jueves, 24 de febrero de 2011

Elvis' Generosity

 
Elvis' Generosity

  Article by Theresa Hughes
Elvis Presley was a generous man. Not only to those who worked for him, his family and friends, but often to strangers and regular gifts to charities, both national and local. Christmas time every year Elvis would donate around $100,000 to organized charities.
Some of Elvis's generous gifts donated to charities would become public knowledge , but the rest of the donations were only known to a hand full of people, who were directly involved in the life of Elvis Presley.  
 
These generous gifts in total, annually would reach a figure of 2 million dollars during the period of Elvis's life when he was able to distribute that amount of money to organized charities.  
 
There were also some small gifts generously given, one of which went to a crippled lady. Elvis personally delivered a brand new wheelchair.  
 
Large and small amounts were generously given to relatives, friends and those who worked for him were also very much considered, with motorcycles, Cadillac's, horses, trucks and cash gifts, TCB and TLC necklaces were a symbolized gift given to the guys who worked for him and their wives, identification bracelets and Christmas gifts.  
 
Bonuses were considered as a small part of his generosity. Elvis offered many wonderful gifts to his family and friends. His generosity at times would involve building a beautiful new home for his father Vernon and wife Dee. Elvis bought Joe Esposito a house in California. He gave Jerry Schilling $30,000 to buy a home also in California. He had given a $50,000 cheque to the Motion Picture Relief Fund Home and Hospital. This large amount was one of the largest ever given and was accepted on behalf of the Hospital, by Frank Sinatra.  
 
When it came to a special occasion, like Weddings. Elvis had great joy in these occasions. He picked up the expenses for Joe Esposito and Jenny Schilling wedding in 1970.  There were also others, Elvis paid for Dick Grobs wedding. Then his wedding gift to Dick and Marilyn was a new automobile. George Klein was the next in line, George asked Elvis to be his best man. Elvis proudly accepted, offering to pay for the wedding and reception in Las Vegas.  All arrangements were made for the wedding to take place on the top floor of the Hilton, it was Elvis' suite, which was beautifully decorated for the wedding. The catering was also organized for the reception. Then all expense paid first class flights were arranged for the 15 couples being present.  
 
Elvis Presley's sincere generosity came from deep within, giving to others whether in his music to his fans or giving donations to selected organizations.  
 
His personal gifts to those he loved, was his way of sincere thanks to those who loved him.
 


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jueves, 17 de febrero de 2011

Tom Jones Talks About Elvis

 

Tom Jones Talks About Elvis

 



Tom Jones Talks About Elvis

This week Tom Jones is to release a stunning collection of gospel, traditional and spiritual songs which critics are already hailing as one of his finest works. Run On, also recorded by Elvis, is among the songs on the album. And the veteran sex bomb, who still has adoring female fans chucking their underwear on stage, says he is thrilled to be back making waves at an age when other stars are hanging up their microphones. Elvis and I would sing gospel songs around the piano.

When Sir Tom recorded songs for his new album Praise And Blame, the memories of his close friendship with buddy Elvis Presley came flooding back. He revealed it was the King who first told him to sing gospel after they did a duet together in late night music sessions in his Las Vegas hotel suite in the 1970s.

"We'd stand around the piano and sing gospel songs together.
"Elvis said: 'Do they sing gospel in Wales?' I said 'yes but they are called hymns'. So Elvis replied: 'Why don't you record some of them?'
"I told him ... One day I will."

The superstar singers first met in 1965 when the Jones-boyo was invited on to the set of Elvis' movie Paradise Hawaiian Style. They became instant friends and remained so until the King's death in 1977.

Tom said: "It was my first year in the business. Elvis knew my records and wanted to meet me. I was very nervous.
"I walked into Paramount Studios in Hollywood and he waved across. I thought at first he was waving to somebody else. He walked over and told me how much he loved my voice. Elvis said: 'How the hell can you sing like that?'
"I said: 'Well, you're partly to blame. I listened to your records when I was a teenager'.
"Elvis was a great guy, very down to earth. I still miss him."

But the Welsh music legend reckons Elvis, who would have been 75 this year, would not still be recording.
He said: "Elvis loved being Elvis. I don't think he'd like growing old.
"He was a great looking guy and it was sad when he put on weight towards the end. That really bothered him.
"He felt life had caught up with him. He was messed up."

Source: Elvis Information Network / Updated: Jul 27, 2010


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miércoles, 16 de febrero de 2011

Elvis In San Francisco, CA, October 1957!

 

Elvis In San Francisco, CA, October 1957!

 


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The colour photographs above are from October 26th 1957 press conference in the civic centre,San Francisco.This included the presentation of a record award,and was intended to promote the movie 'Jailhouse Rock'.The colour photo below,which must be just before the 3.00pm matinee or the 8.00pm evening performance on that same date.The room appears to be the same for both sets of photo's,just different suits for each performance.
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Elvis with juggling comedian and emcee to the first part of the show Howard Hardin. .
 
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October 29, 1957 -
 
Songs performed on the 28th( and probably the 29th )were*
"Heartbreak Hotel" (Opening Number)
'Don't Be Cruel"
'All Shook Up'
"Teddy Bear'
'Jailhouse Rock'
'Treat Me Nice'
"Blueberry Hill"
'Hound Dog' (Closing Number/Nipper Dog routine)

The usual amount of songs on this tour was normally between 14 and 18 (40-50mins), and other songs on the set list could well have been from the following:**
"Blue Suede Shoes"
"Tutti Frutti"
"Trying To Get To You"
"Old Shep"
"When Your Blue Moon Turns To Gold"
"Rip It Up"
"So Glad You're Mine"
"I Want You,I Need You, I Love You" ,
"That's All Right",
"Too Much",
"Shake Rattle And Roll"
"Reddy Teddy",
"Loving You"
"I Was The One"
"I Got A Women"
"That's When Your Heartaches Begin"
"Love Me"
"Mean Woman Blues"
"Fool's Hall Of Fame",
These are known to be part of the earlier August/September 57 Tour, take your pick.

Among the audience that night were Hal Wallis, the actor Alan Ladd, the actor Walter Slezak and Ricky Nelson.Also in attendance was a young Malcom Leo, the writer/producer/director of the Warner Bros feature documentary, THIS IS ELVIS. He attended both shows of the Elvis Presley Concerts at The Pan Pacific Auditorium. "Seeing Elvis live in '57 changed my life and attitude about everything."..
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29th October 1957 , Pan Pacific Auditorium.


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Interior of the Pan Pacific Auditorium,
7600 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles , Fairfax district.
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Elvis Backstage talking to Cliff Gleaves,with Tom Diskin standing to Elvis' left,and Bitsy Mott to his right*.Comedian and Emcee Howard Hardin is standing on the right of frame in between Gordon Stoker(Top right) Neil Matthews (bottom right) from The Jordanaires .
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All Shook Up" Gordon Stoker (left) Scotty Moore (guitar) Elvis, D.J. Fontana on drums with Bill Black on Bass guitar.
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Image Image ImageImageThe  above 4 photos are real photographs from the San Francisco evening show

 
 
 

Elvis' Last Hayride Performance

 
 Elvis' Last Hayride Performance

 

 
 
 
 


December 15, 1956


Elvis arrived in Shreveport at 5:00 a.m. and checked into the Captain Shreve Hotel.
 He made his last appearance at the Louisiana Hayride, Hirsch Youth Center,
Louisiana Fairgrounds, Shreveport.
Stan and Paula Lewis, Shreveport 12-15-56

The performance was attended by Hal Kanter, director of Elvis' upcoming film.
After watching the show Kanter even altered something at the screenplay:
 the story of the rise of a young singer, who very much resembled Elvis Presley.
Leaving Hayride

With Final Hayride Show in '56
"Elvis the Pelvis" Began to Fade

"All in all, [Elvis on the Hayride] was a big event in several respects and a good time was had by all,

maybe Elvis more than anybody else. Whether Shreveport will ever be the same again remains to be seen."

Thus did Shreveport Times writer Bob Masters close his review of Elvis Presley's performance

on The Louisiana Hayride on December 15, 1956. At the time, Masters didn't realize the show's

historical significance in Presley's career. After all, Elvis had come to Shreveport over 40 times

 before to perform on the Hayride's Saturday night program on KWKH radio. Nobody knew then

 that Elvis would never again return to Shreveport, and, in fact, would only perform on stage

one more time in the entire South before being drafted into the army 16 months later.

Elvis Presley Louisiana Hayride Ad His performance on the Hayride in Shreveport came at the end of an almost continual year of grueling travel for Elvis in 1956. In addition to 8 appearances on the Hayride, Elvis performed 143 concerts in 79 cities in 1956. Add to that 11 network TV appearances, and Elvis was seldom off the road in 1956.

Since Elvis's career would shift away from personal appearances and toward film work in 1957, his final '56 show in Shreveport can be seen as ending a phase in his career. Actually, that phase might have ended in Louisville, Kentucky, when his final tour of the year ended there on November 25, but when Colonel Parker bought Presley out of his contract with the Hayride for $10,000 the previous April, the agreement obligated Elvis to appear at a special Hayride charity show in December.

So, on Friday, December 14, 1956, Elvis and three members of his entourage left Memphis for Shreveport, home of the Hayride. Also along on the road trip was director Hal Kanter, who was gathering background for Presley's upcoming Paramount movie, "Loving You." The group arrived in Shreveport at five o'clock the following morning and checked into the Captain Shreve Hotel.

Elvis's first time back on Hayride since hitting the big time

Shreveport residents first learned Elvis was returning to town in a December 1 article in the Shreveport Times. In announcing Presley's appearance on the 15th, Henry Clay, general manager of station KWKH, revealed the show was being moved from Municipal Auditorium to the Youth Center at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds to accommodate the expected large crowd.

Elvis would receive no fee, as all proceeds from the Hayride show would go to the YMCA

expansion project in the Shreveport area. There would be no reserved seating. Tickets,

priced at $2 in advance ($2.50 at the door), were available at Security Jewelers, Domestic

Appliance Center, Harbuck Sporting Goods, the Southern Maid Donut Company, the Central

YMCA, and Stan's Record Shop.

On December 13, two days before the concert, an unusual article appeared in the Times.

Under the headline, "Elvis Will Meet Jap Counterpart," Hayride director Horace Logan

reported that a special telephone had been set up in a room at the Youth Center so that Elvis

 could speak via trans-oceanic cable with Kazuya Kosaka, a Japanese singer who performed

 "in the famed Elvis-the-Pelvis style." The article claimed that Elvis had 15 million fans in Japan.

 (None of the post-concert reviews indicated whether or not the phone conversation actually

took place. The Shreveport Journal, however, did print a photo of Elvis speaking to an unidentified

party on the telephone.)

As Elvis grabbed a few hours of sleep in his hotel room early on Saturday morning, groups

of teenage girls launched an all-out "Find Elvis" campaign, according to The Shreveport Journal.

 Oscar Davis, a Colonel Parker assistant, told the paper he didn't know where Elvis was

 staying but wouldn't be surprised if his fans found him. The teenage set has, said Davis,

 "a pretty successful synchronized system all its own."

Other fans not looking for Elvis were already lining up for the Hayride show outside

the Youth Center for that night's 8 o'clock performance. Teenager Billie Jean Prescott

 claimed the first spot in line when she arrived at 7 a.m. Back at the Captain Shreve Hotel,

one young fan hit the jackpot. Nine-year-old Phillippa ("Flip") Unger of Denton, Texas,

and her mother had stopped at the hotel for the night on their way home. When they

 learned Elvis was in town, they decided to stay over and catch his show at the Fairgrounds.

 "Flip" got more than she expected when she was allowed into Elvis's room for a "big hug"

and an autograph.

Presley's Hayride press conference turns into a "mob scene"

In the early evening, Elvis arrived at the Youth Center for his usual pre-concert press conference.

 "It was a hectic evening for Elvis all around," Masters reported. "A scheduled press conference

more nearly resembled a mob scene, with representatives of the press and radio lost among

the throngs of fans, autograph seekers and the curious who infiltrated the meeting." Perhaps

 the most meaningful autograph Elvis signed that day was for Mrs. Betty Fields, a polio patient

since 1951 at Confederate Memorial Hospital. She had been transported, iron lung and all,

to the Youth Center to meet her favorite singer after winning a radio station contest.

"It was a big night for the Shreveport police force, too," observed Masters. "With teen-agers

 giving every indication of tearing the Pelvis limb from limb out of sheer admiration and animal

spirits, the police threw up more or less effective barricades throughout the building.

They were effective enough to keep Presley from being mobbed, but just barely.

 It required considerable agility to keep up with him as he fled from one room to

another—always a step or two ahead of his admirers."
Elvis Presley Louisiana Hayride Ad Elvis spoke briefly with fan club presidents

Jeanelle Alexander of Shreveport and

 Kay Wheeler of Dallas. Jeanelle later

 told Masters that when she met Elvis

she experienced "simultaneously the emotions of love,

 hate, anger, hero worship, anxiety and a few

others whose names she didn't have on the tip

of her tongue." Kay agreed. "I flip every time I meet him,"

 she said. "He's the most fascinating human I've ever known.

Elvis is a living denial of the notion teenagers should be

 seen and not heard."

The Shreveport Journal reported that Elvis extended

a holiday greeting to local teens during press conference.

 "Cool Yule and a Fantastic First," he said, adding,

 "If you know what I mean."

Stylish Presley takes stage for last time in '56

Finally, it was show time for the final time in 1956.

Horace Logan introduced Elvis, who came on stage

 wearing white shoes with blue soles, a green coat,

 blue pants, and white shirt, tie and silk scarf. "No entertainer in history has worked under

greater audience handicaps," noted Pericles Alexander, Times Amusement Editor. "Elvis'

mere appearance on the 'Hayride' stage last night set off a veritable atomic explosion of

photographic flash bulbs and squeals from teen-agers which crescendoed into pandemonium.

It was beside the point that the gyrating, rotary troubadour was seldom if ever heard by

an audience screaming like Zulus every time he moved a muscle. The Pelvis applies more

'body English' to a song than many a baseball pitcher and he has more movements than

a well-oiled Swiss watch."

Masters termed the show, "undoubtedly one of the finest displays of mass hysteria in

Shreveport history." He added, "Presumably he sang; you couldn't hear him over the

 screams of the frenzied 9,000. But at least his lips were moving, and his pelvis certainly was.

He wasn't halfway through 'Heartbreak Hotel' before it became apparent nobody ever had

 a more appropriate nickname … The motions, gyrations, bumps and grinds, or whatever

you want to call them, Elvis goes through wouldn't be tolerated in most burlesque houses.

They do, however, undoubtedly call for considerable acrobatic talent. Probably never

 before have so many been stirred so much by an acrobat."

In a December 17 article, The Shreveport Journal compared Presley with three previous

teen heartthrobs. "One thing is clear: the youth is a phenomena," observed the Journal.

 "Roll Crosby, Vallee, Sinatra and all the others into one and they still couldn't get the

wild ovation that the 21-year-old Mississippian got. The odd part is that Crosby,

 Vallee and Sinatra had a definable talent. Presley has none according to accepted

standards, but then he may be the prototype of a new form of entertainment.

All one can do is hope, of course."

Elvis spent final days of his break-out year at home

Elvis spent the night in Shreveport before heading home. The Journal described the scene

 at his hotel. "The rock 'n' roll czar made a fairly quiet departure Sunday afternoon.

 About half a hundred of his admirers gathered around the Captain Shreve lobby

to see their idol depart. Plenty of policemen and hotel officials guarded Presley lost

 the teen-agers yank him to pieces in their ardor. Presley gave a few autographs,

walked out to his white Cadillac and headed out, reportedly for Memphis, Tenn.,

his hometown."

Elvis spent the holidays with his family in Memphis. On January 6, 1957, he made

 his final appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, after which he would not perform

on TV again for over three years. Like the performance in Shreveport, it was another

step in Elvis's transition from stage performer to film star. He would spend much

of his time during 1957 in Hollywood making movies. It wasn't until March that

year that he again appeared on stage, this time clad in gold lamé in Chicago.

 Elvis played just 18 cities in 1957, down from 79 the year before.

Most Presley historians overlook the significance of that final appearance in Shreveport.

 It wasn't the end of "Elvis the Pelvis," but it marked the beginning of the end.

 Bob Masters of the Shreveport Times would never forget it. "Elvis seemed to be

glad to perform for nothing," he noted in his review, "and certainly he didn't

spare the gyrations. For 35 minutes or thereabouts he gave what can certainly

be described as an 'unforgettable' performance." — Alan Hanson (June 2010)

with Johnnny Horton



 

 
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f288/Moonkid53/Holidays/Elvisstocking.jpg?t=1260587627
 

 
 
 I believe in the bible, I believe that all good things come from God. I don't believe I'd sing the way I do if God hadn't wanted me to.
My voice is God's will, not mine." ~Elvis Presley
 

 
 
 
 

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martes, 15 de febrero de 2011

OUR SOLDIER BOY!!!

 

OUR SOLDIER BOY!!!

 


   
Oct 58 likely taken at Johannisberg (Bad Nauheim)
Oct 58 Ray Barracks - Friedberg
October 1, 1958 - on the train from Bremerhaven to Friedberg.
  Nov 58 Grafenwhör ( Maneuvers)
 
 
 
This photo of Elvis and his secretary Elisabeth Stefaniak was shot by Curry Grant (summer '59 - Bad Nauheim)
Bad Nauheim - on his way to play football Feb '59
Wildflecken - during maneuvers end Oct '59
Friedberg (Ray Barracks) Sept / Oct '59