Ultimate Elvis Multimedia Project

"THE PHENOMENAL RISE" VOLUME 1 & 2
Two Multimedia Data CDRs (1.4 GB total - approximately 8 hours of audio and countless hours of visual study)

2-disc set containing everything essential that chronicles the first 24 years of Elvis' life: 1935 to 1959


AUDIO format: mp3 and wmv

"Chasing Shadows" - Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (1935, year of E's birth)

"Eighth Of January" - Black Stringband Music (1940) ironically titled E's b-day

"Old Shep" - Tex Ritter (1940)

1953-55 Elvis' Sun Records material with his 4 MRS Demonstration sides
16 recordings of Elvis on "KWKH Louisiana Hayride" '54-56

Original Artists' Versions........
Blue Moon of Kentucky - Bill Monroe (1947)
That's All Right - Arthur Crudup (1949)
Good Rockin' Tonight - Roy Brown (1948)
Good Rockin' Tonight - Wynonie Harris (1949 - better version!)
I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine - Dean Martin (1950)
I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine - Patti Page (1950)
Mystery Train - Little Junior Parker (1953)
Trying To Get To You - The Eagles (1954)
Baby Let's Play House - Arthur Gunter (1954)
Milkcow Blues - Bob Wills (1946 note: not orig. artist)

plus these significant various artist recordings:

Tomorrow Night - Lonnie Johnson (1948)
I Love You Because - Leon Payne (1949)
I Wanna Play House With You - Eddy Arnold (1951)
Pledging My Love - Johnny Ace (1954)
That's All Right - Marty Robbins (1954)
Shake, Rattle And Roll - Big Joe Turner (1954)
Sh-Boom - The CrewCuts (1954)
Unchained Melody - Roy Hamilton (1955)
A Fool Such As I - Hank Snow (1955)
Love Me - Jimmy Snow (1955)
Rock Around The Clock - Bill Haley & His Comets (1954)
Flip Flop & Fly - Big Joe Turner (1955)
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford (1955)
Only You - The Platters (1955)
You Don't Know Me - Eddy Arnold (1956)

and last but not least.....

The Poor People Of Paris (Jean's Song) - Les Baxter (1955) This is the song which "Heartbreak Hotel" knocked from #1 in March 1956! The King's first Billboard victim!)
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Elvis' 11 (eleven) Billboard #1 hit singles 56-59

RCA Masters & Outtakes: a big variety of 56-58 studio stuff (total included currently n/a)

Live In Concert..........
Las Vegas, Nevada [May 6, 1956]
Little Rock, Arkansas [May 16, 1956]
Tupelo, Mississippi [Sept 26, 1956]
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Televised Performances...............
Dorsey Bros Show audio (6 shows = 14 songs)
Milton Berle Show audio (2 shows = 5 songs)
Steve Allen Show audio (1 show = 2 songs)
Ed Sullivan Show audio (3 shows = 17 songs)
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Four Movie Soundtracks.............
LOVE ME TENDER
LOVING YOU
JAILHOUSE ROCK
KING CREOLE
each folder contains pix from the film, a text file of filming info, and audio masters with alt takes
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Elvis Tribute Tunes.............
11 songs about Elvis by various artists 1956-1959
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1957 Canadian Concert Tour....................
pictures, text and mp3 of CJOR radio coverage and Elvis' Vancouver press conference
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Elvis' Christmas Album......................
the 12 cuts with a text file about the making of the album)
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Drafted:.......................................
US Army service photos / swearing-in audio / stateside and overseas interviews / American Bandstand phone interview with Dick Clark 1959 / a selection of home recordings done in Germany
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Elvis Speaks:.................................
30 spoken interviews conducted '55-'59
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IMAGES:
over 1,000 photo jpegs
(picture sleeves LPs,EPs,45s / Sun & RCA record labels / publicity headshots / behind-the-scene images / candids / concert newspaper ads / original sheet music / 1956-59 magazine covers, etc)


Rarities......................
Promo For Oakland, CA Concert 6-3-56
PSA 1957 March Of Dimes 90 sec
PSA 1957 March Of Dimes extended w ''Love Me Tender'' outcue
Ad Spot Elvis plugs 2 models of ''Elvis Presley'' RCA Record Players
"Perfect For Parties" Promotional Narration
"Elvis: The Truth About Me" novelty record audio
Million Dollar Quartet (selected highlights from this 1956 Presley-Perkins-Lewis jam session)

BONUS PRESENTATION: "Summer Night Radios"
An Aural Simulation of what downtown Memphis sounded like to Elvis (radios from open windows, indash radios in passing cars) as he ambled 7 blocks down to WHBQ 560 for his interview with Dewey Phillips who was spinning "That's All Right" on the nocturnal airwaves
[stereo] time: 3:40 (EIEFC Audio ©2001)


VIDEO:

1ST EVER FILM OF ELVIS
Magnolia Gardens in Houston, TX on Sunday afternoon, August 7, 1955
wmv 24bit 80kbps time: 2:12

Dorsey Bros Show appearances
[1-28-56] wmv time: 5:36
[2-04-56] wmv time: 5:04
[3-17-56] wmv time: 5:00

audio: 16bit 32kHz
video: 24bit / 189kbps


LITERATURE
Text Documents (English) of info about Elvis's childhood, his work at Sun Records, transition to RCA-Victor, studio sessions, movie shoots, personal activities, etc. There are a series of Annual Diaries of important dates/events separated into 1935-53; 1954; 1955; 1956; 1957; 1958 and 1959.

This is an interesting concept, I am surprised there were no responses to this thread.

Is this a project you are considering putting together, or one you have completed ?

I am very much in favour of projects which theme material to specific sessions or years - one problem with a multimedia disc is perhaps ensuring the video footage is good enough quality and not something which plays on a tiny screen.

Tell us more GG.

Infact it seems like a very considered project - is really no one else interested at all ?

Wow - very, very interesting.

How can I get a copy of this?!?

Rich

It started as making a personal archive of pictures & audio up to 1959 (1960s a whole separate thing) then backed-up to hardcopy disc. It's the equivelent of 4 boxsets and 8 books, reduced to 2 discs.

Or overflow to a 3rd disc if you use all those 1940s-50s original artist tracks, and adding the afternoon/evening Tupelo 56 audio, and the tracks from the 1992 KORR 50s Masters Radio Show CD.

Text files take up the least amount of space, just kb's.

Birthplace pics go in a 1935-1948 TUPELO YEARS Folder; Humes & Lauderdale Courts go in a 1949-53 HIGH SCHOOL YEARS Folder; Sun studio pics go in a SUN Folder, etc. Pixs of Elvis' cars (1950s purchases) have their own folder.

You could have your own method for archiving. There are several options. For example, I didn't make Folders to separate pix & sound by year. The #1's are in their own folder. 1956-59 singles in one folder.

PORTRAITS & CANDIDS Folder have pix from all years 56-58 and have a variety of on-stage and in-studio. No special separation there. (Army pix exclusive to the 1958-60 US ARMY HITCH folder)

Eight prominent girlfriends/dates have their own sub-folder with pix & bio text in the ELVIS' GIRLS Folder:
Dixie Locke, June Juanico, Wanda Jackson, Kay Wheeler, Natalie Wood, Dolores Hart, Debra Paget, Anita Wood (Anita's folder has audio of her singing)

ensuring the video footage is good enough quality and not something which plays on a tiny screen

In this case, the video files are small screen 320x240 pixels.

Bigger screen/better quality video files - and of all Elvis 1956-57 TV appearances - would defiinitely require a 3rd disc in the set.
So far the only video files I have seen are 3 for Dorsey Bros show

Is the plan for the CD rom to have an interactive interface - or just separate folders to click on.

Is the plan for the CD rom to have an interactive interface - or just separate folders to click on.

I don't have technology for cd-rom making. It's just click-on manilla folder icons.

So far, both disc 1 and disc 2 folders combined have a total of 2,766 files.

and that's still not every single photo in existence nor every recording in existence. Nor every conceivable topic to be presented as a written text.

I'm not sure how easy it is to author a multimedia cd rom but it would give a nice professional finish to a project such as this.

Certainly an interesting concept anyway - thanks for sharing.