MOUNT VERNON – On Saturday night, as a sellout crowd at Knox County Memorial Theatre swayed and snapped and submerged itself in rhythmic nostalgia, Robert McDaniel sat in the front row, tapping his right foot.
He laughed as Mike Mazza, co-owner of Mazza’s Italian restaurant and part-time Elvis Presley impersonator, cracked jokes in between renditions of ‘Hound Dog’ and ‘Heartbreak Hotel.’ He nodded his head as Mazza, cloaked in a Presley-styled, baby blue jumpsuit, stomped to ‘All Shook Up.’
But what most of the 900-plus in attendance didn’t know, and what McDaniel did, was that years ago, he’d seen the real thing.
Not in concert, not on the Ed Sullivan Show. McDaniel worked with The King during one of the most transformative times of his life – when he joined the U.S. Army.
McDaniel was recognized for his service on Saturday near the end of ‘The Elvis Show,’ a Knox Community Hospital fundraiser which showcased not only Mazza as Elvis, but also local musician Courtney DeCosky as Patsy Cline and actor Kelly Yerxa Lauth as Marilyn Monroe. All proceeds went to The Foundation for KCH, which will help fund the new Family Care Center.
“As always, I’m honored to have you,” Mazza told McDaniel and his family after introducing them to the crowd. “And I’m sure this is just what it was like riding around with Elvis.”
McDaniel chuckled. Not quite.
***
McDaniel and Elvis were born four months apart in 1935. While the two experienced childhoods that seemed worlds apart – McDaniel grew up on a farm in between Utica and Johnstown, Elvis began his music career in Memphis at the age of 13 – both found themselves on common ground in 1958, when they were drafted to serve in the U.S. Army.
At that point, Elvis had already become a national phenomenon, between his endless list of rockabilly hits and his budding film career. He’d released ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ and ‘Love Me Tender’ nearly two years prior, and had just scored a role in the movie ‘Jailhouse Rock.’
When his name was chosen, Elvis had options. He didn’t have to enlist as a soldier – thus shaving his wavy, black locks and putting his momentous career on hold – but he did anyways.
“I don’t think there were too many celebrities that went in the service back then,” McDaniel said on Friday afternoon, sitting in his Johnstown home with his wife, Leona, and his sister, Betty.
Betty said Elvis was offered to go on United Service Organization (USO) tours, where he would perform for deployed soldiers, instead.
“But he decided to be soldier,” she said. “That was his choice.”
At 23 years old, Elvis and McDaniel were shipped out to Friedberg, Germany to serve as platoon scouts for the 32nd Armored Division. They served during the Cold War, when Germany had been split into a ‘West’ and an ‘East’ in a time of geopolitical tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The platoon consisted of “about 30 guys,” McDaniel remembered. Elvis and McDaniel shared similar roles, as they both drove jeeps across the hills of Eastern Germany – often during the winter months – to scout enemy territory. McDaniel said that “in a real war, we’d have probably been the first ones out.”
For the most part, though, that’s where the similarities between Elvis and the rest of the platoon end.
While McDaniel drove a jeep full of soldiers out to scout, Elvis just drove the platoon leader. While the majority of the platoon slept in barracks, Elvis stayed in his father’s mansion three miles from Friedberg (McDaniel also stayed off-post, as he and Leona lived in a tiny upstairs room in a German house).
McDaniel said it seemed as if Elvis was treated differently than the rest of the platoon.
“One time, I got a heck of a cold and I went to the infirmary and they gave me a bottle of Aspirin,” McDaniel recalled with a grin on his face. “And Elvis, he got a cold, too. They put him in the hospital.”
According to a Washington Post story from March that detailed Elvis’s military history, German women chased The King constantly during his time overseas. The BBC reported that his platoon company’s mail went from one bag a day to 15.
While Elvis was clearly treated differently than the rest of the platoon, however, McDaniel said no one seemed to mind. For the most part, Elvis acted like the rest of the guys.
“I mean, he didn’t act like he was anybody else, or he didn’t act like he was a star,” McDaniel remembered.
At one point, McDaniel recalled a day where he and Elvis sat in class with the rest of the platoon. When class got out early, Elvis – who was typically transported by bodyguards throughout Germany – asked McDaniel for a ride home.
“I went out and started to get in my Opel – I had an old little Opel car, a German car – and he said, ‘Mac, how about taking me home?’” McDaniel recalled.
“And I said, ‘Yeah, jump in the car.’”
McDaniel had originally planned to swing by the house to pick Leona up. But when McDaniel honked and Leona looked out the window to find Elvis – the 23-year old icon with the jet black hair and deep Memphis drawl – in the passenger seat, she couldn’t move.
“I froze. I looked down in the car and Elvis was sitting there with Bob, and I froze,” Leona remembered 60 years later.
“I was 19, 20 years old, and I’d never been around a celebrity or anything, and I froze. Like I said, if I had to do it over again, I’d be a little bit more aggressive,” she said with a laugh.
Despite his global fame, Elvis wanted to spend time with the platoon. He visited the barracks and spent long nights with company members and their wives at dinner parties, where he took several pictures with Leona and Robert.
On Friday, the two thumbed through pocket-sized photo albums in their Johnstown home. They discussed the Christmas party of 1959, where two separate photos emerged.
“Well at least I had my arm around Priscilla…” Robert cracked.
“Well Elvis had his arm around me!” Leona fired back.
It was at a military dinner party where Elvis met Priscilla Beaulieu, his future wife, who was the daughter of an Army officer.
Many believe that, unfortunately, Elvis’s two years in the Army changed him forever. It was during that time when his mother died, and Elvis reportedly found amphetamines and alcohol as a way to heal his troubled mind.
“While Elvis was partying and quieting his inner demons with prescription medicine, the rock-and-roll scene in the United States was rapidly changing as the biggest names were sidelined by various ailments,” The Post recounted.
Upon returning to the U.S., Elvis never again regained the fame he once had. He performed but it wasn’t like before, as rock-and-roll seemed to have passed him by. Leona saw one of those performances in Columbus, years after she met Elvis in a German ballroom, and said he “was pudgy and just didn’t look good.”
That was the last time either Robert or Leona saw The King. He died unexpectedly in 1977, at the age of 42.
McDaniel said he never thought much about Elvis after he returned to the states. He went back to working for Miller Company in Utica before being redrafted a year later. After serving for nine months in Fort Meade, Maryland, McDaniel took over the family farm. He farmed 250 acres of soybeans and corn, and eventually combined for different local farmers, as he was one of the few farmers in the area that possessed such technology.
Interestingly enough, McDaniel remembers the day Elvis died. He was working on construction at the Heath Air Force base when his boss came in and said, ‘Your buddy died.’
“And I said, ‘Who’s that?’” McDaniel recalled. “And he said, ‘Elvis.’”
Looking back on it now, 60 years later, McDaniel still remembers that two-year stretch vividly. While he said his family and friends are “probably tired of it,” McDaniel said that up until recently, most of the community didn’t seem to know his story – except for Mike Mazza.
When McDaniel’s son went to eat at his restaurant, he told Mazza – who has performed Elvis hits for years – about his father’s story.
“And evidently, Mazza kind of spread it around or something, and it just went from there,” McDaniel said, chuckling.
When KCH was informed of McDaniel’s story, it jumped at the opportunity.
“It is always an honor and privilege to meet and spend time with those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom,” KCH Marketing and Development Director Jeffrey Scott said. “Being able to recognize Mr. McDaniel in Mount Vernon’s Memorial Theatre, and in light of his connection of service with Elvis Presley, seemed like a great opportunity.
“We are grateful to him for sharing his story with us.”
***
While Saturday night’s show certainly wasn’t the real thing, Mount Vernon didn’t care. People of all ages nodded along to Mazza’s life-like renditions, and they snickered when he said “Thank you, thank you very much” after every song.
Mazza made regular ventures into the crowd to pass out red scarves and teddy bears, and he even dedicated his performance of ‘The Wonder of You’ to his late father, Mike Sr.
Bruce White, Knox Community Hospital CEO, sat midway up the balcony with friends while enjoying the performances of DeCosky, Mazza and Lauth. He seemed humbled by the spirit of the sellout crowd.
“It’s awesome. It’s incredible. It’s great to see the support, but it’s about the community too. It’s nice seeing everybody come out and just have a good time together,” White said during intermission.
“This is the first time that we’ve had a large concert like this, and we sold out. Somebody told me the last time this place was sold out was like 40 years ago, when Johnny Cash was here or something like that. So it’s pretty great.”
White said the event was just as much a ‘friend-raiser’ as it was a fundraiser, as The Foundation hoped to bring the community together in support of a good cause. He also lauded the talent of DeCosky, who had just performed Patsy Cline hits such as ‘I Fall to Pieces’ and ‘Back in Baby’s Arms’ while spending her entire time on-stage in full character.
“You know what’s so nice about it, is the fact that we have people like that in our community, number one,” White said. “It’s incredible the amount of talent we have. Mike and DeCosky – I mean, what a voice, you know?”
White hoped that the performance would provide a healthy dose of nostalgia for the Knox County community.
“It’s nice nostalgia. Everybody loves going back to the early music. I’m getting a little bit old; the music I hear today just doesn’t do the same thing that it used to years ago. So that’s really nice,” White said. “And the fact that we have folks that will do that in support of our local community and our community hospital, it’s what makes Knox County great.”
Charlene Lepley, a Mount Vernon native, came from Loudonville to see Saturday night’s show with her family. She said that while she didn’t grow up listening to Elvis, she listens to him on the radio now. Standing in the balcony hallway after the show, she smiled from ear to ear.
“I thought it was great. I thought it was really good, I loved it,” Lepley said. “I’m so glad I got to come down.”
Scott estimated that the show raised more than $30,000 for The Foundation.
“We are obviously thrilled that so many people came out for the event and are grateful for our community’s support of Knox Community Hospital and The Foundation for KCH,” Scott said.
The Family Care Center, which The Foundation will fund through donations and fundraisers like the one on Saturday night, will house KCH family medicine providers, pediatricians, OB/GYN providers, cardiology practices and cardiac rehab, women’s diagnostic imaging, endocrinology, a new lab and an improved birthing center.
KCH held the groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility in July, and White told Knox Pages at the time that he estimated construction would take 20 to 24 months. The four-story, 80,000-square foot facility will rest on the hill east of the Knox Medical Pavilion. It will cost $45 million from start to finish, White said.
As for McDaniel, Saturday was an opportunity to have his story told. He sat in the front row, alongside Leona and Betty, as Mazza saluted him before leaning into the mic to begin his show.
McDaniel wore a navy hat with ‘Spearhead’ printed across the front, emblematic of the division in which he and Elvis served.
He tapped his foot and nodded his head – a living, breathing, local connection to America’s hip-swinging, rock-and-roll past.
“You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time,” Mazza began, backup singers humming along behind him.
Not quite the Christmas party of ‘59, but close enough.
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