Paul Belard’s visual biography series always manages to expand our understanding of how hectic Elvis’ life and rise to fame truly was. From the moment Sam Phillips cut his first hit record, every month of Elvis’ life was seemingly packed with carer changing events. The latest release in Paul Belard’s series of photo-books looks at the start of Elvis’ army years, April – May 1958.

Of course Elvis’ stint in the army has been covered by several impressive books over the years including Andreas Schroer's ‘A Date With Elvis’ and Jerry Osborne’s ‘Elvis: Like Any Other Soldier.’

However once the media-pack had left after Elvis’ induction to Fort Hood very little was reported about the first two months as Elvis settled in to his new and rather routine army life.

Both ‘A Date With Elvis’ and ‘ Elvis: Like Any Other Soldier’ surprisingly cover these two months in only a few pages while the definitive Guralnick / Jorgensen ‘Elvis Day By Day’ book only includes 5 entries for the whole of these two months.

Design
The book continues the look and feel of his previous volumes.

As always it is the pictures that count and with little media coverage there are a lot of candid photos included. While this means a heap of photos that fans will never seen before it also means some of lesser quality. But this inevitably has to be the case in order to cover this part of Elvis’ life story and there are over 200 photos included in this book, the vast majority new to my eyes.

As Belard honestly notes “Some of the pictures in this book are not of top quality. They were not taken by professionals photographers. They are however important documents about Elvis in the Army and the author believes that rarity wins over quality.”

There are in fact more colour photos than I expected, as well as few colorised pictures (all identified) which do help add more impact to the visual story.

As always collectors will appreciate that Belard adds credits for all the content he has used, including some from the now defunct FECC / Phoenix message-boards.

Content
The book preface explains..

‘On March 28, Elvis left Fort Chaffee, on his way to Fort Hood, to the Second Armored Division “Hell on Wheels”. At least thirty newsmen awaited the bus when it arrived at Fort Hood 4:34pm on the afternoon. After a press conference and his first meal, he was off-limits to the media. From that point on, Elvis would be “just another soldier,” said an Army spokeswoman.’

These two months would have been the most traumatising for Elvis. None of us can imagine his real feelings as Elvis went from being the world’s biggest entertainer to becoming a regular soldier doing group exercises, sit-ups, marching, shoe cleaning, ‘K.P’ (kitchen patrol) and all the time not knowing what the next two years would bring.

While Elvis would spend these months doing basic training (poor Elvis wearing a gas-mask) it would be his interactions with his army mates and the general public that help enrich our knowledge of the kind of person Elvis really was.

This extract helps capture the reality of Elvis’ life..

“Lois Ferrell’s mother worked as a telephone operator at a Fort Hood store. Elvis came out of the building and struck up a conversation with the girls.
Ferrell remembers, “I remember it was cold, we had the windows rolled up on the car. He sat in the car with us for 20 minutes and talked. He told us to come back that Sunday, and he would take us to a movie."
That Sunday, Elvis drove the girls to a movie in a leased Cadillac convertible. Ferrell sat beside Elvis, and Wildman sat in the window seat.
Presley “was nice and generous,” Ferrell said. “He bought all the Girl Scout cookies on sale and passed them out to everyone in line at the theater.
“I remember he said that he wished he could go off post (he was restricted to post at the time, before moving off post) and visit with us in our homes.
I had a piano in my house and offered to host a jam session, but he said that it would attract too much of a crowd.
Overall, it was a wonderful experience for a 17-year-old.”

There are several key moments during this period such as…

- RCA released ‘Wear My Ring Around Your Neck’/ ‘Doncha’ Think It’s Time’
- Anita Wood would come and visit Elvis.

- Elvis would visit Eddie Fadal’s home in Waco Texas. Elvis had met Fadal two years earlier.
The Texas home recordings come from this period. The book also features some screen-grabs from Eddie Fadal's home-video.

- Elvis also rented a house for his family so they could be close by at 605 Oakhill Drive in Killeen.
There are some good photos from Oakhill Drive of Elvis looking more relaxed with friends

and also, Elvis meets Charlie Hodge..

"When I met him again, I was at Fort Hood. I never was stationed with Elvis. I was in 15th Cavalry there. And when I found out where he was, I went over and renewed my acquaintance. I said, “I’m Charlie Hodge. I was the lead singer with the Foggy River Boys”. And he said, “Hey, man, I used to watch you every Saturday night on TV, you know”. And I think our friendship was a natural friendship, because when we met there at Fort Hood and got on the ship going to Europe, we knew the same people in the gospel field. We knew the same people in the country field. We knew the same gospel songs. We were singing songs together on the way to Germany."

While most of the book is a look at Elvis doing his 'Basic Training' the book does include some good reminiscences from his army buddies, newspaper articles, interesting correspondence and also impressive visuals.

 

Other visual highlights include:

Pg 31 – Elvis looking like one of the squad possibly mowing the lawn
Pg 37 - Signed photo for his army buddy
Pg 45 - Elvis in the canteen (also front cover of the book)
Pg 49 – Elvis at the dental clinic (colour)
Pg 53 – May 17 visit to Eddie Fadal’s house with Anita Wood
Pg 66 – Charlie Hodge and Elvis
Pg 84 – Elvis gives ‘that look’

Pg 105 – Elvis gets promoted to ‘Assistant Squad Leader’

Pg 116-117 – Elvis hanging out with young fans on base

Pg 134-135 – Elvis with fans at Oakhill Drive
Pg 140 – Playing guitar in the bunk room
Pg 151 – stunning full-page colour photo of Elvis with a fan.
Pg 167 – Elvis with fans on-base “He would stop and talk and we’d take pictures for 15 minutes”
Pg 170 – Elvis in his barracks

Pg 190 – great colourised picture
Pg 194 - Elvis cleaning shoes in the barracks

There are a several good stories included from his army friends, for instance from Elvis' Memphis friend Bill “Nervous” Norvel, as shown in this photo..

“1st Platoon was on the second floor. It only had two commodes and two showers for all of us. Elvis and I we'd cleaned floors, swept streets, we washed the garbage cans. We had this guy, it was the only time I remember anyone saying anything to Elvis about his uniform. He took his cap off, down in that garbage can and his Sergeant from an infantry company came over, and he wasn’t even in our outfit. He chewed Elvis out because he didn’t have his cap on. So I told my First Sergeant about it and the man got chewed out.”

As shown in the book, Elvis would later give Norvell a special watch as thanks for being such a good friend. It was inscribed: “To Nervous Norvell From Elvis P - 1958.”

An April 10th letter from the army to Mr & Mrs Presley to reassure them about their son going into the army is fascinatingly generic. Elvis really was being treated like any other soldier. It very mundanely notes “We realise that the transition from civilian life to military service is a major one.”

The book ends on May 31st – the day Elvis would finish his basic training...

"Elvis left Fort Hood for a two-week leave. At 6:00 AM, Elvis was greeted at the gate by Anita Wood and Tom Parker. Rex Mansfield and William Norwell would go with Elvis to Memphis. They dropped Parker and Anita Wood at the Dallas air-port then drove to Memphis."

In this well deserved break Elvis would do his final and crucial 1950's RCA session in Nashville.

Patrizia Tesser, an expert about Elvis’ years in the Army, notably provided plenty of rare photos for this book - and Belard gives her major thanks in his credits.

Sidenote: Several photos and clippings are credited to the old FECC / Phoenix websites. EIN was very pleased to learn that for over the past 12 years Paul Belard has always been collecting info and pictures as he worked on not only current publications but also future projects. All with permission. So despite those sites no longer existing Belard has fortunately preserved plenty of potentially lost Elvis discoveries for his readers and fans.

Overall Verdict: Paul Belard’s detailed photo-journals of Elvis’ story always provide more of an insight than you can get from the ‘Day-by-Day’ books by Guralnick / Jorgensen and Lee Cotten. With ‘Elvis April - May 1958’ I was surprised - despite Elvis doing basically nothing carer-wise in these first two months in the army - how much more I learnt about what Elvis had to really go through at this point in his life. It would have been such a challenge - and in hind-sight we all know how ill Elvis' mother was at the time and that it was a tragic period for them to be apart.

With plenty of books presenting the wild-side of Elvis the superstar-performer in 1957, here it's revealing to see more of the "real Elvis." The photos not only capture how innocent Elvis looked as regular G.I. but also how much he loved relating to the general public while completing his patriotic duty.

 

Go here to AmazonUSA - - - AmazonUK - - - Amazon.Australia to order and for more details

Or for a signed edition Paul Belard he can contacted by email: pbelard@hotmail.com

Book Review by Piers Beagley. -Copyright EIN July 2025 EIN Website content © Copyright the Elvis Information Network. Click here to comment on this REVIEW

Some Paul Belard Books Contact the author to order: pbelard@hotmail.com (highlighted books reviewed by EIN)  Elvis November 1956 Elvis The King of the Rings Volume 1 Elvis 1956 5 July to 31 July lvis Firearm & Weapon Collector An Illustrated Compendium Elvis 1956 - First Ed Sullivan Show Elvis A Humanitarian Elvis The Gospel Singer Elvis Black and White to Technicolor Elvis January - February 1956 Elvis March 1956 Elvis April 1956 Elvis May 1956 Elvis Las Vegas April - May 1956 Elvis December 1956 Elvis in Hawaii November 1957 Elvis September 1958 Germany Bound Elvis 1960 Seven Days in March Elvis 1960 March

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Book Review - 'Marion Keisker: The Woman Who First Recorded Elvis Presley': Paul Belard's latest book is a detailed account of Marion Keisker's life and her key role in the Elvis story. "That woman was the one who had faith she was the one that pushed me... Marion did it for me" - Elvis Presley 1971 .. Marion was Sam Phillips' assistant when he established the Memphis Recording Service, and later Sun Records. She is best remembered as the first person to record Elvis in July 1953, then encouraging Sam Phillips (numerous times) to record him "commercially", therefore playing a pivotal role in Elvis' ascent towards the pinnacle of his career. Throughout interviews given, Marion discloses the workings of Sun Records, the sessions, Elvis' moods during those first days of his career. There is a trove of little known or unknown anecdotes many fans will delight in. This book is a fitting and well-deserved tribute to Marion Keisker.' Packed full of great stories, rare photos and Marion's personal recollections this is a book that any Elvis fan should enjoy. EIN's Piers Beagley spent some quality time enjoying this very fine tribute to one of the key inspirations behind the Elvis legacy... (Book Reviews, Source;ElvisInformationNetwork)

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