Special 20th Anniversary Tribute
GoodTimes Home Video (1997)
Review:
This video was available in Memphis during the 20th anniversary celebrations, however you couldn't find it anymore or at least not easily, which is too bad because there's a few gems within that was never seen before.
Although I was skeptical about the contents of that video at first, I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised the first time I watched it. Obviously there is a lot of already seen footage within, but still, this is extremely well done and chronologically sequenced. The well known sequences were taken from different television appearances like: The Dorseys, Milton Berle, Elvis' first engagement in Vegas, Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan shows, army footages, movie footages,etc...
Given the above you'll see throughout the video some great never seen footages as well, among these are : great color Tupelo '56 (afternoon show) sequences filmed from the audience, new clips from the November 25th 1956 show in Louisville,KY (some are featured in Elvis' 56 video but here we have some extra and different clips), some never seen army footages taken at Elvis' army induction and featuring later a short interview Elvis gave after his arrival at Fort Chaffee, that latter was certainly totally new to my eyes.
Then we move on to the sixties and here again there's are also interesting never before seen footages such as : His arrival in Hawaii in 1962 for the filming of "Girls! Girls! Girls! ", of which I was surprised to see how similar that arrival was when compared to the Aloha Special eleven years later, some extra clips taken at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 where you can see Elvis signing autographs (different of what I've seen before) and also excellent a meeting between Elvis, Vernon and Norman Taurog during the filming of "World's Fair" (possibly when Elvis signed his contract for that movie or for an upcoming one). We equally see some others taken with Danny Thomas when Elvis bought The Potomac (boat) and signing his contract in 1969 in Vegas for his live comeback appearances.
From the seventies there are less rare footages and a lot of press conference clips such as : Houston 1970, Madison Square Garden June 9th 1972, Aloha press conference made in Vegas on September 5th 1972 with one RCA executive. Having said that, there is some professional filmed footage taken in Las Vegas, indeed you can see some footages taken at the September 4th 1972 dinner show by KNBC in Vegas, these sequences were originally filmed and shown on T.V. in Vegas back then, that film has circulated on the black market circuit so-to-speak but the quality was awful, now we have that crystal clear.
For some reasons though, GoodTimes video stated on the video itself that the running time is approx. 60 minutes, on the back cover of the box it says " Approximately 93 Minutes ",which is a major time difference I hear you say, and when watching the video the time is approximately 110 minutes !!!!??? That part is very strange as far as I'm concern but at the same time a minor mistake as this is the content that counts in the end. Perhaps the most negative point would be that this video was recorded in " SP ", however the quality is still excellent, then it shouldn't prevent you to obtain one for that reason only.
My advice would be, if you can find that video, then buy it!!!!!!! This is highly recommended for all fans who would like to see some new footages, besides that, this is extremely well done and researched as well.
* Five film reels would be the higher rating
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