Sold Out Shows On Super 8

Sold Out! The Ultimate 8 mm Collection Vol.10 features fan footage from 1976–1977.

The tenth volume in the Sold Out! The Ultimate 8 mm Collection series, featuring 8 mm footage filmed by fans who attended some of his concerts in 1976 and 1977, confirms Elvis deteriorating condition during the last face of his career. But it also shows that Elvis, in periods, could get back in shape, and move around the stage like his old self, delivering solid performances.  

His first tour in 1976 is represented by fan-shot footage from Johnson City, March 17 and Charlotte three days later. I especially enjoyed the evening performance in Charlotte, featuring footage in good quality. Granted, Elvis looks a bit heavy in his bicentennial suit, but he sings well and seems to be having a good time. 

Maybe he put in a little extra effort due to the fact that he had a new pianist (Shane Keister) and drummer (Larry Londin) with him. Larry Londin can be seen behind his drums, belting away with a smile on his face, clearly enjoying himself. "Good job, man," Elvis tells him after his drum solo during the introductions. And at the end of "Polk Salad Annie," Larry Londin really lets loose on the drums while Elvis throws the mike and does some karate moves. Really cool.

It is also enjoyable to watch Elvis interact with a couple of kids that are lifted up on stage, especially a boy dressed in a home made jumpsuit. "Can he do imitations? Can he sing 'Hound Dog' honey?" Elvis asks the boys mother, then launches himself into the song, urging the boy to sing along, the boy looking up at him, then looking down again, shaking his head at his mother. He was probably shy or scared stiff. But he must have gained courage, as he is back on stage a while later, receiving a scarf and a kiss from Elvis. 

Each volume in the series includes two DVD discs.

Three months later, Elvis takes the stage in Charleston (July 24), and one week after that, New Haven is on the tour schedule (July 30). Not only does the footage reveal that Elvis has gained more weight, he also moves slower and with less energy. And he sounds tired, exhausted and out of breath, especially on the New Haven concert. 

Still, there is no mistaking the excitement flooding through the arena as Elvis enters the stage, with all those flash bulbs going off and a lot of people in the audience screaming at the top of their lungs. And there are some enjoyable moments, like when Elvis hands soprano singer Kathy Westmoreland a scarf at the end of "The Hawaiian Wedding Song." But as a whole, this is one of the weakest concerts with Elvis that I know of. 

On October 22, Elvis was captured on super 8 film while performing in Champaign, and the transformation is almost unbelievable. Positive things had obviously started to happen, as he is much leaner and radiates more energy. Also, he moves around a lot more, right from the start during "See See Rider," and his singing reveals a more powerful voice. A great example of this is "You Gave Me A Mountain," a song that is so much stronger than the version from New Haven three months before. 

Another great moment is seeing him throw his guitar to Charlie Hodge after the ending of the "I Got A Woman"/"Amen" routine. The footage from Champaign actually reminded me of how Elvis moved and looked during his Pittsburgh concert on New Years Eve two months later. And it certainly helps that he is wearing a new jumpsuit as well, the Inca Gold Leaf suit. 

Therefore, it is a bit sad to watch the footage from Tempe (March 23, 1977) and Norman, filmed two days later, revealing that things have gone to worse again. The volume ends on a more positive note, with Elvis' Chicago performance on May 2, 1977, an above average show that year with Elvis in a good mood and voice. 

Content and running time of the tenth volume.

Releases such as the Sold Out! The Ultimate 8 mm Collection series don't change history. But they do paint a more varied picture of what it was like seeing Elvis on stage during the 1970's, and the tenth volume is no exception. Like I wrote at the beginning of this post, 1976 and 1977 was a downhill slide for Elvis, but watching the super 8 footage it is evident that for short periods of time, he got his act together, looking and performing better.

Let Us Pray – That’s The Way It Never Was

The close up with the guitar (middle shot) is in fact taken from the "Rubberneckin'" scene earlier in the movie. The clothes and the guitar itself gives it away.

I thought I had it all figured out. This was going to be a great post. However, it didn’t turn out that way at all, despite some hard work behind the keyboard. Here is what happened.

It all began while watching a video clip on YouTube of Elvis singing “Let Us Pray” in Father Gibbons’ Church at the end of the movie Change Of Habit. Suddenly it hit me that there was something wrong with the close-ups that showed Elvis’ hand strumming his guitar. The clothes and the guitar itself were not the same as in the other shots. In fact, they were taken from the beginning of the film where Elvis is belting out “Rubberneckin’” in Dr. John Carpenter’s apartment above the clinic.

Now, why had I not noticed this before? I did a quick google search, typing, “elvis let us pray scene movie blooper” but found nothing. Was I really the first one to have spotted this? I googled a bit more, changing the words some, but the result was the same. Not a thing.

I then looked up the editor on Wikipedia. Douglas Stewart (March 29, 1919-March 3, 1995) was an American film and television editor who won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for the film The Right Stuff (1983) along with four co-editors. Could such a professional really have cheated while editing the ending of Change Of Habit, using close-ups from another scene? Or had he somehow mixed up the footage, not realizing his mistake?

Whatever the reason, I got the idea to write a blog post about how those close-ups ended up in the final scene, using a bit of fiction. To get some inspiration, I read a couple of passages in Jerry Schilling’s book Me and a Guy Named Elvis that dealt with him becoming a film editor during the late 60’ and early 70’s. 

I was then ready to start typing something like this:

Douglas Stewart’s editing room in the basement of one of the post-production buildings at Universal Pictures was full of various reels of dialogue, songs and sound effects. As an assistant editor, it was my job to allow Douglas Stewart to work uninterrupted and I took great pride in maintaining order and structure in the editing room.

My plan was to have the assistant editor make a blunder, handing over close-up footage from the “Rubberneckin’” scene to Douglas Stewart who was busy editing the final of the movie, neither of them noticing the mix up. The assistant editor would spot the mistake when Change Of Habit was about to hit the cinemas, but by then it would be too late. Or something like that.

As I attended the premiere on November 10 I felt a sense of pride, having played a minor part in the editing of the movie. But that feeling was replaced by a chill running down my spine as I realized that the close-ups of Elvis guitar didn’t match the rest of the footage in the "Let Us Pray" movie final. What had happened?

Getting comfortable in front of my laptop I decided to watch the clip on YouTube once more before starting to hammer away at the keyboard. As I watched the scene unfold it was painfully clear that Douglas Stewart wasn’t to blame. Neither was my fictional assistant editor. In fact, no one was, as the clip was clearly re-edited and remixed long after the actual movie was finished in 1969. 

No doubt the footage from "Rubberneckin'" had been used intentionally to create this version (which was released on a bootleg DVD called Born To Rock 3, something I would have known had I bothered to read the text under the video clip).  

Why hadn't I spotted this before? I found another clip, this time of  the real ending, and sure enough, the close-ups with the guitar were nowhere in sight. And of course the whole scene was edited completely different. I felt like a fool.

On Stage On Super 8

Because so few of Elvis' live concerts were professionally filmed, fans have to turn to amateur super 8 footage to get an idea of what it was like to see him on stage during a certain tour or engagement. I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when my brother sent me the link to a clip on Youtube from Elvis' January/February 1970 Las Vegas "On Stage" session. 

One of the first times I came in contact with fan footage was when I ordered the VHS Return To Splendour from the British fan club back in 1994 (it was released on DVD 10 years later). It was fascinating to follow Elvin live on stage from 1969 up to 1975, but unfortunately it was silent concert footage. The narrator Anne Nixon did a great job describing the different jumpsuits but I missed the sound of Elvis.

Things have improved since then. Thanks to the availability of soundboards and modern technology, it's possible to sync footage and sound with the help of video editing software. Although I guess it takes a lot of patience to do a really good job.

Elvis launching himself into "That's All Right" at Madison Square Garden.
Notice the man passing, oblivious of this historical moment.

One example that works really well is the 20 minutes of fan-shot footage from the June 10, 1972 afternoon show at Madison Square Garden. Synched with audio, it was released on the 2 CD+DVD set Like A Prince From Another Planet in 2012, including a complete performance of "That's All Right."

Another release worth mentioning is the bootleg Final Countdown To Midnight box set from 2014, featuring the nearly complete Pittsburgh New Year's Eve concert  from December 31, 1976. Apparently quite a few fans in the audience that night brought along a super 8 camera, as the DVD includes a lot of multi-camera angles, with perfect sound synchronization. My brother and I actually watched it together one New Year's Eve, I think for the 50th anniversary of the show. We had a great time.

No less than three super 8 cameras captured Elvis during his "I Got A Woman"/"Amen"
routine on New Year's Eve in Pittsburgh, 1976.

I really wish FTD would to something along the same lines. That is, release a DVD with super 8 footage in great quality synched with sound. 

The 2018 documentary Elvis Presley: The Searcher features super 8 film of Elvis performing "An American Trilogy" from what I guess must be the June/July tour in 1973, and the quality is amazing. So how about releasing more of where that came from, together with a book and a CD? What a great FTD project that could be.

Exceptional quality on this super 8 footage having Elvis singing "An American Trilogy" in 1973, used in the documentary Elvis Presley: The Searcher.

A recent example of fan footage complete with sound (I'm guessing both original and dubbed) is the SOLD OUT! volumes, 2 DVD sets containing rare 8 mm footage from the collector Rex Martin. Apparently there was some controversy surrounding the release of this material, as a lot of the footage has been made available on YouTube as well. 

But back to the clip from Elvis' second Las Vegas engagement, in January/February 1970. "Fun to watch," my brother wrote in the email that included the link to Youtube, and it was. During the 3 minutes and 42 seconds that it played, I got to watch and listen to snippets of no less than 11 songs:

• All Shook Up
• I Got A Woman
• Long Tall Sally
• Don't Cry Daddy
• Let It Be Me
• I Can't Stop Loving You
• Walk A Mile In My Shoes
• Sweet Caroline
• Polk Salad Annie
• Suspicious Minds
• Can't Help Falling In Love

Once again, this time with the help of 8mm footage with synched sound, I was reminded of why the On Stage album is one of my favorites, and how incredible it must have been to to see Elvis in person. 

The only thing I can't figure out is what sound source has been used. "All Shook Up" has, to my knowledge, only been officially released on the FTD album The On Stage Session: The Opening And Closing Shows - February, 1970, but "Walk A Mile In My Shoes" is only featured on CD 1 (Opening Show) and "I Got A Woman" on CD 2 (Closing Show), so maybe both were used? Or a bootleg?

A final note: Obviously some of the super 8 fan footage was shot with sound, but the one from February 1970 is not. When the screen goes black between the snippets of footage the sound continues. My theory is that the person behind the camera didn't bring along any spare cassettes of film, just the one in the camera which was enough for 3 minutes and 20 seconds of filming (that explains the short sequences). As the clip clocks at 3 minutes and 42 seconds with sound running all the time, it can't be shot together with the film. And besides, the first super 8 sound on film cassette was not released until 1973. Before that, it was a silent system only.

Soldier Boy

Elvis and his fellow recruits. Still image from footage by Frank Koza.

On this day, 63 years ago, Elvis entered the Army by reporting to the draft board in Memphis at 6:35 a.m. After a physical at the Kennedy Veterans Hospital he and the other recruits boarded a bus that took them to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, where they  arrived late in the evening. The next day began with reveille at 5:30 a.m. (it was the military, after all), after which followed further processing. 

At the beginning of this year, 18 minutes of new footage documenting Elvis' first two days in the Army, was made available on the Chicago Film Archives website. Shot by Frank Koza, one of the many photographers and reporters covering this historical moment, it shows Elvis putting on a brave face. But the camera also captures the uncertainty he obviously is feeling about what is going to happen. The same goes for his parents, especially Gladys, who looks devastated. 

Another thing I thought of while watching the footage, which is mostly silent but in excellent quality, is how intrusive the cameras were allowed to be. It couldn't have been easy for Elvis having a couple of cameras practically in his face while filling out some paperwork, or being filmed and photographed taking his clothes off and standing on the scale in his underpants. Still, to his credit, he endured it all.

Elvis looking a bit anxious. Still image from footage by Frank Koza.

Some 30 years later, I started my military service in the Royal Swedish Navy. There were no cameras present, but I think I can relate to some of what Elvis was going through as seen in the footage by Frank Koza. My face must have shown the same anxiety, and I remember the nervousness I felt. I had no idea what was going to happen, and I don't think Elvis had either.

In the end, it turned out all right. I made some close friends and adapted to military life, as did Elvis. On the bus to Fort Chaffee he met Rex Mansfield who was inducted the same day and would become one of his best army buddies. Later on he befriended fellow soldier Charlie Hodge, who also did his basic and advanced training at Ford Hood, Texas. They would bond during the crossing to West Germany and stay close friends until Elvis died in 1977. 

And though Elvis' life was affected in many more ways than mine during the service – starting with the loss of his mother – I guess he never forgot those first days in the military. I know I never will.

• Elvis enters the Army 3-24-58 (1958, Frank Koza Collection)
• Elvis spends his first day at camp 3-25-58 (1958, Frank Koza Collection)

To My Surprise! (Reprise)

On August 22 last year I wrote a post called “To My Surprise!” after having returned from a one week holiday in a Danish cottage where I had no access to the Internet. The post dealt with me finding out that Ernst Jorgensen had announced the upcoming FTD release 48 Hours To Memphis while I was away. Featuring a professional recording of Elvis' concert in Richmond on March 18, 1974, this was big news indeed.

My buddy Troy Y. who runs The Mystery Train Blog must have remembered that post. Because today, aboard a ferry from Denmark to Sweden after another vacation in Denmark without the Internet, an e-mail was waiting for me as I checked my inbox on my smartphone. Titled “Doesn't the biggest Elvis news always break while you are away?” it went like this:

First, the fantastic live recording of "I Forgot To Remember To Forget" surfaces, and now PRINCE FROM ANOTHER PLANET 2 CD/1 DVD set is announced covering MSG!

Thomas, if you keep going away, all us Elvis fans are gonna go broke! ;)

Reading this, I immediately visited my favorite Elvis sites to learn more (a good thing the ferry had WI-FI aboard). My wife, sitting beside me with our 21 months old daughter in her lap, ready to give her some food, sighed as I became absorbed with the big Elvis news that had broken during our stay in Denmark.

As I quickly found out, Troy Y. himself had actually written a great piece about the out-of-the-blue clip on Youtube of Elvis singing “I Forgot To Remember To Forget” live on the Louisiana Hayride radio show in 1955. He actually sent me a link to the clip on the very day I went off to Denmark, so unfortunately I just missed it. How typical, as it is now removed from YouTube.

But, as Troy points out in an update, this may in fact be a really good sign, as Ernst Jorgensen is “now in contact with the owner.” Hopefully, it will see an official release soon (it's not part of the new FTD box set A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-55 Recordings, as Ernst himself didn't know about its existence either. “Wow it's unbelievably beautiful. I'm still trying to recover from the shock,” was his reaction).

As if this piece of news wasn't enough, I also learned that it was announced yesterday that Sony Music will release Prince From Another Planet, a Madison Square Garden 40th Anniversary Set on September 28. The set will include a 40 minute DVD with never-before-seen footage of Elvis' performance at The Garden' in June 1972 along with two remastered CDs of the June 10 afternoon and evening shows.

My eyes glued to the screen of my smartphone, I remembered the posts about lost footage from The Garden that I wrote in 2009 and 2010, wondering about the content of the DVD. I was then brought back to reality by my wife, asking me to remove some food from her clothes courtesy of our daughter.

“Seems like the biggest Elvis news always break while I'm away,” I told her with a silly grin on my face, grabbing a paper napkin and halfheartedly starting to wipe away spilled yoghurt from her trousers. Once again, Elvis was foremost on my mind. 

Elvis '56 – 25 Years Later

The whole family coming down with the flu hasn't left much time for Elvis. I have, however, managed to spend an hour alone on the couch, recuperating with my DVD copy of Elvis '56.

As it was ages since I watched this documentary TV special (it originally aired in 1987), I didn't quite know what to expect. But I was pleasantly surprised by how well it had withstood the ravages of time. By mixing still shots (many of them by Alfred Wertheimer) with filmed footage it effectively tells the story of Elvis' breakthrough year, 1956.

I especially liked the way the documentary early on switches from a clip of Perry Como singing his recent hit “Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)” on NBC to one of Elvis ripping into “Baby Let's Play House” over at CBS. This kind of editing successfully manages to put the point across that Elvis had “nothing in common with the white bread tunes from the Hit Parade of 1956.”

Some of the vintage clips I remembered, like the one in color from Elvis on stage during his SUN days. Really incredible stuff! There are also some great footage of Elvis in Las Vegas, both while performing and visiting Liberace's show, as well as film of him on stage in his gold lame suit.

But in the end it's the TV appearances that make Elvis '56 so exciting. After all, this is what it looked like when Elvis entered the living rooms of millions of Americans, many of whom didn't know what to make of him at first.

Watching Elvis sing his raw and bluesy version of “Hound Dog” on The Milton Berle Show is maybe the most telling example, as this performance caused an outraged reaction in newspapers across the country. What an humiliating experience it must have been to sing the same song dressed in a tuxedo to a real dog on The Steve Allen Show about a month later.

Thankfully, this was to become the only glimpse of the “new Elvis.” A few days later, Elvis made an outdoor concert appearance in Memphis at which he announced, “You know, those people in New York are not gonna change me none. I'm gonna show you what the real Elvis is like tonight.”

Even though it's 25 years since its original release, Elvis '56 still feels surprisingly fresh. In my opinion it manages to tell the story of the 21 year old singer's rise to national and international stardom in a credible way. And to think that it all happened during just one year!

A final note: in the book Elvis: His Life From A to Z there's the following passage about Elvis '56: “Particularly interesting were the recording-session tapes of “Hound Dog” and “Don't Be Cruel.” If my ears don't betray me it sounds like authors Fred L. Worth and Steve D. Tamerius were fooled by directors Alan and Susan Raymond using studio banter from a completely different session, one done many years later for the movie G.I. Blues.

Elvis At Fresno Air Terminal Footage

It's always exciting to learn of new footage with Elvis. Today was no exception. Thanks to the Elvis Information Network I found myself watching a clip on YouTube of Elvis at the Fresno Air Terminal as he departs the day after performing his two back-to-back sold-out shows at Fresno's Selland Arena, April 26, 1973.

Lasting about three and a halv minutes,the footage shows the yellow "flying banana" DC-9 aircraft from Hughes Airwest as it arrives at the terminal, then one of the flight attendants looking excited with a camera in her hand, and finally the arrival of two limousines, Elvis exiting the last one, looking cool in one of his Cisco Kid suits, waving in the direction of the camera.

Other familiar faces include Vernon, Red West (wearing a Super Fly hat), Charlie Hodge, Dr. Nick, Joe Esposito and James Caughley a.k.a. "Hamburger James."

Watching the footage I noticed that more than one super 8 camera must have been present as the sequence of Elvis climbing aboard the plane is shown twice, from different angles. Another proof of this is the camera capturing a woman bouncing with happiness, movie camera in hand, as the plane is taxiing away.

I was pleased to see that the closing credits proved me right, stating that the "footage was taken by my mom & aunt¨." Reading this I also understood who the happy boy and girl featured in the footage were, and I smiled to myself as the next line scrolled over the screen: "Of course we missed school that day ;)"

Also check out:
Louisville footage (posted June 1, 2010)

Movie Outtakes – The Comments

Going through my old posts preparing the “manuscript” for my book The Elvis Today Blog Vol. 1, I sometimes stumble across comments made long after a particular post was written. One such comment, from February 22, 2010, was written in conjunction with a post from February 1, 2008, in other words, two years after the post was published.

The post, titled Lost In The Vaults – Movie Outtakes, referred to an article in Elvis Monthly from September 1994. In it, Ernst Jorgensen writes about the possibilities of movie outtakes, such as the original ending of Love Me Tender as well as “Summer Kisses Winter Tears” from Flaming Star.

The comment, posted by Norton McColl who ran an Elvis fan club in Brazil for many years, goes likes this:

One thing I learnt is that most of Elvis movies presented in Brazilian movie theatres had alternative scenes. Here it goes. KING CREOLE has shown the alternative hotel scene where Elvis and Susan Hart actually got inside the room. GI BLUES had the alternative TONIGHT IS ALL RIGHT FOR LOVE (Vienna Woods) scene which is completely different than the one released later. SPEEDWAY had the FIVE SLEEPY HEADS scene where he actually sings to 5 babies. HARUM SCARUM had two extra scenes included which are ANIMAL INSTINCT with a black panther circulating and WISDOM OF THE AGES where Elvis bows to the King at the end of this latter song.
I do not know for sure whatelse we could see in the movie theatres in the 50´s and 60`s. I wish we had VHS sets at that time. But it looks like they always use South America to show alternative scenes. The same happened with Hammer horror movies productions whose bloody scenes in full colour were later cut from released VHS's and DVD's.

And a couple of days later, editing a post called Unreleased Frames from April 13, 2009 dealing with songs shown in trailers but not in the movies themselves, I noticed a comment written two weeks later by a guy named Rick Norman along the same lines:

Well, I can tell you as much :
"Summer kisses winter tears" certainly was filmed as it was only cut after preview (because of test audience laughing at the scene).
"Steppin' out of line" has a short sequence in European prints.
The same with "Anyone" from "Kissin' Cousins".
Both songs from "Harum Scarum" were seen in prints distributed in the Middle East and "Sand castles" was also present in Europe, following the "House of sand" sequence.
Having worked in the movie and tv-world for 42 years, I strongly suspect all songs will have been filmed. They were probably cut for different reasons and some reappeared in different prints to be distributed in countries that had other copyright laws or interests. FTD and EPE must be unable to clear the rights or retrieve the actual scenes, otherwise they sure would have published them in new versions of the movie DVD's.
I know they have severe problems with copy rights for some of the movie song versions and that they're trying like hell to clear those.

It's interesting that both Norton McColl and Rick Norman mentions the inclusion of “Animal Instinct” and “Wisdom Of The Ages” in prints of Harum Scarum shown in South America and the Middle East, respectively. Maybe one day they'll turn up in on a compilation DVD together with the other songs mentioned above. And wouldn't it be something if it would include “Hard Headed Woman” from King Creole as well as the Clambake number “How Can You Loose What You Never Had?”

Wild In The Country – The Deleted Scenes

In the September 2010 issue of the Elvis The Man And His Music magazine, there is a very interesting article about Wild In The Country, documenting deleted scenes from the movie. Turns out there are nine of them, described in detail in the article.

In fact, photos from many of the deleted scenes exist, and in the magazine some of them are published, including four film frames from the original ending (where Hope Lange's character Irene had died). These frames show Glenn (Elvis) sitting on a train on his way to college, opening an envelope Phil Macy (John Ireland) had given him on the train platform.

Interestingly enough, it was Elvis himself that initiated the decision to re-shoot the ending, telling the director of the film, Philip Dunne, that he thought "the boy was getting away with an awful lot in the picture."

Dunne, taking this in consideration, wrote in a memo that "He [Elvis] is on top of the world, going to college, all expenses paid, his story is published, owing everything to her, and she is dead, and he [Elvis' character] is the one who started all the trouble by making a pass at her. She is punished for what is essentially his mistake and he gets off scot-free. The trouble isn't Elvis performance – it is in the situation as it is written."

No footage or photos from the original sequence with Elvis on the train has ever before been seen, according to the author of the article, Bill Bram. Unfortunately he doesn't elaborate as to where he's found his "movie files". But the Fox memos he's quoting offers insight into the making of the movie and the confidence the director as well as the producer had in Elvis' acting abilities.

And I agree wholeheartedly with Bill Bram that it would be nice to think that someday there'll be a deluxe DVD version of Wild In The Country with all the deleted scenes included as bonus material.

More Lost Footage From The Garden

Today I was excited to learn that there exists more footage from Elvis' Madison Square Garden concert on June 9, 1972.

About a year and a half ago I wrote about footage of Elvis performing "Polk Salad Annie," captured by an NBC camera crew that was filming the show. Thanks to the Elvis Information Network (EIN) I found this on Youtube just moments ago:



Interestingly enough, the footage starts with comedian Jackie Kahane being booed of the stage (though he seems to think the problem is a faulty microphone). Then there's about two minutes worth of film showing the Sweet Inspirations performing a number followed by some great shots of the stage and audience before the main event begins.

And begin it does, with a superb looking Elvis entering the stage and launching himself into "That's All Right" followed by "Proud Mary." There's also footage showing audience reactions, and it all ends with about a minute of "Polk Salad Annie."

It all took my breath away, and I felt the need to write this post immediately after seeing it. It's like EIN puts it: "A must see!"

Louisville footage

Thanks to the latest issue of The Man And His Music, the best Elvis magazine around, I learned of a rare clip of Elvis leaving his hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 26, 1974.

According to a letter from a guy living in The Netherlands, the local TV station, WHAS 11, filmed and interviewed fans before Elvis' performance at the Freedom Hall. The station also captured Elvis coming out of his hotel as he was leaving for the arena.

I immediately sat down at my computer, goggled for "WHAS 11 Elvis" and found both Vintage Elvis footage as well as Friday Flashback: Elvis plays Louisville on the station's website. The latter is a news feature (running 3:13) that was broadcast on January 8 this year, honoring Elvis' 75th birthday, and the former includes bonus footage (nearly 28 minutes of it).

Both features the clip of Elvis leaving his hotel, wearing the Peacock jumpsuit and looking great as he laughs at some fans and then gets into his limousine. "Quick shot there, but we got it," a smiling news anchor announces afterwards.

And another thing: The news feature also includes footage from Elvis playing in Louisville at the Armory in November 1956. Although silent, it shows the impact of his show and the arena packed with people. Pure magic!

The Karate King

One of my favorite parts in the movie This Is Elvis is the one having Elvis practicing karate to the sound of "Kung Fu Fighting." That's why I was looking forward to the release of Elvis Presley Gladiators, a DVD that brings together footage from Elvis' never completed martial arts New Gladiators film project.

"Never before seen raw footage of Elvis' passion for karate!" it says on the cover, and raw footage is what you get. There are no titles, the film starts with Red West putting his fist in Elvis' throat and Elvis then pushing Red West and fellow "gladiator" Al Hokum backwards.

Elvis himself is not at his best, he's somewhat overweight and sweating a lot more than all the other "gladiators." But seing his happy face in scenes such as the one mentioned above, there is no mistaking his passion for karate and his enthusiasm for the project.

The footage that follows isn't just about Elvis showing his moves. We also get to see other karate experts demonstrating different techniques, such as Dave Hebler (also one of Elvis' bodyguards), Bill Wallace and Khan Rhee. Often Elvis is talking in the background, like "There's a good move, right there." Unfortunately the sound isn't very good.

That doesn't matter much, though. Neither does the raw footage deal. This is in part thanks to Wayne Carman, another martial arts expert that trained Red West and was present when the film was shot. With insightsful comments he explains what's going on and and at the same time also share some of his memories. It's almost like he is sitting beside you, and it lends an intimate feel to the whole experience.

But of course it's the scenes with Elvis that are the most interesting. I especially enjoyed the one where he shows how to do when a guy (Red West) pulls a gun at you at ten feets away - he slowly gets on his knees and starts praying. Smiling, he exclaims, "The old master says, no way to stop bullet!" Elvis famous sense of humour at work!

I also loved the footage of Elvis arriving at the Tennessee Karate Institute, where most of the scenes were shot, on September 16, 1974. I noticed Elvis wearing his white boots in the training hall, and luckily for me Wayne Carman brought the subject up: "A lot of people say, why was Elvis wearing his boots in there? Because he was Elvis!"

If you want to understand more of Elvis passion for karate, Elvis Presley Gladiators is for you. Included on the DVD is also the footage without narration, "It Hurts Me" karate footage from the 1968 TV Special, an interview with Wayne Carmen (audio only) and a photo gallery. There's also six postcards of Elvis in his karate suit inside the DVD box, together with a pretty informative booklet. The only thing missing is Elvis own T.C.B. karate patch.

I guess one can argue that the footage could have been edited differently, maybe even in a way to resemble Elvis original intentions with his karate legacy project. I'm just happy it was released at all, adding another piece to the puzzle that makes up Elvis Presley.

8mm footage gets new life

When I first watched the DVD Tupelo's Own I was fascinated by the way silent footage of Elvis performing in Tupelo in 1956 had been synced together with a recording from the same show, making the whole thing come alive with sound! Now it seems we're about to experience another example of this technique.

This time around it's 8mm concert footage from 1974 that is getting similar treatment. The footage is included as extra material on the forthcoming Elvis, The Beauty Queen & Me, featuring Linda Thompson's friend Jeanne LeMay.

The editors of the DVD are promising lots of unseen footage in splendid quality, where the reels have been digitally transferred and restored, the speed corrected, the picture quality enhanced and the brightness and colour re-worked. Finally a soundboard recording has been added.

On Youtube there's an example of this 8mm restoration, done with footage from Kansas City, June 29, 1974 (lasting 13 minutes on the DVD):



Makes your mouth water, doesn't it? The only misgiving I have is that the footage, as opposed to what was used on Tupelo's Own, won't feature any music, as it's supposed to be a "100% legal DVD." If that's the case, then I guess our hope for a similar product that has Elvis not only talking, but also singing, is spelled F-T-D.

Lost footage from The Garden

Funny how things "lost" from Elvis' concerts at Madison Square Garden in 1972 have been turning up lately. About a year ago some 100 photos taken at Elvis' second evening performance by a former Garden photographer were found, and now footage captured by an NBC camera crew that was filming the concert on June 9 has been discovered.

This footage, according to the Elvis Information Network, "switches back and forth between camera views of the audience and film of a very animated Presley performing "Polk Salad Annie" in front of the sold-out arena." Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Now, the good news it this footage is available as a videoclip on the Elvis Insiders site. The bad news is that only a preview of the clip is available if you're not a member. Still, the 15 seconds showing Elvis singing immediately after Jerry Scheff's bass solo, makes your mouth water.

Both picture and sound are excellent, and I wonder if only "Polk Salad Annie" was filmed, or if there is more "lost" footage from the Garden that night. Another question I have is if part of the footage was shown on the NBC News Channel back then. I for one would love to watch that particular news broadcast.

I have to admit, I've never consided becoming an "Elvis Insider." (It's $19.99 for 1 year membership.) But maybe I have to reconsider. What do you think?

More footage from the fair

Seems Albert Fisher wasn't the only one shooting behind-the-scenes footage when Elvis was in Seattle for location filming at the World's Fair. In the movie This Is Elvis there's about 45 seconds of Elvis at the Fair filmed in black-and-white.

In this footage you can see Elvis traveling in some kind of electrical tram signing an autograph (I think Albert Fisher is right there beside him!) and then walking around with all the Memphis Mafia guys in tow. There's also Elvis together with the little girl who played Sue Lin.

My guess is this was shot by a local TV channel, as there is also a couple of seconds of Elvis presenting a ham to the governor of Washington. The media would love that!

By the way, when this sequence is shown in This Is Elvis you can hear "Elvis" telling the audience that "The Colonel gave me an award for all my challenging roles, a ham." Obviously, that was not the case, as it was Elvis handing away the ham and Parker just looking on in the background.

Then, on YouTube, I stumbled upon some more interesting footage having to do with It Happened At The World's Fair. This was taken after Elvis was fitted for his wardrobe for the movie, and shows him signing a new four picture MGM deal.

Why this was filmed I have no idea (the video is from Joe Tunzis' DVD Hot Shots And Cool Clips Volume 3). But if you want to know what director Norman Taurog looked like, just click here.

Take me to the fair

In the latest issue of the magazine from The Official Elvis Presley Fan Club of Great Britain there's an interesting article called The "fair" side of Elvis. It's written by Albert Fisher, who in 1962 had the chance to hang out with Elvis during the filming of It Happened At The World's Fair.

Albert Fisher, who was 21 at the time, held a position as head of Television and Motion Pictures for the World's Fair in Seattle. It was his job to talk film and TV producers into bringing their productions to the Fair, and then assist them while they were there.

In the article, Fisher remembers his first meeting with Elvis: "I was impressed. I was a nobody and Elvis stood up to great me. Colonel Parker didn't budge...nor did he even hint at extending his hand."

After a couple of days Albert Fisher became comfortable being around Elvis and got his permission to bring along an 8mm movie camera and shoot home movies during the making of the picture. This rare footage was released by Fisher himself on DVD in 2005. Here's a sample:



When Elvis was to resume the movie in Hollywood he asked Albert Fisher to be Technical Advisor on the film. Apparently, this was light and pleasant duty. Fisher writes that he would walk onto the set, take a look around and say: "Yep. This looks like the World's Fair." He would then hang out on the set or go sightseeing.

In 1963, when the film premiered, Albert Fisher got his friends together and went to the first showing of the film to see his name among the screen credits. But as the credits began to roll he was heartbroken. Because guess who was credited as Technical Advisor? Yeah, of course, a certain Colonel Tom Parker.

Still, Albert Fisher, now a well respected TV producer himself, treasures his time with Elvis: "I hold on to my memories of my brief time being able to pal around with one of the greatest entertainment legends in history...Elvis Presley."

You have to own Tupelo's own

If you haven't already seen the DVD Tupelo's Own Elvis Presley it's about time that you do! I have just spent a rainy afternoon watching it once more and it lifted my spirits immediately.

The highlight is 13 minutes and 9 seconds of Elvis performing live at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in Tupelo on the 26th of September 1956 - with sound!

When I first heard this performance on A Golden Celebration back in 1985 I certainly thought it interesting, despite the poor quality of the recording. But brought together with the footage it really gives you an idea of what an exciting thing a Presley concert must have been back in the 50's.

There's screaming, there's the band and there's, above all, Elvis Presley moving around and working the crowd. Seeing and hearing Elvis perform such classics as "Heartbreak Hotel", "Long Tall Sally" and "Don't Be Cruel" in this way is highly enjoyable.

Unfortunately, there is only parts of "I Got A Woman" and "Hound Dog", but what there is shows Elvis really going wild in front of the screaming fans.

One thing that I find interesting is that Elvis has his guitar strapped on for the whole show, except on the last song which is "Hound Dog". On the footage from his show in Tupelo a year later, also included on the DVD, Elvis is without his guitar the whole time. This clearly gives him more freedom as he moves and gyrates even more on that show.

Tupelo's Own Elvis Presley is without a doubt one of the most interesting releases in quite some time, and its importance as a historical document is priceless. After watching it, I'm sure you'll agree!