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# Bright light city, gonna set my soul | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
# Gonna set my soul on fire... # | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
In the years before he opened in Las Vegas, | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
both Elvis and the city had sunk to a low ebb. | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
He, stuck in a mire of banal movies. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
Vegas, recovering from decades of mob rule. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:19 | |
But all that would change when Elvis arrived in 1969 | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
at the International Hotel. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
There was a coolness factor, a hip factor that I think Las Vegas obtained | 0:00:26 | 0:00:32 | |
because of Elvis being here and changing the image of the city. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:37 | |
It was a marriage made in heaven. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
Marrying Elvis with Vegas was the master plan of Colonel Tom Parker, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:45 | |
his manager. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
Yet their moment of triumph had the seeds of destruction. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
Elvis realised he needed the Colonel. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
And the Colonel was a very forthright person. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
You had two very powerful personalities. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:02 | |
# Viva Las Vegas With your neon flashing | 0:01:02 | 0:01:04 | |
# And your one armed bandits... # | 0:01:04 | 0:01:06 | |
He loved being Elvis Presley, there's no doubt about that. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
But he loved it when he was great, he loved himself, loved his music. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
Loved everything that he was doing. Who could blame him? | 0:01:13 | 0:01:16 | |
But I think he started to dislike himself, | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
and lost his desire to be Elvis Presley. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:23 | |
# So if your baby leaves | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
# And you got a tale to tell | 0:01:26 | 0:01:30 | |
# Just take a walk down Lonely Street to | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
# Heartbreak Hotel... # | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
Elvis reinvented would become the most adored | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
and caricatured performer in the world. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
And the story began in Vegas. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
# So lonely you could die... # | 0:01:44 | 0:01:49 | |
# I've been travellin' over miles... # | 0:02:00 | 0:02:04 | |
The rocky love affair between Elvis and Vegas began 13 years earlier | 0:02:05 | 0:02:10 | |
when he first arrived in the city, aged 21. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
It was 1956 and the Nevada sands around Las Vegas | 0:02:15 | 0:02:19 | |
were an open-air testing ground. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
BLAST RUMBLES | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
It was a city of only 50,000 people yet it was a daunting prospect | 0:02:24 | 0:02:30 | |
for Elvis and his band. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
We were a little afraid of going in there in the first place. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:36 | |
We were new, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:37 | |
a bunch of hillbillies from Tennessee. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
What do we know about Vegas? | 0:02:40 | 0:02:42 | |
# The autumn leaves... | 0:02:45 | 0:02:51 | |
# Drift by my window... # | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
They were 50 and 60 year old people. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
They were eating their 100 steaks in the main room. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
Drinking their 50 drinks and all that stuff. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:03 | |
They don't want to hear that racket we were making. | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
So I guess it turned them off. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
# Blue suede shoes... | 0:03:09 | 0:03:13 | |
# You can do anything but get off of my blue suede shoes. # | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
Elvis bombed. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:23 | |
It was his first big setback. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
It didn't happen for him in the '50s in Vegas. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:29 | |
They were not ready for rock'n'roll. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
Liberace was playing there and Elvis has pictures with Liberace, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
cos he was the big one then in Vegas. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
Elvis's manager learned plenty from this first false step. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
Just one year earlier, he'd helped create the world's first rock'n'roll star | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
with a mixture of inspiration and guile. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
He knew the importance of packaging. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
The Colonel was good at reinventing Elvis. | 0:03:57 | 0:03:59 | |
I don't care what people say about him, a lot of people didn't like the old man, | 0:03:59 | 0:04:04 | |
but he was good at what he was doing and he took care of business. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
He didn't take any prisoners. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
"I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. Take it or leave it" | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
And they had to take it cos he had the power and Elvis. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
The Colonel, he was shrewd. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:21 | |
# Meet me tonight in dreamland... # | 0:04:21 | 0:04:28 | |
Parker had learned his trade in the East coast fairgrounds, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
among the salesmen, card sharps and tricksters. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
The Colonel learned to read people on the carnival. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
You have a split second. That's all. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:39 | |
You don't have time | 0:04:39 | 0:04:40 | |
to learn to know a person | 0:04:40 | 0:04:43 | |
when you're a carnie. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:45 | |
He was able to gauge people within a few minutes of being around them. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:50 | |
# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
# Cryin' all the time... # | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
The Colonel beamed his formidable marketing skills | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
at the teenage audience, who would later follow the mature Elvis | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
to Vegas. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:04 | |
But first, to take his 23 year old rock'n'roll star | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
into every suburb and city across America. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:12 | |
Colonel turned to the power of Hollywood. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:15 | |
The Colonel played different studios against one another, | 0:05:19 | 0:05:22 | |
with the result that the 31 films Elvis made over the next decade | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
would be worth many millions. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
To both of them. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
# He lays down beats like a ton of coal | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
# He goes by the name of King Creole | 0:05:32 | 0:05:35 | |
# He's gone, gone, gone... # | 0:05:35 | 0:05:36 | |
Elvis's early Hollywood movies broke box office records. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
Colonel was wisely approving scripts the cashed in on Elvis's rebellious rock'n'roll image. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:46 | |
# When the king starts to do it it's as good as done | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
# He holds his guitar like a Tommy gun | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
# He starts to growl down in his throat | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
# He bends that string and that's all she wrote | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
# He's gone, gone, gone... # | 0:05:57 | 0:05:59 | |
At first, the movies were great, they were fun. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
Elvis looked forward to them. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
# Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone... # | 0:06:04 | 0:06:07 | |
Jailhouse Rock was a really good rock'n'roll movie. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
Elvis had an edge to himself, tough guy type situation and picture. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
# ..the purple gang Let's rock | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
# Everybody, let's rock | 0:06:17 | 0:06:19 | |
# Everybody in the whole cell block | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
# Was dancin' to the jailhouse rock... # | 0:06:23 | 0:06:27 | |
At first I didn't realise how good he was. | 0:06:27 | 0:06:31 | |
As we came to spend more time | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
working with him, we realised that he had tremendous range. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:41 | |
Not just in terms of the octaves but in terms of the emotional quality. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:48 | |
He was a beautiful singer. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
# Everybody in the whole cell block | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
# Was dancin' to the jailhouse rock... # | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
Elvis's budding film career was put on hold by his call-up | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
for military service in Germany. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
He left Colonel to develop his latest master plan, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
to create Elvis the Hollywood pin-up. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
Away in Germany, | 0:07:12 | 0:07:13 | |
Elvis absorbed a range of music, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
from opera to blues. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:18 | |
And met teenage Priscilla, his bride-to-be. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
# Ho-o-old me close, hold me tight | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
# Make me thrill with delight... # | 0:07:27 | 0:07:30 | |
After he returned from Germany in 1960, | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
they settled into Graceland and a home in Palm Springs. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
# I want you, I need you | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
# I love you... # | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
They eventually married in Las Vegas | 0:07:43 | 0:07:46 | |
in a secretly-arranged ceremony at the Aladdin Hotel. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
# Every time that you're near | 0:07:50 | 0:07:53 | |
# All my cares disappear... # | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
Of course, the Colonel invited the world's press to record this intimate event. | 0:07:56 | 0:08:01 | |
# I need you, I want you... # | 0:08:03 | 0:08:05 | |
To remould him as a romantic lead, not just for the tabloids, | 0:08:05 | 0:08:09 | |
but up on the movie screen, Colonel had already signed Elvis | 0:08:09 | 0:08:12 | |
for a string of money-spinning Hollywood roles | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
that lasted throughout the '60s. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:17 | |
Elvis wanted to make better movies. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
But the Colonel kept telling him, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
"Elvis, we're getting 1 million up front, | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
"50% of the picture and star billing. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
"We've got an album from the picture. | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
"We're doing pretty dog-gone good. " | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
# Moo-moo here, moo-moo there | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
# Oink-oink here, oink-oink there... # | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
Elvis wanted to be an actor, do serious movies, | 0:08:36 | 0:08:39 | |
some comedies. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:40 | |
He didn't want to do musicals every time. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
But that's what they did. Elvis riding a horse, | 0:08:42 | 0:08:46 | |
or singing to a cow, something like that. | 0:08:46 | 0:08:49 | |
That eventually got to Elvis. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
DUCK QUACKS | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
You take the rebel | 0:08:56 | 0:08:57 | |
and you make him the boy next door. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
Elvis was not the boy next door. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
I think Elvis found he had a choice | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
to creatively walk around with a chip on his shoulder | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
and be angry all the time or just try to go along with the program as best he could. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:17 | |
# In my beach shack | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
# Baby, we'll be alone | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
# I'll make you feel at home In my little beach shack... # | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
I said, "Colonel, the songs are not that great." | 0:09:26 | 0:09:30 | |
I said, "The songs are weak songs." | 0:09:30 | 0:09:32 | |
He said, "Well, what do we care, George? You get me 1 million, | 0:09:32 | 0:09:37 | |
"you can pick the songs. We don't care." | 0:09:37 | 0:09:40 | |
"But Colonel, what about the big picture down the road?" | 0:09:40 | 0:09:44 | |
"We'll worry about that later." | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
And when songwriters Lieber and Stoller tried to intercede with better material for Elvis, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:53 | |
they got short shrift. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:54 | |
The Colonel said if you ever dared try to interfere | 0:09:54 | 0:09:59 | |
in the career of Elvis Presley, you'll never work again in Hollywood, | 0:09:59 | 0:10:05 | |
New York or anywhere else in the world. | 0:10:05 | 0:10:07 | |
That was the response. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
And it was, I guess, | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
among other things, shortly after that we just stopped writing for Elvis. | 0:10:13 | 0:10:19 | |
But Hollywood offered some compensation for Elvis and his entourage. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
Being with Elvis anywhere where he's making a picture | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
is really great cos everybody comes around, it's very exciting | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
and the scenery wasn't too bad either, by that I mean the young ladies out to watch Elvis. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:37 | |
It was my job to go and invite them back to the hotel for a party after shooting that day | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
if Elvis wanted to have a party. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
It was probably the best you could ever get being with Elvis Presley | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
shooting a movie, you couldn't beat it. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
I don't think I before or ever since | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
ever seen that much... | 0:10:54 | 0:10:59 | |
things around! | 0:10:59 | 0:11:01 | |
When I say things, it's not all women, but cars, money... | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
It's almost like he could walk on water, it was amazing. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:09 | |
You couldn't do anything wrong. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:11 | |
Elvis was a woman's man. | 0:11:14 | 0:11:15 | |
He always had women around. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
But Elvis had that duality | 0:11:17 | 0:11:19 | |
in that perspective too. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:22 | |
He wanted someone at home, like Priscilla, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
then he wanted to be on the road and have the flexibility | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
and the access to women. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
That was just who he was. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
But Elvis needed more than a little help from friends | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
to see him through a gruelling routine of all-night parties | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
and the tedium of fulfilling the Colonel's demands for 29 movies | 0:11:39 | 0:11:43 | |
in just 7 years. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
Elvis was an insomniac. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:49 | |
When he was in the army, he had to be up every day. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
He had to be physically ready to go. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
And this created a problem, I think that's where it started. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:01 | |
It was easier if he had something to go to sleep at night. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:06 | |
But then he had to have something to wake up. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:10 | |
# Here comes Santa Claus Here comes Santa Claus | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
# Right down Santa Claus Lane... # | 0:12:13 | 0:12:15 | |
His hectic life in Hollywood made it hard for Elvis to settle into family holidays, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:20 | |
however idyllic they appeared, | 0:12:20 | 0:12:21 | |
with adoring wife and newborn child. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
To counter Elvis's restlessness, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
and need for a new challenge, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:29 | |
Colonel came up with an old-fashioned scheme | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
for the Christmas of '68. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:34 | |
Colonel Parker said to Elvis one day, "You wanna do a Christmas special. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:39 | |
"The good thing is, we do one, they'll play it every year at Christmas time." | 0:12:39 | 0:12:43 | |
See, Colonel was the business guy. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
The 33 year old Elvis had never yet contradicted his manager. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
But all that changed when he heard the Colonel planned to televise him | 0:12:51 | 0:12:55 | |
crooning family Christmas songs. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
He got support from the show's director to reveal more of himself. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:02 | |
I think at the time I met with Elvis, | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
regarding his career, he was really frightened | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
and scared stiff of failing. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
I think this whole idea | 0:13:11 | 0:13:12 | |
pushing him into television was real scary to him | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
because he thought... as he said to me, "I've been away from an audience for years, | 0:13:15 | 0:13:22 | |
"I've just been making all these movies." | 0:13:22 | 0:13:25 | |
# You lookin' for trouble? | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
# You came to the right place | 0:13:29 | 0:13:31 | |
# You lookin' for trouble? | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
# Just look right at my face | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
# I was born standin' up | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
# And talkin' back... # | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
This sultry, leather-clad image | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
was not at all what the Colonel had in mind. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:48 | |
Colonel said, "Binder, it's been called to my attention | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
"we don't have any Christmas songs in this show." | 0:13:51 | 0:13:54 | |
And I said, "Yeah." | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
He said, "Well, Elvis wants Christmas songs in the show. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
"Isn't that right, Elvis?" | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
And Elvis was standing next to me and he wouldn't move a muscle. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
He was standing, to me, like a child would stand, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
being reprimanded by the teacher or his parents. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
He sort of mumbled, "That's right, Colonel." | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
As we're walking down the hall, Elvis jammed me in the ribs and said, | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
"Screw 'em." We'd go right on with what we had planned, ignoring him, basically. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:24 | |
But he never confronted the Colonel and said what he felt. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
The beauty of it was, it was the first time anybody had ever seen the real Elvis Presley. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:34 | |
I kept all that stuff in the programme, all the making fun of himself, | 0:14:34 | 0:14:40 | |
the movies he had made, where he kept quivering his lip. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:44 | |
I've got news for you, baby, I did 29 pictures like that. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
But up to the moment the show aired on network TV, | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
Elvis was uncertain whether Binder or the Colonel was right. | 0:14:55 | 0:15:00 | |
We watched it air that night. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:02 | |
Nothing was said. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:04 | |
He watched it so intensely, | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
as if he'd never seen it before. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
Leg was shaking, bottled water drinking constantly. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:13 | |
And a smile would go on his face a little bit. The phone would ring. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:18 | |
He felt like, my God, I did it. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:22 | |
This is gonna be a whole new Elvis again. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:25 | |
The show became NBC's highest-rated programme of the year. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
I think the '68 special was important to Elvis | 0:15:33 | 0:15:37 | |
because, first of all, it proved to him that again, it wasn't | 0:15:37 | 0:15:42 | |
publicity that made him the superstar that he became. | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
But it was really because of his talent. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:50 | |
So he believed in himself again. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
# Well since my baby left me | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
# I've found a new place to dwell | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
# It's down at the end of Lonely Street at | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
# Heartbreak Hotel | 0:16:01 | 0:16:02 | |
# I've never been so lonely, baby | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
# I've been so lonely | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
# I've been so lonely I could die... # | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
Elvis had triumphed on television | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
but during the years he had been cocooned by the Colonel in Hollywood, | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
the music world around him had been turned on its head. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:22 | |
Following the British invasion, | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
the group sound was in and solo artists were mostly out. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
# Roll up for the mystery tour | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
# Roll up... # | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
Elvis thought maybe the days of the solo performer were over. | 0:16:36 | 0:16:42 | |
And he said that I was the only one, at that time, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:46 | |
that was doing it, so it was giving him confidence to sing live again. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:53 | |
He came to Vegas in '68 to watch me work. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
# Show me a woman that's got a good man... # | 0:16:55 | 0:16:59 | |
Seeing me and hearing me sing live and moving, | 0:17:01 | 0:17:06 | |
with the body movements, which were similar to what Elvis had done | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
and was still doing. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
So he wanted to see it and hear it firsthand, in Vegas. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
# Oh, though it's always crowded | 0:17:16 | 0:17:19 | |
# You still can find some room... # | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
Elvis was ready for the next step - playing to a live audience. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:26 | |
Something he hadn't done for almost eight years. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
Arriving in Las Vegas, he was still unsure, | 0:17:29 | 0:17:33 | |
recalling his first big failure there in '56. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
He was really concerned if they were still gonna accept him here. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:42 | |
Colonel said, "Elvis, don't worry about it. You'll be accepted. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:45 | |
"I'll put it this way - everyone in this town will know you're playing here." | 0:17:45 | 0:17:51 | |
Colonel announced to America that Elvis would be opening | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
at the 2,000 seat theatre in the nearly completed International Hotel. | 0:17:55 | 0:18:00 | |
It was the first of a new generation of high-rise hotels | 0:18:00 | 0:18:05 | |
that would transform the landscape and economy of that city. | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
But as he didn't have a band, Elvis had to build a new style of show band | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
that would win over a possibly sceptical Vegas audience. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
I meet Elvis for the first time, really, up close and personal | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
and we just immediately had a great rapport. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
Just... I got to see the charisma that everybody talked about was all about. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:36 | |
We started playing and I just zeroed on him, just watched every little thing he did. | 0:18:36 | 0:18:43 | |
I tried to play with every little move. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
It was like playing for a stripper. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:49 | |
In burlesque... | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
obviously the drummer's role is to...accent the movements of the dancer. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:59 | |
In a way, what Elvis did was a dance too. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
All of his movements were very much emphasised. | 0:19:10 | 0:19:14 | |
That was very much the way he expressed himself musically. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:18 | |
He stood right in front of me most of the time so he could not only hear | 0:19:18 | 0:19:23 | |
what the drums were doing but he could also feel it. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:27 | |
So it was like a two-way communication in that sense. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:32 | |
# All alone... | 0:19:32 | 0:19:38 | |
# And I'm missing you... # | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
We never lost eye contact with him | 0:19:46 | 0:19:49 | |
because he was so aware of | 0:19:49 | 0:19:53 | |
what's going on in his audience and had total control of the stage. | 0:19:53 | 0:19:56 | |
There was always this eye contact and we watched every move he made. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:01 | |
# Sail on by | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
# Your time has come | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
# To shine... # | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
Elvis watched everybody on stage. He knew what each one of us was doing. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:20 | |
He would call out your name, you'd be making a little whisper | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
and he'd go, "Myrna, don't do that." | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
And you'd go, "How did he see me?!" | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
It's like he had eyes in the back of his head! | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
He could be facing in a different direction | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
and he could pick up on whatever you were doing. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
# I will ease your mind | 0:20:38 | 0:20:42 | |
# Like a bridge over troubled waters... # | 0:20:42 | 0:20:49 | |
He was the most focused guy I've ever worked with. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:52 | |
He knew every entrance of every singer, every group, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:57 | |
every oboe entrance, every violin entrance and if anybody slipped up, | 0:20:57 | 0:21:02 | |
he knew it. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
The horns are answering it... | 0:21:04 | 0:21:06 | |
# If you need a friend... # | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
Right on top of friend. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:11 | |
Right on top of friend. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
# Need... If you need... # | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
We learned probably 50 songs before we even opened. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:20 | |
Many of them were sung one time, | 0:21:20 | 0:21:23 | |
after many hours of rehearsal on that one song. | 0:21:23 | 0:21:27 | |
He would just decide, hey, I don't like this song. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:31 | |
And we never did the song again! | 0:21:31 | 0:21:33 | |
While the music was being shaped, | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
so were the designs for the jumpsuits that would become the most visible symbol | 0:21:36 | 0:21:40 | |
of the reinvention of Elvis Presley, Vegas style. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
Elvis had his own perfect body concerning a stage suit. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:49 | |
The way he was built made a perfect V. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:53 | |
He went from wide shoulders down to perfect hips. | 0:21:53 | 0:21:58 | |
Which you can't ask for more than that when you're trying to do a sexy outfit for stage presentation | 0:21:58 | 0:22:03 | |
for a gentleman. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
The way he used it, the way it became part of his presentation, | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
lighting, staging, back-up singers, it became as integral a part. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
The International Hotel was gearing up for the big event. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
Kill that blower! | 0:22:18 | 0:22:20 | |
Or blow that killer, whatever. | 0:22:20 | 0:22:23 | |
During 24 days of rehearsals, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
Elvis surrounded himself with the Memphis Mafia, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
a protective ring of hometown jokers, courtiers to keep the king amused. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:33 | |
James, one minute, man. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:36 | |
Wait a minute. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:37 | |
They don't tell you when to start. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:39 | |
They were like the disciples. I'm not comparing Elvis to Jesus, | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
but it was the same sort of overall premise. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:46 | |
We were the group around him. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:48 | |
We lived in our own little world that was pretty special. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:52 | |
Pretty cool. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
Vegas liked us and we liked Vegas. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
# In the morning | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
# When through a sleepy haze... # | 0:23:00 | 0:23:04 | |
The Colonel kept well away from their high-spirited jinks. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
He devoted himself to a blitz of publicity the likes of which Vegas had never seen. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:12 | |
Audiences who had flocked to Elvis in the 1950s | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
would be here to see a teen idol reinvented. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
Colonel Tom Parker awakened the whole town to the fact that | 0:23:19 | 0:23:24 | |
Elvis Presley is going to be here. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
Colonel's an old carnie. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
He used a lot of the carnie tricks. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
Colonel even put billboards out in the neighbourhoods. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
He said he wanted the employees who work at the hotels | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
to know that Elvis is here. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
He said, "I even want the gophers out in the desert to know Elvis is here." | 0:23:41 | 0:23:45 | |
Though Presley was impatient to open the new theatre, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
the Colonel knew better. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
He encouraged Barbra Streisand to open it | 0:23:52 | 0:23:56 | |
and iron out the technical glitches, | 0:23:56 | 0:23:58 | |
so that everything was right for Elvis's wildly-anticipated star-studded opening night. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:04 | |
I know he's not been on stage for 10 years, everyone's waiting, | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
I know he's going to be a winner. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
True to his name, the Colonel had planned it with military precision, | 0:24:11 | 0:24:16 | |
employing a stand-up comedian to encourage the 2,000 strong audience | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
to spend a small fortune on Blue Nun with baked lobster tails | 0:24:19 | 0:24:24 | |
while waiting for Elvis. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
In Vegas, you had the dinner show. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
Then the comic would come out and then the star. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
The comic got the people that were eating. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:33 | |
By the time Elvis or the star came out, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
they were finished eating and they were ready. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:39 | |
We had to go through the plates, the noise and the people. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
That's what was tough about being an opening act, especially for Elvis Presley. | 0:24:42 | 0:24:47 | |
I walked off and Elvis was standing in the wings, white as a ghost. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:51 | |
I looked at him and shook his hand and said, "Elvis, they're great, they're waiting for you out there." | 0:24:51 | 0:24:56 | |
And his hand was wet and clammy. He was nervous, too. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
2,000 seats scared him tremendously. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:06 | |
It was huge. I mean, would he be able to fill it? | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
What happens then? | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
There were a lot of questions that he had, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:13 | |
a lot of questions that he wasn't sure whether or not he was gonna... | 0:25:13 | 0:25:19 | |
be able to pull this off. | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog | 0:25:22 | 0:25:24 | |
# Cryin' all the time | 0:25:24 | 0:25:25 | |
# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog | 0:25:25 | 0:25:28 | |
# Cryin' all the time | 0:25:28 | 0:25:29 | |
# Well you ain't nothin' but a...friend of mine | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
# Cryin' all the time | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
# You ain't nothin' but a hound dog | 0:25:37 | 0:25:38 | |
# Cryin' all the time | 0:25:38 | 0:25:39 | |
# Well, you ain't never... | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
# You ain't no friend of mine... # | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
His old hit from the '50s, Hound Dog, was given a whole new suit of clothes. | 0:25:44 | 0:25:48 | |
Elvis was an absolute master on stage. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:53 | |
He was a perfectionist. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:55 | |
Ultimately, what he wanted was the best possible product. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
He wanted the fans to hear what he knew that he was capable of delivering. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
# Why can't you see Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh | 0:26:02 | 0:26:06 | |
# What you're doing to me? Oh-oh-oh | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
# When you don't believe a word I'm sayin' | 0:26:09 | 0:26:14 | |
# We can't go on together | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
# With suspicious minds | 0:26:19 | 0:26:21 | |
# Suspicious minds... # | 0:26:21 | 0:26:23 | |
For many, Suspicious Minds defined the mature Vegas Presley. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:29 | |
# So if an old friend I know... # | 0:26:29 | 0:26:32 | |
And his acclaimed live shows were accompanied by another triumph. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
His first number one hit for seven years. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:39 | |
In its slower version, recorded at the American Sound Studio, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:43 | |
in his hometown, Memphis. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
I had heard that he had booked the studio for two weeks, | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
came up with about 40 songs. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
So I was just trying to capture that one song. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
Every time I'd go in the studio, | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
my publisher would say, "You know Elvis is coming?" | 0:26:56 | 0:27:00 | |
I said, "Yeah, I know." | 0:27:00 | 0:27:01 | |
Throughout the '60s, Colonel had insisted that all new songs | 0:27:03 | 0:27:07 | |
belong to the publishing company part-owned by Colonel and Elvis. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:11 | |
They didn't want anybody having anything to do with | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
Presley making choices about songs. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:20 | |
They wanted that to be a fait accompli. | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
That Presley only does songs published by Hill And Range. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
The Colonel was looking after the golden goose and didn't want | 0:27:26 | 0:27:31 | |
anybody to get close enough, | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
especially close enough | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
to give Elvis a new song | 0:27:36 | 0:27:41 | |
that they didn't have the publishing rights locked up on. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:47 | |
But unlike the movie years, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:49 | |
when Elvis had to accept mediocre songs, | 0:27:49 | 0:27:52 | |
he now had the self-confidence to insist that he got only the best | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
and to ignore the Colonel's henchmen. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
Great hits like Kentucky Rain and In The Ghetto | 0:28:00 | 0:28:02 | |
established Elvis as an adult artist, | 0:28:02 | 0:28:05 | |
in that rundown studio on the wrong side of the tracks. | 0:28:05 | 0:28:09 | |
# On a cold and grey Chicago morning | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
# A poor little baby child is born | 0:28:12 | 0:28:14 | |
# In the ghetto... # | 0:28:14 | 0:28:16 | |
These offered a new realism, far removed from the blander repertoire | 0:28:16 | 0:28:21 | |
of Hill And Range, as did Suspicious Minds. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:25 | |
HE PLAYS SUSPICIOUS MINDS INTRO | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
The song I was trying to capture I knew at the time had to be a mature rock song | 0:28:28 | 0:28:35 | |
to put him back and regain his title in rock'n'roll. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
# We're caught in a trap | 0:28:38 | 0:28:40 | |
# I can't walk out | 0:28:42 | 0:28:46 | |
# Because I love you too much, baby | 0:28:46 | 0:28:49 | |
# Why can't you see Wo-oh-oh-oh-oh | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
# What you're doing to me Wo-oh-oh | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
# When you don't believe a word I'm sayin'? # | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
On stage in Vegas, | 0:29:05 | 0:29:07 | |
Elvis had reached his pinnacle as a live performer. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
# I can't walk out | 0:29:10 | 0:29:12 | |
# Because I love you too much... # | 0:29:13 | 0:29:15 | |
Elvis did like to work in Vegas. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:21 | |
He liked that the lights were great, the sound was great, the room was great, | 0:29:21 | 0:29:26 | |
everything was under control. He didn't have to travel, | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
he came down, right to the show. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:30 | |
Colonel moved fast to cash in on Elvis's feelgood factor. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:38 | |
An agreement was scribbled on a tablecloth in a hotel coffee shop. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:42 | |
It would tie Elvis to two shows a night, | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
four weeks at a time, | 0:29:45 | 0:29:46 | |
at 100,000 a week. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
It would run for a full five years. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:52 | |
Colonel was repeating the tactic that had gone so wrong in Hollywood. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:56 | |
He was tying Elvis to a long-term contract that would ultimately threaten his career. | 0:29:56 | 0:30:02 | |
But Colonel knew exactly how to get what he wanted. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:05 | |
Colonel played a part. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:09 | |
He played the part of an uneducated Southern person, | 0:30:09 | 0:30:15 | |
who really didn't know the score. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:18 | |
And he loved doing that. | 0:30:18 | 0:30:20 | |
Because that caught everyone offguard. | 0:30:21 | 0:30:23 | |
He never made notes. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:25 | |
He said, "Don't write it down, remember it." | 0:30:25 | 0:30:28 | |
He had an unbelievable mind. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:31 | |
# Well since my baby left me | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
# Well, I've found a new place to dwell... # | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
And the five year agreement suited the Colonel in more ways than one. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
He had become an increasingly big spender in the hotel's casino | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
and now negotiated some secret and preferential terms for himself. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:50 | |
The Colonel was sharp. He was getting a lot of perks for himself | 0:30:52 | 0:30:56 | |
by Elvis playing Vegas. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:57 | |
All of his suites were taken care of, | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
he had almost a full floor for his assistants to work out of, | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
he could do all of his business there. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
He got extra benefits as far as all the food and we all thought, | 0:31:06 | 0:31:11 | |
it was never proven, but everybody knew what time it was, | 0:31:11 | 0:31:14 | |
had a feeling that the Colonel was, he would lose all that money at the casino, he had a deal. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:20 | |
I think it was probably about 50 cents on the dollar. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
If he lost 1 million, he only had to come up with 500,000. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
My manager, Colonel Tom Parker, where is he? | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
Is the Colonel around anywhere? | 0:31:30 | 0:31:32 | |
Oh, he's out playing roulette, no kidding me, I know what he's doing. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:36 | |
Actually, it wasn't too bad, cos the Colonel was kind of a draw in the casino, he put on a show | 0:31:36 | 0:31:42 | |
while he was playing roulette. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
He'd make everyone crowd around, he'd holler and have fun and all that jazz. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:48 | |
But I think there were some extra concessions that Elvis didn't know about | 0:31:48 | 0:31:52 | |
that Colonel was getting out of playing Vegas. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
Whatever the intricacies of Colonel's deal, | 0:31:56 | 0:31:58 | |
its effect was to revitalise the whole city. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
Elvis attracted a massive new influx to this oasis of gambling and entertainment in the Nevada desert. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:08 | |
And he brought them in from all over the world. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
What has this trip meant to you? | 0:32:14 | 0:32:16 | |
-ENGLISH ACCENT -A chance to see America and Elvis. | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
-Which is more important? -Elvis. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:21 | |
He's the king. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:22 | |
I think that as in as much as there was some sort of symbiosis in the relationship, | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
vis a vis Elvis in Las Vegas, | 0:32:30 | 0:32:32 | |
there was also a symbiosis | 0:32:32 | 0:32:33 | |
between the Colonel | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
and Elvis. It may be true that the Colonel benefitted economically | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
and monetarily from a number of the deals that were cut, | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
but so did Elvis. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
# Well that's all right, mama | 0:32:43 | 0:32:45 | |
# That's all right with you | 0:32:45 | 0:32:47 | |
# That's all right, mama | 0:32:47 | 0:32:48 | |
# Do it any way you do... # | 0:32:48 | 0:32:50 | |
Elvis was of prime importance to the hotel. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
He was the first entertainer to make a profit in the show room. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:58 | |
Before that time, the hotels always assumed they would lose money | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
on the shows but make it up in the casino. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:06 | |
But Elvis drew big players. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
And the hotel was thrilled because these people had money. | 0:33:09 | 0:33:13 | |
The women were thrilled. They went to two shows a night. | 0:33:13 | 0:33:19 | |
And the men were in the casino undisturbed. Everyone was happy. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:24 | |
When Elvis was in town, everything lit up. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
There were girls all over the hotel. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
They would come up and ask, "Can you get me up to Elvis's room?" | 0:33:30 | 0:33:33 | |
There was hundreds of girls all over the hotel. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:37 | |
Elvis did a lot for the hotel and a lot for this town. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:43 | |
At the time, he was the most popular entertainer. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:47 | |
I gave him the nickname White Boy With A Brother On The Inside! | 0:33:51 | 0:33:56 | |
Because he was very generous. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:59 | |
He would generate such a tremendous business for the whole town, | 0:34:00 | 0:34:04 | |
it was incredible. Incredible. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:07 | |
The clothes he had, the capes, | 0:34:08 | 0:34:12 | |
with the rhinestones on, they was real heavy. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
You couldn't pick 'em up by yourself, | 0:34:15 | 0:34:17 | |
it took two or three people to pick 'em up. | 0:34:17 | 0:34:19 | |
If you let it lay in a box, | 0:34:19 | 0:34:22 | |
it weighs 25 - 28 pounds, 30 pounds. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:26 | |
So whenever I did Elvis's outfits, | 0:34:26 | 0:34:30 | |
I always tried to distribute everything to his chest area, | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
his shoulder area. | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
The jumpsuits, like his act, were getting heavier and more flamboyant. | 0:34:41 | 0:34:46 | |
One of the things I had noticed from watching him was | 0:34:49 | 0:34:52 | |
that he was enjoying his outfits, the audience started enjoying them | 0:34:52 | 0:34:57 | |
and he started playing with how to present them. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:00 | |
It became part of the whole act. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:02 | |
Mirroring the showbiz extravagance of Las Vegas, | 0:35:09 | 0:35:12 | |
Elvis's karate moves became a trademark of his act in the early '70s. | 0:35:12 | 0:35:16 | |
-What do you do for relaxation? -Karate. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:23 | |
If you can relax doing this, I don't know. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:26 | |
Karate became a way of communication with people for Elvis, | 0:35:28 | 0:35:31 | |
that on some levels, he could not communicate directly with people | 0:35:31 | 0:35:35 | |
in other areas, they could share this love of karate, | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
the physicality and the control of emotions and intellectual power | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
that was associated with that. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:44 | |
He did transform that into a stage performance. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:48 | |
He largely did that because of Las Vegas. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:51 | |
I think that's really where he began to hone his ability | 0:35:51 | 0:35:57 | |
to take an audience in the palm of his hand and he did that in Las Vegas, night after night. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:01 | |
He learned that showmanship and first started wearing the jewels | 0:36:05 | 0:36:09 | |
and jumpsuits and putting on the big, powerful show | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
with a 30-piece orchestra. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
Thank you. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:22 | |
Here in Las Vegas, we stayed at the International Hotel. | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
We had a beautiful suite on the top floor, the 30th floor, the only suite up there. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:30 | |
It overlooked the city, it was completely closed off, | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
Over 10,000 square feet. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
We had four bedrooms up there, a kitchen, dining room, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:37 | |
a beautiful area with TV and it was gorgeous. It was red, beautiful colours. | 0:36:37 | 0:36:44 | |
We had a great time, all our parties were up there, | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
we even had a slot machine up there. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
The press guys sent it up there cos Elvis couldn't be in the casino. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
We invited a lot of beautiful ladies up there, | 0:36:52 | 0:36:55 | |
a lot of other celebrities that came to see the show, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
we invited them after for a party. A lot of singing up there. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
# Lord, just open my eyes | 0:37:01 | 0:37:06 | |
# That I may see... # | 0:37:06 | 0:37:10 | |
We'd be up all night | 0:37:10 | 0:37:12 | |
and he'd bring the vocal group up with the electric piano. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:15 | |
We'd be singing all night, gospel music. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
So he did live by night, but then again, so did I. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
Still do, actually. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
But Elvis liked his own world. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:25 | |
It was great, we'd be there till 6, 7am. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:29 | |
Sun was coming up... OK, guys, time to go to bed! | 0:37:29 | 0:37:32 | |
We were like vampires. | 0:37:32 | 0:37:33 | |
It was a lot of fun. Every night was a party. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:36 | |
Every night. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:37 | |
Between these months of nocturnal hibernation, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
the King was trapped on a treadmill of 150 shows a year, | 0:37:45 | 0:37:49 | |
escaping the increasing hysteria of the crowds, | 0:37:49 | 0:37:52 | |
and shielded from reality by his Memphis Mafia. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
We were out playing medium-sized markets all over the US. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:04 | |
Over and over and over again. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:07 | |
I just don't think that was wise planning | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
from an artistic standpoint. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:12 | |
With all the Colonel's strength, | 0:38:12 | 0:38:13 | |
I don't think he really understood the artistic temperament | 0:38:13 | 0:38:17 | |
that Elvis did have underneath all the other facets of his personality. | 0:38:17 | 0:38:22 | |
Some of the guys were concerned about Elvis's health and wellbeing. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
When I would ask the Colonel, "We need to take Elvis to Europe, | 0:38:27 | 0:38:31 | |
"they're crying for him in England." He would sell out, crazy like. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
He said, "George, the venues are not big enough over there." | 0:38:34 | 0:38:38 | |
So that was the cockamamie reason he gave everybody. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:42 | |
The other reason came out | 0:38:42 | 0:38:44 | |
and it came out in later years was that Colonel Parker was not an American citizen. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:48 | |
Unknown to Elvis, | 0:38:50 | 0:38:51 | |
his manager's real name wasn't Parker. | 0:38:51 | 0:38:54 | |
Nor was he a colonel. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
He was Dries Van Kuijk, an illegal immigrant from Holland, | 0:38:56 | 0:39:00 | |
who therefore couldn't leave America. | 0:39:00 | 0:39:03 | |
There's so many places that I haven't been yet. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:05 | |
I'd like to go to Europe, I'd like to go to Japan. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
I've never been out this country except in the Service. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
Yeah, I'd love to go there. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:13 | |
I think Elvis was becoming a little bit bored. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:18 | |
Doing the shows in Vegas, going on the road, | 0:39:18 | 0:39:23 | |
same cities, criss-crossing America, | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
because the Colonel didn't want Elvis getting out of his control. | 0:39:26 | 0:39:31 | |
# Are you lonesome... # | 0:39:31 | 0:39:33 | |
Elvis and his entourage staved off boredom with a flotilla | 0:39:33 | 0:39:38 | |
of one-night-stands. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:39 | |
We were a bunch of bad boys, for all those years, while we were all married. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:45 | |
Our wives were married and we were single. | 0:39:45 | 0:39:47 | |
The Vegas bachelors were living high. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
But their marriages were heading for the rocks. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:53 | |
Temptation sometimes overrides loyalty to a spouse. | 0:39:53 | 0:39:58 | |
Elvis probably should never have married. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:03 | |
He belonged to women. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:06 | |
Not woman. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:08 | |
But there's no doubt in my mind that he loved Priscilla very, very much | 0:40:08 | 0:40:13 | |
and she adored him. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:15 | |
He travelled a lot. I had other needs. I was with my daughter, | 0:40:15 | 0:40:21 | |
every day and... I did, I grew apart. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:26 | |
I couldn't live like that anymore. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:30 | |
There were things I wasn't going to put up with, | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
with one-night-stands... | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
Even though I knew, I didn't say a lot. | 0:40:35 | 0:40:40 | |
When Priscilla finally realised that she had to have her own life | 0:40:42 | 0:40:47 | |
and she told Elvis about it in Vegas, | 0:40:47 | 0:40:50 | |
he was devastated. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:54 | |
He was furious. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:57 | |
One of the times where we all went through hell. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
It definitely hurt him very much. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:03 | |
He couldn't believe his wife was divorcing him. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:06 | |
She was going to be on her own with his daughter. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
That bothered him tremendously. It was tough | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
but he kept all that inside himself. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
To give some structure to these bottled-up emotions and the chaos of his life, | 0:41:19 | 0:41:23 | |
Elvis had been searching for control mechanisms. | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
Guns and badges offered one answer. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:29 | |
In 1970, he'd gone to Washington to collect the Federal Agent's badge | 0:41:33 | 0:41:37 | |
from a bewildered President Nixon. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:39 | |
It would allow Elvis to carry a gun anywhere he desired. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:43 | |
Elvis loved guns. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:46 | |
The first time that I actually saw | 0:41:46 | 0:41:49 | |
the gun with Elvis is when he came into my dressing room | 0:41:49 | 0:41:52 | |
backstage and he was singing to me in the shower. | 0:41:52 | 0:41:56 | |
I was washing my hair and I heard Elvis Presley's voice and I thought, | 0:41:56 | 0:42:00 | |
I'm going nuts, I can hear Elvis in the shower. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:03 | |
But when I opened my eyes, he was actually over the shower door | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
singing this song to me. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:08 | |
When I came out of the shower and he'd left, | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
I noticed that he'd used the toilet. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
Because he had left his gun on the back of the toilet. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:20 | |
You know, it was a silver-plated Colt 45. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:24 | |
One night at the Las Vegas Hilton, the 30th floor, | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
Robert Goulet came on television and I really don't know what it was about Robert Goulet, | 0:42:29 | 0:42:34 | |
I don't think it was him, maybe Elvis was just in a bad mood, | 0:42:34 | 0:42:38 | |
but he came on television and Elvis was sitting there... | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
# I am what I am | 0:42:41 | 0:42:45 | |
# I am my own special creation. # | 0:42:47 | 0:42:53 | |
And he picked up a 45 and pulled a round into it and shot the television. | 0:42:53 | 0:42:58 | |
Elvis had a fascination for law enforcement, | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
guns, badges, authority, | 0:43:03 | 0:43:05 | |
power, you know. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
It was like a carry-over from the time he was a little boy, maybe, | 0:43:07 | 0:43:11 | |
and played cops and robbers. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:12 | |
Not long after separating from Priscilla, | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
Elvis met the former Miss Tennessee, who would spend the next four years with him, on and off. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:21 | |
He needed a lot of attention, | 0:43:21 | 0:43:23 | |
he needed a lot of care... | 0:43:23 | 0:43:25 | |
physically and emotionally and he was, at times, he was like my baby, | 0:43:25 | 0:43:30 | |
at other times he was like my brother, other times he was my lover | 0:43:30 | 0:43:33 | |
and sometimes he was my friend. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:36 | |
He would be watching television and say, "Honey, would you turn it up, please?" | 0:43:36 | 0:43:40 | |
OK, I guess your legs are broken! | 0:43:40 | 0:43:44 | |
He had a raucous, irreverent sense of humour. | 0:43:44 | 0:43:49 | |
He loved his movies and Monty Python, we were both huge fans of Monty Python. | 0:43:49 | 0:43:55 | |
God, if they don't stop, I'll kill myself. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:57 | |
I swear I will. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:02 | |
All right, that's it. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:06 | |
GUNSHOT | 0:44:06 | 0:44:08 | |
His sense of humour and fun had not deserted him. | 0:44:10 | 0:44:13 | |
Nor had his generosity, as he bought gifts of cars and houses | 0:44:13 | 0:44:18 | |
for friends and strangers alike. | 0:44:18 | 0:44:20 | |
Elvis was so incredibly generous that we called him everything from crazy | 0:44:20 | 0:44:27 | |
to Santa Claus to a fallen angel, I mean, he was astonishingly generous. | 0:44:27 | 0:44:34 | |
He could come in on a Tuesday and say, "Honey, look what I found for you", | 0:44:34 | 0:44:38 | |
and it would be a five carat blue diamond. | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
"What is this for?" | 0:44:41 | 0:44:42 | |
"Well, it's Tuesday, here. It's beautiful and you're beautiful and you should have it." | 0:44:42 | 0:44:47 | |
He was really like having a Prince Charming in your life. | 0:44:47 | 0:44:50 | |
He was always a big kid. | 0:44:50 | 0:44:53 | |
He always bought things for people and friends and bought whatever he wanted. | 0:44:53 | 0:44:57 | |
He bought it for himself cos he could never do that when he was a kid. | 0:44:57 | 0:45:01 | |
He made up for it on his own, later on. | 0:45:01 | 0:45:03 | |
Elvis's childhood needs, his love of his mother, | 0:45:03 | 0:45:07 | |
memories of his stillborn brother, | 0:45:07 | 0:45:09 | |
haunted his downtime. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:12 | |
The very first night I was with Elvis, he said to me, | 0:45:12 | 0:45:16 | |
"If we had the money, I wouldn't have been born at home. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:19 | |
"Maybe my twin brother would have been born alive and not dead. | 0:45:19 | 0:45:26 | |
"We couldn't afford doctors." | 0:45:26 | 0:45:28 | |
So Elvis, psychologically, from very...from very young, | 0:45:28 | 0:45:35 | |
believed in doctors. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:38 | |
Pain, anxiety, pain, fatigue. | 0:45:38 | 0:45:42 | |
Pain, pain, pain... | 0:45:42 | 0:45:45 | |
There used to be a commercial on TV | 0:45:45 | 0:45:47 | |
that goes, better living through chemistry. | 0:45:47 | 0:45:51 | |
Elvis used to say, "Better living through chemistry." | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
Depression, tension, anxiety... | 0:45:54 | 0:45:57 | |
He basically was not a drugger but some irresponsible doctor | 0:45:57 | 0:46:02 | |
introduced him to high pain medication | 0:46:02 | 0:46:08 | |
and that was the downfall, physically. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:11 | |
The effects of Elvis's increasing dependence on medication | 0:46:12 | 0:46:15 | |
became more visible in Vegas, | 0:46:15 | 0:46:17 | |
at the hotel now renamed the Hilton. | 0:46:17 | 0:46:20 | |
Colonel Parker was becoming anxious about the rambling monologues | 0:46:20 | 0:46:25 | |
as Elvis battled his demons on stage. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:27 | |
Ladies and gentlemen... | 0:46:27 | 0:46:30 | |
The night that Elvis was on stage and made very derogatory remarks | 0:46:36 | 0:46:41 | |
about the Hilton hotel officials, I was in the audience, | 0:46:41 | 0:46:46 | |
sitting next to Colonel in a booth. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
When Elvis started, Colonel turned to me and said, | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
"I wish I could just disappear under this table. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:10 | |
"I've never been so embarrassed in my life." | 0:47:10 | 0:47:12 | |
The next song is dedicated to the hierarchy of staff of the Hilton hotel. | 0:47:12 | 0:47:18 | |
# I'm the king of the jungle They call me tiger man | 0:47:18 | 0:47:24 | |
# I'm the king of the jungle They call me tiger man... # | 0:47:26 | 0:47:30 | |
When he comes off stage, | 0:47:30 | 0:47:31 | |
Colonel Parker, he attacks Elvis with words, | 0:47:31 | 0:47:35 | |
and says, "Elvis, they pay us to perform here. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:38 | |
"It's not our thing to tell them how to handle their business | 0:47:38 | 0:47:41 | |
"and their people. They don't tell us how to handle our business." | 0:47:41 | 0:47:44 | |
They get in a tremendous argument. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:46 | |
Arguing to the fact Elvis throws out the words, "You're fired, then." | 0:47:46 | 0:47:51 | |
He quit, Elvis fired him. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
I mean, they had a terrible clash. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:55 | |
I'm sure the whole hotel heard what was being said. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:59 | |
And, as a consequence, | 0:48:01 | 0:48:02 | |
Colonel came downstairs, it was about 3am and he said to me, | 0:48:02 | 0:48:08 | |
"Come in the office, I have dictation." | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
And he spent the next couple hours dictating the terms under which he was leaving. | 0:48:12 | 0:48:17 | |
I typed them. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:19 | |
Colonel presents the bill late that evening, | 0:48:19 | 0:48:22 | |
"I'm finished, I'm outta here. We're packing up, but you owe me..." | 0:48:22 | 0:48:25 | |
I don't know, like 1 or 2 million. | 0:48:25 | 0:48:27 | |
It was Elvis's nature, he hated confrontations. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:31 | |
He didn't like to get in arguments or heavy confrontations. | 0:48:31 | 0:48:34 | |
Number two was, Elvis was loyal. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
So, they sort of kissed and made up. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
Elvis's loyalty to the manager who had made him a star back in '56 | 0:48:40 | 0:48:45 | |
led to a plague of problems. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:46 | |
Not just in Vegas but in the recording studios where Presley searched for new hits. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:51 | |
And you could hear it in the lyrics. | 0:48:51 | 0:48:53 | |
# I see a change | 0:48:53 | 0:48:56 | |
# Has come into our lives | 0:48:56 | 0:48:59 | |
# It's not the same as it used to be | 0:48:59 | 0:49:04 | |
# And it's not too late | 0:49:05 | 0:49:07 | |
# To realise our mistake | 0:49:07 | 0:49:09 | |
# We're just not right for each other... # | 0:49:09 | 0:49:16 | |
Elvis was a brilliant producer in the studio. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:21 | |
He knew how he wanted his music presented, more so than anybody. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
But sales were plummeting. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
The reason was obvious to those around him. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:31 | |
The best composers were once again kept at arm's length from Elvis's sessions. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:35 | |
It was like the '60s with the Colonel all over again. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:38 | |
I see the men from the publishing company, with a guy up against the wall, | 0:49:38 | 0:49:46 | |
saying, "You were hired to play guitar, not to pitch songs and if you ever pitch a song again, | 0:49:46 | 0:49:52 | |
"you will never do another Elvis Presley session." | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
And the Colonel interfered in even more obvious ways, | 0:49:55 | 0:49:58 | |
cutting deep into Elvis's increasingly fragile self-confidence. | 0:49:58 | 0:50:02 | |
I think the Colonel had gone into the studio | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
after certain things were mixed and we know | 0:50:05 | 0:50:09 | |
on the Madison Square Garden live album | 0:50:09 | 0:50:12 | |
he sped the tracks up. | 0:50:12 | 0:50:14 | |
It sped up the tracks, sped up Elvis's voice, | 0:50:14 | 0:50:17 | |
but you got one more song for publishing's sake... | 0:50:17 | 0:50:21 | |
It made him sound like Mickey Mouse, almost. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:23 | |
The tempos were just freakily fast. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:26 | |
FAST VERSION OF ALL SHOOK UP PLAYS | 0:50:26 | 0:50:30 | |
So, I think there was a lot of frustration there and he didn't really know how to deal with that. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:42 | |
Colonel also messed with the mixes. | 0:50:42 | 0:50:46 | |
I heard Colonel talking to New York and RCA, | 0:50:46 | 0:50:51 | |
saying, "We can't even hear Elvis with all that background stuff." | 0:50:51 | 0:50:56 | |
And, "You need to turn that stuff down." I heard that with my own ears. | 0:50:56 | 0:51:01 | |
I think the Colonel was saying that people are paying to hear Elvis Presley sing. | 0:51:01 | 0:51:07 | |
And all the other stuff is getting in the way of that. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:12 | |
The band and the singers and everything. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:16 | |
When people fool with artists' work, they wind up killing the artist. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:21 | |
I lost my friend mainly because of creative disappointments. | 0:51:21 | 0:51:28 | |
I think those caused the other problems. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:33 | |
Elvis's shows now fluctuated from the sublime | 0:51:35 | 0:51:37 | |
to the chaotic. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:39 | |
Later on in his life, when he was having some problems with prescription medication, | 0:51:41 | 0:51:45 | |
he could come out on stage and he could forget lyrics to a song, | 0:51:45 | 0:51:49 | |
he could seem disoriented and the audience was oblivious to it. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:53 | |
I hear rumours flying around, I got sick in hospital. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
In this day and time, you can't even get sick. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:59 | |
You are strung out. | 0:51:59 | 0:52:00 | |
By God, I'll tell you something, friend, I've never been strung out, | 0:52:00 | 0:52:05 | |
in my life, except on music. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:07 | |
Living by night on the Hilton's 30th floor, | 0:52:09 | 0:52:12 | |
Elvis became increasingly isolated | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
and in need of help. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:16 | |
I think the first time I realised that Elvis was taking medication | 0:52:16 | 0:52:22 | |
I was in Las Vegas with him and it was in the first couple of weeks | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
that I was there. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:27 | |
I remember one night looking down at his nightstand | 0:52:27 | 0:52:30 | |
and I saw all these prescription bottles and I said, | 0:52:30 | 0:52:34 | |
"Are you sick?" He said, "Why do you ask, honey?" | 0:52:34 | 0:52:36 | |
"Well, these are all prescription bottles." | 0:52:36 | 0:52:39 | |
He said, "No, I had a little sore throat" or "I've gotta keep my throat good for performing." | 0:52:39 | 0:52:44 | |
For many years, Elvis was in denial. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:47 | |
No question 'bout it. | 0:52:47 | 0:52:50 | |
He became dependent on people to take care of things for him. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:55 | |
He became dependent in many ways, just like he did with the medications | 0:52:55 | 0:53:00 | |
that five different doctors, who are not in touch with one another, | 0:53:00 | 0:53:04 | |
were giving him. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
And he became addicted to them. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
Elvis's health was declining, | 0:53:19 | 0:53:21 | |
often in clinics and hotel bedrooms. | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
The Colonel started to interfere. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:26 | |
Lo and behold, there's Colonel Parker and I walked him to the door, | 0:53:26 | 0:53:32 | |
he opens it up, | 0:53:32 | 0:53:33 | |
and what I saw was Elvis's... | 0:53:33 | 0:53:37 | |
body being dunked into a bucket of ice water | 0:53:37 | 0:53:42 | |
by the doctor. Elvis was like this. | 0:53:42 | 0:53:44 | |
"Ahhhh." | 0:53:44 | 0:53:46 | |
Moaning. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:48 | |
And the door closed. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:49 | |
60 seconds later, the door opened, the Colonel walked out, | 0:53:49 | 0:53:55 | |
he stood with me, toe to toe, | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
stared in my eyes and said, "Now, you listen to me. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:02 | |
"The only thing that's important | 0:54:02 | 0:54:05 | |
"is that that man is on the stage tonight. | 0:54:05 | 0:54:09 | |
"You hear me? Nothing else matters. | 0:54:09 | 0:54:12 | |
"Nothing." | 0:54:12 | 0:54:14 | |
# Gather round me, buddy | 0:54:15 | 0:54:17 | |
# Raise your glasses high... # | 0:54:19 | 0:54:23 | |
While Elvis struggled with his demons, | 0:54:23 | 0:54:25 | |
so increasingly did the Colonel, | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
throwing away huge sums of money in the Hilton casino. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
This was what Colonel said. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:36 | |
"When I'm playing, I forget everything, | 0:54:36 | 0:54:40 | |
"except what I'm doing. | 0:54:40 | 0:54:42 | |
"I have no aches or pains. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:44 | |
"I have no stress over the business. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
"I am focused on the gambling." | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
He played roulette and would put chips on every number. | 0:54:50 | 0:54:55 | |
In a period of 1.5 hours, | 0:54:55 | 0:55:00 | |
-he lost over 1,250,000. -HE WHISTLES | 0:55:00 | 0:55:04 | |
And Elvis believed that toward the end, | 0:55:04 | 0:55:06 | |
the reason he was playing the hotels was to pay off the Colonel's debts. | 0:55:06 | 0:55:10 | |
Elvis had felt indebted to his manager for 20 years now. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
And the lyrics of Walk A Mile In My Shoes | 0:55:16 | 0:55:19 | |
seemed to echo the low point their relationship had reached | 0:55:19 | 0:55:23 | |
by 1976. | 0:55:23 | 0:55:25 | |
# If I could be you | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
# If you could be me | 0:55:28 | 0:55:29 | |
# For just one hour | 0:55:29 | 0:55:32 | |
# If we could find a way | 0:55:34 | 0:55:35 | |
# To get inside | 0:55:35 | 0:55:37 | |
# Each other's minds | 0:55:37 | 0:55:38 | |
# Uh-huh | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
# If you could see you | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
# Through my eyes | 0:55:42 | 0:55:44 | |
# Instead of your ego | 0:55:44 | 0:55:46 | |
# I believe you'd be, I believe you'd be, surprised to see | 0:55:48 | 0:55:51 | |
# That you've been blind | 0:55:51 | 0:55:53 | |
# Uh-huh | 0:55:53 | 0:55:54 | |
# Walk a mile in my shoes | 0:55:54 | 0:55:56 | |
# Walk a mile in my shoes | 0:55:57 | 0:55:59 | |
# Yeah, before you abuse | 0:56:01 | 0:56:03 | |
# Criticise and accuse | 0:56:03 | 0:56:04 | |
# Just walk a mile in my shoes... # | 0:56:04 | 0:56:06 | |
Elvis was becoming increasingly remote from the manager and the city | 0:56:06 | 0:56:11 | |
he had once loved. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:12 | |
Here we're talking about Las Vegas and money, | 0:56:12 | 0:56:17 | |
the very epitome of materialism. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:20 | |
Here's Elvis Presley, upstairs, after his show, | 0:56:20 | 0:56:25 | |
meditating. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:27 | |
Before his show, saying a prayer. | 0:56:27 | 0:56:31 | |
Reading spiritual books of depth and substance. | 0:56:31 | 0:56:35 | |
The contrast was amazing. | 0:56:35 | 0:56:38 | |
Quite amazing. | 0:56:38 | 0:56:39 | |
He definitely believed that he was blessed by God. | 0:56:39 | 0:56:43 | |
It wasn't just an accident, he felt he'd been picked out. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
But he used to question it. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:49 | |
"Why me?" | 0:56:49 | 0:56:50 | |
# Sweet spirit | 0:56:50 | 0:56:55 | |
# In this place | 0:56:55 | 0:57:01 | |
# And I know | 0:57:01 | 0:57:05 | |
# That it's the spirit... # | 0:57:05 | 0:57:09 | |
I would sit in his dressing room when I'd go see him | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
and he'd be there fidgeting. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:14 | |
Waiting for his second show. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
He felt he should have stayed in the church and not become an entertainer. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:25 | |
Elvis would wear, on almost every occasion, three necklaces. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:29 | |
He would wear the Christian crucifix, the cross, | 0:57:29 | 0:57:32 | |
he would wear the Egyptian ankh and he would wear a Jewish star. | 0:57:32 | 0:57:37 | |
And he would tell me, he said, "I don't want to miss out on heaven on a technicality." | 0:57:37 | 0:57:42 | |
# I see my light I see my light come shining | 0:57:42 | 0:57:47 | |
# From the West down to the East... # | 0:57:47 | 0:57:50 | |
Elvis never returned to Las Vegas after the winter of '76. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:54 | |
He would die in Graceland six months later, aged 42. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
# I shall be released | 0:57:58 | 0:58:03 | |
I think we could really say that Elvis and the Colonel revitalised Las Vegas. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:15 | |
They brought in people from all over the world. | 0:58:15 | 0:58:20 | |
And not only the International Hotel benefitted, | 0:58:20 | 0:58:24 | |
but every hotel in Las Vegas. | 0:58:24 | 0:58:26 | |
I think he had this wonderful opportunity where the city | 0:58:26 | 0:58:30 | |
really needed a pick me up, somebody to come in and shake up the entertainment scene | 0:58:30 | 0:58:36 | |
and make it cool again for name entertainers to appear in Las Vegas. | 0:58:36 | 0:58:40 | |
So he brought that to the table but Vegas brought to the table the opportunity | 0:58:40 | 0:58:44 | |
for Elvis to showcase himself. | 0:58:44 | 0:58:46 | |
So I think it was a marriage made in heaven. | 0:58:46 | 0:58:49 | |
After 837 shows, | 0:58:53 | 0:58:55 | |
the Hilton's curtains finally closed on an exhausted Elvis | 0:58:55 | 0:58:59 | |
who had given his all for the love and loyalty of his audience. | 0:58:59 | 0:59:04 | |
Subtitles by Claire Brown Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:59:23 | 0:59:26 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:59:26 | 0:59:29 |