In July 1969, Elvis Presley is performing at his first live performance in eight years at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. While in his suite, Elvis worries about this and remembers how he became the King of Rock and Roll.
As he plays his guitar, he flashes back to living with his parents Tupelo, Mississippi in 1945 where he goes outside and visits the grave of his stillborn twin brother, Jesse. After another kid sees him doing this, they fight, and Elvis returns home to sing with his neighbors.
In 1953, he now lives in Memphis and gets harassed by boys his age in the high school bathroom for his stylish hair. Red West threatens them to stop and he befriends Elvis. Despite his strange appearance, he is able to catch the interest of others through his style of singing and playing the guitar when he sings “Good Rockin Tonight” outside the school. After this, Elvis returns to his apartment when the landlord comes in and gives an eviction notice, upsetting his mother, Gladys. Elvis’ girlfriend Bonnie convinces him to perform in the school talent show despite his fear. He sings “Old Shep”, winning the talent show and exciting the audience. After this, Elvis and Bonnie lovingly talk to each other on a hill, they promise to stay together forever and share a kiss.
By the summer of 1953, Elvis is out of high school and wants a job as a musician, however he decides to get a job at Crown Electric while he gets started as a musician. Elvis goes to a music store and listens to a blues band sing “That's All Right”. Bonnie finds him and tells him that there's a record company in town that Elvis could make his own recording and give it to Gladys as a birthday present. In the studio, he sings “My Happiness”, and the producer, Sam Phillips, is told by his assistant that Elvis is a white person with a “negro sound”, which Sam has been looking for because he believes that will make him millions. Sam calls Elvis and offers him a deal to make records, and Elvis instantly runs inside and says yes.
At Sun Records, Elvis is assigned two session musicians, Scotty Moore (lead guitar), and Bill Black (bass) to accompany him on acoustic guitar. They start playing “That's All Right” by Big Boy Crudup. Sam likes this, and encourages them to keep that style of sound going. In July 1954, his recording of “That's All Right” is released and Elvis leaves the house because he's too nervous to hear it on the radio. Just as he leaves, it starts playing. Gladys and Vernon find him at a movie theater and tell him that it's been played multiple times on the radio. Due to his local success, he starts playing gigs and wins over the audience through his energy and sex appeal on stage. To further his career, Elvis travels to Nashville with his band to audition for the Grand Ole Opry. He performs his song “Blue Moon of Kentucky”, but he is told to reconsider truck driving when he is done. After this, Elvis storms off the stage and smashes his guitar.
By 1955, Elvis has continued to perform with huge audience appeal as well as adding D. J. Fontana to play drums for his band. During one of his performances, a mysterious old man with a cigar stands in a corner watches Elvis excite the audience through his dance moves. After the concert a fan punches him in the face and drives off, leading Elvis and his friends to chase after him in his car. However, they are forced to stop after the engine is blown. They find their way to a gas station by the next morning, and on a phone call with Gladys she tells Elvis that Bonnie has left him for another boyfriend due to a distance growing in their relationship because of Elvis’ job. The mysterious old man, revealed to be named Colonel Tom Parker, talks to Scotty and Bill, and they encourage him to manage Elvis. The Colonel is able to get Elvis bigger gigs, widening his appeal to bigger audiences and $2000 a week. With this money, he buys Gladys a pink Cadillac and diamonds. The Colonel reveals this is just the beginning, and that RCA wants to buy Elvis’ contract from Sun Records. Elvis is reluctant due to his loyalty to Sam, but they both agree it's for the best.
In 1956, Elvis records Heartbreak Hotel with a bigger session band in a bigger studio. He starts to become a success throughout America, and the concerts start to exhaust him, causing him to faint before one of his shows. In the hospital, he finds out that he has been offered a film role by Hal Wallace, who saw him perform in public television. He goes to Hollywood where he struggles to play his role in the movie Love Me Tender. He meets and befriends actor Nick Adams, who is a fan of his. The colonel comes to tell him and his parents that he signed him to play on The Ed Sullivan Show, but they only film above his waist to censor his dance moves. After this, Elvis becomes a controversial figure and is nicknamed “Elvis the Pelvis” by the press.
In 1957, Elvis purchases the Graceland mansion for him and his parents to live in, he gives them a tour and it is reveled that “Heartbreak Hotel” went gold. As he gets bigger, the negative effects of Elvis’ fame start to show, as he can no longer go anywhere without being swarmed by fans. When he rents out an arcade for Natalie Wood and his friends, paparazzi come in and start taking pictures and asking questions, causing Elvis to take one of the cameras and use it to break a gumball machine, and he leaves with his friends. Gladys is also shown to be stressed by her son's fame.
In 1958, Elvis is drafted for the army and dyes his hair black to look more like a movie star, as he plans to focus on that more after he completes his service. The military service proves to be a draining experience because of the attention he gets from fellow soldiers and the break he has to take from music and movies for the next two years. While he is in the army, his parents stay in a trailer. Gladys starts to worry about Elvis having to go to Germany for the military. He starts to realize strange behavior in Gladys and calls an ambulance. He gets an emergency leave and visits her in the hospital where she isn't doing well. They have a conversation about Elvis’ stillborn brother, Jesse Garon. As Elvis leaves the room, Vernon tells him that Gladys has hepatitis. As Vernon and Elvis sleep in the hospital room, Vernon wakes up and finds Gladys unresponsive, she is then pronounced dead. After the funeral, Red comes in the trailer to comfort Elvis.
Elvis is transferred to a base in Germany where he learns karate moves, he is still shown to be depressed over his mother's death. He meets 14 year old Priscilla Beaulieu, daughter of an Air Force office. Elvis falls in love with her and plays “Unchained Melody” for her on the piano. He starts to bond with her and she gives him a spark of happiness in the military. At a bar, he sees a band play and the accordion player asks Elvis to sing for them. He gets up on stage and sings “Tutti Frutti”, which the audience enjoys.
In 1960, Elvis returns to America after completing his service. However, he and Vernon still struggle with the death of Gladys. Elvis and his friends assemble a model airplane and fly it in the yard but he is unable to leave Graceland due to public recognition. Despite this, he is still reminded of Priscilla and calls her father to ask him if she can come to Graceland for Christmas, he eventually allows her to go and she bonds with Elvis. He performs his last concert in 1961 before deciding to focus more on his film career.
In 1963, Elvis is getting his hair done while watching the news of John F. Kennedy being assassinated, which makes him think that he is going to be assassinated in a similar manner. In 1967, he marries Priscilla in Las Vegas and starts to resent his fame because of the image he has to keep and the things that he isn't able to do anymore. At a roller rink, Elvis and Red get into an argument and Red gets angry that he wasn't allowed at the wedding. Elvis and Priscilla take a ride in a golf cart, and they express their love for each other, while Elvis expresses that he is scared of losing her love and that he doesn't want to go to his film rehearsal. During the film rehearsal he throws pies at his costars to have fun. The director yells at him for doing this but Elvis tells him that he only does these kinds of movies to have fun, and won't do them anymore if they stop being that way. He buys one of his friends a car and Priscilla expresses her concern that they haven't been alone together too much lately.
All of these start to change his behavior, as he fears he is becoming irrelevant and losing the only woman he loves. He gets angry about Priscilla for being away for hours and thinks his friend Sonny said something about him, firing him and all his friends. However, he regrets this and asks his friend Johnny to get them back. While he is watching a movie, Priscilla tells Elvis she is pregnant, which excites him. However, he gets angry when he finds out that his voice was being amplified over the jordanaires and the backing band, and he throws a lamp, causing it to break. He apologizes for the destruction he caused, and worries about losing his relevance.
On February 1, 1968, Elvis is practicing karate and finds out Priscilla gave birth to a baby girl. He has a talk with Jesse about the fact that he has everything he's wanted but still feels like there's something missing and that he's empty on the inside. In the middle of the night, he reads a poem about life and death to Priscilla and questions why everything in his life happened. The next morning during breakfast, Priscilla tells Elvis about a friend who she allowed to stay in Graceland. Elvis refuses because of his disdain for outsiders due to his inability to be himself around them. Priscilla then gets angry because Elvis never allows her to make her own friends and have her own life, so she gets up and storms out of the room.
By 1969, Elvis has successfully revived interest in him and his music after performing on a television special the previous year. He records his hit song “Suspicious Minds” in California while he plans his concerts for his comeback tour. However, Priscilla hears about this before he can tell her. He promises to have a child with her and take her to Europe after the concert tour, and she tells him that if anything happens, she can make it on her own, and they hug.
Elvis has another conversation with Jesse about how he's likely going to be killed in a few years like Kennedy and Dr. King and won't make it much past 40, but wants to feel the onstage glory of the early days one more time. He sings “Sweet Caroline” to Lisa Marie and finally goes to Vegas. The flashback ends, and Elvis prepares to play at the International Hotel. Everyone he knows tells him it isn't safe, but he insists. Before going on, he calls Lisa Marie, and promises to come home. He hears the intro play as his cue and walks on stage for the first time in years. He sings “Blue Suede Shoes”, and “The Wonder of You”, and as he hears the audience applauding, he realizes that he still has it after all these years, and that he has proven that he is, and has always been, the king.
Carpenter wanted to make the film because "I wanted to work with actors. I wanted to do a dramatic film. I wanted to do something different. And Elvis was the first thing that came along that I had any feeling for, personally-because I did have a feeling for Elvis, I liked him very much, cared about him. So it seemed like a pretty good package when it arrived. After it was over I was disappointed in some of my work, and I was disappointed that I didn't have more participation in the editing."[3]
Carpenter says the film involved 150 locations and was shot over 30 days. "Some of the days we were moving to three and four different locations," he said. "When you have a big union crew with a lot of trucks and bullshit, you have to run very fast. You have to shoot something in the morning, shoot something in mid-afternoon, and shoot something right before you quit at night. That's what happened. We were just running."
Carpenter was not able to edit or score the film and found it an unhappy experience.[3]
Russell worked with and met Elvis in the film It Happened at the World's Fair (1963). In the film, Elvis wants to meet the fairground's nurse and he pays a young boy, played by the twelve-year-old Russell, to kick him in the shins. Later in the film, he sees Elvis and the nurse together on a date and asks if he can kick him again for money. Russell also dubbed the voice of a young Elvis in Forrest Gump (1994), and played an Elvis impersonator in the film 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001).
Country singer Ronnie McDowell provided the vocals for a number of songs Russell performed in the film. McDowell recorded 36 songs for the soundtrack, of which 25 were used.[2]
According to several reports, Priscilla Presley was paid $50,000 to check the script for accuracy before shooting commenced.[2]
Reception
DVD cover art
Elvis originally aired on ABC opposite two blockbuster films; Gone with the Wind (1939) on CBS, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) on NBC.[2] Despite this, Elvis beat both in the Nielsen ratings, receiving a 27.3 rating compared to 24.3 and 22.5 respectively. Elvis was ranked the sixth most watched program of the week.[2][4]
After its success on television, a shortened version of the film was released theatrically throughout Europe.[citation needed] The film debuted on DVD in early 2010 and on Blu-ray in 2016 via Shout! Factory. The Blu-ray disc edition is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, in contrast to the original 1.33:1 televised presentation, or the 1.66:1 European theatrical release.
A shorter, re-edited version of Elvis, was released theatrically throughout Europe and Australia.[citation needed] It grossed $50,000 in its opening weekend in Australia in August and grossed $350,000 in 3 weeks.[5] It grossed $25,000 in its first 10 days in Helsinki, Finland.[5]
Elvis is notable in Carpenter's career for two reasons. It was made after Halloween (1978) had wrapped, so it offered him an avenue to try his hand at a film away from the horror genre.[citation needed] It was also the first time Carpenter had worked with Kurt Russell, who became a frequent collaborator of Carpenter's. Russell subsequently starred in Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), and Escape from L.A. (1996).
Russell married co-star Season Hubley on March 17, 1979, and they divorced in 1983.[2] Bing Russell, who played Vernon Presley, is Kurt Russell's real father.[2] For several years Bing played Deputy Clem Poster in the TV series Bonanza.[2]
Elvis Aaron Presley, known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized performances and interpretations of songs, and sexually provocative dance moves, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.
Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6-hectare) estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, once owned by American singer Elvis Presley. Presley is buried there, as are his parents, paternal grandmother, grandson, and daughter.
Priscilla Ann Presley is an American businesswoman and actress. She is the ex-wife of American singer Elvis Presley, as well as the cofounder and former chairperson of Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the company that turned Graceland into one of the top tourist attractions in the United States. In her acting career, Presley costarred with Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun film trilogy and played Jenna Wade on the long-running television series Dallas.
Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker was a Dutch-American talent manager and concert promoter, best known as the manager of Elvis Presley.
Elvis Meets Nixon is a 1997 Canadian-American mockumentary film directed by Allan Arkush and starring Rick Peters, Bob Gunton, and Alyson Court. It is an embellished account of the true story of American singer Elvis Presley meeting President Richard Nixon on December 21, 1970.
Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll is a 1985 memoir written by Priscilla Presley, with Sandra Harmon. In the book, Priscilla talks about meeting Elvis Presley, their marriage, and the factors and issues that led to the couple's divorce.
Loving You is a 1957 American musical drama film directed by Hal Kanter and starring Elvis Presley, Lizabeth Scott, and Wendell Corey. The film was Presley's first major starring role, following his debut in a supporting role in the 1956 film Love Me Tender. The film follows a delivery man who is discovered by a music publicist and a country–western musician who wants to promote the talented newcomer.
The Memphis Mafia was the nickname given by the media to a group of Elvis Presley's friends, associates, employees and cousins whose main functions were to accompany, protect, and serve Presley from the beginning of his career in 1954 until his death in 1977. Several members filled practical roles; for instance, they were employed to work for Presley as bodyguards or on tour logistics and scheduling. In these cases Presley paid salaries, but most lived off fringe benefits such as gifts, cars, houses and bonuses. Over the years, the number of members grew and changed, but for the most part there was a core group who spent much time with Presley.
Charles Franklin Hodge, better known as Charlie Hodge, was an American singer, vocal coach and musician who was a confidant and best friend of Elvis Presley, and lived at Graceland.
Judy Spreckels was an American writer, publisher and trial historian. She was a friend of Elvis Presley during the rock 'n' roll singer's rise to stardom.
Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. (EPE) is a corporate entity created by "The Elvis Presley Trust" to conduct business and manage its assets, including Graceland. EPE's business extends far beyond the Graceland operation, and includes worldwide licensing of Elvis-related products and ventures, the development of Elvis-related music, film, video, television and stage productions, the ongoing development of EPE's Internet presence and the management of significant music publishing assets.
Elvis Presley had many close relationships throughout his career. The strongest of all his personal relationships, by far, was that he had with his mother Gladys, as described below.
Elvis Presley's iconic Pink Cadillac was a 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special. It set style for the era, was sung about in popular culture, and was copied by others around the world.
Lisa Marie Presley was an American singer and songwriter. She was the only child of singer and actor Elvis Presley and actress Priscilla Presley, as well as the sole heir to her father's estate after her grandfather and her great-grandmother died. Her musical career consisted of three studio albums: To Whom It May Concern (2003), Now What (2005) and Storm & Grace (2012), with To Whom It May Concern being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Presley also released non-album singles, including duets with her father using archival recordings.
My Farewell to Elvis is the twenty-seventh studio album by American country music singer Merle Haggard, released in 1977 and his second release for MCA Records. It reached Number 6 on the Country album chart. The single "From Graceland to the Promised Land" reached number 4 on the Billboard Country Singles chart. The album is a tribute to the music of Elvis Presley, who died on August 16, 1977. He is backed by Roy Nichols, Ronnie Reno, and Mark Yeary of the Strangers.
American singer and actor Elvis Presley served in the United States Army from 1958 to 1960 after being drafted to serve in the military as an active duty soldier for two years. At the time of his enlistment, he was widely regarded as the most well-known name in the world of entertainment.
Elvis is a 2022 epic biographical drama film co-produced and directed by Baz Luhrmann, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner. It chronicles the life of the American rock and roll singer and actor Elvis Presley under the management of Colonel Tom Parker. It stars Austin Butler and Tom Hanks as Presley and Parker, respectively, with Olivia DeJonge, Helen Thomson, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Luke Bracey in supporting roles.
Shangri-La Suite is a 2016 American crime drama film directed by Eddie O'Keefe and starring Emily Browning, Luke Grimes and Ron Livingston. It is O'Keefe's directorial debut.
Priscilla is a 2023 American biographical drama film written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon. It follows the life of Priscilla and her complicated romantic relationship with Elvis Presley.
Elvis Aaron Presley, popularly known by his first name Elvis, was an American singer and actor. He was born in Tupelo, Mississippi and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee with his family at age 13. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades.
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