Elvis Unplugged: Reviewing the new Elvis Documentary
➡️ Help history. 2 minutes for 7 questions 🫡
We're diving into the electric vibes of 1969 Vegas, where the King himself, Elvis Presley, is shaking things up on stage.
Picture this: a smoky showroom, a captivated crowd, and a spotlight that cuts through the darkness to reveal the man in a dazzling jumpsuit. For a solid hour, the world fades away, and all that matters is Elvis, pouring his heart out through soulful growls and karate kicks.
Today, we're asking the big question—can that lightning be bottled? Join Jenn and me as we chat about Baz Luhrmann’s epic new documentary that digs into never-before-seen footage and uncovers the real Elvis, and whether it captures the soul of the legend or just leaves us with a ghostly glimpse. Buckle up, because this is gonna be a fun ride through the history of rock and roll!
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Transcript
The air in the showroom is blue with cigarette smoke and vibrating with a nervous electric energy you can feel in your teeth.
Speaker A:You're sitting at a long, crowded table in the International Hotel Las Vegas.
Speaker A:You've paid $15 for a steak dinner and a drink, but nobody's looking at their plate.
Speaker A:The lights go down.
Speaker A:Not a slow fade, a total blackout.
Speaker A:Then a spotlight cuts the dark like a blade.
Speaker A:He's there.
Speaker A:He doesn't look like the guy from the beach movies anymore.
Speaker A:He's leaning back, legs spread wide, draped in a high collared white jumpsuit that catches every spark of light in the room when he hits that first note.
Speaker A:The sound doesn't just come from the speakers, it comes from the floorboards.
Speaker A:It's a physical assault of charisma.
Speaker A:You see Cary Grant a few tables over, leaning forward, mesmerized.
Speaker A:You see women in sequined gowns literally lunging towards the stage just to touch the hem of a sweat soaked scarf.
Speaker A:He's moving with a speed that shouldn't be possible.
Speaker A:A blur of karate kicks and soulful growls.
Speaker A:For those 60 minutes, the rest of the world, the moon landing, the war, the headlines, it all vanishes.
Speaker A:There is only the king, the brass section, and the feeling that you are standing at the very center of the universe.
Speaker A:Today we're asking the big question, can that lightning be bottled?
Speaker A: It's: Speaker A:Elvis Presley in concert.
Speaker A:This isn't just a movie.
Speaker A:It's a high definition IMAX scaled resurrection using long lost 35 millimeter and 8 millimeter footage along with the unreleased recordings.
Speaker A:Jen and I walked out of the theater last night and immediately started talking about whether this cinematic experience captures the soul of the man in the white jump.
Speaker A:Or if it's just a ghost in the machine.
Speaker A:Welcome to Talk with History.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian Jen.
Speaker B:Hello.
Speaker A:On this podcast, we give you insights to our history Inspired World Travels, YouTube channel Journey and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there.
Speaker B:One, two, one, two.
Speaker A:Ready?
Speaker A:Kick it.
Speaker A:All right, Jen, so another Elvis won Elvis popular, popular topic on the channel.
Speaker A:And we wanted to go see this documentary that Baz Luhrmann put together.
Speaker A:This undiscovered footage that was sitting in like a Kansas City salt mine somewhere in a Warner brothers archive for 70 years or something crazy it had been sitting.
Speaker A:Sitting there for forever.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It was old footage from two documentaries that they had kind of filmed about Elvis and stuff that didn't make the cut, basically.
Speaker B:And then he had found an old audio recording of Elvis talking about his life.
Speaker A:And it was audio only.
Speaker B:Audio only.
Speaker B:And so at first Baz was going to use this for the movie, but then they had to like restore it.
Speaker B:There was all these kind of issues with finding the sound that went along with it.
Speaker B:And instead he thought, I'm just going to make.
Speaker B:I'm gonna let Elvis tell his own story.
Speaker B:Yeah, Elvis had 45 minutes of talking about his life.
Speaker B:We have this footage behind his life that hasn't been seen.
Speaker B:Let me just cut this into Elvis talking about himself, because Elvis never really got a chance to.
Speaker B:To do that.
Speaker B:And so it's really a great experience.
Speaker B:And I know if you're a fan of the channel again, we're bringing history back to the History Channel.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker B:We're trying to catch them, help us.
Speaker A:We're.
Speaker A:We're only a couple million away.
Speaker B:Give us a good review.
Speaker B:I went to the 91st birthday of Elvis Presley at Graceland because we live here and it was great weather that day.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:And so I went there and so.
Speaker B:So they released this for his 91st birthday and limited audiences, and then it was released worldwide in February.
Speaker B:And that's why we went to go see it.
Speaker B:But I knew a lot of people there at the birthday who were gonna see it for the first time that night.
Speaker B:That's where they kind of premiered it at Graceland.
Speaker B:And so they were super excited to see this epic.
Speaker B:And they were telling me all about it.
Speaker B:And, you know, true Elvis fans, I wouldn't say I fit into that.
Speaker B:We appreciate Elvis and who he was historically.
Speaker B:And I always tell people, you can't live in Memphis, Tennessee without learning about Elvis Presley.
Speaker B:He is such a presence here.
Speaker B:And it felt cool, actually, even watching the documentary last night, knowing you're not even that far away from where he grew up and where he's talking about.
Speaker B:And so it was really neat.
Speaker A:And it's cool, too.
Speaker A:One of the things I enjoyed about the documentary, one, the documentary style of it, right, he was it's kind of this like modern day style, right?
Speaker A:It's him telling, talking about his life.
Speaker A:And I did notice kind of how they jumped around from practice to this, that and the other.
Speaker A:But I enjoy music documentaries where it shows the artist practicing and shows like him, Elvis just Jamming away on the guitar.
Speaker A:Like he was pretty talented.
Speaker A:I was like, oh my gosh, sometimes you don't realize that these singers can actually play.
Speaker A:But one of the things that's always neat to me was seeing someone as famous as this.
Speaker A:I can never mentally kind of place Elvis in my head with other celebrities because he just stands so much on his own, right?
Speaker A:And he spans like a relative, a relatively broad era.
Speaker A:Not, I mean, obviously he died relatively young by today's standards.
Speaker A:But there's a quick clip where it wasn't Dean Martin, it was Cary Grant.
Speaker A:Cary Grant was there.
Speaker A:Sammy Davis Jr. Made a very brief.
Speaker A:They had like a very brief kind of passing clip of him.
Speaker A:And Elvis obviously saw him.
Speaker A:Elvis was on stage and Sammy Davis Jr. Was down below.
Speaker A:And Elvis does this like, you know, kind of mock tap dance because he sees Sammy Davis and he's like, you know, hey, you know, Sammy, like this.
Speaker A:That's all I can do, right?
Speaker A:Then the whole crowd laughs because they know that he's down there.
Speaker A:But it's so interesting for me to place him with other famous celebrities and entertainers and performers like that.
Speaker A:That to me was just really neat.
Speaker A:Seeing that on the screen, it always
Speaker B:blows me away too, Scott, because it now it seems to me like Elvis Presley, and I saw it a lot in this documentary, never loses that small town authenticity, right?
Speaker B:He always seems so attainable.
Speaker B:He always seems so approachable.
Speaker B:He never seems.
Speaker B:And for as big as he is, because like you said, Elvis Presley influences everybody.
Speaker B:I mean, he's, he's called the King of Rock and Roll.
Speaker B:In the press conference.
Speaker B:He already knows kind of the iconic status he is going to hold.
Speaker B:And they definitely show you all the women that throw themselves at him.
Speaker A:She was crazy.
Speaker B:And, and he's even asked about that.
Speaker B:But what, it's so amazing to me that I think what Elvis does that I don't see a lot today is he always seems like he's still that small town boy from the south and he doesn't lose that.
Speaker B:And he seems like he's having a good time.
Speaker B:He seems like he enjoys it.
Speaker B:He seems like he doesn't take himself that seriously.
Speaker B:Knowing today, like what a huge influence he is.
Speaker B:Like Cary Grant's coming to visit him behind stage.
Speaker B:Sammy Davis Jr. Is coming to visit him behind stage.
Speaker B:We are gonna, we're gonna talk about the press conference he's giving, the big one where he's in the blue and he's answering some questions, very poignant questions about him.
Speaker B:That's for Madison Square Garden.
Speaker B:And that's the first time he's going to perform at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker B:And that's why he makes the comment, I never got to do New York.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Because I didn't realize that that would
Speaker B:be the first time he does New York.
Speaker B: rk three times before that in: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Very early, very early.
Speaker B:His career, 21 years old.
Speaker B: th,: Speaker B:The first person to have four sold out shows at Madison Square Garden.
Speaker B:This is the influence of Elvis Presley.
Speaker B:And he's 37 years old, so you can see he's young, given this press conference.
Speaker B:But the people that come see him, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, like famous people will come see him at this Madison Square Garden show.
Speaker B:And so what's amazing to me is he just doesn't.
Speaker B:Either he doesn't realize it or he really doesn't care about it that much.
Speaker B:His, his position in music history.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think he just wants to entertain.
Speaker B: thentic performances from the: Speaker B:And the outfits that we were, we were commenting on all those outfits you can see at Graceland now.
Speaker B:He looks like he's having the time of his life.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:It was one of the things that I commented as we were walking out and I just kind of, I said, I was like, I don't understand.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It's hard for me to grasp it.
Speaker A:On how he stayed so grounded.
Speaker A:And you said, oh, you know, his father was often with him, so Vernon was often traveling with him.
Speaker A:One of the things that even Elvis acknowledges, he's like, he doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I, I think we also, you and I were chit chatting like the drugs he does do, like, are actually doctor prescribed.
Speaker A:So he thought they were, they were okay.
Speaker A:Which we found out later that they weren't.
Speaker A:Part of the, part of the things that was, was his downfall.
Speaker A:But it was just kind of so interesting to me because like you said, he kept that same genuine kind of personality.
Speaker A:One of the things, there's a couple things, you know, this is kind of a little trivia piece of this.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So I'm going to ask you the question.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:If you're listening or you're watching, I want you to try to see if you know the answer to this.
Speaker A:So there was a wardrobe malfunction Right.
Speaker A:So before the famous one in the super bowl that modern day folks might remember, there was a wardrobe malfunction.
Speaker A:So in the movie, we see the evolution of his jumpsuits.
Speaker A: re was a specific accident in: Speaker A:To the iconic one piece jumpsuit.
Speaker A:Do you guys.
Speaker A:Do you know what that was?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:All right, so belly pop out or.
Speaker A:It wasn't that.
Speaker A:It wasn't that.
Speaker A:So if you're listening, hopefully, you know, you've had time to kind of think about it.
Speaker A:But what happened was there was a split.
Speaker A:So during an intense performance of Poke Salad Annie, Elvis lunged so hard he split his pants right down the middle.
Speaker A:And so his entourage had had to form a human circle around him on stage so he could change into a spare pair.
Speaker A:And after that, the designer, Bill Belew, moved to the sturdier one piece jumpsuit design.
Speaker A:So that's part of the reason why that evolution was there.
Speaker B:It's funny because when you saying that watching this, Elvis will do a lot of lunges in this, and he'll show you how he can lunge.
Speaker B:You know, he's 37 in this.
Speaker B:Or he's in his 30s.
Speaker B: in: Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B: in: Speaker B:So he.
Speaker B:He's showing you, like, his lunges and he's lunging, he's low.
Speaker B:And I kept thinking, is he gonna split his pants?
Speaker B:Like, that's.
Speaker B:How could he?
Speaker B:How could he.
Speaker B:He rests so assured that nothing's gonna happen.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's.
Speaker A:He learned his lesson.
Speaker B:And he does some of the iconic Elvis stuff because, you know, he takes karate and he, you know, karate not only for his self defense, but as a form of exercise.
Speaker B:And so he does some of those moves in there with the jumpsuit.
Speaker B:So he always, like, he's kicking and he's.
Speaker B:And he's.
Speaker B:And with the jumpsuit on and none of it tears.
Speaker B:But there was one in one of the shows.
Speaker B:It looked like a piece of his suit had kind of torn off.
Speaker B:Had you noticed that?
Speaker B:While he's playing guitar and stuff?
Speaker B:So he's wearing like these chains that go across the jumpsuit.
Speaker A:That was actually one of the cooler ones I liked.
Speaker B:And he, I think, had gone out into the crowd.
Speaker B:And if you watch women try to grab pieces of his outfit, right?
Speaker B:They try and he keep.
Speaker B:At one point, he's telling a girl, they're tied on.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:They're like, this isn't coming off.
Speaker A:It's not coming off.
Speaker A:This is tied on.
Speaker B:So he seems like he's used to it, right?
Speaker B:He's like, it's not a new thing, but it looked like something had been ripped off one of those chains.
Speaker B:Now, he eventually would take the guitar and play, so you don't see it, but it looked like it had been torn off where it couldn't be connected back on.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I've got another piece of trivia.
Speaker A:All right, so for our listeners, be ready.
Speaker A:So question number two here.
Speaker A: s kind of started this run in: Speaker A: as in Vegas, he would use the: Speaker A:He started using that to open his shows.
Speaker A: But did he use that in: Speaker B:Well, when did it come out?
Speaker A:That's a good question.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I didn't look that part of it up.
Speaker A:The short answer is no.
Speaker A: didn't really start using the: Speaker B: ,: Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:All right, so he could, he could have used that.
Speaker A:Yes, he could have used that.
Speaker A:But maybe it took time to get popular.
Speaker A: So: Speaker A: He started his residency in: Speaker B:That's cool.
Speaker A:So the, the 69 shows that are seen in some parts of this epic movie because they cut around the different years.
Speaker A:They used some 69 footage, some 70 and, and, and here, there and everywhere.
Speaker A:72, he usually opened.
Speaker A:And this is what we saw in the movie with a very fast tempo version of Blue Suede Shoes.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So that's what we saw, you know, initially, and we saw that which was kind of neat.
Speaker A:And for me, personally, I always thought that was interesting because a lot of times for me, I like typically the original pacing of a song.
Speaker A:But, you know, sometimes a band just has to get up there and jam and do their thing.
Speaker B:I mean, you think about.
Speaker B:Elvis Presley is performing, has been performing that song for 20 years.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, he wants, he wants to change it up.
Speaker B:He wants to change it up a bit.
Speaker B:So he talks about how he takes like, what, his.
Speaker B:How much mini songs in his repertoire.
Speaker B:Like 500.
Speaker A:Yeah, he said four to 500.
Speaker B:And he pares it down to 30.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you get to see the.
Speaker B:The kind of thought process behind that, which I really enjoyed.
Speaker B:If you would like to watch geniuses work and how they make their shows, that's kind of what this is about, too.
Speaker B:Like, he's rehearsing with the band.
Speaker B:He' telling him when he wants him to hold notes or when he wants them to change something, a tempo.
Speaker B:He's working with the backup singers.
Speaker B:When he wants everyone else to be quiet in the backup singer, to.
Speaker B:To be more forceful.
Speaker B:It's very interesting how he is really directing how he wants things to be heard.
Speaker B:And I like that.
Speaker A:Yeah, he really is.
Speaker A:Okay, so now question number three for this little Elvis quiz.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We mentioned this earlier, so this may be an easy one.
Speaker A:So there was the celebrity row.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We mentioned the media frenzy in the intro.
Speaker A: s almost on stage during that: Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker A:You mentioned it earlier.
Speaker B:Carrie Grant.
Speaker A:Cary Grant.
Speaker A:Right, so Cary Grant.
Speaker A:So he attended the opening night, and he was so mesmerized by Elvis's animalistic energy.
Speaker A:He became a regular fixture in the front row during that first Vegas run.
Speaker A:And I think even in the documentary, Elvis mentioned that they were doing like five or six weeks, I think three shows a day.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And I want to say it was like seven days a week.
Speaker A:Maybe five days a week.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:I think it was five days a week.
Speaker A:But two to three shows a day.
Speaker B:Two to three shows a day.
Speaker B:And you can also see how he's starting to get off of his circadian rhythm because he's going to be performing these shows.
Speaker B:I think it was like seven or eight, and then another one, like at 11.
Speaker B:And then he said it takes four or five hours to come down off a show, wind down.
Speaker B:He says that.
Speaker B:So you can imagine his cycle is all night long, and then he probably sleeps during the day.
Speaker B:And so this is, you know, we talk.
Speaker B:We know about Elvis Presley and pill use.
Speaker B:Like, he's taken pills to go to sleep, he's taking pills to wake up, and he's getting into that rhythm there.
Speaker B:You see a lot of Colonel Parker in there.
Speaker B:And now that we know more about that relationship, after the Elvis movie came out, you see when Elvis is talking about traveling internationally.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:He says that he wants to.
Speaker A:And you feel like it kind of makes you feel for him because, you
Speaker B:know, he never does.
Speaker A:You know, he never does.
Speaker A:He never.
Speaker A:He never traveled.
Speaker A:Travels internationally.
Speaker A:And part of that was probably just the reality of.
Speaker A:Of whatever.
Speaker A:But I think the other part of that we know is the colonel couldn't leave the country for a multitude of reasons.
Speaker B:I think he's a legal alien.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, he was.
Speaker A:He was in the.
Speaker A:He was in the country illegally or something like that.
Speaker A:He's making all this money.
Speaker A:He didn't want to leave.
Speaker A:And like, he would essentially lose everything if he left the country.
Speaker A:So he kind of fixed it so that he didn't.
Speaker B:And it even says in the documentary that Elvis will never perform outside of North America now, because we know he performs in Hawaii, but.
Speaker B:And he says in the.
Speaker B:In the.
Speaker B:When he's doing the press conference that he has only been out of the country with the service.
Speaker B:And we know he never performs while he's doing his service to the army.
Speaker B:But that is the only time he's in Germany and he's stationed overseas.
Speaker B:But it's just sad because you can see in his face that he wants to embrace his.
Speaker B:His.
Speaker B:His fans.
Speaker B:And that's the one thing that I always.
Speaker B:The.
Speaker B:One of the initial things I was very surprised about Elvis Presley.
Speaker B:So we were here before, stationed here before.
Speaker B:And I was able to go out to the 40th reunion of Elvis Presley's death to Graceland.
Speaker B:And they shut down the street and all these people came out.
Speaker B:Lisa Marie was still alive then, and she was there and lighting candles for people.
Speaker B:Priscilla was there.
Speaker B:And I interviewed a ton of people in the crowd because I was not really there to celebrate Elvis.
Speaker B:I didn't go up to the graver.
Speaker B:I was.
Speaker B:I wanted to know why are so many people here?
Speaker B:We had just moved to Memphis.
Speaker B:That's basically all we knew about Memphis was that Elvis Presley was lived here.
Speaker B:And so many.
Speaker B:I. I'll tell you right now, I probably didn't interview one American.
Speaker B:Everybody was from a foreign country.
Speaker B:And everybody told me the impact Elvis Presley had on their life.
Speaker B:And this was 40 years after his death.
Speaker B:So you can imagine a man who never got to go to these cities.
Speaker B:Now, you think of musicians who do these international tours that take a year, right?
Speaker B:They hit all these places.
Speaker B:He never got to do that, and still he made such an impact.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But one thing you do learn when you do the tour at Graceland, and you probably know this if you're a big Elvis fan, is his concert from Hawaii.
Speaker B:Where was the first concert that was internationally broadcast?
Speaker B:Yeah, it was broadcast.
Speaker A:1.2 billion people watch that.
Speaker B:The first time ever.
Speaker B:And so that is really where he's starting to make that global impact on people.
Speaker B:And I just think it's sad he never got to know in his lifetime how many people loved and adored him.
Speaker B:And you know, it's just so amazing when I, we do Elvis week now, we go out, they'll probably go out again this year and talk to people how much the impact he still has today so many years after his death.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But again, if you watch this documentary, like Scott and I, we, we appreciate Elvis.
Speaker B:But when you get to see what women were doing then, oh my gosh, just to meet him and see him and it looked to me like when he kisses these women, it's not just like pecs on the cheek, he's, he's
Speaker A:giving him a full blown smooch.
Speaker B:He's given full blown kissing.
Speaker B:Like he's making sure they have a moment.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:There was even once at the end, toward the end of the end of the show, they show the closing of the show.
Speaker A:The curtain drops down or whatever like that.
Speaker A:And then there was some woman just before the curtain dropped down who like jumps on stage and gets behind the curtain.
Speaker A:She comes back and she is like she is dressed prepared to offer herself to Elvis.
Speaker A:It was wild.
Speaker B:It was wild.
Speaker B:What's interesting about this is they barely brush on his marriages.
Speaker B:His, his marriage.
Speaker A:They didn't really touch on that too much.
Speaker B:They show Priscilla just a little.
Speaker B:I appreciated that because so much is told about Elvis Presley with his wife, his wife, ex wife and his daughter.
Speaker B:This was really just about Elvis Presley and his life.
Speaker B:They, they touch on Priscilla just a little.
Speaker B:Now what's interesting is he's married to Priscilla during all of this footage.
Speaker B: ,: Speaker B:That's when they ask him, are you still a, you know, a good country boy?
Speaker B:The Persona.
Speaker B:And he talks about how it's different, difficult to live up to a Persona.
Speaker B:And it's much harder.
Speaker B:It's hard to do that when you're an actual human being.
Speaker B:And the lady asks very pointed questions about would you observed would you been drafted?
Speaker B:And he, you can see his face.
Speaker B:I think it's interesting to me that he holds his face in a non expression to just kind of not give her anything there reaction.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And he says he's just an entertainer, it's not his place to say anything.
Speaker B:And then she asks another, do you think all entertainers should do that?
Speaker B:And he says no.
Speaker B:So I appreciate that.
Speaker B:He's like, these are My opinions, yeah.
Speaker B:But he's married to Priscilla at the time.
Speaker B:They will divorce the next year.
Speaker B:Now, the very first question he's asked when he sits down, it's not shown in the documentary country is, is your wife with you?
Speaker B:And he says, no, she's not with me right now.
Speaker B:So there's already trouble in paradise by that time.
Speaker B:But, yeah, they'll divorce in 73 and this was filmed in 72, so it's just interesting.
Speaker B:And she's not in the documentary, but I think one little piece of footage of her and like Scott says, it kind of pushes through all the time frames of Elvis.
Speaker B:You'll.
Speaker B:They'll show him as a baby, they'll show him as his rise to stardom.
Speaker B:They'll show him in some of his performances and I. Hollywood era.
Speaker B:His Hollywood era.
Speaker B:And what I loved about the ending, the way it ends.
Speaker B:Spoiler alert.
Speaker B:I mean, if you haven't seen some of this footage, it ends with him getting off the stage after concert, getting into the back of a elevator with the towel on him because he is sweating his butt off.
Speaker B:That's the one thing you see in it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:He says he's like, I think I lose four to five pounds every night.
Speaker B:He's sweating and he gives that smirk smile, the quintessential Elvis Presley smirk smile as he looks down.
Speaker B:And that's how it ends.
Speaker B:And what I find so great is that smile is present through every era of his life.
Speaker B:And I think it shows you that Elvis loves his life like he really did.
Speaker B:He's asked about the crowd, he's asked about the people.
Speaker B:And he actually says, I love it.
Speaker B:I've embraced it.
Speaker B:It's part of it.
Speaker B:He thinks.
Speaker B:He says, I think I would miss it.
Speaker B:And I know when I do Elvis coverage on the, on the this channel, a lot of people will comment, Elvis would be so happy to see this today.
Speaker B:Yeah, Elvis would love to see this today.
Speaker B:That a lot of people say Elvis was afraid of being forgotten.
Speaker B:I don't know how he could feel that watching any of this and being a part of any of these documentary or, you know, filming.
Speaker B:But I think maybe, you know, they know better than me.
Speaker B:But I guess maybe he felt after he was gone that no one was going to remember him.
Speaker B:And like I said, look, all these years later.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And what's interesting about that, if you're kind of asking yourself like, how did that.
Speaker A:How did this almost 60 hours of footage just kind of go get lost?
Speaker A:And they all of a sudden, like, oh, all of a sudden you discovered it, like, naturally, I was a little bit skeptical, but I guess what happened was they.
Speaker A: hours of unseen footage from: Speaker A: ocumentary, was B roll from a: Speaker A:That's the way it is.
Speaker A: And then: Speaker A: So what they discovered was: Speaker A: what they discovered was the: Speaker A:Now, what was interesting was that footage was actually silent, so there was no initial audio track.
Speaker A:And so part of what Baz Luhrmann had to do is he had to work with Peter Jackson, and you may recognize that name.
Speaker A:I think he was a director for Lord of the Rings and all that stuff.
Speaker A:And so they actually had to work with they fat.
Speaker A:They found other.
Speaker A:Other audio that worked, right?
Speaker A:Is same music, same songs and.
Speaker A:And all that stuff.
Speaker A:And then using their technology.
Speaker A:I don't know what kind of technology they used, they were able to.
Speaker A:To sync to matches Elvis's lip movements to the soundboard recordings from those same.
Speaker A:Same nights.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:So that makes sense, right, because they're recording on a soundboard on stage.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They're probably recording every single one.
Speaker A:And then they found this footage.
Speaker A:And so they were later able to kind of come back and match them up.
Speaker A:And from what I saw some clips online of Baz Luhrmann talking about this took them a couple years to do this.
Speaker A:So they actually found this footage, like, two or three years ago.
Speaker B:Well, it looks like perfect.
Speaker A:Yeah, it looks great.
Speaker A:Now you can see.
Speaker A:You can tell a little bit.
Speaker A:I could tell just because I. I do a lot of the production stuff for us, and I've messed with AI like, you know, upscaling certain resolutions because some of this is, like, 8 millimeter film.
Speaker A:You try to put 8 millimeter film on a big screen, it's.
Speaker A:You're gonna need to do some.
Speaker B:It's 35 and 8 millimeters.
Speaker B:So they kind of had to.
Speaker A:So it's both.
Speaker A:But that's what they discovered.
Speaker A:And it's pretty incredible what they did.
Speaker A:And it was very entertaining.
Speaker A:We were sitting next to, like, a whole crew of kids, and the kids were having a grand old time.
Speaker A:I had to yell at him once just to kind of get them to calm down.
Speaker B:It was funny because I.
Speaker B:They came and sat down, and I thought, do you kids like Elvis?
Speaker B:But if you watch the documentary, there's kids at his show.
Speaker A:There's kids at his show, and they're Showing, like, the women swooning and screaming and kids just having a grand old time.
Speaker A:And they show, like this one little girl coming back behind stage that gets.
Speaker A:Come say hello to Elvis.
Speaker A:And he's.
Speaker A:It's just an incredible documentary.
Speaker A:If you're Elvis fan at all, if you're a music documentary fan, I think you would really enjoy this.
Speaker B:Yeah, I, we walked out very happy.
Speaker B:I, I, there's so many songs like, what was it?
Speaker B:The Slow Slow Poke Annie.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Like, I didn't even know that song existed.
Speaker B:I didn't know that song.
Speaker A:And he sang and, and that's what I, I love seeing musicians like this, you know him for their songs.
Speaker A:But he played some Beatles songs.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Righteous Brothers, which was so much fun
Speaker A:to see Elvis sing other songs from other musicians.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And this Slow, Slowpoke Annie, or whatever the name of the song is, where
Speaker B:he does a lot of the kicks
Speaker A:and the, and, and the drum beat behind it.
Speaker A:It was like, man, like this.
Speaker A:Now I, I kind of understood it a little bit more.
Speaker A:Once you see him in concert in that environment.
Speaker A:It's not just this song on the radio, but some of these songs that I just, I had never heard.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I had never heard that song.
Speaker A:It was incredible.
Speaker B:It was incredible.
Speaker B:And he's putting on a show, like, I would say, really, like one of the first entertainers.
Speaker B:Like, he's the first to do those residencies in, in Las Vegas, like that.
Speaker B:But he's really giving the people a show.
Speaker B:And, and you see him say before one of the shows as he's talking to his crew, we have to be mindful.
Speaker B:This is a lot of people's first time seeing me.
Speaker B:And I have to perform every time.
Speaker B:Like, this would be the only time they see me.
Speaker B:And so he has that in his brain every time he's doing it.
Speaker B:I also love, I gotta say, Ellis Presley had style before.
Speaker B:I mean, like, the man is wearing these great shirts, these glasses, even just to practice.
Speaker B:And he's.
Speaker B:These belts.
Speaker B:And then when he's performing on stage, he's got these rings.
Speaker B:I mean, and of course, the jumpsuits, which are iconic.
Speaker B:And again, you can see all of those at Graceland.
Speaker B:But I notice a lot of these bracelets and watches, all of these things are now in the archive at Graceland.
Speaker B:You can see a lot of these things.
Speaker B:And I just found, like, he has a great style to him.
Speaker B:He also is growing.
Speaker B:Like these mutton chops.
Speaker A:Oh, they're solid, man.
Speaker A:You're solid.
Speaker A:Late 60s or early 70s the whole time.
Speaker B:It's really, it's very entertaining.
Speaker B:But he's sweating his butt off.
Speaker B:You can tell, like he's.
Speaker B:And he just doesn't stop.
Speaker B:And like you said, he's drinking water the whole time.
Speaker B:And then at one point someone offers him a drink and he takes just like a tiny sip and you can tell he's like, he's not a drinker.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's not.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Like, even when you see him hanging out with the guys after he's drinking a soda, like, it's just interesting to see Elvis Presley as an entertainer.
Speaker B:He doesn't really partake of that other lifestyle.
Speaker B:And it really was.
Speaker B:I really, I mean, I really did enjoy it.
Speaker B:It really was great.
Speaker B:But thank you to technology today.
Speaker B:So Warner Brothers has this storage facility in, I think it's in Kansas City in these salt mine areas because of the moisture and because you can store.
Speaker B:They store all of their film, old archive film there just to keep it, it safe for longer.
Speaker B:Film won't always stay.
Speaker B:It's one of those things that does decay, but it kind of holds it for longer.
Speaker B:And when he found that footage, like you said, there was no sound with it.
Speaker B:But this is Elvis Presley.
Speaker B:We have to hear the sound.
Speaker B:We have to hear the songs.
Speaker B:We have to hear him talk.
Speaker B:And so they were able to match the footage.
Speaker B:And you get these great filmmakers who know how to do this professionally, take their time and do it.
Speaker B:What's interesting is Baz Lahrman Luhrmann.
Speaker B:Am I saying that right?
Speaker A:Baz Luhrmann best.
Speaker B:Luhrmann will always say what a big Elvis fan he is.
Speaker B:I'm assure Peter Jackson is too.
Speaker B:Is this is kind of their way of appreciating the person, the, the star, the entertainer of who Elvis Presley was.
Speaker B:I really, I liked that.
Speaker A:So how did you do in our Elvis quiz?
Speaker A:If you got all three, you might be ready to join the TCB band yourself.
Speaker A:If not, maybe you can join Jen and I and we can head down to Elvis's favorite Memphis restaurant and get some peanut butter and banana fried sandwiches or late night pancakes.
Speaker A:And keep debating if Baz Luhrmann's 4K restoration makes the King look too good or if this could ever live up to the real legend that was Elvis Presley.
Speaker A:We'll talk to you next time.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:This has been a Walk with History production.
Speaker A:Talk with History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny.
Speaker A:Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.
Speaker A:Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.
Speaker A:Talk with History is supported by our community@thehistoryroadtrip.com Eric Eternal thanks go out to our lifetime members to help keep us going.
Speaker A:Thank you to Dougliver, Larry Myers, Patrick Benny, Gale Cooper, Christy Coates, Calvin Gifford, Courtney Cenini, Gene Noah, Larry Mitchell, Tommy Anderson, Susan Sulas, Bruce Lynch, Dino Garner, Mark Barrett, Don Kennedy, and John Simpson.
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