Elvis had performed two benefit concerts in his home city of Memphis the month before for 24 local charities.
While during a press conference for the USS Arizona Memorial benefit show, The Colonel pointed out how the 26-year-old Sergeant Presley was “about the average age of those boys entombed inside the Arizona.
According to Biography.com, Elvis was set to shoot Blue Hawaii in the US state afterwards, a film that saw his character come home from army service.
So Paramount Pictures flew The King and his Memphis Mafia out, arriving on the day of the benefit concert where he was greeted by 3000 adoring fans. Interestingly, World War II veteran and fellow Hollywood star Jimmy Stewart was on the same plane but received nowhere near as much attention.