would rca really let a occasion like this go by completly unrecorded either by way of a audio or visual source?
As far as I know there is no pro videos taken durnig the whole season, but I?ve seen some amateur video shots; on one of the Great Performances Videos, (dont remember which volume but is the one which has the American Trylogy video secuence) you can see a 3 seconds or so video shot from the '69 season.
There?s a bootleg Cd which has the complete opening night.
P.S. Wasnt the Pink and Blue stage colors so cool! I think were the best ever used followed by the stage used on summer '74
Last edited by Raised on Rock; 10-09-2005 at 01:54 PM.
First Jason7890, let me take this opportunity to welcome you to the TCB-World Forum!! We're glad you have joined our TCB-World family and we hope you like it here!
There is a video with fan-shot footage on it which is supposedly from the 7/31/69 Opening Night performance, but like so many other fan-shot videos, it is hard to tell if that is the actual performance that is on the video! The footage (at least the footage I have seen) is quite poor in quality with no sound (on the video, sound has been dubbed on with the silent video), so while the footage is definitely from the first Las Vegas engagement in 1969, whether it is actually the 7/31/69 show is unclear!
There are also conflicting reports on the import CD entitled OPENING NIGHT 1969 that is out there....while the CD claims to the actual 7/31/69 show, some sources have said the show on the CD is actually from 8/1/69. Again, I don't know if it has ever been determined which show is actually contained on this CD, but it may not be the 7/31 show. Confused yet??
Sorry I can't really give you a clear-cut answer on this...there is just too much uncertainty surrounding the video/audio that is out there supposedly from this show! But I can tell you with 100% certainty that, at least as far as we know, RCA did not record the show and there is no professional video of the show out there (I say "as far as we know" because there is always a chance that something could turn up!)
TCB!
Mike
R.I.P. Tommy
We will miss you dearest friend
In a word.... yes!Originally Posted by jason7890
The Sun Never Sets On A Legend...
I have seen the 69 8mm fan film and it is like watching a shadow with an occasional better focus and picture. I'm sure its many generations removed from the original. I hope whoever has the original footage is keeping it well preserved
so some day a better version will surface.
There's only one way to tell if the recorded footage is from 31/7; by the clothes Elvis is wearing. During the opening night he wasn't wearing the famous karate outfit but the same black two-piece he also wore during the press conference of August 1st including the same scarf. If the footage is clear enough.....
The '69 footage that I have seen is so fuzzy, out of focus and shot from such a distance that aside from being able to tell Elvis is wearing something black, you can't really see enough to tell what color scarf Elvis is wearing, or if he is even wearing one!!
Has anyone seen any better '69 footage?? Perhaps someone else has seen some better footage so they can give us a bit more information on this...
TCB!
Mike
R.I.P. Tommy
We will miss you dearest friend
There's '69 footage that has been remastered and cleaned up really really nicely on a Dvd called 'Adrenaline'.The best footage from '69 ive ever seen
That's right. I have seen that footage but it's taken from a reasonable distance and the figure on stage is very small. But on that footage you can see that's it's not the July 31st performance. He's wearing his "Black Cossack Top Two-piece" so that must be August.
On the other hand it's my experience that just as you are willing to except the fact that some things just do not exist someone comes up with good quality stuff that make you eat your socks. To give an example; no one ever believed that Elvis wore the black jumpsuit with gold trim that was on display at Graceland for quit a time. For years we've been hoping but nothing happened. Until recently one faded picture turned up of Elvis wearing the **** thing. But one picture was all we needed.
The "Opening Night" CD is definitely not from opening night, or probably even the first 'regular' show (August 1), but it is most likely from the first week. The general consensus seems to be that it's the August 3 dinner show.
I own several "7/31/69" tapes because finding a recording of this show was always my Holy Grail. None are the actual show. In fact, the '69 shows circulated for years on tape are very confusing (as are many other such tapes, the 8/70 shows also being particularly bad), because they've so often been mislabeled and very frequently sold (or, as time went on, traded) as being several different shows. Some unscrupulous SOBs deliberately edited tapes or even changed sound quality just to come up with a 'new' show.
The very first tape I bought, 20 or 25 years ago (funny how time slips away), was supposedly an August 3 show but it turns out to be what is usually sold as an 8/6 show, but with "What'd I Say" edited out. One of my 7/31/69 opening shows was also sold to me (by the same person) as the 8/1/69 MS and was the same tape I later received as the 8/25/69 MS, this latter perhaps even the actual right date. The last tape I bought that was alleged to be the opening show was the soundboard that Fort Baxter later released -- a revelation, because it was the first soundboard tpae I'd heard and I hadn't even known, beyond occasional rumors, that such things existed. So no real surprise that the Fort Baxter release is misdated.
I know it's not the 7/31 show because contemporary accounts of that concert concur on the songs that Elvis did that night. I can't recall, offhand (my notes are in storage in another state), but I know "That's All Right" and "Johnny Be Goode" were supposedly performed and I think "One Night" was mentioned, too. I spent a lot of time poring through microfiche newspaper articles in the basement of a California university, back in the early '90s, looking for reviews of Elvis concerts from around the US, and found plenty of stories about the opening night in '69. So it's well documented but, alas, perhaps we'll never see it. It was rumored to have been recorded and in the Colonel's possession, and I vaguely recall a rumor that it would be on the "Elvis Aron Presley" box set in 1980, but I believe that Joan Deary cleared the Forst Baxter '69 show for release and so maybe that's the tape that everyone was whispering about.
As for the video, Ive seen various dates ascribed to the footage that I have. Again, fan-shot video has always been a problem, too, and it's common to buy (or trade) for the same footage under several different alleged dates. Similarly -- and I think I know who the major culprit has been -- sometimes dates have obviously just been made up. It's not uncommon for a video segment to be so heinously misdated that even the year is wrong.
I can't recall what dates I first saw on the two '69 clips that I've got. They were available as 8mm film copies 25 years ago and were presumably closer to the source, and I vaguely recal one of them allegedly being from opening night (actually, I kinda recall "July 26, 1969," a date that more than one author has somehow put on Elvis' Vegas opening). So that's no help. More recently I've seen them dated 8/12 and 8/14. Pulled from thin air? Who knows?
I'm a roving roustabout...
It sure is a shame this opening night show wasn't professionally record.
Tommy
I dream a world where man no other man
will scorn. Where LOVE will bless the earth
and peace its paths adorn...
What is the original song list for the TRUE opening show??? Do we really know???
try the concert database on elviscrawler
1969 july 31st, will we ever see anything?? sob sob!
it is too for me the "holy grail" can you tell me evrything you know on the opening night, my elvis books are currently being borrowed by a friend.
1969 july 31st, will we ever see anything?? sob sob!
I'll third that....yes, they would. No opening night footage of July 31, 1969 has ever surfaced. Besides, do we really think that those in attendance would have thought to film this performance? That's one thing that I think everyone is forgetting. Opening night was by invitation only. The general public wasn't allowed into the show that night.
Last edited by Tony Trout; 06-24-2008 at 02:29 PM.
IOpening Night 1969 Releaed by fort baxter was actually from the August 3rd 1969 Dinner Show. Not August 1st Tony.
"How do I get placed in situations like this? Ah hell, I guess it's all part of showbusiness "~ Elvis in his limo on his way to perform in Omaha, NE on June 19th 1977
IOpening Night 1969 Releaed by fort baxter was actually from the August 3rd 1969 Dinner Show. Not August 1st Tony.
I never said that the Fort Baxter "Opening Night" CD was from August 1, 1969......
No Sound, No video From The Opening Night 1969 ? I Can't Believe That !
I can because the general public didn't attend the show. Only celebrities were there that night. If it had been filmed, it would have surfaced by now. I think we should just be happy with what we do have and not complain about what we don't have (at least, in this instance).
Last edited by Tony Trout; 06-25-2008 at 09:00 AM.
I have always wondered why Elvis did not have one of his MM film some of the opening-just for his own review of how the show went? He was very concerned with this first engagement in years and had shown much attention to all aspects of the show-it would seem logical to want to actually see how it all came together.
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