letter laid out his reasons for why he wanted the president to give him a badge, citing his concern for the country’s “drug problem,” and how young people look up to him and trust him. Irony was not in short supply on this trip.

“Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help the country out,” Presley wrote.”I would love to meet you. I will be staying at the Washington Hotel under the alias Jon Burrows. I will be here for as long as it takes to get the credentials of a federal agent.”

Schilling remembers the night flight to Washington as special, not only for accompanying Elvis on his badge quest, but also that numerous American soldiers were also travelling, heading home for the holidays. 

Schilling remembers that Elvis struck up a conversation with one G.I. for 10 minutes then he came back to Schilling’s seat and said, “Where’s that money?”

Earlier in the day, Elvis cashed a personal cheque for $500 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Schilling said, “That’s all the money we’ve got!” Elvis replied, “You don’t understand. This man’s been in Vietnam. He’s going back home for Christmas to see his family.”

MR. BURROWS GOES TO WASHINGTON

After landing in D.C., The King was insistent that he drop off his letter right away and so by 7:00am, Elvis and Jerry were standing outside the gates of the White House.

Inside, Bud Krogh, one of the president’s lawyers, was approached by another staffer who declared, “The King is outside!” Krogh was confused because after consulting the president’s diary for the day, saw no monarchs on the schedule.

“No!!” the staffer shouted. “Not any two-bit king. THE KING! The King of Rock. He’s here.”

Over the next three hours, President Nixon’s staff go into panic mode as they try to determine not only if Presley can meet Nixon, but should he, and when? Nixon’s chief of staff, Bob Haldeman got involved. Draft memos started circulating about how the meeting could bolster the president’s image.

The Secret Service got involved when it discovered that Elvis was carrying a gun, meant as a present for Nixon.

Eventually, it was decided that a meeting would be held, 11:45am in the Oval Office. Ali Atkins was the White House photographer and the job fell to him to capture the moments.

“Elvis was overwhelmed,” Krogh remembered. 

“He walked in the door and looked at the eagles engraved in the ceiling and engraved in the carpets. He’s a poor boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, and he’s here in the Oval Office of the President of the United States. So, it took a little effort to move him over to the desk. He’s wearing his cool glasses and his cape. And nobody ever dressed quite like that in the Oval Office.

“And the president had never seen anyone quite like that either.”

‘CAN YOU GET ME A BADGE?’

Two men, icons of the era in which they lived soon bonded as fathers, with Elvis showing off pictures of his daughter, Lisa Marie.

According to Bud Krogh’s notes of the meeting, after the back and forth, Elvis got to the point.  

“Mr. President, can you get me a badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs?”

Nixon looked around at his staff to find out if such a gift was legal, and they gave their assurance to the president.

“Get him a badge,” Nixon orders. “I want him to have one.” 

Krogh reported that Elvis was overcome and grabbed the president to hug him. “That wasn’t the norm in that White House,” he added.

The whole meeting, the notes written, and the photos taken remained a secret from the public for a year. When it was written about in 1972, few showed much interest.

In 1977, the fates stepped in to claim the life of the King of Rock & Roll. The meeting between Nixon and Presley was largely a footnote. However, in 1988, a newspaper in Chicago reported that thousands of people had requested a copy of the photo taken during that 1970 meeting. It suddenly became big news and a big fundraiser for the National Archives, the repository of those images.

In a 2010 article for Smithsonian Magazine, Bud Krogh shared why he thinks the photo endured.

”It’s a jolt seeing them together. The leader of the western world and the king of rock ‘n’ roll in the same place, and they’re clearly enjoying each other. And you think, ‘How can this be?’”

But it was. It was another extraordinary moment in the extraordinary life of Elvis Presley.

There’s moments in life that just stand out in each generation. For folks in their 50s and up, the moon landing in 1969 was one of the bigger events, but the passing of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42 was one of those  lifetime moments when hearts were broken around the globe. 

The death of Elvis was different than the moon landing or any other significant historical event because there was no competition when it came to the beloved musical icon. There was no Russia vs America to contend with, it was simply the much-too-early loss of one of the most brilliant and talented – and complex – musical performers of all time. That he was – and remains to this day in the minds and heats of many – the best musician there ever was left little room for debate.

Back on the big screen

In the film Elvis, told from the perspective of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, the story is again introduced to a new generation. The film, which has  grossed $217.2 million worldwide against its $85 million budget, is now the second highest-grossing music biopic of all-time behind Bohemian Rhapsody.

The tale of his last days on earth still captivates. The morning before his death, Elvis apparently played racquetball with his cousin Billy. It had been raining when they arrived, the story goes, and Billy told Elvis he wished it would stop. The King, it is said,  held out his hands and replied: “Ain’t no problem, I’ll take care of it.” 

The rain stopped, to which Elvis added: “If you have a little faith, you can stop anything.” If only that were true. 

After the game, Elvis sat behind a piano and played two gospel songs followed by Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain; apparently the last song he ever sang. His last book read? Frank Adams’ The Scientific Search for the Face of Jesus. 

Hours later, Elvis was dead. Shortly before his death, it’s reported that the megastar had expressed his greatest fear to ex-wife Priscilla: that no one will remember him after he’s gone. As we all know, that never happened. 

I was eight when The King died, and my friends and I gathered playing Old Shep as we mourned. Hard to believe that was 45 years ago. Like a line in that very song says, ‘the years fast did roll.’ 

Still, not all things change with time.  Elvis was loved then. He’s loved still. And to this very day, Elvis is still the best selling solo artist in history.

Pam Pardy, The Herald’s Managing Editor, can be reached by emailing pghent@nfldherald.com