March 9th in Elvis History

It's March ninth, and on this day in 1967... Elvis Presley suffered a serious fall in the bathroom of his Rocca Place home in Bel Air, California. While preparing for the start of filming *Clambake*, Elvis reportedly tripped over an electrical cord and struck his head on the edge of the bathtub, where he lay unconscious for several hours before being discovered. A doctor later determined he had a slight concussion and ordered rest. But the fallout wasn’t just medical—it was personal and political. Colonel Tom Parker seized the opportunity to reassert control. Deeply uneasy with Elvis’s growing fascination with spiritualism and religion, the Colonel promptly fired Larry Geller—Elvis’s hairdresser and spiritual advisor. Marty Lacker was also removed from his role as foreman of the entourage and replaced by Joe Esposito, who was instructed to take orders directly from Parker. To complete the purge, the Colonel even ordered Elvis’s collection of mystical and spiritual books to be destroyed.