An article send me by Andrew Solt

[CHRISTIAN M]

HI
Andrew Solt,send me this article
and wishes you Happy holidays!
COMMERCIAL APPEAL (Memphis, TN daily newspaper; circ: 200,000) 12-16-06
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/...216967,00.html

URL: http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/...216967,00.html

SOFA Entertainment
"It's phenomenal what's in" the 1,045-hour Sullivan archive, says filmmaker Andrew Solt, who owns the collection.

The King's historic Ed Sullivan shows arrive on DVD
Deluxe edition of 'This Is Elvis' documentary looks doubtful
By Bob Mehr
Contact http://contacts.commercialappeal.com...ilreporter.cfm
December 16, 2006
In 1990, rock filmmaker and archivist Andrew Solt took a big gamble. He put everything on the line to purchase the rights to the complete archive of Ed Sullivan television shows.
"Sullivan was the big reach," says Solt, who bought the collection from the broadcasting legend's family. "It was very scary, to be honest with you. I borrowed a lot of money -- every penny it cost I had to borrow and, fortunately, it's worked out."
Since then, Solt, head of the Los Angeles-based SOFA Entertainment company, has gone on to great success developing projects that include the landmark, 10-part 1995 documentary series, "The History of Rock 'n' Roll," as well as continuing to purchase properties, like the entire run of 1970s staple "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert." But the 1,045-hour Sullivan archive is his focus. "It's phenomenal what's in there," says Solt. "We've produced 130 half-hour shows for cable and syndication, 13 hours for CBS, and done another 50 hours for home video and DVD."
The jewels in the Sullivan crown, however, are the three shows Elvis Presley appeared on in late 1956 and early 1957.
Prior to 1956, Presley had largely been a curious regional phenomenon burning up Southern stages and airwaves. His signing to RCA that year and subsequent appearances on the Dorsey Brothers, Milton Berle and Steve Allen shows set the table for his bow on the top-rated and highly influential Sullivan CBS variety show.
Elvis' Sept. 9, 1956, appearance -- a program hosted by actor Charles Laughton, subbing while Sullivan recovered from an auto accident -- was a cultural watershed. Viewed by a record 72 million Americans, Presley's loose, louche performance -- sandwiched in between spots by acrobats The Brothers Amin and pet performer Toby the Dog -- caused a seismic shift in the country's cultural zeitgeist. It remains one of the most significant moments in television history.
Remarkably, despite its historical value, the bulk of the material from the Presley/Sullivan shows had never officially been released in any form.
"In fact, the full shows hadn't been seen since their original broadcast," says Solt. "People had seen moments from some of the songs, but the full context of these programs was never known. So that was the challenge and the whole fun of doing a project like this."
With the critical and commercial success of his 2003 DVD release of the complete broadcasts of the Beatles' appearances on Ed Sullivan, Solt was able to persuade the Elvis Presley estate to go ahead with the project. He began work in late 2004 getting together the elements for "Elvis: The Ed Sullivan Shows," a three-disc package that was released late last month via Image Entertainment.
Chief among the challenges in putting together the Presley set was improving the quality of the Sullivan source material. From its debut -- originally as "Toast of the Town" -- in 1948 until 1958, Sullivan's show was filmed on kinescope. Prior to the development of videotape, live television programs were saved with a specially modified camera that would film the show off a TV monitor. This typically meant that the resulting kinescopes were of less-than-stellar visual quality, and prone to considerable image loss over time.
In 2005, Solt was approached by Kevin Segura, president of RerunMedia, an Oregon-based company that specializes in kinescope processing. Using a proprietary digital process called LiveFeed that works to improve images frame by frame, Segura managed to give the Sullivan shows a visual cleanup so dramatic it's almost shocking.
"I was amazed by the quality of the samples he gave back to us," says Solt. "It was a 30 or 40 percent improvement over anything that's been seen. There was better contrast, definition, depth of field, the outline was better -- and not just on Elvis but the Jordanaires and D.J. (Fontana), and Scotty (Moore) and Bill (Black)."
In total, it took Segura nine months to complete the process for all three shows. Meanwhile, Solt worked on clearing rights to all the music, as well as amassing the bonus material (which includes archival interviews with Sullivan producer Marlo Lewis, the earliest known footage of Elvis performing at a daytime show in Houston and a collection of Presley confidante Jerry Schilling's home movies.)
Solt says he has more Presley DVDs in the works, including an upgrade of "Elvis: The Great Performances" -- a three volume documentary series from the early '90s that he produced. Solt plans on remastering the discs and adding bonus material and reissuing the discs after the rights revert back to his company in early 2008.
One project that may not be making its way to DVD -- at least in the lavish form that had been expected -- is Solt and Malcolm Leo's 1981 Presley documentary "This Is Elvis." The film, a combination of archival news and performance footage as well as dramatic re-creations, was released in a now out-of-print VHS edition in 1982. That version was different than what was seen in theaters and on television, as the producers could not get clearance to include "Are You Lonesome Tonight" on the video, thus robbing the film of its denouement, a scene of an aging, addled Presley struggling his way through the song's spoken-word recitation. With that rights issue cleared, Solt and Leo also decided that the new DVD version would revamp the documentary's narrative by losing the majority of the re-creation scenes -- featuring a handful of actors playing Presley throughout his life.
In August, British music magazine MOJO reported that a deluxe edition of "This Is Elvis" -- featuring both the original theatrical version and a new director's cut of the film plus bonus material -- would be released by Warner Bros. in August 2007, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Presley's death. But Solt and project partner Malcolm Leo now say the deluxe DVD plans have been tabled by Warner Bros., and they're uncertain in what, if any, form the disc will come out next year.
"There was a great deal of planning, and initially the cooperation from Warner Bros was terrific," says Leo. "And then we got into an assessment of how and when was the best time to do it -- obviously with the thirtieth anniversary of Elvis' death coming up, an opportunity was there. But then suddenly certain cost issues came into play."
According to Solt, Warner's current policy on all new, expanded DVD projects is to simultaneously ready a high-definition version of the film in order to meet with that technology when it becomes more prominent in the next couple years.
"Unfortunately, 'This Is Elvis' is a patchwork of a thousand sources, so to go back to every one of them and high-def them is a very, very expensive process," he says. "The studio typically sees things in terms of a normal 35 millimeter feature film, but our film is not that -- it's a patchwork quilt. Unfortunately, as much as they understood that, they still wanted to upgrade to a level that was going to be cost-prohibitive and which has ultimately doomed the project for now."
A similar patchwork documentary, The Who's "The Kids Are Alright," was released to much acclaim in an expanded edition in 2003, and Solt had hoped to do the same for "This Is Elvis," utilizing the digital clean-up process brought to bear on the Sullivan DVDs.
"We had ways of doing a beautiful new version that would've cost a third of what they were suggesting, and that's what we wanted to do," he says. "But they won't go forward unless they can spend the big bucks, and they can't afford to spend the big bucks, so there goes the project for right now."
Another part of what doomed the expanded "This Is Elvis" may have been internal financial issues with Warner Bros.
"The truth is they've had a rough year at Warners -- they've had so many budget cuts," says Solt. "I hate to say it, but I think we got caught up in that." Leo's other pending Warner Bros. project -- a DVD of the unseen screen tests for "Gone with the Wind" -- is also in limbo, likely for the same reasons.
Warner Bros. would not comment specifically about "This Is Elvis." But Warner Home Video representative Ronnie Sass did note that the company "plans on fully honoring Elvis in this coming 30th anniversary year. With Warner Bros. owning 17 Elvis films -- more than any other studio -- you can imagine we'll be offering consumers some pretty wonderful choices."
In all likelihood, Warner's 30th anniversary Presley DVD rollout will include a bare-bones release of "This Is Elvis," while a deluxe edition may yet come out down the line.
"I have every reason to think that version will exist ultimately," says Leo. "Of course, just when that will happen is hard to say."
-- Bob Mehr: 529-2517
Christian M

[Unchained Melody]

Thanks for posting that Christian...lots of plans for future releases it sounds like . I just hope we get a special edition of " This Is Elvis" next year, and hope it does include Are You Lonesome Tonight from the CBS Special!

[Wendy56]

I love this site because there is a lot of information about Elvis(!) Thanks for posting this article, Christian.

[Wendy56]

I like the pics in the link above.

[Unchained Melody]

I love this site because there is a lot of information about Elvis(!) Thanks for posting this article, Christian.

I agree with you there Wendy