Review Elvis December 58 - May 1959

The ink of visual biographer Paul Belard’s ‘Elvis 59 - April - May‘ hadn’t dried yet when ‘Elvis 58 - December’ already dropped on the doormat. Therefore, here is this 2-for-1 personal walkthrough review of the two books, released in October and November 2024, covering 3 months in detail from a six months period from Elvis’ Army years in Germany.

 

Design

 

Belard added further detail to the ever growing Elvis Presley timeline, sticking to his format: a photobook focusing on one, two or three months of Elvis life with some additional (reproductions of original) articles, paperwork and memorabilia. 

 

The reproductions of original articles place the photographs in the correct context. I hope Belard will consider adding some more text to these books as he has a pleasant writing style and his biography format from his works on Bill Black and “The Jester” (aka Colonel Parker), which presents content as short stories, would work very well here.

 

Presented on a white background, the photographs - most black and white with some color(ed) ones in between - stand out better than in the previous black design the author used. The image quality still varies too much, unfortunately, but Belard wants to be as complete as possible, so we take the good with the bad here.

 

Content

 

I like to think of these books as little timeboxes, opening these you’ll always find something you remember and something that surprises you. And why a walkthrough? Well for us European fans Elvis’ years in Germany are as close as it gets to walking a mile in his shoes. 

 

In April and May 1958 we follow Elvis on winter maneuvers in Grafenwöhr (south-east Germany, near the Czech border) with the Russian Army just a few miles away. This godforsaken remote place is one of the last places in Germany I need to complete my ‘In The Footsteps of Elvis” trips in Europe. When we were on a family holiday, the family didn’t see the fun of a two-hour trip to no man’s land … Can you relate to that as an Elvis fan?

 

At the end of the month he returned to Bad Nauheim and Frankfurt where he leased his BMW 507 car. Bad Nauheim is the No. 1 Elvis-town in Germany and the BMW is on display at the BMW-Welt car museum in München. Can you imagine Elvis "workday"? Driving to work is a tuned sportster that was previously owned by a racer, only to step into an old army jeep? 

Having visited both places, something I can advise to all fans, especially as it is part of the Elvis story - this book brings back good memories. 

 

Also covered in this volume are the March of Dimes photoshoot and a visit to the Holiday on Ice show. Fun to see that not only the young girls get a smile on their face when they manage to obtain a signature from Elvis, so do the older men (who could be their fathers). 

 

I must compliment Paul Belard on collecting all these images and relevant articles to present this complete overview. I’ve seen many of these before, but presented here on the Elvis time-line with articles and paperwork providing the correct context, they help me to complete and understand all the fragments I recognized. It puts a picture, literally, to the Elvis locations. 

Moving up 4 months on the timeline, to April and May 1959, we see Elvis relaxing at home playing records and his Isana jazz guitar. Seeing all these images I’m actually surprised to see how many of the “relaxed at home” photographs ended up on the front and back-covers of Elvis releases, even in 2024! 

 

A few days later it is open house at Ray Barracks in celebration of the eighteenth anniversary of the 3rd Armored Division. The main attraction may very well be the tour guide … Elvis, who is involved in taking visitors around. 

It’s nice to see even Vernon taking the tour of the barracks too, and many of his Army buddies wanting to get a picture. I would have expected to see more locals at an open house, wanting to learn what those Americans were doing in their village.

We also see Elvis in Steinfurth, where he assists (for the cameras only) in erecting a memorial monument honoring veterans of World War I. Another “to-do” item for my next trip to Germany.

 

This is followed by four lucky girls who won a contest to have tea with Elvis, organized by the German mag­azine Star Review. The article with the personal memories of one of the girls, Miss Rose­marie Kiel, sounds so real, including all the awkwardness of meeting an idol, that I felt like I was watching over her shoulder while she went to see Elvis. 

As a fan it is in teresting to get a look inside the house he rented on the Goethestraße 14 in Bad Nauheim, because as a fan I could only walk up to the gate so many years later. 

 

And how casual the setting may have been, and how traditional (or old-man-style) Elvis dressed for the occasion, on some of the images he is that hunk all those girls fell for!

 

Great to see pictures from the secret Farewell party for Ira Jones, the Sergeant Elvis drove around for a “daytime job”. While on the road, they shared a lot and became Army buddies. Elvis had brought his Jailhouse Rock jacket with him to Europe, it’s nice to see him wear it on a night out with the boys and girls. 

 

While in Germany our man did several photoshoots, but only one for record covers, Belard collected a nice overview from the publicity photo shoot in Frankfurt, where Don Cravens was the photographer. Looking back now, you realize how many of these images ended up on a record cover. 

At the end of the book there’s a great picture of some “young ladies” (young of mind that is) with Elvis. General opinion may have been that Elvis’ rise marked a generation gap, but looking at that image, there was no gap at all! This is one of the best / fun pictures in the book.

In between, the BMW 507 pops up several times in the background of some photographs, connecting the two books. The day-by-day overview of April and May ends with more fans, and Elvis playing some guitar. This is reason enough for me to play some of his German home-recordings again, really stepping into the world I see before me.  

 

Conclusion

 

These two volumes are insightful contributions to the Elvis Presley timeline, bringing back nice Elvis memories. The books don’t feature all the images that the 'Elvis - Like Any Other Soldier' book by Jerry Osborne and Barbara Hahn includes, but the pictures are presented in a more pleasing way, less scattered all over the pages - and with the correct date, so you get a better feel for the timeline. 

If Paul Belard continues at this rate, building from the bookshelf he has already started to fill, the fifties will be covered in no time.

The author informed me that he is working on several Army books, four on 1958, six or seven volumes on 1959 and three on Elvis' Army years in the sixties. When he is done, he will have published 15 or 16 books on Elvis in the Army, with more pictures than have ever been shown so far. 

The book, and all other volumes in this series, are available from the autor and online from Amazon. For the 'Elvis 58 - December' >>> click here. For the Elvis 59 April May' book >>> click here (associate links).

You can also buy your signed copy directly from the author. You can >>> contact him here by mail.