A documentary about Elvis Presley press conferences

[jurasic1968]

I was thinking today if a documentary regarding Elvis Presley press conferences in his whole career can be made .They were many on his career. What do you think? Of course with his music included. I mean if he made a 1956 press conference the music should be from 1956. The same with 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 years. What do you think?

[Edwin]

There was no press conference in 1973 though.

[jurasic1968]

Sorry. I apologize.

[ForeverElvis]

I was thinking today if a documentary regarding Elvis Presley press conferences in his whole career can be made .They were many on his career. What do you think? Of course with his music included. I mean if he made a 1956 press conference the music should be from 1956. The same with 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 years. What do you think?

I’m not sure there is enough content to make a documentary. Yes there is where and when they took place but Elvis was rarely asked anything substantial - what would the doc be about?

We can’t derive his political leanings, or his thoughts on the social upheaval in the time he lived etc…. Any good doc has to present a point of view and have a narrative.

[jurasic1968]

I think the New York press conference from June 1972 had enough material and Elvis was up for the event. Houston in February 1970 was also a good one.

[ForeverElvis]

I think the New York press conference from June 1972 had enough material and Elvis was up for the event. Houston in February 1970 was also a good one.

But, there’s nothing in his answers you could build a documentary around.

What would the documentary be about?

[elvis-fan]

I was thinking today if a documentary regarding Elvis Presley press conferences in his whole career can be made .They were many on his career. What do you think? Of course with his music included. I mean if he made a 1956 press conference the music should be from 1956. The same with 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 years. What do you think?

.
Have a listen to some of the ridiculous questions Elvis is asked in some of those press conferences... nothing very informative or even interesting. Much more interesting questions/comments are available in audio interviews with Elvis... for example the Lloyd Shearer interview from August '62 and the interviews done by Pierre Adidge & Robert Abel during the making of Elvis On Tour...

[ForeverElvis]

I was thinking today if a documentary regarding Elvis Presley press conferences in his whole career can be made .They were many on his career. What do you think? Of course with his music included. I mean if he made a 1956 press conference the music should be from 1956. The same with 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 years. What do you think?

.
Have a listen to some of the ridiculous questions Elvis is asked in some of those press conferences... nothing very informative or even interesting. Much more interesting questions/comments are available in audio interviews with Elvis... for example the Lloyd Shearer interview from August '62 and the interviews done by Pierre Adidge & Robert Abel during the making of Elvis On Tour...

Agree.
Not much to focus a doc on though.

[Walter Hale 4]

Agreed. There were not enough interesting questions from the press or answers by Elvis to justify such a product and make it viable to a general TV audience.

It would have been cool if the 1962 Lloyd Shearer that ForeverElvis and Elvis-fan pointed out, had been filmed , where you could then make up a TALKING PICTURES stye product bundled with the 1972 MSG Presser.

[brian]

I was thinking today if a documentary regarding Elvis Presley press conferences in his whole career can be made .They were many on his career. What do you think? Of course with his music included. I mean if he made a 1956 press conference the music should be from 1956. The same with 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 years. What do you think?

I think maybe. Maybe a creative filmmaker could do that and make it decent. I think it would work better if you took both his press conferences and Elvis's audio interviews and used all of them to make a documentary. I say that because there isn't a lot of audio of Elvis's press conferences. Maybe a short decent documentary could be made by doing that with the right filmmaker.

[jomies]

I made a dvdr years ago about all of the interviews in the 70's.

[jurasic1968]

Yes, but I had in mind his press conferences and interviews from 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973.

[Alan_K]

Yes, but I had in mind his press conferences and interviews from 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 and 1973.

Sacre bleu! You left out 1959.

[jurasic1968]

Right. I apologise.

[yellowstone]

Are we talking about the Elvis that gave wedding press conferences, comeback press conferences, vegas press conferences with no microphones and no film cameras? Or the 1972 Elvis with 20 microphones in front of him but still we had to puzzle the press conference together with parts sounding like if they were recorded in a tin bucket? You mean that Elvis? Whow, that will be a great documentary.

[jurasic1968]

Yes.

[ForeverElvis]

There is a difference between making a “documentary” that puts all of the audio/video of Elvis press conferences together for viewing purposes and a documentary that is about those press conferences, their questions, the answers and the meaning behind those answers in relation to the period that Elvis lived.

[jurasic1968]

Right.

[Jaime1234]

I am all for the idea. And not just films, but photos from press conferences which were recorded.

In 2000, Bill Bradley beat everyone under the moon by examining every Elvis press conference he could find, trying to learn anything from them, as he was preparing for his unsuccesful run in the 2000 presidential primaries. For him it was a matter of learning what Elvis had when confronting an either favourable or unfavourable reporter. He lost to Al Gore.

Many years earlier, during his time in high school, and as he played away at a Memphis high school, he was so tall that he didnt even have to jump over the Graceland wall to take a single leaf from one of those beautiful trees which were then nearest to the wall. He kept it in his wallet for 5 years.

The way to do the documentary would be to focus it on how an entertainer of his CALIBER dealt with the media in the US, Canada, France and Scotland, all those years. Each segment would be preceeded by a short interview with a KNOWN member of today's media, on any subject, or with a reputable, known person immediately related to what Elvis was doing, OR WAS SEEN DOING in the period when the interview took place.

For example, Colin Powell's two children became interested in EVERYTHING their dad wrote in his memoirs, of course, but according to Powell himself , nothing he wrote compared to their interest on what were those two minutes like, the ones he spent with Elvis near the Czech border in a late 1958 manouver.

So, let us say, an interview with either Michael or Linda Powell, neither of whom was born when Elvis met Powell, could preceed his answer about how american soldiers can be goodwill ambassadors, as was the case with Powell, not just when he served, in Germany, but as he became the ultimate diplomat as the Secretary of State handling the ups and downs, simultaneously, of at least 150 US ambassadors, all under his command.

The Elvis footage used in this segment of the doc, would only be the part just as the question is popped to him by the reporter starting with his question "Another thing we hear a lot about.."



An so, hundreds of similar moments could be found. I would title the documentary
" Elvis Presley: Never say NO" . LOL

[jurasic1968]

Thanks a lot, Jaime1234 for your great and informative post!!!

[Jaime1234]

Thanks a lot, Jaime1234 for your great and informative post!!!

You are most welcome, I up dated just as you were writing your comment, so kindly read it again. Many thanks.

[emjel]

As has been mentioned previously, there is simply not enough interesting stuff to make something like that viable for a TV Company to put up the money for that kind of documentary not ignoring the fact that it would have a limited audience. Elvis was always quite guarded in the majority of the questions he answered during interviews and press conferences so very little could be learnt about him outside of being an entertainer. And the current generation or even the previous one are unlikely to know or even give a damn about the kind of people that Jaime1234 talks about.

[steve in sc4]

Sorry no interest.

[drjohncarpenter]

I was thinking today if a documentary regarding Elvis Presley press conferences in his whole career can be made .They were many on his career. What do you think? Of course with his music included. I mean if he made a 1956 press conference the music should be from 1956. The same with 1960, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 years. What do you think?

Elvis was a pleasant and polite subject in his few public press conferences. But that can hardly become the basis of a major documentary. What can be learned from compiling and crafting a story around them? And since they are the focal point, adding music seems like an effort to pad a thin idea, unfortunately.

[ForeverElvis]

For a recent doc, I really enjoyed Elvis and the USS Arizona. A good example of taking a small event and making an interesting hour.