Why did Elvis gain so much weight?

I think you get a good indication of how small Elvis was in the Comeback Special -- if you look at him in the actual blue denim suit. In wide shots, he looks like a little boy (though still very manly)!

Um, I beg your pardon?!

Back to the size issue: Now, although I'm 6'3", I weigh less than 12 stone (or 168lbs), and so am a very skinny guy. But when I bought a replica Comeback Special jacket from ebay (couldn't resist -- that thing is so cool!), it didn't fit me. Now, true, the dimensions of this jacket were probably a little different to the real thing, but it was such a titchy little thing. I couldn't believe it. (On the other hand, it's meant to be small, given that the Comeback Special jacket is modelled on denim jackets which fit tightly and only drop to the waist, but I was still surprised).

I think you get a good indication of how small Elvis was in the Comeback Special -- if you look at him in the actual blue denim suit. In wide shots, he looks like a little boy (though still very manly)!

If you are saying that Elvis was small because of being so thin in the Comeback Special, then I accept it, he was thin and slim, and he even would be thinner and slimer the following year. But it made him no damage, it made him to be one of the more (if not the more) good looking human beings in history. I don't know anybody who weren't shocked to see how great Elvis looked through 1968 to 1970, and I'm not talking about Elvis' fans.

there's little i can think about besides girly-lust thoughts when i see most pictures from 1967-1974... screw the '50s (cuteness aside)... i mean, between those years he was the hottest thing that ever walked, much less his ability to sing. and yes--1974, even. in fact, he's still incredibly gorgeous in that picture of him with the distended stomach that was posted earlier--the rest of him doesn't look like it belongs with his stomach. i love the longer hair on him--it suited his face so much better than the sculpted hair--WHICH I HATE.

i recall there being a picture of elvis live in '74, where he had apparently gotten too carried away with the razor on his sideburns, and he looked like he did in 1970...there were parts of '74 where he absolutely looked as skinny as in '70. the muttonchop sideburns had a habit of making his face appear wider than it actually was (however, he looked a heckuva lot better with them than without--it was like a day to night difference when they came back in the late '60s).

a lot of people think elvis on tour is an example of fat elvis... watch polk salad annie, where they do a zoom right on his stomach... he is still very thin--and probably that was a very healthy weight for him. the lights used in the show make him look much paler than we saw in ttwii, which makes people think he looks bigger.

plus the old "camera puts an extra 10 pounds on you"... i imagine if people saw elvis through the '70s in person up-close they'd be surprised at how thin he really was a good lot of the time. i recall those pictures of aloha where elvis is wearing a white shirt and white pants, and he looks extremely skinny.

i remember back a year or more ago--elvisgirl (once again, not me) made a note of having used a picture of elvis from charro! as her avatar on a non-elvis forum, and people were asking her who the hot guy in it was... and they were quite shocked when they learned it was elvis and that he looked *that* good.

i once showed a very normal-looking elvis picture from '77 to a guy who was trying to tell me elvis was like 300 pounds or something. he was shocked that elvis looked as good in it as he did. i get that reaction a lot from people--hell, i've seen people catch clips of eic and say he looks better in it than they've been led to believe through popular culture. people half-expect to see him in bulging spandex or something--the connotation of fat elvis is so severe that there are people who ask when seeing ttwii if that is fat elvis--meanwhile they weigh more than he did then. the hiding of the footage--making it rare, and thus an urban myth of it being *that* bad, just makes people expect the ridiculous of a false image they have created in their minds. there's a gut, but he's hardly "extreme elvis" (can somebody shoot that impersonator, please?).

a release of rapid city footage would only help people's view of elvis in the '70s. better yet, with a gallery of hand-selected pictures of elvis through the '70s in his various magnificent jumpsuits and even daily wear to put it into perspective.

you know it's funny... for all the bad rap that elvis' clothing in the '70s receives... i found myself drawn to it when i went to memphis--i spent hours just imagining him in the various clothing--the day-to-day wear in particular...especially that paisley shirt and burgundy pants...it just fascinated me. it seemed more personal and real to me than the house, the grounds, etc... definitely made me a jumpsuit junkie for life--those suits were so majestic and beautiful in person!

Last edited by Elvis' Babe on Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Back to the size issue: Now, although I'm 6'3", I weigh less than 12 stone (or 168lbs), and so am a very skinny guy. But when I bought a replica Comeback Special jacket from ebay (couldn't resist -- that thing is so cool!), it didn't fit me. Now, true, the dimensions of this jacket were probably a little different to the real thing, but it was such a titchy little thing. I couldn't believe it. (On the other hand, it's meant to be small, given that the Comeback Special jacket is modelled on denim jackets which fit tightly and only drop to the waist, but I was still surprised).

I think you get a good indication of how small Elvis was in the Comeback Special -- if you look at him in the actual blue denim suit. In wide shots, he looks like a little boy (though still very manly)!

If you are saying that Elvis was small because of being so thin in the Comeback Special, then I accept it, he was thin and slim, and he even would be thinner and slimer the following year. But it made him no damage, it made him to be one of the more (if not the more) good looking human beings in history. I don't know anybody who weren't shocked to see how great Elvis looked through 1968 to 1970, and I'm not talking about Elvis' fans.

I'm not sure why you felt the need to mount this defence, but I don't disagree.

Elvis' Babe: Are you turning this into another drool fest on Elvis? Please, now, please!

::goes back into asexual internet personality mode for cryo's sake::

sorry. it's 4:12 am and i've been listening to too many '70s ballads. my mind is going straight to gutter-world. so shoot me.

still--did anybody feel his clothes at graceland seemed more real/personal than all the pristine "tasteful" quality of the entry? i suppose i'd connect more if i didn't know how it used to look before cilla went rearranging it like a display piece. but the clothes had more of an untouched quality--like something that can't be changed to suit the public's tastes. the kitchen was one of my favorite rooms on that same principal...same with the jungle room and a few others--those rooms feel like the anti-cilla. the red curtains to me are a loss for the feel of the home. maybe i'm crazy. i recall, however, sitting right down on the floor of the main jumpsuit display area, and just soaking it in. what surprised me the most is all the detail in those suits, that sometimes gets lost in the pictures taken from afar. it was the same with some of the objects on display. the bullethole in the playground slide had that same feel. more personal, somehow.

another thing that my dad commented to me while going through the house is how much smaller it was than he had exoected it to be. the greek portico makes it seem much larger than it is...

yes, i realize i just went into a tangent about the house.

Last edited by Elvis' Babe on Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Elvis Babe, your input in this thread as been awesome, thanks again. As far as the clothing in the seventies goes, I think most people just associate the latter jumpsuits and not so much his personal wardrobe. Even on youtube, when they show EP rehearsing from TTWII in either the red puffy shirt, or the flowered one, usually nothing but compliments. People tend to forget how brutal fashion was in the seventies, I know, I grew up in that era. The leisure suit was a smash, was does that tell you.
As far as EP's build goes, it was very different back then, guys weren't working out, and if they did, it usually was to the point where they were huge, they were either jocks or actually were looked upon as freaks. Also, the goal those days was to have a 32" waist, thin was in. Unfortunately, so was crash dieting, which sapped one's energy, as I'm sure happened to EP numerous times as he got older and the weight became harder to take off, or manage. We've come so far in this field and it still isn't easy. Look at Oprah Winfrey, she still has her battles despite the best of everything available to her.

There's a thread going on over at TCB-World (don't know if I'm allowed to mention said site so Mods can delete it if they need to) about Elvis's weight during the tapings of the CBS special and the August tour that never was...someone on there posted that they read in a book somewhere that Elvis was reportedly down to a weight around 190-210 lbs in August of 1977....

Could it be possible? I mean....we're only talking two months between tours....

There's a thread going on over at TCB-World (don't know if I'm allowed to mention said site so Mods can delete it if they need to) about Elvis's weight during the tapings of the CBS special and the August tour that never was...someone on there posted that they read in a book somewhere that Elvis was reportedly down to a weight around 190-210 lbs in August of 1977....

Could it be possible? I mean....we're only talking two months between tours....

Tony, if you take a look at the video of EP arriving at the Indianapolis airport for his final concert, he looks much thinner then he did in early June of 77, so I could see him weighing around 200 lbs, ( which was still 30 lbs. overweight for him ) around the time he died.

Hmm...after thinkin' 'bout it...you're right...Elvis did seem to be able to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time...

::goes back into asexual internet personality mode for cryo's sake::

sorry. it's 4:12 am and i've been listening to too many '70s ballads. my mind is going straight to gutter-world. so shoot me.

I might shoot you.

It could be fun.

yes, i realize i just went into a tangent about the house.

See?

You're hopeless. HOPELESS!

There's a thread going on over at TCB-World (don't know if I'm allowed to mention said site so Mods can delete it if they need to) about Elvis's weight during the tapings of the CBS special and the August tour that never was...someone on there posted that they read in a book somewhere that Elvis was reportedly down to a weight around 190-210 lbs in August of 1977....

Could it be possible? I mean....we're only talking two months between tours....

Tony, if you take a look at the video of EP arriving at the Indianapolis airport for his final concert, he looks much thinner then he did in early June of 77, so I could see him weighing around 200 lbs, ( which was still 30 lbs. overweight for him ) around the time he died.

Yes. Several well-lit pictures posted in a recent thread bear this out.

But Elvis' weight might have gone up again in the interim (between Indianapolis and his death). It was typical of his weight to rise between tours. Then he'd shed a bit as the tour progressed. Elvis was still a very sick man when he died.

yes, cryo--i was so happy with this paragraph i had to paste it here:

i seem to be one of the few who can appreciate fully his voice when there are visuals where he isn't doing so well. the key is looking for those special little moments; those little bits of humor or revealing statements, a smile, etc... don't think how bad he looked, but how much he was putting himself out there, while his life was quickly collapsing around him, both internally and externally. funny thing is, he did all the crash dieting and medications to help with dieting so he wouldn't be made fun of by the world, and all it did was make everything worse, and give the world more to criticize him for. he took pride in how he looked, but it couldn't have been pleasant to read "fat and 40" as his birthday headline--that was totally unsympathetic and cruel for the media to do that to him. he didn't need to be told to shape up or lose your audience--he needed to be supported into getting himself back together (not just physically, but emotionally too!) and have people who cared about him rather than their own gain/media sensationalism.

i guess it's too late now.

seriously, though. imagine everybody criticizing the way you look on a daily basis splashed across every tabloid... imagine spending half of your life being criticized for being too ahead of your time/behind the times/a pretty boy/overweight/the latest non-serious gimmick singer/maudlin vegas kitsch lounge singer, etc... people have killed themselves over a lot less from the media/other people telling them how they should act/look (need i mention karen carpenter?). elvis put up with decades of sensationalism bullsh*t of which he was the frequent target of. no wonder he often downplayed his own abilities and had a complex about his appearance.

not only was he expected to sing 100% the material that others thought he should be singing, he was expected to look like everybody thought he should look--the media made it seem like it was a sin to not be eternally young.

nobody ever tells male opera singers to lose weight. and nobody tells male models to sing better/certain material. elvis had to take it from both directions. and the public had the audacity to think he owed it to them. he didn't owe them anything--he gave up his life to give to others and to share his talent.

yes, cryo--i was so happy with this paragraph i had to paste it here:

Do I look like the man to stop you?

nobody ever tells male opera singers to lose weight. and nobody tells male models to sing better/certain material. elvis had to take it from both directions. and the public had the audacity to think he owed it to them. he didn't owe them anything--he gave up his life to give to others and to share his talent.

Yeah. He was certainly subjected to MANY standards. And still is. I do think opera singers are targeted, though; we just don't hear about it so much (since opera isn't "popular" music). People and the media can be brutal.

The thing is that Elvis put himself beyond reproach. And when he developed his gun obsession, commentators criticised him increasingly at their peril (not that he'd actually have shot anyone -- but there were certainly many near misses, and no one could ever have been sure what his intentions were as history unfolded in "real time").

Thanks to ElvisBabe and Cyrogenic for a very enjoyable topic, you two youngster's certainly know your stuff

yes, cryo--i was so happy with this paragraph i had to paste it here:

i seem to be one of the few who can appreciate fully his voice when there are visuals where he isn't doing so well. the key is looking for those special little moments; those little bits of humor or revealing statements, a smile, etc... don't think how bad he looked, but how much he was putting himself out there, while his life was quickly collapsing around him, both internally and externally. funny thing is, he did all the crash dieting and medications to help with dieting so he wouldn't be made fun of by the world, and all it did was make everything worse, and give the world more to criticize him for. he took pride in how he looked, but it couldn't have been pleasant to read "fat and 40" as his birthday headline--that was totally unsympathetic and cruel for the media to do that to him. he didn't need to be told to shape up or lose your audience--he needed to be supported into getting himself back together (not just physically, but emotionally too!) and have people who cared about him rather than their own gain/media sensationalism.

i guess it's too late now.

seriously, though. imagine everybody criticizing the way you look on a daily basis splashed across every tabloid... imagine spending half of your life being criticized for being too ahead of your time/behind the times/a pretty boy/overweight/the latest non-serious gimmick singer/maudlin vegas kitsch lounge singer, etc... people have killed themselves over a lot less from the media/other people telling them how they should act/look (need i mention karen carpenter?). elvis put up with decades of sensationalism bullsh*t of which he was the frequent target of. no wonder he often downplayed his own abilities and had a complex about his appearance.

not only was he expected to sing 100% the material that others thought he should be singing, he was expected to look like everybody thought he should look--the media made it seem like it was a sin to not be eternally young.

nobody ever tells male opera singers to lose weight. and nobody tells male models to sing better/certain material. elvis had to take it from both directions. and the public had the audacity to think he owed it to them. he didn't owe them anything--he gave up his life to give to others and to share his talent.

I have to take off my hat Elvis' Babe. This is a great, great, great post and I subscribe to it fully.