Posted December 20, 2020 by Jeffrey Totey This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for December 20

1957: Elvis Presley is Drafted

On this day in 1957, the hip-moving singing sensation, Elvis Presley, received his draft notice to join the U.S. Army for two years. Naturally, many fans flooded army office with letters requesting that the crooner be spared, but Elvis had no intention of backing out. After boot camp, Presley served for 18 months in Company D, 32nd Tank Battalion in Friedberg, Germany and worked his way up to sergeant. Presley was seen as a role model and after receiving a vaccination shot for polio from a doctor on national TV, vaccine rates shout up from 2 to 85 percent.

1965: ‘Supermarket Sweeps’ Debuts

Another older game show is Supermarket Sweep which first aired on ABC from this day in 1965 to July 1967. Hosted by Bill Malone, it was actually shot within real-life Food Fair supermarkets found around New York City. The show was revived for Lifetime and PAX TV with host David Ruprecht. It ran from April 1999 to 2003 with a set resembling a grocery store at Santa Clarita Studios and later NBC Studios. The show later returned for another revival in which ABC, NBC, Fox and Netflix were all interested. In the end, it was ABC who won the rights. The new show debuted on October 18, 2020 with a grocery store set at the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport with host Leslie Jones.