Opening night at The International on July 31, 1969, was a private show attended by celebrities, casino high rollers, and the press. The room still had its sound bugs, as Sammy Shore realized when he walked onstage after a few songs from the Sweet Inspirations and discovered his microphone was dead. When they handed him a second one, "I pretended that one was off too." The gag won the crowd over for his 25-minute set. "It was so easy to bomb in that room," he says. "I was so happy to get off but thrilled to have done as well as I did."
As Shore walked off, Presley was standing in the wings waiting to go on, He extended a hand. "His hand was clammy. He was as nervous as I was. "A drum roll called Elvis onstage. Clad in black with an acoustic guitar slung around his neck, he struck a familiar pose: "Well it's one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and go cat go!"
Elvis Presley and musical director Joe Guercio
The Elvis the audience saw that night -- and for many nights to come -- was not the hip-swiveling youngster of the '50s, but not entirely a rip-off of a '60s-groovy, pelvic-thrusting Tom Jones either. "Jones was among the horniest men I ever knew," [former International publicist] Nick Naff says. "Elvis couldn't project that sex image. But he could say to females, 'Love me, I'm the nicest guy in the world.' That's the very reason they love him today. He played on his own projected qualities. The nice guy, the shy guy."
"It's the first time I've worked in front of people for nine years, and it may be the last. I don't know," Elvis told the preview-night audience. The singer churned and burned his way through a medley of his old rockabilly hits, but closed the 15-song show with a six-minute version of his most recent single, the brass-powered "Suspicious Minds."
Afterward he appeared at a news conference -- the only one he would ever give in Las Vegas for the rest of his life. He told the reporters, "It was getting harder and harder to perform to a movie camera. The inspiration wasn't there." He seemed relaxed and cracked a few jokes, including the fact that he was "tired of playing a guy singing to the guy he's beating up" in the movies.
The Colonel had at least been right on one count when he told Naff, 'You just wait till Elvis gets in. You don't know what's going to happen to your hotel." Legend has it that the very next day, hotel president Alex Shoofey and the Colonel struck a five-year deal, offering Elvis twice-annual engagements at $125,000 per week (former publicist Bruce Banke says there was never a signed contract, only a handshake deal). The annual three-week "Summer Festivals" of performances in August and return engagements in February soon became a bonanza neither side would want to spoil.
All material on this site is protected by copyright and may not be used except by permission. For comments or questions about this web site, e-mail the webmaster.
