After this program, which was telecast live on Sunday, January 6,1957, the millions who were watching started to send their donations by check. By the end of this same year, 26 million Swiss Francs were received by the International Red Cross in Geneva, At the then exchange rate of 4.1 SFR to the dollar, that meant some US$6.1 million in 1957 dollars, or the equivalent of US$50 million, in todays dollars. That was a huge one year collection and ulterior undertaking even for the International Red Cross. Yet, and inspite of the fact TIME magazine named the Hungarian Freedom Fighters as their Men of the year for 1956, not a single word was ever printed in that magazine, then, or later, about Presley being the only person along with Sullivan who mounted such a fund drive on behalf of the thousands upon thousands of Hungarians of all ages whose horrible plight was caused by the Soviet Invasion, which took place between Presleys second and this, his third and final appearance at the Sullivan Show. And they (TIME), were surely aware of this, as most of the families who received the rations, and all sorts of assistance, durable and non durable, settled immediately in both Vienna and London, where TIME magazine had plenty of their foreign correspondents. Not a word about Elvis. Not a word about this, not even when he passed away and five pages ( but no cover), were written about his life, etc at the August 22, 1977 TIME magazine edition, inspite of some of this durable goods lasting and being operational until, and read this while seating down, the 1999 year LOL. But someone, someday, somewhere had to do the right thing and it came form the strangest of quarters. In 2012, or 54 years after Presley acted as he did, and 32 years after he was no longer with us, so to speak, the Mayor of Budapest, who by his own admission was not even a fan of Presleys music, posthumously thanked him as an outstanding American who helped them when they needed it the most, and what was more striking, for no apparent reason, by naming a small park after him, as well as making him one of the citys honorary citizens. The Elvis Presley Park was located just in front of the Margaret Bridge, the oldest and most significant of many bridges which unite, as they always did, the Buda and Pest sections of this, one of the worlds most strikingky beautiful cities. So, finally, credit was given where it was due, since 1957. And long live Elvis...LOL.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 14:51:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015