On August 16, 1977, 45 years ago, Elvis Presley died at age 42. The autopsy found eight different drugs in his body. Just seven years earlier, Presley was with Richard Nixon in the Oval Office to offer his assistance in fighting the war on drugs. He asked for a special agent badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. A copy of the photo of President Nixon and Elvis on that occasion is the most requested from the National Archives. Our guest, cultural journalist Alanna Nash, has spent a lot of her professional life telling the story of Elvis and his well-known manager, Colonel Tom Parker. She reveals in her book "The Colonel" that Parker was not an American and wasn’t originally named Tom Parker.         Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices