All language subtitles for Elvis.the.Colonel.and.the.Mob.S01E01.1080p.ALL4.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

This programme contains references
to drug misuse, addiction,
and organised crime.

Elvis Presley,
the king of rock and roll.

Teenagers, they all wanted
to hear Elvis, to see Elvis,

and many of them wanted to be Elvis.

With the swivel of his hips,

a curl of his lip, and a sound
that set hearts racing,

he didn't just change music,
he changed the world.

Probably the most important figure
of the 20th century.

Yet behind the spotlight stood
his manipulative manager,

Colonel Tom Parker...

...a smooth-talking hustler who
operated in a music business

riddled with organised crime.

You either con or you get conned.

When Parker brought Elvis
to Las Vegas,

he was stepping into a city
built by the mob...

...where shadowy figures
pulled unseen strings.

The mob was completely enmeshed
in Las Vegas.

They controlled the city.

Elvis lit up Vegas.

But gangsters owned the ground
beneath his feet,

and Parker knew it.

You couldn't do business
in Las Vegas without the mob.

As the Colonel gambled with the mob,
Elvis slid deeper into a world

of temptation,
control, and corruption.

Las Vegas made Elvis a legend.

But in a town run by mobsters
and money...

...even a king could be brought
to his knees.

Five years after World War II,
a new era.

Dwight D Eisenhower is president
of the United States.

Factories are booming...

America is alive with promise
and possibility.

The 1950s are a time of amazing
change in America.

It's the time of huge,
huge optimism.

And I think one of the really
interesting things is the music.

Sweeping across America's
airwaves comes a new sound.

Raw, wild, unstoppable...

...rock and roll.

Created by African American pioneers
like Chuck Berry

and Little Richard, it's shaking
the nation.

But one name will eclipse
them all.

Elvis Presley was a blazing star

in the mid to late 1950s.

He was something genuinely new.

It was this combination
of country...

...rhythm and blues and rock.

And he was able to merge all of
those into a style and a format

that was so appealing to
young people.

Not to their parents, but certainly
to young people.

The world changed.

He ushered in a teenage culture
all its own.

The audiences just went crazy
for him

in a way that they didn't
for any performer before then.

He's symbolic of something
that young people

could aspire to
if they were rebelling.

The frenzy that he created
was something

that show business
had never seen before.

Elvis Aaron Presley
transformed rock and roll,

but his story starts a long way
from the spotlight.

He is born on January 8th, 1935,
in Tupelo, Mississippi,

to Gladys and Vernon Presley.

Raised in poverty,
he makes his first step into

the music business in 1953,
when he is 18 years old.

Elvis walked into
the Memphis Recording Service

one day to make a record.

The receptionist asked him
who he sounded like,

and he said,
I don't sound like nobody.

And indeed,
he didn't sound like anybody.

And she told Sam Phillips, who owned
the Memphis Recording Service,

as well as Sun Records about him,

and eventually they brought him back
in and recorded him.

As Sam always said,
"If I could find a white singer

"who could sing with a passion of
a black singer, I'd be a rich man.

"I'd make a million dollars."

Well, he found one.

Elvis' first single,
That's All Right,

is recorded in July 1954.

Released on Sam Phillips'
record label Sun,

it is a hit
in the local Memphis charts.

Elvis is on the rise.

But the music industry awaiting

the young star isn't
built on dreams.

It's built on corruption run
by crooked businessmen,

shady moguls and powerful figures
with deep ties

to organised crime.

The thing about the entertainment
industry and the music industry

is mobsters have been involved in it
since the very, very beginning.

There were some real crooks
in the record business.

They run jukebox scams,
which is essentially

skimming money out of jukeboxes
that have cash put into them.

You've got payola, which is bribery,

essentially to play records
in the charts.

So the mobs are there right
from the off.

In some cases, bright eyed newcomers
could find themselves at

the mercy of record
company mobsters.

They would hire young singers,

they would get a few
thousand dollars upon signing

a contract and maybe a car,
and then nothing else after that.

And lawyers were frightened
of taking cases

to represent these young singers
when they learned

that the Mafia controlled
the record companies.

Sam Phillips,
who founded Sun Records,

he was able to stay out of
the clutches of the mob,

which operated
in the record business.

The interesting thing about
Elvis Presley is

that his dealings at the very
beginning with people like

Sam Phillips, these are honest
brokers in the industry.

But then, Colonel Tom comes
into his orbit...

...and Colonel Tom
is anything but.

A silver-tongued promoter
in his late 40s,

Colonel Tom Parker is
a man of mystery.

Claiming to hail
from West Virginia,

he's clawed his way into
show business from

the shadowy world of travelling
carnivals and sideshows.

He came across for some
people as this

kind of hayseed carny guy.

He was a razzle dazzle character.

He worked for several carnivals,
but mostly he was a concessionaire.

He sold hot dogs where he would take
the middle out of the hot dog,

he'd fill it with Kraut,
and he'd charge full price for it.

And when he made change,

he glued a quarter to his ring,

he would show them the change
in his palm with a quarter

of corn stuck to his ring,
and then he would put it

in their palm and close their hand
so they wouldn't count it.

So they'd just go off and that way
he was always a quarter ahead.

He was a salesman.

He was a covenant.

I have to live up to my reputation
of being a nice guy.

This is it, folks.

He gave off an air of danger

that was threatening
and intimidating,

even when he was laughing
and smiling

and looking you right
in the eye.

He's the only person I ever met...

...that I felt was evil.

Yet, if Colonel Tom carries
an air of menace,

he can be equally charming.

And he has an uncanny
ability to turn his

carnival honed hustlers skills
to his advantage.

He understood why carnivals
and circuses were popular.

He also came to understand
and appreciate the love

so many Americans had for country
and western music.

And he thought, I can
combine the love

of country western music

and my abilities as a carny.

And he started putting
together these tours

of country western stars
to communities

that had never seen a live show,
and they were sell-outs.

He had some of the big or budding
stars of country music

in these, Ernest Tubb,
Roy Acuff, Hank Snow.

But the one he came across
that gave him

the most success was this mild
mannered singer named Eddy Arnold.

And he controlled Arnold's
recording contracts.

He controlled Arnold
on these tours...

...and made Arnold a lot of money,

and made Colonel Parker
a lot of money.

In 1953, after eight
years together...

...Arnold is worn down by
Colonel Tom's controlling style,

and the two men part ways.

Colonel Tom begins hunting
for a new act.

And in January 1955 he finds him.

A young man who's rock and roll
swagger sends

audiences into a frenzy.

He saw Elvis and he realised this
was something special.

And so he kind of stalked him
for a while.

They would see him
in the shadows backstage

when they performed in Shreveport
or in Texarkana.

He wouldn't really approach them,
he would just be there.

The glow of his cigar
in the shadows.

And suddenly Tom Parker got to him

and convinced his parents
that he'd be very good for the boy.

He said, "Elvis has a million
dollar talent

"and I'm going to make
him a million dollars.

He had incredible foresight
that this was

not just a quick flash
in the pan,

but this was a guy he
could really build

into a major, major star.

And Elvis trusted him.

And Colonel Parker was able
to sign Elvis at 21,

and all bets were off as to how
big a star he could be.

The Colonel had big plans for Elvis
from the very beginning,

so the first thing he did was get
Elvis off of Sun Records,

take him over to RCA, and very,
very quickly,

Elvis was a big star with
Heartbreak Hotel.

1956 was probably

the greatest year for any pop music
artist in history.

He began at the beginning of
the year with one hit song,

Heartbreak Hotel...

...got TV appearances on
several shows,

including The Ed Sullivan Show,

and by the end of 1956, he was
the hottest

entertainer in America.

Between 56 and 58,
Elvis achieved massive success.

He has a ton of hit singles,
he's got All Shook Up,

Don't Be Cruel, Teddy Bear,

amazing singles that we still
listen to today.

He has three albums, Elvis,
Elvis is Back,

Elvis' Christmas album.

I mean, he's gone stratospheric.

The partnership between Colonel Tom
and Elvis blossoms

and Elvis' career soars.

In 1956. Elvis sells 12 million
records alone.

His debut album raking in over
a staggering

$1 million in sales.

On the surface, the partnership
between the Colonel and Elvis

is a perfect match.

But behind the scenes,
the Colonel is quietly

taking half of everything
Elvis earns.

A shocking and unheard of amount.

The Colonel had a 25% royalty

and a 25% management fee.

Most agents take 15 or 20%.

The Colonel took 50%.

But Elvis went along with it.

Everybody was a sucker,
everybody was a mark.

But he thought he was above it.

With Elvis' meteoric rise,

the money floods in...

...making both him and
Colonel Tom wealthy men.

Elvis spends generously,
lavishing money on his parents

and buying his Memphis
mansion, Graceland.

Colonel Tom, meanwhile,
throws away his cash

in pursuit of an old addiction.

Colonel Tom Parker
loved to gamble his entire life.

Because it reminded him of his glory
days on the carnivals.

He was attracted to games of chance,
which he knew

that he couldn't really win,
but he couldn't stop himself.

The colonel always liked
doing things

in a slightly shady way.

That's why he was attracted
to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

And there he first really
got involved with gambling.

Hot Springs, Arkansas...

...since the late 19th century,
it had been America's

hidden capital of gambling.

A town where the law looked
the other way

and the mob ran the tables.

Colonel Tom first visited
in the 1930s,

still hustling on the
carnival circuit,

drawn to the city's smoky
back rooms

and easy money.

It was off track betting hotels
offered prostitution.

There was anything you wanted as far
as illegal activity.

And he loved it there.

He was really in his element.

It's because he could rub shoulders
with so-called important people.

This is a place that attracted

the elite of organised crime.

Lucky Luciano loved
to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Al Capone liked
to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Frank Costello also went
to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

It became a kind of resort for
mobsters who were on the lam.

And we know that Parker went there.

He could get away pretty much
with doing what he wanted.

1,500 miles west of Hot Springs,

another city was rising from
the desert...

Las Vegas.

A place where casinos thrived
and betting was a way of life.

It soon captured
Colonel Tom's imagination.

But when he got to Las Vegas,
he must have said,

"Oh, my goodness, this is heaven
for a gambler.

"there are all these places
and they're legal."

Colonel Tom fell hard for
Las Vegas...

...and the feeling was mutual.

The casinos adored the Colonel,

especially when they saw how much
he was willing to lose.

In one sitting alone, the colonel
reportedly lost $800,000,

making him a prime target for the
city's powerful mob bosses.

A glittering playground
of crime and cash,

Vegas would soon play
a defining role

in the lives of both the colonel
and his sole client, Elvis Presley.

Las Vegas, a city that Elvis Presley
and his manager,

Colonel Tom Parker, will come to see
as a second home.

Drawn to its wild energy,

endless action,
and dangerous allure.

A city where roulette wheels spin
night and day.

And the promise of sin and sleaze

is never more than a dice roll away.

Mobsters run the town from

the smallest casino to
the grandest hotel.

But Vegas wasn't always like this.

It began as a dusty railroad stop

in the Nevada desert back in 1905,

and within just a few decades,
it exploded.

Two things happened in 1931
that have consequences

for the rest of the century
for Las Vegas.

Number one, they started
construction of Hoover Dam.

The biggest public works project
in American history.

And what that does is to bring
in thousands of workers

who will want to have a good time
on the weekends.

The closest place to have a good
time is Las Vegas.

Second of all, the state
of Nevada legalised gambling.

And Las Vegas was getting this
idea that gambling

could be the centrepiece
of an economy.

The little light bulb goes on over
the head like,

Hmm, maybe Las Vegas could be a
place that would attract tourists.

So during the course of the 1930s,
you see building

up along Fremont Street
in downtown Las Vegas,

a series of hotel casinos.

They're small, but they're active

and there's entertainment
and there's gambling,

and it's something you can't
get anywhere else.

The legalisation of gambling
changes everything.

For America's crime syndicates, Las
Vegas isn't just a city,

it's an opportunity.

It's going to be an open invitation

for organised crime to come into
the state of Nevada.

So what you see is the migration

of organised crime from
all parts of the United States.

You have people coming
in from Chicago,

New York, Cleveland, Detroit,

Milwaukee, Miami,

New Orleans, Los Angeles.

All of these cities are getting
their piece

of what's happening
in Las Vegas.

Once the mob arrived,
they played

a really important role
in the development

of the major industry,
the casino industry here,

by bringing expertise,
entertainers,

money, all kinds of
different elements

that they had picked
up in their own underworld ways,

you know, around the country
to Las Vegas.

Some LA gamblers, they've been
running these casinos

in LA and offshore gambling boats
for quite some time,

see Las Vegas as a safe place to go.

And the leader among them is
a former police

vice captain named
Guy McAfee.

Guy McAfee comes
in from California,

He had been a gambling and
prostitution racketeer

in Los Angeles.

He's kind of driven out of town,
he moves to Las Vegas,

and he buys a place called
the Paradise Club.

And he does some renovations,
and he turns it into the 91 Club.

But he doesn't stop.

He... a few months later, opens
the Frontier Club

on Fremont Street downtown,
and it's a success.

And within two years
he's opened with

a consortium of other gamblers
from California,

the Pioneer Club.

Once a sleepy desert stopover,

Las Vegas is
becoming unrecognisable.

The mob are turning it into
their own shimmering

kingdom built on crime,
sin and entertainment.

In 1946, it's a huge year

because you see two really iconic
casinos open here.

One, the Golden Nugget...

...and the other one, even more
important was the Flamingo Hotel.

And the Flamingo was built

and operated principally by
Bugsy Siegel,

a New York mobster
who came to Las Vegas

in a desire to go legit,
if you will,

and to do something
more constructive

with his life than kill people.

And so he builds, with help from

a lot of his partners in the mob,
the Flamingo.

The Flamingo was the breakthrough
hotel in Las Vegas

because it was a real spiffy place

with not kind of an Old West decor,

which the earlier hotels had,
but a real sort of LA, Miami Beach

kind of sophistication.

Really the first of its kind
in Las Vegas.

And it was attracting
the Hollywood crowd,

it was attracting the Los Angeles
crowd in a way

that the other places
in Las Vegas couldn't.

And it looks like it's going
to be a success

because he sells luxury
at a low price,

but most notably, he decides

the best way to bring ever more
customers into

the Flamingo is to offer top
flight entertainment.

Entertainers would continue

to keep people entertained
while they're gambling.

This was a way to keep them
in the showroom,

to keep them spending money,
and it was great,

everywhere you went,
there was entertainment.

So by the late 1940s,

Vegas was beginning to get
a reputation

as a magnet for the top nightclub
stars in America.

With entertainment now a major
draw for tourists,

Las Vegas continues to grow

as hotel casino after hotel
casino sprang up.

The real heyday of Las Vegas

didn't come until the early '50s...

...when the new hotels, the sort
of classic Vegas hotels,

began to open one by one.

The Desert Inn, The Sahara,

The Sands, The Riviera.

In about five, six, seven years,

suddenly you had this strip
of hotels,

one more glamorous than the next.

All of them competing for the top
nightclub stars in America.

What really appeals to these figures
from organised crime is

that when the take is picked

up at the end of the gambling day

and taken to the count room,

virtually all of these mob
owned casinos

will skim off some
of the profit.

It happened in all the casinos.

There would be people working
in the cash room,

counting up all the cash,

and someone from the mob
would go into

the cash room and start filling
up briefcases with money,

hundreds of thousands of dollars
at a time.

And the people counting the money
pretended not to see this.

This illegally skimmed
money often finds its way

to entertainers paid
under the table

on top of their official earnings.

This lucrative bonus makes Las Vegas
an irresistible draw

for the biggest names
in show business.

You know, it was the logical
place for any entertainer to go.

Perhaps it's the promise
of easy money

that draws Elvis Presley's manager
to Las Vegas.

Once settled in, Colonel Tom begins
to move in powerful circles,

befriending casino bosses
and local kingpins.

Among them Milton Prell,
the visionary behind one of

its most iconic resorts,
The Sahara.

Prell's business partner
is an underworld

linked figure called Al Winter.

Leading some historians
to speculate over Prell's

own possible mob connections...

...and his friendship with
Colonel Tom.

The Sahara is

a very popular place,
and ever since it opened,

people have tried to puzzle out how
did Prell get the money?

One rumour is that it came from
the Detroit mob,

but we just don't know for sure.

My own conclusion is
that Milton Prell

got his money through
legitimate means.

The relationship between Milton
Prell and the Colonel

is kind of murky.

I think Prell was the frontman
for the Detroit mob...

...but he was closely involved
with Moe Dalitz.

Moe Dalitz was, of course,
Mr Las Vegas.

Moe Dalitz is sort of epitomised
the Las Vegas story

in the sense that he
was very much had a dark past.

He had been involved in bootlegging
and illegal gambling for years.

But he comes to Las Vegas
and somehow he is now

one of the leaders
of the city.

Parker was no fool...

...he was aware of
what Las Vegas was like.

So Parker had to know that he was
entering a place

where organised
crime was a fixture.

Well, the colonel spent so much
time in Vegas,

he's meeting everyone.

He's meeting all the casino people,
he's meeting all the people

who run the venues.

Parker had to promote Elvis.

He has this ambitious idea

of how to promote this new star.

And he knows Las Vegas,
he knows Las Vegas

has become ever more popular
for people to go to.

He knows about The Sands, he knows
obviously about The Sahara,

where his friend Milton Prell is.

So he decides to book Elvis
in Las Vegas

at the New Frontier Hotel
in summer 1956.

I think the Colonel
took Elvis into Vegas

in '56 for a number of reasons.

One, it had now become
his playground...

...he wanted to go gamble.

But most important, I think he
wanted to be a big shot.

And people there knew his name
and were taking him seriously.

The 91 Club started Life
as Paradise,

one of the earliest mob affiliated
casinos on the strip.

Now renamed
The New Frontier,

it's where Elvis Presley makes
his Las Vegas debut,

but Las Vegas isn't ready
for him yet.

When Elvis played Las Vegas in 1956,

he was too new to play Vegas.

He had just come on
the national scene,

and he was 21 years old.

And you can hear his jokes,
they're just almost

painful to listen to.

His accent is very Deep South.

He's mush mouthed.

He's kind of embarrassing.

The people who came to Vegas then
were an older crowd.

They were raised on
very different kinds

of music than rock and roll.

And Elvis was just too green.

He was too young.

He was too unsophisticated
for the Vegas audience.

One local later recollected

that she went to one of the shows
and found it vulgar.

Elvis first appearance in Las Vegas

was not successful.

Yet...

...he loved being in Las Vegas.

He loved the whole atmosphere
of the city.

He loved staying at The Sahara,
Milton Prell's hotel.

He liked the entertainment
possibilities in Las Vegas.

He loved the restaurants, and he met

an awful lot of attractive women.

Indeed, the one thing
that Colonel Parker

got really upset
about the following year

is that there were photos snapped
of Elvis with

a famed stripper named
Tempest Storm.

Parker said, "No, you can't do it,

"we're trying to create
an image of you,

"and that's not going to be
helpful at all."

Tempest storm is famous because
she has affairs

with so many famous people.

Sammy Davis Jr...

Mickey Rooney.

And she also has an affair
with Mickey Cohen,

who was one of the most
notorious mobsters of the era.

So it shows that Elvis was
dating people

who were certainly connected
to the mob.

Elvis Presley revels in the neon
buzz of Las Vegas

its glamour, its danger...

...its sin.

His first show in the city may
have fallen flat,

but his fame keeps rising
around the world.

He stars in films like
Jailhouse Rock...

...and King Creole.

movies that utilise his raw charisma
to powerful effect...

...and he records more
classic singles

like Love Me Tender,
Shake, Rattle and Roll,

and Tryin' To Get To You.

Elvis seems unstoppable.

But soon his rise will come
to a screeching halt.

In the middle of the
most spectacular

show business rise in history,

Elvis had to drop out.

In 1958, Elvis was drafted.

He went to Germany and spent
two years in the Army.

It's possible Colonel Tom could
have kept Elvis out of

the Army if he had wanted.

But military service is good
for business.

It scrubs Elvis' image clean,

turning the rebellious rocker
into an all-American boy.

Elvis time in the army doesn't just
stall his career...

...it ends his Vegas escapades, too.

Meanwhile, the city is hitting
its stride.

Pulsing to a rhythm all
its own.

At this time, there's
a different entertainer

who's associated with Las Vegas.

And that man is Frank Sinatra.

Frank Sinatra was the leading

Vegas entertainer in the 1950s.

He was a superstar.

Early 1960, Frank Sinatra came
to Las Vegas

to shoot Ocean's 11,

a film that he had helped produce,
and enlisted a lot

of his Hollywood friends
in the cast.

Peter Lawford, Dean Martin,
Sammy Davis Jr...

...and Joey Bishop.

They decide, why don't we perform
at The Sands,

two shows a night, while
during the day

we film Ocean's 11?

That show became known
as The Rat Pack shows.

Those five performers came onstage
and just tore up the place.

It becomes a phenomenon.

All those guys were really the kings
of Las Vegas in those years.

While Elvis is in the Army,
Frank Sinatra cements his

reign over Las Vegas.

To the crowds who flocked
to Las Vegas,

Sinatra and his crew are
the ultimate entertainers.

Yet underlining Sinatra's
many years at

the top of the entertainment
industry are

the friendships
and alliances he's built

over decades with
a web of organised crime figures.

One of the more intriguing
aspects of The Rat Pack

performances is that comedian
Joey Bishop,

when he would bring
on Frank Sinatra,

he would say, "Frank,
why don't you come on

"and say something positive
about the Mafia?"

And Sinatra inevitably would say,
"Ah, it's a good group."

Yet if he downplays
his connection onstage,

Sinatra's buddies include some
of the most

vicious mobsters of the era.

While he's performing at The Sands,

Sinatra is maintaining a strong
friendship with

a Chicago gangster named
Sam Giancana...

...who was the head of
the Chicago outfit.

He had met Giancana
in the early 1950s.

They became friends.

Sinatra would claim that he was
friends with them,

but he had nothing to do
with their business.

But definitely it was
always something

that tainted Sinatra's reputation.

Elvis, stuck in the Army misses
the rise of The Rat Pack,

But when he's finally discharged
in 1960,

Colonel Tom sets the stage
for their worlds to collide.

Elvis did a Welcome
Home special with

Frank Sinatra when he came home
from the Army.

Sinatra and Elvis
were pretty odd couple.

During the mid '50s,
Sinatra was one of the people

who really badmouthed rock and roll.

Frank was the epitome of
the classic nightclub singer,

and this new music, this crazy
rock and roll,

was something that was kind
of a threat

to the traditional pop,
jazz singers.

But by 1960, when Elvis came out
of the army,

Frank Sinatra realised

that this was going to be
the biggest comeback,

probably in American
show business history.

And he managed to negotiate that

Elvis would make his
first appearance on TV

after getting out of the Army on
a special

that Frank Sinatra
was doing for American TV.

It was really a weird sort of
get together of

these two icons of two different
styles of American music.

Pairing Elvis with Frank Sinatra,

he was signalling that Elvis
was now a respectful character.

He was not that hooligan who used
to wiggle around on the stage.

He was the boy next door, come home.

Thanks to his appearance on
Frank Sinatra's TV special,

Elvis Presley is now tied
to the old guard of Las Vegas.

But after Elvis' disastrous
first shows there,

Colonel Tom is reluctant
to bring Elvis back to the city.

He had an offer from Milton Prell

at $75,000 a week to play
Las Vegas...

...and the Colonel turned it down.

He couldn't risk sending Elvis
back to Las Vegas yet,

after that really embarrassing
bombing in 1956.

In 1961, Elvis Presley
retreats from

live performing entirely.

Instead, the Colonel steers
him into acting,

and across the 1960s, Elvis
stars in dozens

of mostly mediocre Hollywood films.

With names like Speedway,

Clambake, Change of Habit,

Double Trouble.

Yet whenever Elvis is not filming,

he's back in Las Vegas, indulging
in the city's

endless temptations
with his entourage,

who have picked up a playful
new nickname.

He would bring his pals
along with him,

they would travel around town in
their dark suits and sunglasses,

and they became known
as the Memphis Mafia.

Elvis loved Las Vegas.

He loved to go and play
and see shows,

and he wasn't a big gambler,

but he loved the freedom
of Las Vegas.

He loved it as an adult playground.

There were hookers there.

There are beautiful showgirls,
and the mob runs these places.

The mob might have its hands
in every corner of the city,

but if Elvis notices,
he doesn't seem to care.

And he is about to play with fire.

Elvis was having an affair
with Phyllis McGuire,

who was one of the McGuire sisters.

It was a big pop singing group
from the '50s and '60s.

Her boyfriend was Sam Giancana,
a well-known mob figure,

and when Elvis met Phyllis,

she was carrying a gun...

...and said that Sam Giancana,

her boyfriend wanted her
to carry a gun.

And Elvis says, "Well you tell Sam
that I carry two guns."

At the height of it all, Elvis
makes a movie

in the city that has become
his playground.

A glittering love letter to
Las Vegas itself.

Viva Las Vegas was one of the better
films that Elvis made.

What Viva Las Vegas did was really
showcase Las Vegas.

There were scenes in the hotels
and the showrooms

up and down the strip.

This film is just almost a perfect
promotional film for Las Vegas,

because what you see is
what Las Vegas

promoters want you to see.

You don't see organised crime.

You see how spectacular
a resort city it is.

Glitz and glamour and fun
and desert vistas

and everything that's portrayed
in the movie.

And you have Elvis in his peak.

That film did a lot to sort of
raise people's consciousness

of Vegas and maybe attract
more people there.

Viva Las Vegas shows a sparkling,
cleaned up version of the city.

No gangsters, no crime, just music,
glamour and fun.

In real life, the mob is everywhere,

woven into the very
fabric of Vegas life.

But somehow Elvis keeps
his hands clean.

The guys in Elvis' entourage were
puzzled by the fact that

they really didn't see the Mafia

around Elvis very much.

And they wondered how the Colonel
was able to keep them away

from Elvis as much as he did.

But it was clear that they were
there and watching.

One day, Elvis' friend Marty Lacker

was in the coffee shop at
The Thunderbird.

This obvious mafioso
looking figure

stopped by and he asked
how Elvis was.

Marty told him he was doing fine
and he said, "He's a good boy."

"It's good to hear, but tell him

"if he ever needs anything,
let me know."

Working tirelessly behind
the scenes,

Colonel Tom's old friend
Milton Prell

helps keep Elvis' image
squeaky clean.

Milton Prell's main role
with Colonel Parker

was an arrangement
by which Milton protected

Colonel and Elvis from

the more malignant figures
in the Mafia.

That, I believe, was the key
to that relationship.

So he wouldn't allow Elvis
to be photographed

with most of the players.

And by that I mean the Mafia
figures in Las Vegas.

He kept it all on the hush-hush.

Yet Colonel Tom isn't above using

the threat of the mob
to keep control,

especially when Elvis begins
to grow restless

with his endless string
of film roles.

And the Colonel uses
the recent homicide

of a famous soul singer
to his advantage.

By the mid '60s, Elvis was just
fed up with the movies.

He wanted to be a Brando.

He wanted to be James Dean.

He wanted to win an Oscar.

Instead, he ended up making
the string

of formulaic movies,

and he was embarrassed by them,

and he didn't want to do
them any more.

And he got to where he would
show up late.

And of course, the Colonel
would be furious with him.

He told him that his fellow
RCA artist,

Sam Cooke, that the mob
had gotten to him

because he was stepping
out of line,

and the Colonel threatened Elvis
that these very kinds

of things could happen to him.

The Mafia wasn't just gangsters
in the streets any more...

...it was the heads of corporations.

These were men whose names ended
in vowels.

Men with uncles with names like
Jimmy the Thumb.

So Elvis needed to keep it
all squeaky clean

and do it as he is told
and earn money.

The mid '60s...

...music tastes are changing

and psychedelic rock is
the new sound.

The king of rock
and roll's crown is slipping.

Colonel Tom needs a way to get
the nation talking about

Elvis again, and he has
the perfect occasion.

The wedding of Elvis and
his girlfriend Priscilla

at Milton Prell's new hotel,
The Aladdin.

Elvis hadn't planned
on getting married in 1967,

nor had he planned on
getting married at all.

But this is a way to get him

in front of the national
media again.

They marry inside Milton Berle's
private suite at The Aladdin.

And of course, it gives the
Colonel another chance

to go to his favourite city,
where once again he can gamble.

There are very few people
at the wedding.

Most of the people there are
photographers...

...and news folks.

The Beaulieu-Presley wedding

was really
the Parker-Prell wedding.

Parker and Prell are able
to pull off this remarkable event

that captured the
nation's attention.

Elvis wedding closes one chapter
and opens another.

And as his life evolves,

so too does the ever changing
face of Las Vegas.

A new era is dawning in Las Vegas.

As outside investment pours in,

the mob's grip on the city
starts to slip.

In the mid-'60s, Vegas was
starting to change.

The mob controlled hotels
were still there,

but suddenly, in 1966,

billionaire Howard Hughes moved
into Las Vegas.

He and his entire
entourage took over the top

two floors of the Desert Inn,
which was owned by Moe Dalitz.

And they were all Mormons...

...so they neither drank nor gambled.

They wanted him to leave
because they needed

those penthouse suites
for the big high rollers

that they would bring
in around Christmas-time.

Hughes refused to leave,
and he bought the hotel instead.

Then he goes and buys The Sands

and three or four other hotels.

As Howard Hughes snaps
up properties across the strip,

his money brings respectability.

As Vegas changes, Elvis stagnates.

By the late 1960s,

Elvis hasn't performed live
for over seven years.

Trapped in a Hollywood film career
he no longer believes in,

he's been overshadowed by bands
like The Beatles

and The Rolling Stones.

But in 1968, a visionary TV producer

gives him the push he needs,

relaunching Elvis
for a new generation.

Steve Binder was a fan of
rock and roll,

a young guy, and he really wanted

to reintroduce Elvis
to the American public.

So he created a special
that really showcased Elvis

as a live performer in a way

that people hadn't seen
for almost a decade.

And it's the most watched programme
on American

television in 1968.

And after that special,
the Colonel decided,

OK, now it's time maybe

to get Elvis back
to live performing.

Back in Las Vegas, the strip
continues to change.

More corporate figures are arriving.

The next mogul seduced
by Las Vegas' allure

is a powerful businessman
named Kirk Kerkorian.

Kerkorian was someone who,

like Howard Hughes,
saw Las Vegas as an opportunity.

He decided to start investing here.

He decided to build a brand-new
hotel in Las Vegas,

the biggest hotel in Las Vegas.

In fact, the biggest hotel
in the world...

...the International Hotel.

Getting ready for an opening
in the summer of 1969,

he was looking for
the biggest act he could find

in America to open the hotel.

They focused on Elvis Presley.

Elvis is back, and for
the first time in years,

he's returning to the stage.

But behind the scenes,
there's a darker motive at play.

Colonel Tom's choice of venue
may have less to do with music,

and more to do with
the mob connections

that still shape the city,

and his own entanglements
with organised crime.

The Colonel's gambling debts
and all the things

that he owed to the mob

and the control that
they had over him...

...completely and totally shaped

the last third of
Elvis Presley's career.

What should be a thrilling comeback
for the King of Rock and Roll

will soon fall apart.

Fuelled by drugs, paranoia,

and the dark underbelly
of Las Vegas...

...what comes next will rewrite
the legend forever.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media