I was 17 when I wrote this item back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #2, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.
On June 7, 1982, Graceland opened its doors to the public for the first time. A decade later, over six million people have gone through the music gates and experienced the life of Elvis.
I was 17 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #2, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.
Wednesday, June 24, was, perhaps, the best day for Elvis fans in the past 15 years. It marked the debut of two long-awaited releases.
The first new release is RCA’s ELVIS: The King Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Complete 50s Masters (List Price: $79.98), a five-CD set which contains every master studio take recorded in the 1950s, several alternate takes, live tracks, and previously unreleased material (140 songs in all). 500,000 units were pre-shipped to record stores.
Included are “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” the songs an 18-year-old Elvis paid to record for his mother in 1953.
The other release is even more monumental. The Turner Entertainment video Elvis: The Lost Performances (List Price: $19.98) contains an hour’s worth of never-before-seen outtakes from the 1970s concert movies Elvis: That’s The Way It Is and Elvis On Tour. 25 songs are performed on this video. See review on page 6.
I was 17 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #2, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.
“Here are the results. . . . It is the ‘young Elvis’ by a mile,” former US Postmaster General Anthony Frank announced on June 4 at Graceland in front of a huge crowd of Elvis fans.
In the month of April, over one million people voted for their “favorite” Elvis. The 50s Elvis defeated the 70s version by a wide 3-to-1 margin. The winning artwork was painted by Mark Stutzman of Maryland.
Also present at the ceremony was Priscilla Presley, who said, “I think that of all the awards and honors that he has received, and he has received many during his lifetime, I’m confident to say this would probably be the most special award for him. Elvis loved his fans very, very much, and I think that he would have just been totally overwhelmed by all of your support. And I think that having you celebrate here at Graceland would have been very special for him, too.”
The “Elvis Presley Postage Stamp Campaign” began in 1983 and was spearheaded by Ms. Pat Geiger of Vermont. She says that she voted for the 70s Elvis. “As Elvis grew older he got better looking and became a more polished performer. That’s the way I remember him,” she said. Nevertheless, she said she was “delirious” over the Elvis stamp anyway.
She also defended Elvis against critics who feel he doesn’t deserve a stamp. “They don’t honor people for their private lives,” she said. “If they did, a lot of them would never have gotten stamps – Ernest Hemingway and WC Fields are two examples. You honor these people for their accomplishments and the impact they made on the world. Elvis known by his first name all over the world. Only the name ‘Elvis’ appears on the stamp. It doesn’t say ‘Elvis Presley.'”
The stamp’s first day of issue will be January 8, the 58th anniversary of his birth. It will be available in single sheets of 40 stampes each for $11.60.
(Quotes obtained from ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC news.)
50s Elvis: 851,200 (75.4%)
70s Elvis: 277,723 (24.6%)
The winner is: ELVIS (100%)
I was 16 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #1, the first issue of my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.
The King of Rock and Roll is the tentative name of a 5-CD set to be released for the fifteenth anniversary of Elvis’ death. This will be a “definitive 50s” set, according to Ernst Jorgensen of BMG International who is a co-producer of the set.
Along with “pristine” versions of the standard fifties songs, the set will also feature unreleased material obtained by Graceland from Colonel Parker in their recent multi-million dollar purchase of his Elvis memorabilia. Parts of his collection will be displayed in a new museum under construction across the street from Graceland.
The King of Rock and Roll should be a good companion piece to 1991’s 3-CD set Collectors Gold, which contained unreleased songs from the sixties (including a disc devoted to his 1969 Las Vegas concerts).
I was 16 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #1, the first issue of my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.
Graceland was officially named a national historical landmark on November 7, 1991. This will be very beneficial to Elvis Presley Enterprises. The normal waiting period before a person’s home is named a national landmark is at least fifty years after the death of its famous resident. A special exception was made in Graceland’s case because of Elvis’ “high cultural influence.”
I was 16 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #1, the first issue of my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.
Turner Home Entertainment, which owns the rights to MGM’s Elvis: That’s The Way It Is (1970) and Elvis On Tour (1972), plans to release outtakes of both films on video in the near future.
That’s The Way It Is follows Elvis through rehearsals and several performances at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Although hours and hours of footage were taken for the film, only the original footage from the less than two hour movie has been released yet.
Elvis On Tour follows Elvis on and off stage during an April 1972 tour. Again, many unreleased hours are yet to be seen.
We have no word on the release date of these videos, but The Elvis Beat will keep you informed with the latest information.
I was 16 when I wrote this article back in 1992 for The Elvis Beat #1, the first issue of my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.
On February 24, at the Las Vegas Hilton in Nevada, the dream of millions of Elvis fans finally became reality. United States Postmaster General Anthony Frank, along with Milton Berle and Barbara Eden, officially unveiled two possible versions of an Elvis Presley stamp, one of which will become an official U.S. postage stamp.
The two stamp finalists were chosen from more than 50 entries, according to Frank. One is a circa-1950’s Elvis and the other is circa-1970’s. The public will be given the opportunity to select their favorite through the use of five million ballot cards which will be available at post offices in the month of April. The ballot cards must be mailed with the appropriate postage.
The winning stamp is expected to be announced in May at Graceland, and will be issued in 1993 as the first in a series of American music legends expected to be issued over several years. “He broke new ground,” said Frank, who went on to say that Elvis was the obvious choice to begin the series.
Elvis fans have been lobbying for this recognition for years. Pat Geiger of Vermont began the “Elvis Presley Postage Stamp Campaign” in 1983, and thought that having the stamp passed would be a “simple thing.” In 1987, the first year Elvis became eligible, she quickly found that it wouldn’t be that easy. But after the initial rejections, Elvis is finally to be honored six years later than she had planned.
The Elvis fans have won, and now it is up to the general public to pick their favorite Elvis.
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