Original subtitles

Priscilla Presley: Elvis was a searcher.

It's a part of him that never left.

Announcer: The following program is brought to you

in living color, on NBC.

Singer presents Elvis,

starring Elvis Presley in his first TV special,

his first personal performance on TV in nearly ten years.

? If you're lookin' for trouble ?

You came to the right place

? If you're lookin' for trouble ?

Just look right in my face

I was born standin' up

And talkin' back

My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack

Because I'm evil

My middle name is Misery

Well, I'm evil

Ah, so don't you mess around with me

Priscilla: In '68, he was a nervous wreck.

Nervous because he didn't know

if his audience was going to accept him.

People had not seen him perform in so long.

It felt like his record career was over as well.

It was intense.

The '68 Special, it was either the beginning or the end of his career.

Tom Petty: You know, God bless him.

He was a light for all of us.

We all owe him for going first into battle.

He had no road map,

and he forged a path of what to do and what not to do.

We shouldn't make the mistake

of writing off a great artist

by all the clatter that came later.

We should dwell in what he did

that was so beautiful and everlasting,

which was that great, great music.

Elvis: Yes, my baby left me

Never said a word

Was it something I done

Something that she heard?

My baby left me, my baby left me

My baby even left me

Never said a word

Lord, I stand at my window

Wring my hands and cry

I hate to lose that woman

Hate to say goodbye

You know, she left me

Yeah, she left me

My baby even left me

Never said a word

Play it blues, boy

Jerry Schilling: Elvis always remembered

what it was like to have nothing,

and to have no respect, to be looked down upon.

Priscilla: Elvis never forgot the experience

of being in poverty, ever.

It stuck with him all his life.

When I look at photos of Elvis when he was young,

I see that little boy in him,

that playfulness, the curiosity in his eyes.

But I also see how he felt responsibility for his mother.

Bill Ferris: Elvis was born in a shotgun house.

The poorest of the poor lived in those houses.

His twin brother did not survive birth.

And it's said that his mother would tell him

that if he sang when the moon was full at night,

his twin brother could hear him.

Priscilla: Gladys was a doting mother,

but she could be quite firm as well.

Always very protective of him.

He was her only child.

She lived for him, and...

he lived for her.

When Elvis was three years old in 1938,

his father was sentenced to three years in prison

for forging a check.

The check was to buy food to put on the table.

Gladys would take him to see his father.

Vernon was so embarrassed.

John Jackson: Thankfully, he doesn't have to spend the three years.

He only spends six months in prison.

But what it does is

it starts a pattern of Vernon being away

and Elvis and Gladys being left to their own devices.

And they move around and live in different boarding houses.

Schilling: This was the end of the Depression.

Vernon, after that experience at Parchman Prison,

he had a hard time finding jobs.

Priscilla: Elvis told me that his father really lost his spirit.

And his mother had to work really hard during that time.

Man: Yes, that's it.

Ready here for the slate. 802.

Steve Binder: When I first got the phone call

to get involved with Elvis...

my partner at the time, Bones Howe,

who was a very successful record producer,

was really flabbergasted when I said no.

And he came over to me right after I hung up the phone,

and he said, Steve, I engineered an Elvis Presley album.

I know Elvis Presley, and I think you guys would hit it off great.

Bones Howe: Elvis was a guy who sang from his gut.

This is something you're born with.

You're born with that commitment to the music.

The one thing I remember

that stuck with me all these years, was Binder said,

People need to see him the way he really is.

He had to dig back to find his real self,

and it was like looking back into the past.

Red West: Vernon and Gladys heard this loud roar,

half in their sleep.

They picked Elvis up.

Thought they were putting him out a window

to get him away from the train that was coming.

Threw him right into a wall,

and he bounced off and fell on the floor.

His cryin' woke them up,

and they saw it was no train.

It was a tornado that went through Tupelo.

Ferris: Southern religion reminds its believers

that we're here for a short time.

If you lost your life or you were spared,

it was because of divine providence.

The loss of life, the destruction of property,

it was a reminder of the fragility of life.

(piano playing on record)

Priscilla: Going to church with his parents,

hearing gospel music,

being a part of people getting in touch,

moving with the music, getting lost in the music.

Record: I've got that old-time religion

Got that old-time religion

That is why I'm satisfied

Larry Strickland: If you lived in a rural area,

there wasn't much else but the music and the church.

It wasn't like you'd be going there and sitting back

and crossin' your legs and relaxing.

You know, you get very involved and very energetic.

It's as much a feeling as it is a hearing.

Elvis Presley: I've always liked music.

My mother and dad both loved to sing.

They'd tell me that when I was about three or four years old,

I got away from them in church and walked up

in front of the choir and started beatin' time.

Man: Have you seen

Where the Lord's gone? Tell me now

Where he's gone Where he's gone

Ferris: The hymns were more than religious.

They were fundamental building blocks of music.

Rhythmic, hard-hitting,

you had the foundation of rock and roll bands,

playing in churches.

When I sit down Lord, sit down

Something will be over ? Lord, sit down ?

When I sit down Lord, sit down

Gonna say come over here

Man: I'm so glad!

I'm working over here!

Ferris: People came to be excited,

and taken out of their daily experience.

Elvis was like Huck Finn exploring.

At night, he would slip in to black churches.

He would listen to gospel music

and to the sermons.

Priscilla: Gladys let him pursue the music

that he could surround himself with.

Petty: Elvis was very different.

Color lines were rarely crossed.

You just didn't find white people

that tuned into black music

and stayed there

and found it interesting

and studied it.

David Porter: A time where the country

was into racism and segregation,

and here was a young kid.

He was not afraid to go and be exposed to it,

so he could learn even more about it.

Schilling: He was doing what he enjoyed doing.

I don't think it was conscious,

but he absorbed everything that he saw.

Man: That's all right

Jackson: He would seek out people in his neighborhood

who could play music or had records,

or had a radio.

Man: Any way you do

Bruce Springsteen: You could turn a dial and hear gospel.

Well, my mama, she done told me

Springsteen: Turn a dial and hear country.

Turn a dial and hear blues.

Turn the dial and hear Sunday Night Creatures, you know?

I mean, it was all just there

in the Southern atmosphere he grew up in.

That's all right now, mama

Elvis: If today

Was not an endless highway

If tonight

Was not an endless trail

If tomorrow

Wasn't such a long time

Then lonesome would mean nothing

? To me at all ?

Yes, and only

Elvis: I always felt that someday, somehow,

something would happen to change everything for me.

And I'd daydream about how it would be.

If I could hear her heart

Priscilla: Once he moved to Memphis,

everything started opening up for him.

He was 13.

Ferris: As BB King once said, when he moved to Memphis,

It was like moving to Paris.

It was a different culture,

and a sense in which

things were connected and happening,

that someone like Elvis

could not even imagine in Tupelo.

The wealth, the affluence,

the scale of buildings,

the power of that river flowing by.

Jackson: Memphis is a very diverse city,

not an integrated city, but a very diverse city.

So you had a lot of people moving there

after the war.

Man: ? Well, you know I love my baby ?

Jackson: It was really the hub for people from that Southern

cotton plantation area

to either stay or use it as a stepping stone to go somewhere else.

Ferris: Like many Southern families,

the Presleys moved to the big city

seeking a little better opportunity.

Portia Maultsby: Memphis developed a very vibrant entertainment district,

'cause, you know, people brought with them their music, their culture.

Petty: You've got that spill there of the blues,

of gospel, pop music, country music.

All those things, they cross over each other,

and radio definitely had to play

a big role in his influences,

because I don't think he was carrying the kind of dough

to have an enormous record collection.

Porter: WDIA, it was a 50,000 watt African-American radio station

that artists like Bobby Blue Bland were being played

'cause the whole emphasis was black music.

Black music was just beginning to take root in our area,

and there's no doubt in mind

that Elvis Presley listened to WDIA.

Percy Mayfield (on radio): It's a real pleasure to invite you

to keep your radio dial turned to 1070.

That means WDIA.

That's 50,000 watts of powered entertainment for your pleasure.

West: We were both just above the poverty level.

I lived in one housing project,

and he lived in Lauderdale Courts

about three or four miles away.

We grew up the hard way.

Alan Light: The apartment in Lauderdale Courts

that the Presleys moved into

was part of the early New Deal housing program.

It was affordable, but it was bigger than anything they were used to.

They gave him everything.

They let him sleep in the big bedroom.

They saved what little money they had

so that he could buy a guitar, he could buy a record player.

And they gave him that same sort of independence

to go out in the city and be exposed to other musics.

Train I ride

Priscilla: He loved the bright lights.

He loved the music in the city.

He loved hearing people in the street.

He loved listening to music coming from the bars.

And he'd study them.

Porter: Elvis was a student.

As a kid, I would go to the Flamingo Room,

myself and Elvis would hang at the Flamingo Room.

When you realize that Elvis knew where Beale Street was,

and knew what that all meant,

you could sense that he was different.

You walk in the Flamingo Room on a Saturday night

or a Friday night, you're in another world.

It's like a Mardi Gras celebration,

except the music is soulful.

There was so much color in clothing, in dress, in vibe,

and the music was tremendously upbeat.

Comin' on 'round the bend

You're not seeing that for one night.

You're seeing that everytime you go there.

Rufus Thomas: Beale Street was the black man's haven.

When he'd come here, everything lit up.

Lit up like a slot machine. Everything was fired up!

Beale Street was the place.

Porter: You'd go out on your weekend night,

and you were an African-American, at that time,

you're making small wages.

You were in a racially prejudiced time,

and you had to have an escape.

And the legitimacy of the Flamingo Room experience,

and the Beale Street experience,

was something that took your mind

totally away from those things.

But if you had the right kind of personality

and spirit about you, regardless of who you were,

you could come in and check out the music.

Train, train

Preston Lauterbach: BB King, Rufus Thomas,

Johnny Ace, Bobby Blue" Bland.

You know, these giants were playing

little neighborhood juke joints.

Porter: Looking at that, you would see

how powerful it would be connecting to an audience.

Oh-oh, stop your train, darlin'

Let a

A poor boy ride

Why don't you hear me cryin'?

? Woo-hoo ?

Porter: If you're a young kid, a black kid or a white kid,

you were not analytical about it,

but you certainly knew the difference

between feeling and not feeling.

And you heard it, and you felt it.

Ike Turner: Elvis, he would park his truck in the alley behind the club,

and he used to come around to the back of this place,

and he would watch me play the old upright piano.

When you see him stand up and he'd be doing his legs,

when he'd be playing with the guitar,

all this came from back in those days when we used to do it.

Howlin' Wolf: Don't you hear me talkin' to you, woman?

Whoo-hoo

Whoo-oo

Since I've been gone

Schilling: Elvis picked up everything.

He was the most eclectic human being

I have ever been around.

He would pick up something from another singer,

or he would pick up something

from a guy walking down the street,

and say, "Jerry, look at that walk.

I'm gonna use that walk."

Warren Zanes: He's looking around for pockets of expression

and putting together his version of himself

based on these highly expressive models that are often quite different.

You know, the Dean Martins of the world,

the Mario Lanzas, the black church.

Jackson: At this point, Elvis and his parents

are going to a lot of gospel services,

musical events around the town in Memphis,

both black and white.

Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham

Tony Brown: Quartets were the alter ego

of the Christian people back in those days.

In the bosom of Abraham, Oh, rock my soul...

Brown: 'Cause they wore really tight, cool suits,

and they had slick-back hair and sideburns.

Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham

Brown: We looked at those people

like they were our pop stars in a way,

which is what Elvis really wanted to do.

You know, he wanted to be in the Blackwood Brothers.

Petty: Elvis, he longed to be a great gospel singer.

I think he wanted to be in a gospel group.

He wold have been a great tenor.

I'm glad I've got

That old-time religion ?

It helps me on my journey...

Bill Malone: Those Pentecostal preachers

were pretty dynamic individuals, you know.

Back and forth across the stage

and shouting and raising their hands

and being very theatrical.

Oh, I couldn't get along

Without Jesus ? I couldn't sing my song

Without Jesus I wouldn't know how to pray

Without Jesus I wouldn't know what to say

Without Jesus Joy bells couldn't ring

Without Jesus Angels couldn't sing

Without Jesus My life wouldn't mean a thing

Without Jesus I couldn't reach my goal

Without Jesus With no one to keep my soul

Hey, tell me, what can I do without...

Springsteen: Front man is something that was derived from preacher,

you know, fronting the choir in church.

So whether you're James Brown or Elvis

or anyone out there,

your position, basically,

is always proto-religious, you know?

Those are its roots.

Oh, tell me what would I do without Jesus

In my life

Jackson: Elvis always was seeking a way

to manifest his musical interest in some way.

Elvis: And I went to Humes High School in Memphis.

I was taking music. I flunked music.

Just flat, man. Whew!

F. The only thing I ever failed.

West: They had a little talent show every year.

People would sing, dance, whatever.

West: I had a little four-piece band,

I was playing the trumpet.

And Elvis had a guitar,

and he got up and he sang, Old Shep.

Red Foley's sad song about his old dog that died.

Elvis: And one day

The doctor looked at me

And said

I can do no more for him, Jim

Petty: I think that's the moment where the school

sort of throws down and goes,

That's what this weird kid's about.

The moment that applause broke through,

that's probably the first real validation that he's had.

West: Singing that tearjerker, he put emotion into it.

Sang the heck out of it, and he won first place!

And my little band didn't do shit.

Petty: That's a big step for a young man.

At that moment, he had to see the power of the material.

He had to go, This is what I am.

This is what I'm going to do.

Elvis: It was amazing how--

how popular I became in school after that.

Just walking in the rain...

James Tipler: When he wasn't driving the truck,

he'd help the electricians pull wire

or whatever they needed him to do.

Gladys Tipler: He had long hair.

It was real thick,

and looked like it was pasted down really.

James: We all laughed at him about that.

Gladys: He just what he wanted to do

is to get in some kind of business

where he could make his mother a living,

where she would not have to struggle for it anymore.

Shake their heads...

Ernst Jorgensen: At that time,

The Prisonaires had recorded their big hit,

Walking in the Rain.

Jackson: The Prisonaires were a group

that Sam Phillips was recording.

Sam Phillips, he grew to be one of the most famous

and celebrated record producers of all time,

but at first, he started his own label.

Schilling: The Prisonaires.

They were brought out with handcuffs

into Sun Records to record.

Light: To even conceive of that

as a possible source for great music

that people should hear,

there's just a democratization of...

of art, of the possibilities for art.

Walkin' in the rain

Ferris: What happened in Memphis at that time

was a convergence of forces.

The emergence of radio,

deejays, and artists.

And then you add to that concoction,

the genius of producers

like Sam Phillips.

Lauterbach: There wasn't much in the way of rhythm and blues,

black music recording infrastructure.

It was very much a do-it-yourself, mom-and-pop business.

Maultsby: Sam Phillips loved the blues,

and he was interested in recording

as many blues performers as he could.

Schilling: Elvis was aware of what Sam had recorded

at Sun Studios.

Rufus Thomas.

Ike Turner.

The Prisonaires.

Petty: I really believe Sam Phillips, for a long time,

had the idea of finding a white singer

that could bring black music

into the white mainstream.

For a lot of noble reasons,

not just commercial.

Schilling: Everybody thinks that Sam was looking for a white boy

to do black music.

But Elvis was looking for Sam Phillips.

Sam Phillips: I had seen him go by in his Crown Electric truck

a number of different times,

'cause we had an open storefront.

He'd go by and go back,

and go by and go back.

This guy would not come in the studio

and ask me to audition him for nothin'.

Elvis had never been in a studio.

Jorgensen: There was a newspaper story

about how you could get lucky at Sun Records,

and Elvis just went for it.

Elvis: If you

Find your sweetheart

In the arms of a friend ?

Schilling: Elvis went in to do

what he thought he should do

to get a record deal.

West: He had this beautiful voice,

a high voice, singing slow love longs, ballads.

Schilling: And he sang Dean Martin.

He sang Ink Spots--

black but white-accepted music.

There was nothing that was exciting Sam.

Phillips: I didn't want that.

It had to have a feel.

I did have the feeling

that this guy had something in the raw

that we could do something with

if we even knew what the hell we were doing.

Brought in Scotty Moore,

he was working at his brother's dry cleaning plant,

and Scotty played the guitar

and was not afraid to experiment.

Bill Black, I knew could play a good slap bass.

Black was working in an appliance store repairing appliances.

And I said, Go and woodshed, boys.

Scotty Moore: Sam said, "All I need is just a little background noise.

You don't have to worry about arrangements or anything.

Don't need the whole band, just a little rhythm stuff.

I knew Sam was looking for something,

but he couldn't tell you what he was looking for, you know?

Phillips: This day we had wound up

just about ready to give up

on having any success on a session.

About ready to bag up the instruments and go home.

I knew Sun Records had to make it

on something that was a little bit out of the ordinary

or we may as well forget it.

Jackson: Things aren't going well.

Elvis is nervous.

Moore: We'd been there two, three hours,

and it was starting to get late

and we were getting tired.

And, uh, we stopped and had a Coke or something.

Jackson: Elvis was just about a year out of high school,

19 years old.

Moore: He wanted to please Sam,

and he knew he had to prove himself.

Robbie Robertson: It was in that moment

that the world changed.

Moore: Elvis sets his Coke down, picks up the guitar,

starts just frailing, you know, fire out of it.

I mean, he was beating his rhythm thing.

Well, Bill picked his bass, started slapping,

playing along with him. Just-- just all rhythm.

Guitar was leaning up on the amp and I picked it up

and started just kinda vamping along with him.

Elvis: Well, Mama, she done told me

Papa done told me too

Son, that gal you fooling with

She ain't no good for you

Well, that's all right

Phillips: Although Elvis knew a lot of blues,

country and pop, it shocked me,

because here is a classic blues number,

and here is a white cat not imitating

or mimicking or anything,

but just putting his feel into it.

Blew me away!

Springsteen: You hear performers in the thrall

of the beauty of invention,

not knowing quite where they're going to go,

not knowing exactly what they're doing.

Elvis: I'm leaving town, baby

I'm leaving town for sure

Springsteen: Just discovering it and doing it

literally as the music is being played.

You're out on the frontier,

and it's a very pristine and exciting place to be.

Elvis: That's all right now, mama

Any way you do

That's all right

It's all right

That's all right, now, mama

Any way you do

One more time, baby.

One more!

Ha!

Yeah, baby

Well, my Mama she done told me

Papa done told me too

They said, Son, this gal you foolin' with

She ain't no good for you

That's all right, little mama

Any way you do

Give it all, baby!

That's all right

That's all right, little mama

Any way you do

Whoo!

Moore: We knew it was a little different.

We didn't know what it was really.

There was no mention of, you know, get this out or anything,

'cause we didn't know.

Write me a letter

Just flat fixin' to bring you

the hottest thing in the country.

Red, Hot, and Blue coming to you, WHBQ,

in Memphis, Tennessee and it's Friday night.

Tomorrow's payday and bath day. That's a good deal.

Schilling: Growing up in Memphis,

I'd been listening to Dewey Phillips

and his Red, Hot, and Blue show

for two years before Elvis came on.

DJ Fontana: He was the number one jock in Memphis at the time.

Schilling: When Elvis was played,

it was just different.

It wasn't really rhythm and blues,

and it wasn't country.

Moore: Dewey's program, he started playing it

and phones was ringing off the wall.

In fact, they went, took Elvis out of the movie he was at,

and told him that, uh,

that Dewey wanted to talk to him on the radio.

Schilling: He came on, did the interview.

He was nervous and he stuttered.

Phillips: That's All Right, Mama was a hit

in Memphis, Tennessee, overnight.

Moore: It was quite phenomenal, really,

getting that kinda response off a local radio station.

Fontana: Dewey played it on the air, just the one side,

and Sam got ahold of us, and,

Gotta get back in here.

We got to have another side for this record.

Phillips: I said, "Do you know anything else

that's as wild as that?"

Man: Blue moon of Kentucky

Keep on shining

Shine on the one that's gone

And proved untrue

Elvis: Blue moon

Blue moon

Blue moon keep shining bright

Blue moon, keep on shining bright

You're gonna bring me back my baby tonight

Blue moon

Keep shining bright

Ferris: That one record summed up his roots--

the very best of both black blues

and white bluegrass.

Elvis: Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining

Petty: He knew the blues.

He knew Arthur Crudup, Bill Munroe.

He knew that stuff by memory.

Elvis: Stars shinnin' bright

Phillips: The elements there that came together

were things that I had prayed for so long:

To record a black low-down almost gut-bucket blues,

and turn around and put a classic, classic bluegrass number,

Blue Moon of Kentucky, on the other side.

It didn't have to have a color.

It didn't need a color.

Petty: I don't know if Elvis was looking at it

all in that noble of a light.

It was just music he liked.

Elvis: ? Oh, well, I said, blue moon of Kentucky ?

? Just keep on shining ?

Petty: Blue Moon of Kentucky,

he has got this entirely original take on the bluegrass

and it transforms into

what would later be called rock and roll.

Elvis: Shine on the one who's gone and left me blue

Emmylou Harris: There's no one that creates music in a vacuum.

We're all influenced by what we've heard

and what has come before.

But occasionally, you have those crossroads moments

when something completely new is born.

Petty: It was a beautiful, beautiful thing.

It was high art,

in the greatest degree, you know, this is Picasso.

I mean, this is really taking your influences

and going somewhere with them,

to a place that's new.

West: Now, Elvis had a hit record,

and he was touring every night somewhere,

each night a different place.

Jorgensen: The basic mistake people make about Elvis

was that he came along and got lucky.

No, he didn't get lucky.

He worked hard and he created the music

with great musicians.

He had a drive that motivated him,

and it was there from day one.

Elvis: Well, what a fool I was

To think that you could love me too

Bill Malone: In those early days,

whether it was Slim Whitman or Jim Reeves

or Elvis Presley,

if they wanted to survive,

they had to hit the road.

Springsteen: It's an old-fashioned experience

in the sense that he was part of a touring band.

Which meant that night after night,

he was putting on his act.

And there's something that happens

through extensive touring

that you can't get anywhere else.

Jackson: You look back at the calendar of his dates,

and he's literally playing dates every single night.

The circuit that they're working

is probably one of the most thankless

and low-paying,

just grind-of-a-circuit that you could imagine.

Springsteen: There's a depth of craft that's attained

through simply constantly doing it night after night,

having to satisfy all different types of audiences.

West: You know, you have the stereotype

of the bass being tied on top of the car.

That was true. They really did that.

Man: May I ask, where did you pick up your style?

Elvis: My very first appearance after I started recording.

I was on a show and I was scared stiff.

And I came out and I was doing a fast type tune.

Everybody was hollering, and I didn't know what they were hollering at.

Everybody was screaming and then I came offstage,

and my manager told me that they was hollering

because I was wiggling my legs.

I was unaware, and so I went back out for an encore,

and I did a little more.

And the more I did, the louder they went.

Jackson: Sam Phillips was able to get Elvis on the Opry in Nashville,

which was massive.

I mean, you don't just get on the Grand Ole Opry.

The Opry, you had to be a member, be in this club,

the traditional Nashville establishment.

You had to dress the way that they wanted you to dress

and sing the way they wanted you to sing.

The Opry was very, very segregated.

Moore: This was an older audience.

They had their artists that they went to see.

And here's a kid dressed funny,

coming out, doing one of their idols' songs

in a blasphemous way.

They didn't get up and cheer and holler.

Phillips: Now, if you are fainthearted,

you're gonna give up in a hurry

on a situation like that.

We were not fainthearted.

But we certainly didn't know whether we would win it.

We knew in time that something this great

could not be kept under a bushel.

Ferris: You cannot understand Elvis

apart from country music,

but he was pulling it away

from the traditional Grand Ole Opry sound

and shaping it as a new, bluesier version.

While country music could recognize it,

they also knew it was a threatening sound

that would ultimately destroy the power

of the Grand Ole Opry.

Jackson: So four months after

the release of the first single,

they play their first Louisiana Hayride show.

Elvis: Tweedle, tweedle, tweedle, dee

I'm as happy as can be

Fontana: The Louisiana Hayride was strictly a country show.

Webb Pierce, Faron Young, Nat Stuckey, George Jones,

just about everybody played the Hayride.

Robertson: The Louisiana Hayride was really the place

where country music and blues

hit one another and exploded.

Ferris: It was a critical moment in his career.

The radio broadcasts

had an enormous impact in Memphis,

but the Louisiana Hayride was a whole different audience.

Malone: Hayride could be heard

all through the western part of the South,

so it had a pretty wide geographical audience.

Ferris: That was a kind of testing of his ability

to reach audiences

beyond his own home in Memphis.

Malone: The Louisiana Hayride did send out

road tours to surrounding towns.

The entire show would move.

Jackson: They'd start to build these touring routes

that bring them back to Shreveport once a week.

That's a big turning point,

not only from a financial perspective

but also from a exposure perspective.

Jorgensen: Elvis played a lot of these first shows

with Jim Ed and Maxine Brown, Bud Deckelman,

uh, Betty Amos-- successful country artists,

but not on a real top level.

Zanes: Those performers are competing with one another.

Somebody wants to leave there feeling like they won.

And being on bills like that,

you are amongst people who are gonna teach you things.

And that's a big part of what made Elvis

in those early becoming years

was that he had an antenna that was up,

and he was stealing tricks, he was learning lessons.

He was bringing it all in without it seeming like

he was just doing somebody else's act.

Fontana: He could go out there, and the audience

wouldn't be on his side for maybe five minutes.

But all of a sudden, somehow or another, he'd turn 'em around.

Moore: He could read an audience very well.

He could tell if it didn't seem

like he was going or just right,

he'd do something,

something you wouldn't even expect.

Jorgensen: He often started a song by like a wail

and then left it hanging there,

so people were like, What's going on?

He would stop in the middle of a song

and turn around or walk away,

and then go back, or do something with a microphone stand.

Schilling: And he would grab that microphone,

and he would drag it across the stage.

He was so sophisticated already

about making contact with an audience.

If the audience reacted a lot to something he did,

he did it again.

He just had this look,

like a wild, captured animal.

Shook his head and his hair was down in his face,

and just to watch him walk from that curtain

to the microphone, you felt a part of it.

Jorgensen: He gets presence on the charts,

and his records kept doing well,

and eventually, he gets voted the Most Promising New Artist.

Fontana: And he finally got a Cadillac.

Elvis: And when I was driving a truck,

every time a big, shiny car drove by,

it started me sorta daydreaming.

I'd daydream...

about how it would be.

And the first car I ever bought

was the most beautiful car I've ever seen.

It was secondhand, but I parked it

outside of my hotel the day I got it.

Elvis: I sat up all night just looking at it.

And the next day, well the thing caught fire

and burned up on the road.

Uh, I've got a lot of cars,

but none of 'em would take the place of that first one.

Zanes: The story that we hear about early rock and roll

is that the major labels, in the main,

passed on rock and roll.

And so the indie labels took it up,

and it took the major labels a while

to see that rock and roll wasn't going away.

Man: Now if you've got a woman

Victor Linn: The RCAs, the Capitols, the Columbias, the Deccas,

they were called the majors.

All the other people, these were independent businessmen

who sold records to stores.

Phillips: I have a small record company,

been in business five years,

worked the lower of my anatomy off,

peddling days of me on the road

to the tune of 70,000 miles a year.

Linn: When we say independent,

Sam was connected to no one

at the major labels in any way.

He would produce what he wanted to produce.

Dog that bite your hand

It means record it. It means edit it.

They went into the lab and did the mastering.

Packaging was already done,

and then they put a bunch of singles in the car,

and got on the road and went into the hills of Tennessee.

And this is really a very traditional way of doing it.

I went down to the river

Linn: Now what the record company would like to see happen

is they could spread that regionality,

get it from northern Georgia to Alabama,

and from Alabama across to Mississippi.

You know, then they've got national distribution.

Phillips: I knew, really, so little about the business

when it came to merchandising records and this sort of thing.

The main thing that did more for us than anything else

was it created excitement amongst the major labels.

A lot of hard work went into this thing,

both on the part of Elvis

and the part of Scotty, and Bill, and myself.

Schilling: Elvis, when he was 19 years old,

he knew what he had to do

to get where he wanted to.

He was a very driven man.

Every two months, he was releasing

another single at Sun Records.

Robertson: Sam knew what to ask for, what to push for,

and all of those pieces, the way they fit together,

it was like Sam Phillips was the other member of that group.

Springsteen: The Sun space was pretty indicative

of most small recording studios of the era.

You know, they were intimate.

They were small.

You were up close with everybody and everything.

Harris: And those early records,

they almost knock you off your heels,

because all that big sound is coming from so little.

Springsteen: I think people make the mistake

that when they think of rock and roll, they think of drums.

Elvis: ? Oh, baby, baby, baby ?

Springsteen: If you listen to a lot of the early rock and roll,

rhythm came out of the slap bass,

rhythmic hitting of the guitar,

and the swing of the singer's voice.

Come back, baby, I wanna play house with you

Jon Landau: There was only a couple of microphones.

It was-- it was pretty straightforward.

You may have a pink Cadillac

But don't you be nobody's fool

Now, baby, come back

Porter: You could feel the true artistry in that period,

because there was not a lot of recording equipment

to sonically make records sound a certain kind of way.

Elvis: I say meet me in a hurry behind the barn

Lauterbach: Elvis listened to everything that came his way.

Sam was the same way, only he was...

he was into the technical aspect of it,

but very much a natural.

Elvis: I heard the news

Lauterbach: He didn't want to overproduce anything.

He wanted to capture raw sound.

In Elvis, he found a combination

of rawness with that vision.

The drive of the black music,

you can hear just as well,

the twang on the white side of music.

Landau: Scotty Moore, he and Bill Black

and DJ Fontana

were an enormous blessing for Elvis

and the coherence of the records they made together.

Elvis: Well, if I had to do it over

Moore: I tried to play what I thought would fit

the way he was singing the song.

Tried to do solos and fills that--

that made sense on that song.

Elvis: Baby, trying to get to you

Petty: Scotty is brilliant,

one of the great musicians of all time.

Never plays unless it's necessary.

Elvis: Could keep me away from you

When your loving letter told me

Petty: Bill Black, the bassist, the way he pops the strings,

it's him plucking the bass string,

rather than just striking it.

Elvis: Brought me through

Robertson: But the basic setup,

when it was just Elvis, Scotty, Bill

and a beautiful echo tape delay,

it was all you needed.

With that voice, you could do anything.

Elvis Blue moon

You saw me standing alone

Without a dream in my heart

Elvis's early recordings are marked by, one of the things,

the freedom of not having heard yourself very often.

So, they're very, very un-self-conscious.

Blue moon

You knew just what I was there for

You heard me saying...

Springsteen: Elvis's voice has plenty of space

and beautiful geography to it.

Elvis: Someone I really could care for

Springsteen: And the way he was recorded by Sam Phillips

is tremendously pure.

You know, there's a looseness,

as there usually is, in your early recordings.

You're excited about a sudden discovery of self...

of your powers, your abilities,

and what you can do with them.

Elvis: You saw me standing alone

Without a dream in my heart

Without a love of my own

Springsteen: I hear all that on the Sun sessions.

Elvis: Without a love of my own

Vernon Presley: In 1955,

Colonel Parker was booking shows down through Florida.

People like Hank Snow, Marty Robbins.

Mike Stoller: He knew he had something very special

and he knew from the audience reaction.

He promoted him. He dropped his other artists

and devoted himself entirely to Elvis.

Elvis: Keep my eyes on you

Schilling: The Colonel, he's a very hard guy to understand.

His past was complicated.

I think there was a real respect

between Elvis and the Colonel,

but he was a promoter, he wasn't a creative guy.

He was a brilliant promoter.

Jorgensen: There was a big tour in February '55.

Hank Snow was the headliner,

and Colonel Parker had managed

as a favor and a plot,

to get Elvis on as an extra added thing.

Being on a Hank Snow show was a real big step forward.

The Colonel planned it to be a big step forward.

He wanted to see how far Elvis could go.

Elvis: ? Gimme, gimme, gimme all the love you got ?

Jorgensen: Just three months later,

they realized that the star, Hank Snow,

couldn't close the show anymore.

After Elvis had performed, people left.

From June of '55,

you know, basically a year into Elvis's stay at Sun,

people are making offers to buy Elvis's contract.

The Colonel was afraid

that if Elvis became much more successful

than he already was,

that he was eventually not gonna be able

to take over his management.

He would be so big

that he was no longer needed to bring it further.

So over the next month,

he actually starts manipulating everything.

And after that, it became obvious

between the management of Bob Neal

and Sam's little independent record company,

they couldn't push a record

the way the big companies could.

Elvis starts worrying about that element.

Mae Axton: A lot of my listeners have seen you

and they've heard your records,

and they think they're very wonderful.

And of course, you really skyrocketed to fame

on "That's All right, Mama," wasn't that the one?

Elvis: Well, yes, ma'am. That was the one

that got me on my way and everything.

I wasn't very well-known down here.

I mean, you know, I'm just with a small company,

and, uh, my records don't have the distribution

that they should have, but, uh...

Axton: Oh, of course that-- that's coming, you know.

It takes a little bit of time for that

and to get distribution all over the United States,

but I think you are one of the fastest rising young stars

perhaps in the field.

Do you know what I can't understand,

is how you keep that leg shaking just as-- just at...

Schilling: Elvis, he knew, I've got to make a choice.

He and Sam spoke the same language creatively.

And they loved each other.

But he knew that Colonel Parker

was about national,

about movies, and about television.

And that if he chose Colonel Parker,

Sam would be gone.

Priscilla: Sam Phillips saw in Elvis

what Elvis dreamed of

and no one else could understand.

West: Elvis was still underage,

under 21.

The Colonel set up an appointment

with Vernon Presley and Gladys and talked to 'em.

"I'd like to buy his contract from Bob.

I think he has a lot of potential.

They were suspicious of everybody,

and they should've been suspicious of the Colonel,

but the Colonel filled 'em with all kinda hope.

They said, Well, okay.

Jorgensen: In that whole scenario here,

we have the Colonel locked in on the idea

that he wanted RCA.

Because he knew RCA from Hank Snow,

and he even puts up money of his own

as an opening to the dealings with RCA,

which he would lose if he didn't bring in the RCA contract.

He really believed in Elvis's potential.

Linn: When I got into the music business

in, uh, November of 1956,

in those days, most of the-- most, not all,

but most of the records that were being recorded were ballads.

Just walkin' in the rain

Getting soaking wet

Torture in my heart

Linn: You know, they weren't stuff like Elvis was doing.

It wasn't what, unfortunately,

had the nomer of "race music" and rock and roll,

and they released as little of it as they possibly could.

They felt they had the shareholders

of the company to worry about.

They had distributors to worry about.

They had stores to worry about.

They had radio stations to worry about.

They said, "Our whole world is tied up in white music."

People come to their windows

They always...

Linn: They were very, very reluctant

to expose black music

until such times they couldn't avoid it anymore.

Elvis: You know what it takes, you got it, baby

? You are the only one I've chose ?

Don't leave me here with all these heartaches

Jorgensen: After a lot of going back and forth,

eventually the Colonel pushes RCA

to buy the contract,

and all the recordings that were made,

both that were released and those that weren't.

Elvis: When it rains, it really pours

Linn: I think he's the test object

for the majors to really get in the game,

and it worked.

Phillips: People have asked me repeatedly,

Do you regret selling Elvis Presley?

Elvis: I got a feeling for you, baby

Phillips: I do not.

Elvis: And you're the only one who knows

About my troubles, troubles, troubles

Man: It'll just be one second, Elvis. All right.

Elvis: My boy, my boy, got my guitar.

Man: Uh, Steve?

Can we have a lot of gain on this playback?

Steve: More gain. Man: Right.

Are we on television?

Binder: Huh? Are we on television?

Just a minute.

Binder: One day in the middle of taping a production number...

...we're called into Colonel Parker's office.

Elvis: I'll have a blue

Christmas Binder: Colonel says,

It's been called to my attention

that we don't have a Christmas song in the show.

And when those blue

Binder: Elvis wants a Christmas song in the show.

Don't you, Elvis?

Man: Aw, yeah! You'll be doing...

His hands cross,

his head goes down,

and I hear Elvis mumble, Yes, sir.

I watched Elvis cower to Parker.

Elvis: Blue, blue Christmas

I said, If that's what Elvis wants,

that's what I'll do.

The Colonel says, Okay, then we're all in agreement.

Elvis walks out the door.

Head goes up, lot of energy,

and he jams me in the ribs,

and says, Fuck him.

Blue, blue, blue Christmas

Decorations of red

On a green Christmas tree

Won't be the same dear

If you're not here with me

And when those blue

Snowflakes start fallin'

That's when those blue

Memories start callin'

You'll be doin' all right

With your Christmas of white

Petty: Elvis was one of the first artists

that actually produced himself.

By the time he lands at RCA,

he's in charge.

They're a rock and roll band,

and Steve Sholes didn't know

how to make one of those records.

Elvis did.

Light: Elvis was a very different person

and a very different artist

going in to make the first RCA record

than he was walking in as an absolute rookie at Sun.

He'd been out touring and playing in front of people

for those months in-between.

He had experience in the studio.

He had had the inspiration of Sam Phillips,

watching, pick the songs and the arrangements and all of that.

Petty: You can hear Heartbreak Hotel

has got echo chamber,

because he's clearly asking for echo.

And they don't know how to give him the slapbacks,

so they're turning up the chamber,

and he's just like, Okay, I'll make this work.

And he does.

Petty (imitating Elvis): Heartbreak Hotel, where I will be

So lonesome, baby

I'll be so lonely, baby

Elvis: They're so lonely, they could die

Now, the bellhop's tears keep flowing

Howe: My function was in the booth.

But I always spent a lot of time out in the studio.

What you saw from Elvis

was that being in a recording studio

or being on stage was exactly the same thing to him.

Elvis: They're so lonely

Howe: He was always a real

organic part of the music physically.

Extremely animated when he sang.

He never stood still.

Elvis: Take a walk down Lonely Street to

Heartbreak Hotel

Where you will be, you will be so lonely

And the guys, they just shifted right into that mode

that Elvis was in.

Elvis: So lonely, you could die

Howe: If something wasn't working right

or it was too slow or too fast,

they all looked to him,

and then he would move to the music.

If the music was right,

he was a show out there.

He was a captivating person,

and nobody made suggestions to Elvis.

Elvis: Although it's always crowded

You still can find some room

For brokenhearted lovers to cry when they're blue

Where they'll be so

They'll be so lonely, baby

Well, they're so lonely ?

? They'll be so lonely they could die

Springsteen: Elvis's music was shot through with the blues,

which he played quite a bit of.

But he was always mixing genres.

Zanes: Elvis, by the first RCA record,

is already showing that he can pull in

a wide range of genres,

but they all come out Elvis.

Petty: He didn't invent rock and roll, per se.

I mean, you've got Little Richard and Joe Turner

and all these people on that tip,

but what Elvis did isn't that.

You know what--

What he did is different.

It's bringing the country music in,

bringing white gospel music in,

and it becomes pop music.

Maultsby: Most of Presley's first recordings

were basically covers of black singers. (piano playing)

Little Richard, Arthur Crudup, Joe Turner, Lloyd Price.

Lloyd Price: Well, now, lawdy, lawdy, lawdy, Miss Clawdy

Girl, you sure look good to me

Please don't excite me, baby

Know it can't be me

Elvis: Because I give you all of my money

Yeah, but you just won't treat me right

Springsteen: Elvis and Elvis's music

pointed to black culture and said,

This is something that's filled with the force of life.

If you want to be a complete and fulfilled person,

if you want to be an American,

this is something you need to pay attention to.

Petty: The American teen just knew it rocked.

No white music had ever done that.

Plenty of black music had.

Tell my mama

Lord, I swear to God, what you been doin' to me

I'm gonna tell everybody...

Porter: Elvis was able to bring a value

to the presentation of black music,

African-American artists,

at a period that they were being ignored

by the great artists, in a credible way,

because he learned it from the source.

Girl, I don't be comin' no more

Goodbye to little darlin'

Down the road I go

Can't stop me now, man. We can't stop.

Man: All right, all right.

I said, bye

Bye, bye, baby

Girl, I won't...

In the Colonel's view,

whatever the songs were,

whoever played on it didn't matter.

It was Elvis.

It was, in his mind, about the merchandise.

He always called it the merchandise.

And that's what it was to him and to RCA.

Announcer: We think tonight that he's going to make

television history for you.

We'd like you to meet him now. Elvis Presley!

West: Colonel knew how to do it,

and had the contacts with the--

the show in New York,

the Tommy Dorsey Show.

Jorgensen: RCA didn't seem to be able to secure TV performances,

and eventually, Colonel Parker secures Elvis for shows

to coincide with the release of the record in January.

Light: The earliest shows,

he doesn't have that much material to draw from.

What he's doing really are the-- the covers.

These songs initially recorded

by black songwriters, black performers:

Shake, Rattle, and Roll" and "Money Honey

and Flip, Flop and Fly.

Petty: He was an incredible performer

in that his body really picked up

all the intricacies of the rhythm.

It's so lighthearted,

but it's so deep and meaningful at the same time.

It's such a magical thing to see.

He looks really supernatural,

'cause of the kinescopes,

just the way it distorts the image.

There's some beautiful thing going down there,

you know, and it must have been really incredible

to see it with no warning.

I'm like a Mississippi bullfrog

Sittin' on a hollow stump

I'm like a Mississippi bullfrog

Sittin' on a hollow stump

I got so many women

I don't know which way to jump

Well, I said flip, flop and fly

I don't care if I die

I said flip, flop and fly

Don't care if I die

Don't ever leave me, don't ever say goodbye

West: He just did all those Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey shows.

That was nationwide TV.

And it all went through the roof from then on.

Robertson: That's when we saw somebody

that could sing better than other people,

could move better than other people,

had style that was better than other people.

In the pop world,

when this came along it broke glass.

Elvis: You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

Cryin' all the time

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

Springsteen: When you look at those television performances,

you see the band watching Elvis.

They all got their eyes on Elvis.

Well, they said you was high class

Springsteen: That was essential to the way the band swung.

Elvis is simply swinging your world

with the way he's swinging his hips

and moving his legs and his shoulders.

He's pushing and pushing his musicians.

? You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ?

Cryin' all the time

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

Fontana: We were doing The Milton Berle Show,

and we was doing "Hound Dog."

Right at the end, we usually go out.

You ain't no friend of mine

Fontana: All of a sudden, he went into this half-time bluesy

You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, slow.

And we had never did it that way.

We all looked at each other. What do we do now?

We'd better follow him.

You ain't nothin' but a...

I just figured, well, I better catch his blues licks

and his legs and arms and do everything I can.

It was like every man for himself, actually.

Well

Fontana: Everytime he'd move a finger, a leg, an arm,

or run across the stage like a machine gun.

Just every lick I could catch, you know?

Priscilla: My parents are watching it.

They don't know I'm watching it.

They're looking, and...

My mother's saying, That's disgusting!

Crying all the time

Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit

You ain't no...

Petty: As a little kid, I can remember

the living room discussion.

His appearances on TV were of a sexual nature.

He had really stepped over the line

of what's decent on television.

Priscilla: After that, our parents wouldn't let us see him.

The ministers, reverends told our parents,

Keep him away from your children.

He's the devil.

So, he's forbidden fruit.

On your personal appearances,

you create a sort of mass hysteria

amongst your audiences of teenagers.

Is your shaking and quaking in the nature

of an involuntary response to this hysteria?

Elvis: Involuntary? Man: Yeah.

Uh, well, I'm aware of everything I do at all times,

but, uh, it's just the way I feel.

Man: And do you think you've learned anything

from the criticism leveled at you?

Elvis: No, I haven't. Man: You haven't, huh?

Because, uh, I don't-- I don't feel I'm doing anything wrong.

Man: Do you read the stuff?

Nik Cohn: One of the paradoxes with Elvis is

how could a boy so in love with God,

so obsessively in love with his mother,

so decent,

and yes, ma'am, and yes, sir and all of that,

how could he be so unconfined on the stage?

How could he do this?

Maultsby: That was just totally unacceptable,

because the mid '50s being

the beginning of the civil rights movement,

the biggest fear that most Southerners had

was so-called race mixing.

Elvis's first television appearances

were earth-shattering.

He sang at a moment in the history of the South

in the early '50s,

when his music was truly a revolutionary sound

that bridged the black and white musics of Southern worlds

in a way that had never been heard before.

Petty: I don't think he was, necessarily,

trying to shake the world in that sense,

but I think he... he knew what he was onto.

He knew it made him feel great,

and he knew there was a rebellious streak in it.

He had to know that,

and it made him powerful.

They're clearly afraid of him...

...to some degree.

Zanes: If you see a large social anxiety on the horizon,

there's probably issues of bodies in control involved.

Young people,

whether they were physically mixing

black and white or not,

they were culturally mixing black and white,

the way they were expressing themselves,

the movements in space as that mixing happened

were sexual in nature.

Zanes: And I think, in the case of Elvis,

the fearful response,

it had a racial component

and a sexual component.

You know, it's all about fear and the body.

Cohn: I and millions of other kids growing up,

we all had this feeling

that Elvis was, sort of, sent to us,

to lead us out of the darkness of our own confusion,

sexual confusion,

social confusion,

ineptitude.

Robertson: Here's what it was for me.

Elvis came along,

and this soundwave came out

that ran right through me.

Priscilla: You felt like he was looking at you.

I mean, he had these eyes,

and he was connecting with his audience.

As teenagers, it was liberating.

Now we had something to claim for ours.

Light: I don't think there was any context

for the kind of shift that Elvis represented.

I don't think there was any-- any possible way

to know that that was going to resonate

and shake young people to their core

in such a profound way.

Steve Allen: The reason I booked him, I recognized right away

that he had something, a cuteness.

It was chiefly his face,

but a beautiful sound, he really never had.

Landau: The thing is that it was well-known that Steve Allen,

who fancied himself a major songwriter,

hated rock and roll.

And his purpose in having Elvis was,

first and foremost, he needed the ratings,

but secondly, to be sarcastic

and condescending to Elvis

and to the music he openly despised.

Elvis: ? You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ?

? Cryin' all the time ?

? You ain't nothin' but a hound dog ?

? Cryin' all the time ?

Dave Marsh: Steve Allen, he was out to humiliate an entire culture

of what he would've called hillbillies.

It was all a sneer.

It's a control thing.

It was humiliating.

After that, he didn't like Steve Allen at all.

Well, that was just a lie

Marsh: As a child, I was deeply offended.

There was something wrong there.

Elvis, why are you letting him do this to you?

Ferris: We can look at Elvis as a Southern trickster figure.

You deal with power by yes-ing them to death,

and that's what Elvis did.

Very polite, very deferential,

but with his eye on the sparrow.

He was basically a good-natured Southern kid,

but he was on a mission to deliver this music.

Schilling: By 1956,

Elvis was coming into his own.

The RCA singles were enormous.

Hound Dog, Don't Be Cruel.

They sold three million copies.

Light: When Elvis's first album came out,

that sold 300,000 copies.

Heartbreak Hotel topped all three Billboard charts:

country, pop, and R&B.

This was now a career

that was going to these unimaginable heights.

Petty: I often wonder

if there had ever been a 21-year-old

that had that power,

that could mobilize millions of youths

with the wave of his hand.

Priscilla: His mother worried so much about him.

He always wanted to be a good son,

mostly to his mom,

and didn't want to give her fears.

They would talk every single day,

and he was comforting her

that he'd be okay and not to worry so much.

Light: By the time Elvis made the first appearance

on The Ed Sullivan Show,

it was already something everybody was waiting for, watching for.

There was all kinds of pressure

and all kinds of expectation.

The Sullivan Show was the crown jewel,

that was the biggest game in town.

Priscilla: It was almost like, okay, you know,

I'll do these shows, I'm doing my song, I'm doing my thing.

But he's not letting go of his roots.

Well, the morning' so bright

And the lamp...

He wanted to do Peace in the Valley

on The Ed Sullivan Show.

They said, No, we've never had a religious song on this show,

and you're not going to sing one now.

That's one of the songs his mother loved

was Peace in the Valley.

He fought for that song.

No one wanted him to do that song.

Elvis: There will be peace

In the valley

For me

Priscilla: But it was important for him to sing it for his mother,

to his mother, and keep his roots intact.

Elvis: Peace in the valley

For me

Schilling: If you really look at Elvis on the Dorsey shows,

that's the rebel.

But then you see him doing Peace in the Valley

on The Sullivan Show,

that's the good-natured Southern kid.

Trouble I see

There will be peace

In the valley

For me

Okay, Elvis, this is sort of off-the-cuff,

but how does it feel to be right up there on top,

right with the best of 'em,

since you are one of that class, how does that feel?

Elvis: Uh, it all happened so fast, so I don't know.

I'm afraid to wake up, afraid it's liable to be a dream, you know?

Man: Mm-hmm.

Elvis: We got a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures.

It's a dream come true, you know?

I've had people ask me was I gonna sing

in the movies, I'm-- I'm not.

Man: I see you're signed by Hal Wallis and company, out of Paramount.

Yes. Can you tell us anything

about the first movie that will be made?

We'll have a movie coming out,

uh, we start making it in June. It's, uh...

It's a movie with Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn

called The Rainmaker.

Schilling: He didn't get The Rainmaker.

They talked him into doing Love Me Tender.

And then talked him into four songs.

Jorgensen: I think that Elvis brought a lot of insecurity with him.

He wanted to be a movie star,

that was much bigger than being a recording star,

and he was fairly disheartened when he learned

that he had to sing for these movies.

Priscilla: In the first four movies,

you see him so into the part,

and you see him really taking the role seriously.

He learned everyone's lines.

He thought that's what an actor did.

Training himself to be more like a Marlon Brando

or a James Dean or a Humphrey Bogart.

He respected these actors very much,

and this is where he thought his future was going.

Landau: The movie people took him very seriously.

These were carefully made films.

They had scripts.

They had emotion.

King Creole, Love Me Tender, Jailhouse Rock.

They assigned him stellar people.

Michael Curtiz, who directed King Creole,

is the same Michael Curtiz who directed Casablanca.

So they treated him with respect.

Schilling: King Creole, it was being prepped for James Dean...

before the fatal crash.

Woman: Crawfish

Fresh and ready ?

To cook

Elvis: Crawfish

Crawfish

See, I got 'em

See the size

Stripped and cleaned ?

Before your eyes

Sweet meat, look Sweet meat, look

Fresh and ready to cook Fresh and ready to cook

Crawfish

Now take Mr. Crawfish in your hand

He's gonna look good in your frying pan

If you fry him crisp

? Or you boil him right ?

? He'll be sweeter than sugar with every bite ?

Crawfish

See I got 'em

See the size

Stripped and cleaned Stripped and cleaned

Before your eyes

Sweet meat, look Sweet meat, look

Fresh and ready to cook Fresh and ready to cook

Crawfish...

Priscilla: Out of all those movies,

King Creole was really his favorite.

It was Leiber and Stoller songs.

It was songs that he loved.

Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller,

they were two of the greatest songwriters in Americas

during the late '50s and early '60s.

If you're lookin' for trouble

You came to the right place

If you're lookin' for trouble

Just look right in my face

Stoller: When we first met him, we hit it off.

We were talking about different records that we knew.

My daddy was a green-eyed mountain jack

That's why I'm evil

Stoller: Elvis was into blues.

We thought we were the only white guys who were into blues.

Well, I'm evil

So don't you mess around with me

Jorgensen: In order to control music,

and in order to make more money,

Colonel Parker set up music companies

that would deliver songs.

Stoller: We were given assignments,

but they also went to all the other writers

who were assigned to Hill & Range Songs.

Thus the owners of Hill & Range

controlled Elvis Presley music.

Elvis: Flesh, blood and bone

Stoller: Hill & Range was one of the biggest publishers in the United States.

And if you wanted to be on an Elvis record,

you were gonna play ball.

The publisher gets half, and the writer gets half.

Light: As Elvis is becoming an A-list superstar,

he's reaching a level of success

that nobody had ever had before.

In fact, several big pop hits into his career,

he makes a feature film,

and then, very soon signs a contract

for a bunch of feature films.

Nobody had ever done that.

There's nobody, who this early in their career,

is given all of this territory

between the radio,

the television and the movie screen.

There was no blueprint

for how you navigate something like that.

Actually, it was Vernon and Gladys

that found Graceland and showed it to him.

He fell in love with it, but more than that,

it was to give a beautiful home to his mom.

And of course, his father too, but really for his mother,

because he saw her working so hard.

He wanted to be a great son.

Schilling: He was living the most hectic time of his life, career-wise.

This was his controlled escape.

Springsteen: Graceland.

Just the name of it itself

pulled directly out of gospel tradition.

It's an idealized home.

The perfect symbol of someone who's come up from the bottom

and-- and enjoyed the best the country has to offer.

It was a huge moment for Elvis to walk through those doors

and call that place his home.

Ferris: It had all of the things

that Elvis had never known as a kid.

It's not a lavish home.

It's not Tara.

But it is everything that money and fame

could deliver according to his specifications.

Man: Yeah, I understand that you bought a home for your folks.

And even though your father is only 39,

you've insisted that he retire. Is that true?

Uh, yes.

Well, he's more help, I mean,

he's more help at home than he is anywhere else,

because, uh...

he can take care of all my business.

He can, uh, look after things when I'm gone.

Man: Well, I think that's-- I think that's very smart.

I, of course...

Priscilla: Elvis gave Vernon a huge obligation.

Take care of me.

He had an office.

It gave him a job.

It gave him something to do,

and it was for his son.

They made sure that they kept everything in order,

because he was really in fear of not doing the right thing.

Schilling: Vernon's office, you can tell,

didn't come from a sophisticated business manager.

It came from a poor man from Tupelo, Mississippi.

Harris: Elvis had all the money in the world.

He had anything he wanted.

He built Graceland,

and yet, he had some sweetness about him

that kind of breaks your heart.

I mean, really. I don't think he-- he ever lost that.

Elvis never wanted to go back

to the days where they struggled,

the days of poverty.

Light: In 1958, Elvis was drafted into the Army.

And no matter how much he'd been through

on the road and making movies,

the notion of going to another continent

away from his family,

was a difficult thing for him to consider.

Jorgensen: The idea was, of course, that Elvis would do his duty,

so he could come back and be respectable

in the Colonel's new vision of the future Elvis Presley,

which was a brilliant vision.

He knew exactly where he wanted to take Elvis.

West: Colonel said, We don't want any favors.

He's not gonna be in entertainment.

He's gonna be a soldier.

Reporter: Elvis, you don't get out of the Army until 1960.

If rock and roll should diminish in popularity,

or even disappear, what would you do?

Well, uh...

I would probably try acting.

I mean, you know, I, uh...

Being drafted was something

he never thought about happening to him.

Petty: The Army, which is odd,

because there was no war on.

There's not a lot of people being drafted.

But Elvis, he goes along with it.

Zanes: The biggest star in the world

going into the Army.

You know, from our historical perspective,

that's a very strange episode.

But then if you try to get in to his experience,

having gone through this profound rise to fame,

there's total uncertainty

as to what he will return home to,

if he returns.

Springsteen: Elvis in his 20s,

he was still inventing all the rules.

In those days, there was no perception

that a rock and roll musician

could have a long and lasting career.

People expected that kind of a career

to be over within moments.

Jorgensen: RCA panicked.

The pushed the Colonel to set up recording sessions

before Elvis left, so they could record a lot of material.

Light: The impulse was to flood the market,

give the fans as much as possible,

and keep riding this as hard as you can.

Jorgensen: And the Colonel works it the opposite way.

His idea was to have just enough material

to keep Elvis's name alive.

Priscilla: He wanted to keep the mystery.

He kept Elvis away from performing,

serving for his country like a good soldier.

He had fans waiting for him to come back.

Man: I... I, Elvis Presley...

do solemnly swear...

do solemnly swear...

that I will bear true faith and allegiance,

that I will bear true faith and allegiance,

to the United States of America.

to the United States of America.

Priscilla: His mother was concerned about him going to Germany,

'cause all they heard at that time was Russia.

She thought he was going to war.

Her son was leaving for two years,

and he'd never been out of the United States.

When he went to basic training in Texas,

they talked every day.

And kept saying, Mama, I'm gonna be okay. I'm gonna be okay.

I'm gonna be fighting.

But she just couldn't get it into her head.

Oh, by and by

Tempted and tried

We're oft made

To wonder

Why it should be thus

Before he left to serve in Germany,

Gladys suddenly got sick and she passed.

West: When those things happen like that,

you don't do a lot of talking.

Elvis and his mother,

that's the closest I've ever seen anybody

as far as that goes.

Sure was.

Priscilla: She worried about him night and day,

because he was such a sensitive boy.

And yes, she was overly protective,

but because of the loss of the twin brother,

that protectiveness really lingered

until the day she-- she passed.

Elvis: Farther along

We'll know

All about it

Farther along

Easy to sneer that Elvis was a mama's boy and so on,

but it wasn't that.

It was one of those relations between a mother and son

where you could hardly say where the mother ends

and where the son begins.

And when his mother died, it left a hole in him.

He was never whole again as it were.

He deeply feared not being a good man,

being a godly man.

He needed her there to say, I love you,

and you're doing the right thing,

and I know you're good.

He needed her. Absolutely.

By and by

Priscilla: The loss was the most devastating time in his life.

It was all fun before that.

It was the skating rink, it was the theater.

It was making a movie, then going back to Memphis

being with his friends and playing.

And then, of course, having Graceland as the center.

Fixing all that up for the family,

and so, he matured a lot

because of the loss of his mother.

It was unbearable for him during that time.

Then do we...

Now, as we're getting closer and closer

to the time that they're gonna pull that gangplank away,

and you'll be on your way.

Since this is probably the last chance

that you'll have to say something to your fans,

do you have any particular message?

Elvis: Well...

I'm gonna be very honest about it.

Uh, in spite of the fact that I am going away

and that I'll be out of their eyes for some time,

I hope that I'm not out of their minds.

And, uh, I'll be looking forward

to the time when I can come back

and entertain again like I did, and...

Man: All we can do is wish you a wonderful trip

and all the best luck in the world and come home soon.

Well, thank you very much. I'll do my very best.

Jorgensen: Elvis hadn't had much time to himself

between that summer day when he recorded "That's All Right"

and when he was shipped to Germany.

Suddenly, on a boat to Germany,

there was lots of time.

That's where he meets Charlie Hodge,

and they start talking about music together.

They start singing.

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa, men have named you

Charlie Hodge had been a gospel singer,

who Elvis had heard sing.

He liked Charlie

because Charlie was in the music business

and somebody he could relate to that way.

Elvis was so down that Charlie would tell jokes

and try to keep him up.

Elvis: Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa

To have somebody who he felt understood him,

that he could lean on,

and also to be able to turn to that music

was tremendously important

for him to get through that time

and everything that was going on.

Brought to your doorstep

They just lie there

And they die

Are you warm?

Are you real, Mona Lisa?

Or just a cold and lonely

Lovely work of art?

Jorgensen: When he gets to Germany, yes, he's--

he's obviously, uh, committed to, uh, the hours every day,

but there's, again, a lot of spare time

in an apartment or at a house in Germany

where he doesn't know anybody.

So there's a lot of time for reflection.

Petty: He goes into the Army,

which is where he gets the, um,

the pep pills for the first time, the methadrine,

to stay up on watch.

That was the beginning.

He started with the uppers to get him through the Army,

to get him through the cold days,

to get him through the lonely nights.

Man: Do you have any time for, uh, music anymore?

Elvis: Well, uh, only at night.

You see, I get off work at five o'clock in the afternoon...

...and, uh, I have a guitar up here in the room,

and I sit around, and you know, up here.

I don't want to get out of practice, you know, if I can help it.

Man: I sure hope not. Let me tell you...

Light: The struggle while Elvis was in the Army

was a mandate from Colonel Parker