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- [00:01]
A
It's time to refresh your yard during Spring Backyard Days at the Home Depot. Get low prices guaranteed on propane grills starting at $179 like the next grill 3 burner gas grill. Or get $50 off a select Weber Spirit Grill and bring big flavor to your backyard. Then set the scene with Hampton Bay string lights that bring it all together. Shop Spring backyard days for seven days at the Home Depot, now through May 6th. Exclusions apply to yomedebo.com pricematch for details. It is the evening of September 9, 1956, in a modest middle class living room in Maplewood, Ohio. The flickering light of Disney cartoons from a black and white television set casts shadows on the floral wallpaper. Perched on the edge of an olive green Sofa is a 15 year old girl, her hands tightly clasped and barely contained excitement. The girl's mother walks into the room and pours Coca Cola from a glass bottle, a special treat to accompany the evening cartoons. She sets the glass down next to the pile of Good Housekeeping magazines and a heavy glass ashtray. Waiting until her mom is gone, the girl tiptoes to the door and quietly closes it. Then, returning to the television, she switches the channel from Disney to the Ed Sullivan Show. She exhales as the picture comes into focus. It's a young man in a plaid jacket and open necked shirt holding a guitar. The singer everyone is talking about, Elvis Presley. Only his torso is captured on camera. His notorious hips are hidden from view. She's heard about him and seen pictures, but she's never watched him perform before. He's taking a break between songs and his speaking voice is rich and deep, with a tantalizing southern drawl. His face is handsome, his eyes almost sleepy. When he talks, his lip occasionally curls upwards, and as he begins to strum the guitar for the next song, something changes. As the song gets underway, the screaming in the television studio is like nothing the girl has heard before. She jumps to her feet, electrified, her polka dot dress swaying as she dances. It feels as if Elvis is singing just for her, but the moment is shattered by the slam of a door, the unmistakable sound of her father returning home, the heavy echo of his footsteps sound in the hallway, met by her mother's muted greeting. The girl makes a move to the television set to lower the volume, which is too late. The door swings open and her father is already towering over her in his three piece suit. He glares at the tv, his jaw set in a grim line. In one swift movement he flicks the switch and the screen falls dark the girl's eyes fill with tears. Her father's face is a strange combination of fury and fear. The young man is a dangerous influence, he tells her angrily. He's read all about him. With one last disapproving look, he marches from the room. From next door come sounds of evening drinks being poured and the clink of crockery as her mother lays the table. The girl returns to the sofa, despondently pushing away the bottle of Coke. She doesn't want it anymore, and she's certainly too heartbroken to eat dinner. But as she thinks of the singer's face and the way he sang and moved, she smiles. She resolves to find a way to hear him again. No matter what her father says, she isn't ready to let go of what she has experienced today. In fact, this is just the beginning. One of the best selling solo music artists of all time, Elvis Presley embodied the spirit of rebellion and youth culture in the 1950s. Redefining popular music, appealing to a diverse audience, he blended his distinctive voice with elements of rock, country, blues and gospel to earn a devoted international following that persists to this day. In addition to winning three Grammy Awards during his lifetime and being inducted into multiple halls of fame, Elvis also starred in 31 feature films as well as two concert documentaries. But how did a young working class truck driver rise to unprecedented fame? Why did Elvis rarely leave the United States despite offers from all over the world? And what went wrong in his later years to lead to his well documented decline and early death at just 42 years old? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Network. This is a short history of Elvis Presley. At 4 in the morning on January 8, 1935, in a tiny two room house in Tupelo, Mississippi, Gladys Presley gives birth to twin sons. She's devastated to find that the first, Jesse Garon, is stillborn. But his brother Elvis Arryn, comes out healthy. Jesse is buried in an unmarked grave in the local Priceville cemetery, but his mother believes her surviving son inherits the strength of both twins. Little Elvis grows up in a working class family. Money is scarce, but his mother and father Vernon do their best to provide for their son. They move from one rented house to another, but life changes when Vernon is convicted of a crime in 1938, when Elvis is just three. Mitch Benn is a comedian, musician, author and lifelong Elvis fan. He appeared in the Ask Elvis segment on BBC Radio 2's Steve Wright show and explored the life of the singer in Mitch Benn has left the building for BBC Radio 4.
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B
Gladys was reputedly quite overprotective of Elvis, particularly after what happened to his brother. But they were very, very poor in Tupelo, Mississippi. In fact, Vernon at one point actually went to jail for petty fraud. He was passing bad checks. Vernon never managed to keep a job down for any length of time. They never made any amount of money. That was how Elvis experienced childhood, which in many respects explains an awful lot about how he went on to experience adulthood.
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A
When his father is finally released in February 1939, the family continue to move around. They find comfort in meetings at the assembly of God church in Tupolo, where the music and preaching resonate with Elvis. When he is 10, he sings in public for the first time when he enters a youth talent contest at a local fair. Standing on a chair, he sings the sentimental folk song Old Shep into the microphone. The competition is broadcast over a local radio station and Elvis wins fifth prize, receiving $5 in fair ride tickets for his 11th birthday in 1946. His parents can't afford the bicycle he asks for, so they buy him a guitar instead. At school, he is known as a shy, dreamy boy, refusing to cut his sandy colored hair for football. He's bullied by the other players and kicked off the team. Later, the family move from Tupolo to Memphis in search of a better life and Elvis sings to his junior high class as a farewell. In Memphis, he grows up hanging around bustling Beale Street. The heartbeat of the city, it pulses with the rhythms of blues and jazz. Lined with historic buildings and glowing with neon signs, it's a mecca for young musicians. Just off the main thoroughfare of Beale street is a studio called the Memphis Recording Service, run by Sam Phillips and Marianne Kaiska. Its motto is we record anything, anytime, anywhere. It's open to anyone eager to cut a record, provided they can pay the fee. But there is also a professional arm to the business Sun Studio, where Phillips, a huge blues fan, begins to work with black musicians such as B.B. king. Phillips is always on the lookout for talent and new ways to make money. It is at Sun Studio in 1951 that Rocket 88 is recorded by the African American artist Jackie Branston alongside Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm. It is said to be the first example of of rock and roll, a new genre of music evolving. It is, as Phillips put it, the blues with a mania. Its swing makes it irresistible to move to. And it's late in the summer of 1953 that 18 year old Presley walks into Memphis Recording Service. Shyly, he stammers to Marianne Kaiska that he wants to make a record for his mother's birthday, though he doubtless has some aspirations of being noticed. Kaiska asks him who he sounds like. He tells her, I don't sound like nobody. As he records his demo, Kaiska makes a note. Good ballad singer hold a reminder to keep his details on file. Presley pays his $3.98 and leaves the store hopeful that his recording might have caught Phillips attention. But nothing comes from the encounter, at least at first, Though he returns to the studio to record again. In the meantime, he does various odd jobs, including driving a delivery truck. At night school, he studies to be an apprentice electrician. But a while later, after listening to Presley's demos, Sam Phillips decides to call the young singer back to try recording with a few other musicians. They attempt a few tracks, but nothing quite takes until Presley launches in to an old blues song called that's All Right. Phillips later says, it's like being stabbed by a pitchfork. The sound is raw, visceral and unique.
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And that was the moment at which Sam Phillips realized that Elvis had something a bit special and maybe even something marketable. And he started to circulate this recording that and recording they also did very early on of Blue Moon in Kentucky started to circulate down local radio stations. And that was the beginning of Elvis's recording career.
- [11:31]
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On July 8, 1954, that's all right is played on Red Hot and Blue, the most happening radio program in Memphis. Immediately the switchboard lights up with requests to hear it again. The radio DJ Dewey Phillips phones Presley at home, hoping to invite him to the station for a live interview. But the shy 19 year old singer is hiding in a movie theater, afraid the world might be laughing at him, unaware of how hungry his brand new fans are for this thrilling new sound.
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Rock and roll was just so exciting, it was just so dynamic, it was so naughty, you know, compared to pretty much everything else that you've gone before that it needed somebody who was as dynamic and as exciting and let's be honest, naughty as it was to really embody it. First person I've hit records with rock and roll was Bill Haley. It wasn't going to be Bill Haley. Bill Haley was probably only about 28, but he looked about 50. But you needed somebody as mind bendingly sexy as Elvis was to embody this mind bendingly sexy new music that was coming out of the United States. I mean, of course, you know, when rock and roll hit in the mid-50s and it was this new sensation, there were a lot of black jazz musicians in New Orleans saying, you know, well, sounds a lot like that boogie woogie stuff we were playing before the war. But you know, the white folks say it's new, then I guess it's new. But if anything, the entire history of rock and roll from Elvis onwards, all the way up to and including the biggest artist today, the entire history of rock and roll can be expressed in the sentence, this stuff is great, let's find a white kid who can do it. And Elvis was a white kid who could do it. And yeah, there'd just never been anything like him.
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A
That's all right. His first single is released by the sun label in July 1954, a matter of days after his radio debut. Four more singles follow with Phillips Sun Studio in 1954 and 1955. In the meantime, the singer and his band, the Blue Moon Boys start playing at country and gospel shows around Memphis. By mid October they are so much in demand that they have to quit their full time jobs. Their debut on the Louisiana Hayride, a live Saturday night country music radio show, leads to regular appearances. And there Elvis attracts the attention of a man who goes by the name of Colonel Tom Parker. But as it happens, he's not a Colonel and his real name is Andreas Cornelis van Kwyk, an illegal Dutch immigrant to the States. His background of working in carnivals has given him a shrewd understanding of show business. By his mid-40s when he meets Elvis, this so called Colonel has become a successful music promoter, managing country music stars such as Eddie Arnold and Hank Snow.
- [14:35]
B
The notorious Colonel Tom Parker in many respects was both the best and worst thing that ever happened to Elvis. You can drive yourself nuts with the counterfactual speculation of what would an Elvis story without Colonel Tom Parker in it look like? Without it's almost impossible to say. If he hadn't been taken on by somebody quite so ruthless, would he have made the impact at the beginning of his career that he did? If somebody quite that talented and that insanely good looking, would it not have been inevitable that somebody would have discovered him and done something with him? We can never know.
- [15:09]
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In 1955, as Presley continues touring in the south and southwest of the States, Colonel Parker becomes increasingly involved in his management. The drummer DJ Fontana joined the band that year and his experience in playing burlesque shows means he can add drumroll flourishes to accentuate the way Elvis moves. The shy singer is growing in confidence and developing his own unique stage presence. While most guitarists stand on flat feet and tap along to the music, Presley rises on the balls of his feet and keeps time with his legs. The unique combination of his shaking limbs, swiveling hips, striking sense of style and implausibly good looks leads to ever increasing levels of excitement at shows, particularly among the female members of his audience. Soon all he has to do is grin and shake a little finger and the women start howling. Sometimes the almost rioting crowds break through the barricades. At his gigs on tours, groups of boyfriends begin to gather in towns ready to take him on. Off stage, though, he remains anxious and sensitive. At night, he struggles to sleep. But to the outside world, his success appears to be unstoppable. By late 1955, Colonel Parker has become his exclusive manager. Since the singer is not yet 21, his parents signed the contract to formalize the agreement. However, Gladys expresses some doubts about the avaricious manager. Even so, the very next day, Elvis signs with RCA Records. Parker negotiates the sale of the singer's Sun Studios contract to the bigger record company for $35,000 plus a $5,000 bonus for Elvis, a record sum, and things get better. The following year, his regional popularity evolves into national and international fame. In January, Heartbreak Hotel, his first single with RCA, sells over 300,000 copies in its first three weeks. It's soon number one on the US Billboard chart and will become the singer's first single to sell over a million copies. The same month sees Elvis television debut on the Dorsey Brothers Stage Show, a popular variety series. In the opening number, a dozen women in leotards play the xylophone while men in tuxedos tap dance to the music, arriving like someone from the future. Elvis's jacket is so loud it looks sequined. His striking eyes are accentuated by mascara, a trick he's learned from one of his heroes, the actor Tony Curtis. When he walks on stage, there's a moment of shock before the audience starts cheering. More television appearances follow, as well as his first Las Vegas gig and the release of his eponymous first album. Soon his television appearances see him backed by the Jordanares, a singing quartet with whom he'll work for the next 14 years. The main musical credit goes to the roster of songwriters who provide him with hits. Despite the many co writing credits, in reality he rarely contributes to that aspect of his music. But though these early appearances win the hearts of America's teenage girls, his hip, swiveling moves and African American influenced sound causes consternation among many conservative white parents and religious groups. His reviews range from highly erotic to downright revolting. It's not long before his gyrations earn him the nickname Elvis the Pelvis. There are petitions against him and public uproar to present him in a family friendly way. The New York TV presenter Steve Allen persuades Elvis to dress in a tuxedo and perform the song Hound Dog as a serenade to a canine co star. It's an experience that proves humiliating for both Elvis and the uncomfortable looking basset hound who's forced into a top hat. Afterwards, Elvis receives a call from his old Sun Records pal Sam Phillips, who tells him never to let them dress him up like that again on another network. Ed Sullivan, who presents the most popular television program of the era, has vowed to never have the controversial singer on his show. But now he's conflicted. Not wanting to be outdone by his rival, Sullivan hosts The Star. In September 1956, Elvis uses the performance to debut a new song, Love Me Tender, which is from the film he's working on. His first, the electrifying performance wins the highest ratings ever of any television variety show. Captivating 60 million people. Elvis fame has gone stratospheric. In all, 1956 sees five number one singles, two number one albums, history making television appearances and the beginning of a movie career. What's more, memorabilia has become a booming business. Merchandise includes almost every item of clothing, plus wallets, charm bracelets, statues, bookends, guitars, lipstick, cologne, stuffed toy dogs, greeting cards and even an Elvis branded soft drink. He's making money and he knows how to spend it. He has a taste for Cadillacs and buys a pink model for his mother, who doesn't even drive. Always generous, often lavishly. So cars become one of his go to gifts for friends and family. In March 1957, he buys the land and home that he will rename. Graceland. The estate where he plans to live with his parents and his paternal grandmother sets him back just over $100,000. It's a grand colonial revival style mansion with white Corinthian columns at the front entrance. His mother oversees the refurbishment, though she vetoes her son's request for the downstairs to be painted deep purple, opting for a more traditional blue. While that year sees further ventures into Hollywood, the biggest change comes at the end of 1957. This time it's something that brings him crashing back down to earth. Celebrating his first Christmas at Graceland, Elvis receives his draft notice for the United States Army. It's peacetime, but the draft is part of the government's Cold War preparations. Though he's supposed to report to the army in January 1958, he is granted A deferment until March so he can finish his current film, King Creole.
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Elvis draft came up and he went away and did two years in the army like the good southern boy that he was. I think to a lot of people's surprise, for all that he was regarded as this smoldering eyed, hip, grinding menace, he was actually a good boy. He was quite a gentle, quite a polite young man in many respects. And when his military service came up, he unquestioningly went off and did it, because that's what you did when you were a well raised young man from Tupelo, Mississippi.
- [23:06]
A
In March 1958, Elvis agrees to serve his country. Despite his skyrocketing career. This show of patriotism earns him respect from an even broader audience. Privately though, he's anxious about the momentous change and the worry it will cause his mother to distract himself. The evening before he's inducted, he stays up all night in Memphis with his old local pals and his girlfriend, the performer and recording artist Anita Wood. He visits a drive in where they watch a film about the rise and fall of a rock and roll star. A narrative eerily close to his own. It is gone. 11pm on March 24, 1958, in western Arkansas. A military bus is rolling to a stop outside a checkpoint that serves as the entrance to a complex of buildings. The bus's headlights pierce the darkness, illuminating signs identifying the place as U.S. army base Fort Chaffee. A 23 year old Elvis Presley rubs his eyes. He sees the crowd that has gathered there to greet him, around 100 fans, as well as several dozen reporters. The engine idles while the vehicle is checked before being waved through by the guards. As the vehicle rolls through the barracks, you can only make out rows of low slung white buildings in the darkness. Eventually the bus stops. Straightening his checked jacket as he stands, Elvis steps down, shaking the hands of the military personnel greeting him. The flashes of the photographers following along. He makes his way to a reception room to report for a From there he's sent to the sleeping quarters where he's given what he needs to make his own bed. The photographers stay close by, catching every moment, and Elvis keeps smiling. Good naturedly, it's part of his job. Eventually the press leave. Elvis beds down, but the regulation cot proves uncomfortable for a man who has slept in some of the most luxurious hotels in the States. The next day he is awake before the other recruits. At 5:30am he shaves and then makes his way to the mess hall for breakfast. After a busy morning of aptitude tests and Induction meetings. There comes the moment that the photographers have been anticipating and his fans have been dreading. The headline event, the cutting of the King's famous hair. First there is a queue in which he has to wait with the other recruits. Inside the on site barbers, the air is thick with the scent of antiseptic and shaving cream. The room is a flurry of activity, filled with other recruits at various stages of the same ritual. The buzz of electric clippers echoes off the white tiled walls, the action reflected in a line of circular mirrors. Finally, it's Elvis's turn. His barber, a slight older man dressed in a crisp white smock, drapes a cape over his shoulders. He adjusts the clippers and their vibration makes contact with Elvis's scalp. His thick dark locks begin to tumble, landing softly on the floor below. One of the barbers reaches for a broom. It's unsaid, but everyone knows how coveted a lock of Elvis hair could be. The star takes a dark clump for himself and stares at it all the time, watched by the 55 reporters and photographers present. He blows the hair away for the cameras. Hair today and gone tomorrow, he quips. When the clippers finally fall silent, he runs a hand over his head and leaves, forgetting in the commotion to pay the barber his 65 cents. Even so, the photographers keep flashing as he steps out into an unknown future as Private Presley. Elvis is stationed at an army base in Texas for six months of basic training. His parents move out to be close to him. But in August 1958, Gladys, Elvis beloved mother, falls ill suddenly and returns to Memphis to be treated there for acute hepatitis. On Aug. 14, she dies at just 46. Elvis, who is granted a brief stint of emergency leave, is inconsolable.
- [28:03]
B
He was very, very close to his mother in many respects. His mum died in 1958 when he was in the army. At the height of his success was one of the things which a lot of people reckon Elvis never entirely got over. That that used to be a theme in rock stars is the ones whose mothers are out of the picture relatively early on for one reason or another.
- [28:26]
A
For comfort. When. When Elvis is stationed to Freidberg in Germany, a town just outside Frankfurt, he brings out his father, grandmother and a couple of pals to join him. They rent a five bedroom white stucco house in Bad Nauheim, where to placate the neighbors, he places a sign in German on the gate, reading autographs from 7:30 to 8pm Days are long at the nearby barracks. Elvis wakes at 5:30 in the morning and returns at 6pm at lunchtime, he leaps over a wall at the back of the house to avoid his fans. His grandmother cooks him Southern fried comfort foods with the bacon burnt just how he likes it. He's popular in the army, where his colleagues protect him from the most aggressive of the autograph hunters. And it's during his training that he develops a passion for karate, something that endures for the rest of his life. But in many ways, his life in Germany isn't one of a normal private he buys three cars, including a German made Mercedes Benz, has his dress blues hand tailored and orders in dozens of extra uniforms and boots. Off duty, he swaps his Beale street style for a more European look of dark narrow suits. The change does little to dampen his appeal to the opposite sex. Hosting a party in September 1959, he's introduced to Priscilla Beaulieu, the daughter of a captain stationed near Freidberg. Though at 24, Elvis is a decade older than Priscilla, he's instantly struck by the schoolgirl's porcelain beauty and the resemblance to Deborah Patchett is co star in Love Me Tender. Their courtship, Priscilla always claims, is chaste. It is conducted with the permission of her parents. Though they need some persuading, Elvis finds he can open up to Priscilla about his grief for his mother, the weight of expectation on him and how he longs to be taken seriously as a film actor. The late nights talking to her new boyfriend mean Priscilla struggles to stay awake at school. As a solution, he presses a handful of small white pills into her hand. It is Dexedrine, an amphetamine used by the soldiers to stay awake during night shifts. Priscilla never takes the pills. But the drugs in the army are the beginning of a slippery slope for Elvis. And despite their deepening relationship from the beginning, Priscilla is not the only girl in his life. It's a problem that endures for the rest of their time together. In January 1960, after almost two years in the army, Elvis is promoted to sergeant. But two months later, his compulsory service comes to an end. He says goodbye to Priscilla, who remains in Germany with her family and returns home. Perhaps mindful of the possible impact on his fan base, he plays down their relationship. When asked about rumors of romance in an interview on his return.
- [31:42]
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There was a little girl that I
- [31:44]
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was seeing quite often over there that
- [31:46]
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her father was in the air force.
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But it was no big romance. I mean, the stories came out, the girl he left behind and all that.
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It wasn't like that. I mean, I had to be careful
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when I answer a question right now officially discharged from active duty, he boards a train for Memphis. His arrival is greeted by crowds of fans. The King is back. But how will he reclaim his crown? Within a fortnight he's back in the studio. His single Stuck on youn quickly becomes a number one hit and is followed by a pair of best selling singles including Are youe Lonesome Tonight. Inside of a month, his fourth album entitled Elvis Is Back is released, reaching number two on the Billboard pop charts. In May, he appears as a guest on Frank Sinatra's TV special. Once dismissing rock and roll as music for cretinous goons, Sinatra, like Ed Sullivan and many others, has had to eat his words. His daughter Nancy is sent to the singer with a peace offering of a box of dress shirts made by Sinatra's Hollywood tailor. But if the 50s are when his musical career takes off, the 60s are truly his decade of cinema. Elvis makes no fewer than 27 movies during this time, most of which blend musical performances with light hearted plots. His first of the decade, GI Blues, tells the story of a soldier who hopes to open a nightclub after he leaves West Germany. Wherever did they get the idea? Hollywood gives Elvis a warm welcome over lunch at the Paramount lot, Sophia Loren spots him, sits on his lap and kisses him hello. A more lasting alliance comes when he meets with his co star in Viva Las Vegas and Margaret, with whom he forms a deep bond. Meanwhile, Priscilla pines from a distance until she moves to Memphis in early March 1963. While Elvis is in Hollywood filming, she finishes high school in the U.S. her older boyfriend encourages her developing style, a dramatic look of jet black hair and false eyelashes, sometimes two sets at a time. She later says he dresses her up like a living doll. And indeed, at Graceland he shows himself to be something of a Peter Pan, surrounding himself with expensive toys. His estate boasts go karts, a fully operational soda fountain and an extensive collection of cars and motorcycles. To the delight of his entourage, who've become known as the Memphis Mafia. A personal hairdresser, Larry Geller, is brought in to keep the star's hair dyed jet black, offering him a sideline in spiritual guidance. Deep down, though, beneath the constant whirl of excitement and luxury, it's not enough. Hollywood and the relentless Colonel Parker work him to the bone, demanding two or three films a year. And despite the wealth, it generates enough for a portfolio of properties. Elvis isn't particularly happy. Nor is Priscilla, especially when Elvis is linked with Hollywood names like the actress Peggy Lipton and singer Nancy Sinatra. Presley misses making music and begins to resent the Colonel and his tough filming schedule. He starts reaching for more pills, barbiturates and sedatives to help him sleep and manage his anxiety. And there's other reasons to be worried too. It's now that the so called British invasion sees UK rock and pop acts explode into the US charts. A private meeting with the Beatles in August 1965 at Elvis Bel Air Mansion is a reminder of how much the music scene is moving on. Though initially awkward, the encounter picks up when the musicians start to jam together despite the interruptions from the screaming fans outside. When it's over, Elvis first question to hairdresser Larry is who won? By which he means whose name was shouted the loudest by the fans. Larry assures him that he is the winner. But as another popular newcomer, Bob Dylan, observes, the times they are are changing. Making good on the promise he made to Priscilla's parents when they allowed her to move to the US a few years earlier, the couple make plans to marry. The ceremony takes place at the Aladdin Hotel in Vegas on May 1, 1967. It's a small affair. Stage managed as ever by the Colonel, Priscilla maintains that their long term relationship is not consummated until after they are married. With his private life buttoned up for now, Elvis turns his attention to his music once again. After almost a decade in Hollywood, he's eager to reconnect with his audience. So he decides to stage a television special known as the 68 comeback special. Although officially titled simply Elvis, this televised event reminds the world that the singer is still a vital force in rock and roll. Featuring many of his classics, it also introduces new songs, most notably if I Can Dream. Inspired by the death of Martin Luther King Jr. In his hometown of Memphis. The show also features elaborate production numbers with choreographed dance routines and intimate sit down sessions where Elvis performs in front of a small audience. He looks tanned and healthy, bursting with vitality in a range of specially designed outfits, including a famous black leather suit. The special beats all other shows that season in the rating and early the next year, nine months to the day after their wedding, the Presley couple become a family with the birth of their first and only child, Lisa Marie. Despite the demands of family life, both Elvis and the Colonel are keen to capitalize on the success of the show and return to live performances. An offer from a hotel in Las Vegas means he can return to the stage and the Colonel can make some serious dough. A four week engagement is booked at the newly built International Hotel, which boasts the largest showroom in the city. Keenly aware of the size of the 60 foot stage, Elvis requires backup. Not just rock and roll musicians, but an orchestra, a male gospel choir and a female soul and gospel group. After several weeks of rehearsal, by the opening night at the end of July 1969, they're ready. In a one off white karate inspired suit, Elvis makes his way to the stage surrounded by his crew, the Memphis Mafia. But peering out from the wings at the 2000 strong crowd, he's visibly nervous, sweat pouring from his face. The showroom is packed with a listers, Hollywood stars, Vegas entertainers and journalists from all over the country. The gold lame curtain rises. Elvis walks out, a guitar slung over his shoulder. He's still trembling as he grabs the microphone, but it only takes the first three familiar words of Blue Suede shoes for the crowd to erupt. The show is a resounding success. So much so in fact, that Parker's subsequent negotiations with the hotel, scribbled out initially on a tablecloth, lead to a five year contract for Elvis to play there twice a year at an annual salary of $1 million. November 1969 sees the release of a new double album featuring the singles in the Ghetto and Suspicious Minds. The latter is his first US pop number one in more than seven years. It will also be his last. Meanwhile, as he returns to Vegas, his white suits develop into one pieces encrusted with crystals so they catch the light and can be seen from the back of the auditorium. Capes are added to the ensemble. There are new signature moves too. During Love Me Tender, Elvis kisses female fans in the front row on the mouth and gives away scarves as keepsakes. And every night he closes with the ballad I can't help falling in love with you. The schedule of performances is intense at Sin City itself and beyond. And while Elvis struggles to resist the temptation of the many women eager to make his intimate acquaintance, Vegas is the worst place in the world for the Colonel's worsening gambling problem. And not all of Parker's hard driving negotiations bear fruit. He loses roles for Elvis in A Star Is Born and it is rumored, west side Story, when the singer is keen to cover Dolly Parton's ballad A I will always love you. The Colonel demands that Pardon should hand over half of the songwriting rights. When she refuses, Elvis loses that song too. Elvis, though, continues to spend like there's no tomorrow. He keeps his jeweler close, even taking him on tour. There's also a growing gun collection and that habit of giving away cars like sweets. Later, a story will circulate of how he tips one lucky driver from a limo company. Not with cash, but with the limo itself. But even with his remarkable income, these spending habits are a cause of friction with Priscilla and his father, Vernon. After years of tolerating his infidelity, eventually she begins a relationship with her karate instructor. Priscilla finally leaves her husband in 1972, though the pair co parent Lisa Marie and remain on friendly terms. When the divorce is finalized a year later, they leave the courthouse hand in hand. In the photographs, however, Elvis looks bloated and unwell. His dependency on drugs is spiraling out of control and his life is punctuated by increasingly regular trips to the hospital. Meanwhile, the Colonel continues to work his star hard. Still an illegal alien, Parker can't leave the States, so he turns down lucrative office from abroad. But if he can't take Elvis to the world, he'll bring the world to him. In 1973, Aloha from Hawaii is the first concert to be broadcast live globally via satellite. But Elvis's health challenges begin to take a toll on him, both personally and professionally.
- [43:35]
B
He suddenly ballooned in the last couple of years, having been even run until about 74, 75, still looking relatively svelte. He was looking bigger and chunkier in those white suits. I don't know how many nights off he was getting, but certainly not very many. So he was really wearing himself out. And as such, he was becoming more and more dependent upon chemical stimulants to help him get through these things. And then as you get more and more hooked up on chemical stimulants to help you function, you get more and more hooked up on chemical depressants to help you sleep. I seem to recall a couple of the guys from his crew tried to write an expose of just how messed up Elvis was, which he was furious about and never forgave them for prescription drug abuse.
- [44:24]
A
And his deteriorating health cast a shadow over his final performances. His girlfriends more or less nurse him, and while his physical well being suffers, so does his mental health, he's increasingly paranoid about his personal safety and convinced that someone is after him. So dressed in the silk pajamas he provides, his female companions lie with him in the dark at Graceland while he watches the footage on his security cameras. On stage, his face looks swollen and sweaty and he often breaks into slurred paranoid monologues. It is June 21, 1977, backstage at the Rushmore Plaza Civic center in Rapid City, S.D. dressed in flared jeans and a Led Zeppelin T shirt, a long haired stagehand winds his way through the corridors to fetch Elvis Presley for his appearance. The area behind the arena isn't much to look at, more like a cavernous school hall than anything. He finds Elvis in a side room that resembles a classroom, with a blackboard and a stack of red chairs. The star is meeting with Rapid City's mayor and a Native American girl on behalf of the Sioux Nation. Cameras are there filming, though Elvis looks far from his best. Dressed in a white, glittering trouser suit, he is sweating enough for one attendant to stand beside him, dabbing his face with a towel. All his entourage wear matching red tracksuits. Though the stagehand has heard his parents reminisce about the star's 1950s heyday, it's hard to align their enthusiasm with this man, overweight and mumbling. But he must be doing something right. Outside from the packed arena, the whistles and shouts of the crowd are growing ever louder. Avoiding the cameras, the stagehand murmurs to one of the entourage that it's time. Elvis gets heavily to his feet and follows the young man down a bare, gloomy corridor to the stage. The cheers of the waiting fans intensify. Now they're close. The faint smell of popcorn drifts from the arena as the drums roll for Elvis's entrance. One of his entourage dabs his face one more time with the noise of the crowd reaching a crescendo. Lights flash across the arena as the star makes his entrance. The stagehand slips away. His job done for now. He has some errands to do backstage, but he'll need to return to help pack things away at the end of the gig when he's back. Later in the concert, Elvis is standing at the front of the stage. His panting breath is audible in the microphone. His words are difficult to understand. It's as if he's in his own world. He stumbles over to the piano and passes the microphone to a member of his crew to hold. The singer admits that he can't remember if the next song is out yet. It's embarrassing, really. The stagehand checks the set list. It's the penultimate track. Soon he'll be able to go on stage to shift the equipment. And yet a hush falls on the crowd as Elvis plays the first few bars of Unchained Melody. His voice, when he starts to sing, is surprisingly rich and soulful. It fills the cavernous space. The stagehand stands up a little straighter. He glances out at the audience. Their faces are serious, reverent, almost a king of rock and roll closes his eyes, bringing a depth of meaning to every line. Even as Elvis's body is failing, there is still Something there, a voice of almost otherworldly power. After the performance in Rapid City, Elvis continues touring for a couple of weeks. But his concert in Indianapolis on June 26 will be his last. He returns to Graceland, his health rapidly going downhill. The end comes before the summer is out. His heart finally fails in his bathroom at Graceland on August 16, 1977, Elvis Presley was just 42 years old when the news of his death is announced that afternoon. There is an outpouring of grief. On the day of his funeral, thousands of tearful fans gather outside Graceland and the cemetery for his burial. Police estimate that almost 100,000 people make the pilgrimage. He's buried with his mother at Forest Hill Cemetery, Memphis, though later in October that year, Elvis and Gladys are reinterred at Graceland. But according to some conspiracy theorists, he never died at all.
- [50:03]
B
One of the things that fueled speculation about Elvis, although this is really clutching at straws, is the fact that Arryn is spelled differently on his birth certificate to on his gravestone. The birth certificate was probably a typo. It's as simple as that, really. I don't know. I mean, it's just some people just can't really let go of the idea of Elvis being alive, I suppose. And also, again, it's just because by the time he went, he had achieved this kind of messianic status that him coming back just feels like the next necessary phase of the legend. And the fact that Elvis is an anagram of lives doesn't help.
- [50:42]
A
Elvis Presley might be gone, but his legacy lives on through his music, which continues to inspire and influence artists from Bruce Springsteen to Jack White. His style, from flashy jumpsuits to the pompadour hair, inspires fashion trends to this day. And his unprecedented rise and tragic fall continues to be explored in documentaries, biographical works and films, from Baz Luhrmann's Elvis to Sofia Coppola's Priscilla. Meanwhile, tribute acts in Vegas and all over the world keep his memory alive for fans. There are regular conventions attracting hundreds of impersonators, as well as Elvis themed wedding venues, holidays, festivals, and, of course, tours of his iconic Graceland home. Elvis is celebrated as a cultural icon, the first rock and roll star of his kind, and a living embodiment of the American dream. But ultimately, the weight of his vast success and fame seems to have become too heavy for human shoulders, even for the King of Rock and Roll himself.
- [51:54]
B
Elvis Presley was a human being who was born in Tupelo, 1935, and died in August 1977 in Graceland. That was a human being called Elvis Aaron Presley. But in the course of his career, he created this thing called Elvis. You know, one word, five letters, Elvis, that has almost entirely survived him intact. The suit goes marching on. You know, Elvis, the thing that is Elvis that he created can sort of never die and just reincarnates itself.
- [52:40]
A
Next time on Short HISTORY of We'll bring you a short history of the Normans. William of the Conqueror had a very challenging child and quite a challenging background in general. And that really conditions, I think, a lot of what we see of him later on in life. And so I think all of this means that he's determined to get his own way. But when he does, there's a mean streak to William the Conqueror. He's not someone you want to get on the wrong side of. That's next time. If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Head to www.noiser.com subscriptions for more information.