THE DAY ELVIS COULD HAVE LOST HIS VOICE FOREVER

In May 1957, Elvis had to be hospitalized because he suffered a serious accident that could have cost him his career as a singer.

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He was shooting the movie Jailhouse Rock at the MGM studio in Hollywood, California, and while doing a dance sequence, one of his porcelain dental caps came off, which he unfortunately swallowed and slipped down his windpipe and lodged in his right lung. The accident is believed to have taken place during the filming of the famous choreography of Elvis dancing with the prisoners, singing Jailhouse Rock.

When he began experiencing pain on the film set, he was immediately taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, where X-rays showed that the casing was lodged in his lung.

For this reason, the doctors had to perform an emergency bronchoscopy and, by suction, managed to remove the sheath from his lung. The risk was obviously that they had to insert tubes down his throat, with the risk of affecting his vocal cords, and the doctors were afraid that they would not be able to do this without affecting his throat or his respiratory system.

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Fortunately, they did not have to make any incisions and the procedure was a success.

An MGM spokesman said Elvis would remain in the hospital overnight and would probably recuperate at his hotel for the next two days.

As he left the hospital, a group of nurses began to appear everywhere, to see and escort Elvis, who dressed in a blue silk shirt and red jacket, walked from the hospital to his Cadillac.

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Fortunately Elvis recovered and it all turned out to be a scare and Elvis continued with the filming of the movie and his scheduled engagements.

It is curious how this incident is closely related to the plot of the film. Since at the end of the film, the protagonist Vince Everett (played by Elvis), who is also a singer, loses his voice in a fight, although he recovers it at the end, in the famous final scene of the film in which he interprets the song “Young and Beautiful“.