March 25: Elvis & the USS Arizona

On this date in History ..... 1961:

Elvis Presley performs a charity concert to raise money for the building of the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. 

 

The fundraising for the memorial had slowed down tremendously. Elvis’s concert raised over $50,000 but more important than that, it lit a second fire under the fundraising efforts and the donations again began pouring in, reaching the $500,000 that was needed.  One year later, on Memorial Day in 1962, the memorial was dedicated. Two days after the concert, Elvis began filming the movie “Blue Hawaii”. 

 

In 1973, Elvis’s 1973 pre-broadcast rehearsal show for the “Aloha from Hawaii” concert was free but asked that attendees pay what they could. The money went to the Kui Lee Cancer Fund in Hawaii.