In January 1964, Elvis Presley became the owner of a piece of American history. It was the USS Potomac, the presidential yacht of Franklin D. Roosevelt — the boat FDR had used to escape Washington, conduct government business in private, and, during the Second World War, to reach a top-secret meeting with Winston Churchill.
Elvis paid $55,000 for it at auction on January 30. He owned it for about two weeks. And here’s the part that makes the story: he only ever set foot on it once.
The whole thing was Colonel Tom Parker’s idea. By 1964, the boat had become a tourist attraction in Long Beach, California, had fallen into poor condition, and was heading for the scrapyard. Parker spotted an opportunity — buy it in Elvis’s name, give it away to charity, and collect the tax benefit and the publicity in one move. So he bid, and he won.
The plan made lovely sense on paper. Give it to the March of Dimes — the charity FDR himself founded to fight polio, the disease that put him in a wheelchair — and let them turn the presidential yacht into a national shrine. Perfect.
Elvis Bought a President’s Yacht for $55,000 Then NOBODY Would Take It (1964)
They said no. After months of neglect, the Potomac needed serious repairs, and the March of Dimes couldn’t afford to keep it afloat. So Elvis offered it instead to the Coast Guard Auxiliary in Miami, who accepted — until the Navy found out what they actually planned to do with it: sell it for scrap and use the money to buy themselves a new clubhouse. The Navy blocked it.
Newspapers began mocking the whole business, calling the yacht a white elephant. The generous gesture was turning into an embarrassment.
Finally, a third option appeared, and it was the right one: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, founded by the actor Danny Thomas, and one of Elvis’s favorite causes. Elvis had helped St. Jude before, appearing at a Memphis fundraiser back in 1957 where 14,000 people turned out — even though he didn’t sing a note.
Elvis Gives Away A Yacht – 1964 (Footage & Audio synch)
The handover was set for Long Beach. Which left one small problem: the yacht looked awful, and the press were coming. Parker asked the port how much it would cost to clean and paint the thing. He was told three days and $18,000. There wasn’t time. So he asked the question that has become legendary: “How much if you just paint the side that faces the dock?” For $8,000 they could do exactly that and rope off the rest. Parker said do it.
And so, on February 14, 1964, Elvis Presley walked down a dock in a grey suit, was mobbed by fans, and handed Danny Thomas the keys and deed to Franklin Roosevelt’s yacht — with half of it freshly painted and the other half hidden behind a rope. Thomas’s verdict on him afterward was: “Elvis is a great humanitarian.” St. Jude, who were quite reasonably in the hospital business and not the boat business, sold it on for $62,500 and put the money to work.
The Potomac itself had a wild life afterward. In 1980 it was seized during a drug smuggling raid, then sank near Treasure Island in California. The Navy refloated it and sold it to the Port of Oakland for $15,000. Volunteers spent $5 million restoring it. Today, Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential yacht is a National Historic Landmark — and it’s still afloat, largely because Elvis Presley bought it before anyone could turn it into scrap metal.