lyrics that were as different and daring as Elvis’s gyrations had been. Elvis’s music, which had been socially relevant in the 1950s, wasn’t anymore.
Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker (as he liked to be called), contributed to the decline. Parker (who had been born in Holland and whose real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk) had an overbearing manner and managed to extract an exorbitant percent of Elvis’s earnings for himself.
As soon as Elvis was discharged from the Army, Parker locked him into a series of Hollywood movie contracts that lasted for the better part of a decade. During that time, Elvis starred in twenty-seven films in which the character he played was always a thinly veiled version of himself regardless of the role.
James Dean had been one of Elvis’s boyhood heroes. Elvis wanted to be a serious actor. With good training and better roles, he might have become one. Instead, he was mired in a string of low-budget musicals that were profitable but critically panned. The soundtracks had a formulaic assembly-line quality. The Beatles were conquering the world, and he was in films like Tickle Me and Harum Scarum .
Ali would lose three years of his ring career because of his refusal to accept induction into the United States Army. Elvis wasted a decade of his life making bad Hollywood movies.
“I’d like to make better films than the films I made before,” he said ruefully when the run was over. “I didn’t have final approval of the script, which means I couldn’t say, ‘This is not good for me.’ I don’t think anyone was consciously trying to harm me. It was just, Hollywood’s image of me was wrong, and I knew it and I couldn’t do anything about it. The pictures got very similar. Something was successful and they’d try to recreate it the next time around. I’d read the first four or five pages, and I’d know it was just a different name with twelve new songs in it. It worried me sick. I didn’t know what to do. I was obligated a lot of times very heavily to things I didn’t believe in and it was very difficult. I had thought they would get a property for me and give me a chance to show some acting ability, but it did not change. I became very discouraged. I would have liked to have something more challenging instead of Hollywood’s image of what they thought I was.”
Then Elvis’s world turned again; this time for the better.
In 1968, America was in turmoil. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The anti-war movement was in full bloom. Mayor Daley’s police rioted at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. A new drug culture was sweeping the country.
On December 3, 1968, NBC aired its highest-rated show of the year. It’s now known as “The Comeback Special.” At the time, it was titled Elvis.
The show mixed a handful of elaborately produced studio numbers with songs performed in an intimate setting before a small live audience. Elvis wore black leather, looked good, and sang well. It was his first “live” performance since 1961. A whole new generation took notice and said, “Hey! This guy is pretty cool.” And for those who had been young in the 1950s, Elvis was back.
Five months after Elvis’s comeback special, the International Hotel (soon to be acquired by Hilton) announced that it had signed him to perform fifty-seven shows over a four-week period in Las Vegas for the then-astronomical sum of $500,000.
Thirteen years earlier, in April 1956, a young Elvis Presley had unsuccessfully played the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. The audience had been unimpressed. A reviewer for the Las Vegas Sun wrote at the time, “For the teen-agers, the long tall Memphis lad is a whiz. For the average Vegas spender or showgoer, a bore. His musical sound with a combo of three is uncouth, matching to a great extent the lyric content of his nonsensical songs.”
Times change.
Elvis opened at The International on July 31, 1969. The next day, the
Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker (as he liked to be called), contributed to the decline. Parker (who had been born in Holland and whose real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk) had an overbearing manner and managed to extract an exorbitant percent of Elvis’s earnings for himself.
As soon as Elvis was discharged from the Army, Parker locked him into a series of Hollywood movie contracts that lasted for the better part of a decade. During that time, Elvis starred in twenty-seven films in which the character he played was always a thinly veiled version of himself regardless of the role.
James Dean had been one of Elvis’s boyhood heroes. Elvis wanted to be a serious actor. With good training and better roles, he might have become one. Instead, he was mired in a string of low-budget musicals that were profitable but critically panned. The soundtracks had a formulaic assembly-line quality. The Beatles were conquering the world, and he was in films like Tickle Me and Harum Scarum .
Ali would lose three years of his ring career because of his refusal to accept induction into the United States Army. Elvis wasted a decade of his life making bad Hollywood movies.
“I’d like to make better films than the films I made before,” he said ruefully when the run was over. “I didn’t have final approval of the script, which means I couldn’t say, ‘This is not good for me.’ I don’t think anyone was consciously trying to harm me. It was just, Hollywood’s image of me was wrong, and I knew it and I couldn’t do anything about it. The pictures got very similar. Something was successful and they’d try to recreate it the next time around. I’d read the first four or five pages, and I’d know it was just a different name with twelve new songs in it. It worried me sick. I didn’t know what to do. I was obligated a lot of times very heavily to things I didn’t believe in and it was very difficult. I had thought they would get a property for me and give me a chance to show some acting ability, but it did not change. I became very discouraged. I would have liked to have something more challenging instead of Hollywood’s image of what they thought I was.”
Then Elvis’s world turned again; this time for the better.
In 1968, America was in turmoil. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The anti-war movement was in full bloom. Mayor Daley’s police rioted at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. A new drug culture was sweeping the country.
On December 3, 1968, NBC aired its highest-rated show of the year. It’s now known as “The Comeback Special.” At the time, it was titled Elvis.
The show mixed a handful of elaborately produced studio numbers with songs performed in an intimate setting before a small live audience. Elvis wore black leather, looked good, and sang well. It was his first “live” performance since 1961. A whole new generation took notice and said, “Hey! This guy is pretty cool.” And for those who had been young in the 1950s, Elvis was back.
Five months after Elvis’s comeback special, the International Hotel (soon to be acquired by Hilton) announced that it had signed him to perform fifty-seven shows over a four-week period in Las Vegas for the then-astronomical sum of $500,000.
Thirteen years earlier, in April 1956, a young Elvis Presley had unsuccessfully played the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. The audience had been unimpressed. A reviewer for the Las Vegas Sun wrote at the time, “For the teen-agers, the long tall Memphis lad is a whiz. For the average Vegas spender or showgoer, a bore. His musical sound with a combo of three is uncouth, matching to a great extent the lyric content of his nonsensical songs.”
Times change.
Elvis opened at The International on July 31, 1969. The next day, the
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