These two double-DVD sets offer unique views of Presley at
important points in his career. The Great Performances is perhaps a
misleading name; it is in fact three documentaries covering his career.
Two are narrated by his life-long friend George Klein, who met Presley
in Grade 8, and was an early supporter as a DJ, staying in touch right
up until the King's passing. The third is narrated by Bono, and that one
covers the very early Elvis, from his breakthrough as Sun Records until
appearing on Ed Sullivan, a tumultuous 12 months. It's more of a
standard documentary, while the other two hour-long pieces are basically
a bunch of TV and movie performances, interspersed with some home
movies, rare footage and even some interview clips. I don't mean to
diminish these though, it's fabulous stuff, including lots of important
appearances. There's the first-ever TV guest spot, on the Dorsey
Brothers program, and then the most controversial, the Milton Berle show
which caused all the complaints about his sexy hip-shaking. That led to
CBS only filming him above the waste when he appeared on Ed Sullvan the
first time.
There's so much Elvis footage, the
filmmakers actually ended up doing medleys of the image, combining
shots from the '50's onstage with Scotty, Bill and D.J. Fontana, later
stuff when the crowds got really busy, right up to Vegas Elvis. Footage,
footage, footage. There's Elvis and Priscella's wedding, his parents at
the airport as he flies off to join the army, some really interesting
news crew stuff of Elvis in court, arrested for punching a guy who was
hassling him at a gas station. That's the nice thing about
officially-sanctioned films like these, they get all this great stuff
that other directors would not have access to. The flip side is that you
don't see him in a bad light, but I guess we all know what that was
like anyway, he's been the butt of jokes for decades now, and these
films are great reminders of his real excellence.
The
other collection features the three original Ed Sullivan shows from
September 1956 to January of 1957 featuring Elvis as the guest star. Not
just the performances, these are the whole shows, from start to finish,
including the many commercials for the sponsor, Lincoln/Mercury ("The
Big M", as they were calling it). I've seen the Elvis songs lots of
times, but never the full shows, so it's kinda cool, watching these
dated but fascinating programs. TV shows were still trying to figure out
what worked best on the medium, and the Sullivan show simply put
everything on. There were the circus acts, Broadway musical snippets,
comedians, jugglers, a kid's choir from Ireland, impressionists, clowns,
and a dog act. Sadly, there's no Topo Gigio (look him up) but there is
Senor Wences, the puppeteer/ventriloquist. Lots of them are somewhat
bizarre, the dying gasps of vaudeville, and lots are dull, like the lame
Broadway performance. Interestingly, one of the shows feature the debut
of one Carol Burnett, who does a pretty decent comedy routine. The
famous boxer Sugar Ray Leonard appears, strangely, a week after he lost
his championship to an unknown. He'd probably been booked because they
figured he'd win, but instead he had to endure the smug advice of
Sullivan, a former sports writer who obviously thought he knew something
about the fights. And something I'd forgotten or didn't ever know, was
that Sullivan himself wasn't hosting the first show where Presley
appeared, he was in the hospital, and actor Charles Laughton subbed for
him. And yes, we see Elvis, shot from the waste up, delivering Don't Be
Cruel, Love Me Tender and Hound Dog, by now transformed into a
confident, exciting performer who smirks and teases his screaming
audience, clearly knowing he owned the world. He'd already had lots of
TV exposure, on Steve Allen's show, six times on the Dorsey's, and
Berle's as well, so Sullivan didn't make Elvis a star, but that was his
biggest appearance to that point. Sullivan learned his lesson with rock
and roll stars from that, and made darn sure he got The Beatles a few
years later.
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