The Colonel and the King, page 58
As you know, many years ago we ran into a similar situation where some eager beaver wanted to make a tremendous sales month by shipping right and left anything the dealers wanted, and stocked the shelves full of products, which made this particular party look like a million dollar award winner in sales. Unfortunately, this sales representative already knew that he would not be with the company to take the responsibility when the products started coming back. We know about a certain percentage for returns, but you also know that this product must be swapped only for Presley products. It cannot be exchanged for other artists.
Until we clarify this matter to the complete satisfaction of all the parties concerned (Elvis and I and his supervisor, Mr. Vernon Presley) we do not wish to release any other product.
We are quite concerned that perhaps all the factors are not known to some of the new people that may have joined the RCA Record family, especially now, when we are on the threshold of a very lucrative new adventure in connection with the record division and this great artist, to utilize all our facilities for all of us to mutually benefit from all our endeavors. [This is in reference to the formation of RCA Record Tours to finance and help promote Elvis’ new touring schedule.] We cannot, and will not stand by and see this great endeavor destroyed by disinterested or greedy personalities, if there are any. We don’t mind at all being greedy ourselves, but you also know that we don’t mind sharing—except we have no intentions of sharing in returned products, as it is not necessary. If a buyer feels he can sell 1,000 albums, don’t try to shove 5,000 at him and say, “We’ll take 4,000 back at our expense.”
I feel sure that whoever is in command of this type of operation in sales can only seriously research this complaint from us to the fullest, for we are positive that this could be the same situation that almost separated this great artist from your company several years ago, when in one instance, after selling more than 1,000 of a particular album which was very good for one city, one of the Company’s own representatives wrote a letter that Elvis was slipping and he should be on television, for he had to take back thousands of albums from this particular dealer. But, he failed to say that he had loaded this store to overcapacity on a guaranteed basis, without the proper authorization.
These are cold facts, and they cannot be camouflaged or shoved under the rug. I may wind up not being the most popular manager after you read this letter, but you must admit that I did give you the information.
Sincerely,
The Colonel
P.S. I feel that the RCA Record Division will continue to honor the many verbal agreements that you know exist, but could not be put in the contract due to the complications with other artists.
1973
For everything else that was going on (and there was a lot), read the biographical account. Because 1973 marked a turning point, a sad denouement in Elvis and Colonel’s relationship. But it began with a challenge.
Colonel had gotten the idea for a worldwide satellite broadcast performance from watching the live broadcasts of President Nixon’s historic trip to China in February. He had had to overcome Elvis’ initial opposition, sell the idea to RCA, and get Tom Sarnoff at NBC to go along with it. The fact that it had never been done by an entertainer before was the thing that most intrigued him.
On September 4, 1972, the final day of Elvis’ current Las Vegas engagement, Colonel hosted a press conference to announce the date and place of the event. It was to be called Aloha from Hawaii, and Elvis and RCA president Rocco Laginestra took questions from reporters, who had already been briefed on all the historic landmarks that this broadcast would achieve by the press kit that Colonel had handed out. It would reach the largest audience ever to see a television show at one time, Colonel’s information handout trumpeted with an alacrity not always confined to the facts, “in excess of one billion people” (in fact, after premiering live in the Far East, the show would not be broadcast until later in the day in Europe, and not till April in America) and would also represent “the first time in the history of the record industry” that an album (the follow-up soundtrack) would be released simultaneously on a global basis.
With all those historic firsts, how could Elvis not be just as sold on it, too? It was, Elvis said at the press conference, very hard to comprehend that he had come so far from the place he had started out. And when he met with costume designer Bill Belew in November, he told him that he wanted to present something different with this show, something that would say “America” to the world. “He came up with the American eagle [as a motif for the jumpsuit he would wear],” Belew said, “one of only three times in all the times that we [worked] together that he ever made any requests.” In addition, he lost twenty-five pounds in a very short period of time, following a specially prescribed “Las Vegas diet,” consisting, among other things, of a daily injection of urine from a pregnant woman.
The show itself met all of Colonel’s, Elvis’, and the world’s highest expectations, achieving, for example, as Colonel announced jubilantly to Elvis at its conclusion, the highest rating ever registered in Japan. And then he wrote Elvis a letter, which expressed in writing a greater degree of shared intimacy than either had declared to the other in some time. And yet one wonders why this intimate, desperately emotional letter needed to be copied to so many other interested parties. It is as if Colonel is telling not just RCA president Rocco Laginestra and three of his own close associates but himself as well that the connection between him and his artist remains undiminished. ◼
“I always know that when I do my part you always do yours in your own way and in your own feeling in how to do it best”
Sunday Morning
Three A.M.
January 14, 1973
Elvis:
Enclosed is the copy [of the proclamation] from the Mayor’s office I promised to get to you after the show. Also you and I always tell each other by seeing each other on the stage and from the floor by the stage how we feel, so there is no need for hugging each other.
I always know that when I do my part you always do yours in your own way and in your own feeling in how to do it best. That is why you and I are never at each other when we are doing our work in our own best way possible at all times.
Here are a few facts which I know you already know but for you to remember if you hear some of the snowjobs that came to our ears already now that the work has been completed by most everyone but us. I will now have to follow up to get the most mileage out of everything in the future pertaining to this entire production, such as sales for the Satellite album promotion and everything that is tied into this idea. First of all one of the snowjobs that is going full force is the idea for this entire brainchild is completely ignored, except by the RCA people, is that it came from you and me. The title “Aloha From Hawaii” was also ours. Mr. George Parkhill, myself and all the people from RCA Record Tours were one hundred percent behind us from the start.
Several of our friends that you and I know also told us it was a great idea but did not voice this when they were not with us. Many other people believed in us completely on this but some only came out of the woodwork to take bows after they now have found out that it worked. I know you know all this and just wanted to keep you up to date. There will be some disagreements as to how this will be worked out but that is my job. Just remember you did it all and all of us did our part to help you. Mr. Diskin played a big part. Mr. Diskin and his troupe and all your own selected talent were with you all the way. Without all their help and all your boys’ help I would have been stuck to make our ideas work.
You above all make all of it work by being the leader and the talent. Without your dedication to your following it couldn’t have been done.
[Signed “Colonel”]
Cc: Rocco Laginestra, George Parkhill, Tom Diskin, Grelun Landon
It wasn’t long before everything went back to the way it had been. In fact, it was only weeks.
Elvis quickly regained the weight he had lost, and he had to cancel five shows in his February booking in Las Vegas as well as eight in his Lake Tahoe booking.
By the following summer Colonel was as worried as he had ever been, and Elvis was as out of sorts. Little as he wanted to, Colonel wrote Elvis a letter about the predictability of his show, its lack of energy and innovation, but the effect of his letter can be gauged by the fact that he felt obligated to write the same letter on the same subject exactly one year later. ◼
“Without a doubt you are by far the greatest artist I have ever known, and can be even greater if you just believe in yourself half as much as I believe in you”
Courtesy of the Graceland Archives
Dear Elvis: July 12, 1973
Now that the Tour is over and all of us are getting ready to come up with some new ideas for presenting you on your up-coming Las Vegas Hilton engagement, I am sure you will want to think of something new on your stage presentation there. You will be going into your eighth performance there.
There was a good deal of talk during your last engagement whether you would be doing some new songs and perhaps a bit different show format for the opening of your show. I am sure that you just feel the same—that it is time for something different for the opening. Perhaps going back to your first opening with just your boys coming on from behind the curtain.
I would be amiss as a manager if I did not bring up these points. But I’m not telling you how and what to do, as I have always left this up to you—as only you know best how to work it out. Somehow I have to be the one to explain this to you. Everyone involved feels the same way, but no one will come out and tell you about it. Why, I don’t know, because I am sure you are too great an artist to be upset with sound suggestions from anyone who has only your best interests at heart.
You are on the threshold of the word being out before long that you are not interested in doing something with songs in Vegas—and will become just another who doesn’t change his format. When on concert tour it doesn’t matter, as those appearances are always the first time, and we do not stay more than a few days at each location.
During your last appearances in Vegas and Tahoe, you know we had many problems which we managed to overcome. However, I don’t feel that we can do this again. We owe the Las Vegas Hilton five performances we missed, for which they paid you, with your promise and mine that they would be made up at some future date. Additionally, we missed eight performances at Tahoe which we must make up at some future date. Everyone involved knows you were sick, and everyone did their part to work things out. We, of course, will do the same in the future.
I will leave it up to your good judgment to prepare yourself to surprise all of those that seem to be under the impression that you’re stuck with the same show for Vegas and don’t know how to do something new. You have so many of your own block busting songs that will amaze even the biggest unbeliever, and I know you can do it—as soon as you make up your mind to do so. You know I am with you all the way, but I could not say this if I did not honestly express my feelings to you.
Without a doubt you are by far the greatest artist I have ever known, and can be even greater if you just believe in yourself half as much as I believe in you.
Sincerely,
The Colonel
Four days later he attempted once more to inculcate in Elvis one of the fundamental lessons of enlightened self-interest. He was always going to be there for Elvis—that much was understood—but at the same time Elvis must at all times, first and foremost, look out for himself. Earlier in the year, Hill and Range, his publisher from the start, had to all intents and purposes ceased to exist, and Colonel set out to establish an even more lucrative arrangement for Elvis with Freddy Bienstock, Hill and Range’s longtime song representative, setting up two new publishers under the exclusive 100 percent ownership of Elvis Presley. Sadly, the new publishing firms never really worked out, most of all because Elvis’ records were no longer selling in sufficient numbers (and he was not sufficiently committed to recording) to induce topflight writers to sign up. But that was not known at the time, and Colonel felt it necessary to remind Elvis once again that friendship was all very well (and true friends in any case could not be bought), but that song publishing would be his one continuing source of income long after his performing days were over. ◼
“You have been more than fair and generous with everyone connected with your organization—in some ways even too much so”
Dear Elvis: July 16, 1973
I wish to point out to you again the important decisions that you will have to make, now that you and your father are the principal stockholders in these two new firms. All decisions in regard to securing song copyrights and protecting and signing them legally and properly, should be made without taking into consideration personal friendships and obligations that you may feel toward people in the music business, friends, associates and others. I can see no reason why any of your friends or close associates, especially those that are always heralding their loyalty and devotion to you, should bring any songs for your consideration if they cannot be put into your firms, either Elvis Music, Inc. or White Haven Music, Inc., especially if they are not the writers of the songs and only the promoters. You have been more than fair and generous with everyone connected with your organization—in some ways even too much so. This can, of course, be adjusted by the recipients by being more interested in proving their loyalty by supplying musical compositions that they secure into your firms. As you well know, in many instances some people are only interested in placing one of their songs on the back of one of the good songs so they get a free ride, whether the song is worth it or not, and the same royalties.
As you know, yourself, Lisa Marie and Vernon, your father, are the most important factors in the idea of setting up these two new firms. I personally will not be interested in any way, if we become involved in a free-for-all. Anyone wanting to do business with you can do so, but let them do it in the right and proper way.
Enough said.
Sincerely,
Colonel
Things finally came to a boiling point a little more than a month later. Early Monday morning, on September 3, 1973, at a special 3:00 A.M. show that had been added on to close out his latest four-week engagement at the Las Vegas Hilton (the Hilton hotel chain had taken over the International in 1971), Elvis delivered himself of a rambling onstage diatribe against both the Hilton and Hilton director and CEO Barron Hilton, a longtime supporter of both Elvis and Colonel. The subject was the Hilton’s intention to fire his favorite waiter, and Elvis started off with a series of angry references that became more and more disjointed, and occasionally obscene. (“Adios, you motherfucker, bye bye, Papa, too / To hell with the whole Hilton Hotel, and screw the showroom, too,” he interpolated in an “X-rated” version of “Love Me Tender.”)
Colonel, sitting in his usual front booth with Loanne Miller, who would eventually become his second wife, was absolutely mortified. “He turned to me,” Loanne recalled, “and said, ‘I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. I wish I could just crawl under this table right now.’” And then, without pausing, he added, “Who does he think he is? How am I ever going to face the Hilton people? He can’t get away with this.”
After the show Colonel stormed into Elvis’ dressing room, and the two of them raged at each other behind closed doors in a manner that no one could miss hearing (and no one had ever heard before). Then Elvis went up to the wrap party in his suite, and Colonel sat down and dictated this letter to Loanne. ◼
“We are not judge and jury, but performers, and have a job to do”
Dear Elvis: September 3, 1973
This letter is only intended in the event you aren’t up when I come up to see you this evening. After you read it, you can discuss this with me tomorrow afternoon if you wish as I won’t leave until early Thursday morning.
I do not want to go into a lengthy discussion in writing regarding the current problem which was created last night during your last performance, when you took it on yourself, on the stage, in front of 2,000 people, to embarrass the executives of the Hilton Corporation with your remarks. Your outburst was a shocking revelation to some of the people—especially after just announcing that they had given you the gold chain.
Your speech regarding the hotel firing this fellow as he was a good man, etc. was completely out of your class—as the hotel does not ask us to hire or fire someone. One of your remarks where you stated you “thought Hilton people were bigger than that” does not fit the consideration they have given you in the past, having knocked thousands of dollars off your bills for the food, beverages and suite over the years, and as much as $20,000 extra on this trip. I can’t find anything small-time about them.
I sincerely wish you had taken this up with me before, and perhaps you could have talked to Mr. Lewin [Hilton vice president Henri Lewin, who ran the hotel] regarding your interest in the matter and not taken it up in front of 2,000 customers who had nothing to do with the entire affair and were left somewhat confused by the incident. Mr. Lewin was quite upset when he called me, and I told him I would take it up with you. He felt sure that you had not been informed of the correct details regarding this matter.
But, regardless of that, it should never have been brought up during your performance in front of the public. We are not judge and jury, but performers, and have a job to do on that stage without getting involved with hotel employees during the performance.
