elvisontour

"Elvis On Tour "

" My daddy had seen a lot of people who played guitars and stuff and didn't work, so he said, ' you should make up your mind either about being an electrician or playing a guitar. I never saw a guitar player that was worth a damn."

These words, spoken by Elvis Presley, open Elvis On Tour. In this film, for the first time in his career, Elvis reveals a part of himself and his past. The American phenomenon, set the sights and sounds of his record-breaking concert tours.

Elvis finally shares part of his private life in “Elvis On Tour”

Elvis Presley was a legend at the age when young people are figuring out what to do with their lives. On the way to a permanent niche in history, the real story of his beginnings and rise were obscure. His reluctance to talk publicity about himself placed him in a category with Howard Hughes and Garbo.

Now for the first time, the entertainer shares a part of himself in the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture, “Elvis On Tour.” It was Quietly created by filmmakers Pierrre Adidge and Robert Abel, who made the successful “Joe Cocker/Mad Dogs and Englishmen” for MGM. Using a national concert tour as a musical and visual backdrop, much of Presley’s life crosses the screen, punctuated by the star’s own recollections of how it all happened.

An early scene in the movie shows a classic Depression-type family portrait of Vernon and Gladys Presley with their only son. Elvis’ twin brother, Jesse, died in infancy. Home was a tiny frame house on the wrong side of Tupelo, Mississippi tracks. Finances forced the couple to pack up and head for Memphis, where Elvis grew up.

“….at about two years of age I found myself singing,” he remembers in “Elvis On Tour.” I was singing and people would listen to me around the housing project where I lived.” He talks about two talent contests he entered, and his shyness. “I was never popular in school, “ he says, later explaining how music changed his status.

“I would sing in church with my mother and father but when I was about 10 years old they gave me a choice between a guitar and a bicycle, so I took the guitar and I watched people and I learned to play it a little bit.”

He also relates that his father stressed the virtues of being an electrician because they made $3.00 an hour…. I was very serious about about it. I made that first record really as a personal thing for my mother. And that same company called me a year later and said ‘we got a song you might be able to do.’

The rest to say again, is history. In 1972, the RCA factor sheet indicates about 25 million-selling albums and almost 1000,000,000 single record sales. “Elvis On Tour” is the 33^rd motion picture. And his following today is broader than it’s ever been. At the first of 1973, the Elvis Presley Show would be beamed around the world via satellite.

“I’ve never gotten over what they call stage fright,” he admits in the movie. “I go through it every show.”

“Elvis operates on intuition, and there were good vibes when we met him, “remembers Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel, and at the time of the filmmakers’ initial meeting with the star in Las Vegas, they had only a tentative commitment from Presley to make the picture.

“we knew we were on shaky ground,” Adidge and Abel admit. “He’s never opened up to reveal himself to the public and there was no particular reason he should do it for us. Our first meeting went well. It surprised him we knew who wrote ‘Hound Dog’ and were familiar with people like Big Mama Thornton,” recall the award-winning musical documentary entertainment specialists.

“We next saw Elvis at a rehearsal and afterwards he and the musicians unwound by playing and singing gospel music. It was a beautiful experience and for the first time we began to see who the man is and began to understand his roots. We shot our first film that night.

“Next, we accompanied the Elvis Presley Show on national tour. We shot documentary film in 15 cities and filmed four complete concerts. At times, we were within a foot of Elvis using hand held cameras, up to ten of them. We were able to capture a musician that even concert audiences can’t see. The one restriction Elvis placed on us was that we didn’t interfere with the show. He said entertaining the people who had paid to see him was more important than our film.

“By the end of the tour, we asked the big question. Would he mind talking about himself” After a pause, he agreed. Consequently, we were able to present the first authentic look at the man behind the legend. Audiences would be surprised, we think, by what they see and what they hear in Elvis’s own voice. “There, are many charming, personal recollections in ‘Elvis On Tour,’ which even Elvis’ close friends never knew. At one point, his voice punctuates the picture with, ‘and as time went by, I was about 8 years old and they entered me in a talent show. I wore glasses. No music. And I won I think it was 5^th place in this talent contest. State talent contest. I got a whipping the same day, my mother whipped me for something. Destroyed my ego completely.”

“Every time Elvis walks on stage, he’s acting out a childhood fantasy.” “A great deal has been written about Elvis’ musical roots because he was the greatest single influence on popular music. But before now, he never told it as it actually happened. “He told us that as a teenager, he had Mario Lanza and Metropolitan Opera records. And of course, there was the country-western and the black influence which he got from the radio as a child.

The second documentary to capture Elvis in performance focused on his road show. Elvis On Tour followed the singer's 15-city tour in the spring of 1972. The tour started in Buffalo, New York, and came to a rousing conclusion in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Much of the tour centered in the South, were Elvis' poularity reached a peak in the 1970's.

On Tour was Elvis’ last film and, again, a documentary. And what great film it is. Typically, the Motion Picture Academy failed to even nominate it in the documentary category, although the film won the Golden Globe Award as best documentary of the year. For that time, the photography was unique and we saw as many as twelve Elvises on screen at the same time. Nowadays we call that split screen. It’s frustrated that Elvis missed an opportunity to be nominated for Academy Award. Maybe this could have changed his way of life.

An overview of the April 1972 tour

April 05 Tour opening at Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York. Wearing his Blue Nail Suit with red cape.

April 06 Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI. Wearing his Red Lion Suit with red cape.

April 07 University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio. Wearing his White Fireworks Suit with red cape.

April 08 Stokely Athletic Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee (two concerts) Wearing his White Spectrum Suit with black cape and at the evening show wearing his Blue Nail Suit with white cape.

April 09 Coliseum, Hampton Roads, Va (two concerts)*

April 10 Coliseum, Richmond, Va.*

April 11 Civic Center, Roanoke, Va.

April 12 Fair Grounds Coliseum, Indianapolis, Indiana.

April 13 Coliseum, Charlotte, Nc.

April 14 Coliseum, Greensboro, Nc.*

April 15 Coliseum, Macon, Ga. (two concerts)

April 16 Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, Fla (two concerts)

April 17 T.H. Barton Coliseum, Little Rock, Arkansas.

April 18 Convention Center Arena, San Antonio, Texas.*

April 19 Closing tour at Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, Nm.

* These concerts were recorded by RCA and M.G.M.

In addition to the footage of Elvis in concert, the film attempted to reveal the real Elvis Presley backstage and offguard. A camera followed Elvis and his entourage, while Elvis was asked to comment on such topics as his music and his childhood.

The most telling scene in the film is not one in which he sings. Just before a concert, Elvis, his musicians, and backup singers are shown waiting to go onstage. A bit nervous, Elvis begins singing a gospel song to break the tension, and the others quickly join in. For the observant viewer, this bit of spontaneity offers some insight into Elvis Presley. His natural ability as a singer is readily apparent, as is his ability to rally and lead a musical entourage of rock musicians, a gospel quartet, and female backup singers. More interesting is the role of gospel music. It is the tread that ties the diverse members of his musical troupe together, and therefore a basis of his music.

Much of the success of the film was due to its creative use of filmmaking techniques, particalarly a split-screen effect that helps convey the exitement of Elvis in concert by simultaneously showing multiple images of him performing.

The documentary also made effective use of montage editing, a technique that rapidly presents a series of brief shots to compress the action or convey the passage of time. One such scene captured the hectic pace of Elvis' touring schedule through a montage sequence of cities visited during the tour. Another added in touch of humor via a collection of clips from his movie in which Elvis kisses a number of his costars. In charge of these montage sequences was a young filmmaker named Martin Scorsese.

Documentaries are rarely major box-office draws, but this film proved to be a financial succes. Critically acclaimed as well, Elvis On Tour won a Golden Globe as the Best Documentary of 1972. Elvis himself kept track of the awards ceremony the evening the Golden Globes were passed out, and he shouted with pride when the film was announched as the winner.

At a press conference in Las Vegas in 1972 Elvis announced that he would soon be going on a worldwide concert tour. The idea had often been discussed before but nothing had ever come of it and nothing came of it this time either. Many suspected that the Colonel put a slot to Elvis touring abroad because he himself did not have a US passport. He would therefore not be able to go and exercise control over how things were done.

Songs Performed on the April 1972 tour;

See See Rider, That's All Right, Proud Mary, Never Been To Spain, I Got A Woman/Amen, You Gave Me A Mountain, Until It's Time For You To Go, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling, Polk Salad Annie, One Night, Love Me, Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, All Shook Up, Teddy Bear/Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender, Bridge Over Troubled Water, I Can't Stop Loving You, Suspicious Minds, For The Good Times, An American Trilogy, Are You Lonesome Tonight, Little Siste'/Get Back, Help Me Make It Through The Night, Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock, Johnny B.Goode, Funny How Time Slips Away, Burning Love, Release Me, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, A Big Hunk O'Love, How Great Thou Art, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, It's Over, I'm Leavin',Can't Help Falling In Love.

Songs used for "The On Tour" Documentary;

Johnny B.Goode, See See Rider, Polk Salad Annie, Separate Ways, Proud Mary, Never Been To SDpain, Burning Love, That's All Right, Lead Me, Guide Me, Bosom Of Abraham, Love Me Tender, Until It's Time For You To Go, Suspicious Minds, I, John, Bridge Over Troubled Water, I Got A WomanÁmen, A Big Hunk O' Love, You Gave Me A Mountain, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Can't Help Falling In Love, Memories, Lighthouse (Sung by The Stamps), Sweet Sweet Spirit (Sung by The Stamps)