Channeling Elvis

In addition, Wiener instructively comments:

In the end, television alone recorded the full path of Presley's career, from its explosive beginning to its tragic end, and it provided the most extensive look at Elvis the performer.

On Elvis’ television start Wiener nicely sets the stage for what is to follow:

Elvis Presley was the first performer without nationwide recognition who used television to establish himself on the national stage, and he did it in a matter of weeks.  When he first set foot on Stage Show in January 1956, he was still touring with country and western package shows, playing gigs in high school auditoriums, and appearing on the country-oriented Louisiana Hayride radio show.  By the time he bid Stage Show farewell two months later, he was headed for Hollywood and boasted hit records on all three billboard charts.

Reinforcing the point the author also records:

....Elvis knocked pop culture on its ear merely with the sound of his voice and, when he appeared on television, he drove much of America screaming from its collective living room. All that was new, exciting, and threatening about the man and his music was multiplied tenfold once his uninhibited performing style could actually be seen.

Wiener’s text is continuously interesting (and at times amusing) as this incident involving British actress and comedian Joyce Grenfell attests:

Grenfell was intrigued by Presley and recorded in her diary: ”His hair isn’t long and his side-burns aren’t all that long either.”    I asked him if all the adulation was a bit trying.   He called me ma’am and said: ‘I don’t want to brag, bit I’m kinder used to it now.  It’s been goin’ on a year.’ I thought he was pleasant, a bit of a roly-poly boy, but a good singer of his sort of hill-billy songs.  We were photographed together.  He put his arm around my neck and breathed down my ear-hole.”

Elvis' controversial appearance on The Steve Allen Show

In relation to the Welcome Home Elvis special hosted by Frank Sinatra, Wiener uncovered a number of ‘behind the scenes’ incidents involving the Colonel.  These include how the Colonel’s plan to have the predominately Elvis fan audience rush the stage when he appeared was thwarted and his grab for more money when he found out it was intended to telecast the special by closed circuit television throughout the Fontainebleau Hotel where the special was being filmed.

Reflecting both the power of the artist and of the medium, in relation to one of Elvis’ greatest performances, the ’68 Comeback Special, Wiener writes:

In less than an hour, Elvis wiped away the previous lacklustre decade and the foul taste of his movies and accompanying songs.  Rarely had anyone, except perhaps Elvis himself, so effectively and pointedly used television to put himself back on top of the entertainment world – in one performance and literally overnight……

Elvis dominated the hour from first to last.  He recaptured the power he had shown in 1956 and enhanced it further with seasoned professionalism and showmanship.  If anything, he was more mesmerising, captivating and irresistible than at any other time in his career.

1968.....the Comeback Special

On the triumphant Aloha from Hawaii satellite telecast Wiener debunks the myths about Elvis being significantly overweight and (through smart research) the claim that the special was watched by between 1 and 1.5 billion people worldwide!

Verdict: Cogent, thought provoking, insightful.  Allen J. Wiener’s CHANNELING ELVIS How Television Saved the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll is a long overdue major book release which provides an invigorating analytical perspective on the seminal importance of television in making, breaking and maintaining Elvis Presley as one of the world’s pre-eminent icons.  In so doing Channeling Elvis offers a valuable window to our greater understanding of the complex Elvis story.