That's The Way It Was

If you're an Elvis fan, it would be hard not to know that this month marks the 50th anniversary of Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, the original theatrical documentary film, directed by Denis Sanders that focused on Elvis' Summer Festival engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in August 1970. It was released in the U.S on November 11, 1970, and in the UK, on April 25, 1971, and was his first non-dramatic film since the beginning of his movie career in 1956. 

Although the majority of the film took place on stage at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, there were several other parts to the film that took place elsewhere, such as the opening credits sequence which was shot at Elvis’ show at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix on September 9, 1970, which marked the first show of Elvis’ first tour in 13 years. The rest of the film showed Elvis and his band rehearsing at the MGM Studios in Culver City, California, and inside the showroom and convention centre of the International in Las Vegas. Additional footage took cinema audiences to an Elvis Appreciation Society convention in Luxembourg that was filmed on September 5, 1970 where Radio Luxembourg DJs Tony Prince and Peter Aldersley were on hand to lead the festivities. A tandem bicycle owned by Elvis (which I was lucky enough to ride around Heanor in Derbyshire during my fan club branch leader days) was raffled off to a lucky fan in the audience. Additionally, various musicians are seen performing their own versions of Elvis’ songs. The movie also featured interviews with an assortment of “fans,” interviewed and seen throughout the movie in small segments.

As Ann Moses, the editor of Tiger Beat magazine observed in her website article, Yes, I Was In An Elvis Movie, there was the nerdy guy who calls Elvis “The Willie Mayes of entertainment,” and tells Denis “If I don’t like your film I’m going to write you a dirty little letter.” There’s the church lady who tells us that being an Elvis fan is “more than just following his music, real Elvis fans devote part of their lives to him.” and then there's the 50ish grey haired woman and her 80ish white haired mother, who says she likes Elvis, “because he’s a religious boy and he respects his parents.” And the daughter tells us, “He puts so much into a show. Mother likes lots of action. She doesn’t like it when they shoot him from the waist up. She likes to see him move and I admit I do too. He sets my Phi Beta Kappa key a janglin’.” 

 

 

 

And of course, there's the interview with Ann who told us, “It’s so hard to describe what an Elvis fan is. It’s like a phenomenon like falling in love. You can’t describe how it happens, it’s just you’re in love and you know it, and it’s the same with being an Elvis fan. I always go to every opening. I cover them for the New Musical Express in England, but even if I didn’t write for the paper, l know I’d be there. I just couldn’t miss it.”

The movie was recut in 2001 and released as a new special edition version with remastered picture and sound in March of that year, for which I attended the premiere at the Warner West End multiplex in Leicester Square. The new version eliminated much of the documentary material and non-Elvis content to make room for additional performances of Elvis rehearsing and in concert. Oddly enough, the new edition ran 12 minutes shorter than the original, so there seems no valid reason to cut out and omit the interviews or some of the originally included songs, including most notably, the film's biggest hit, the concert performance of I Just Can't Help Believin', even though the new version still retained footage of Elvis being concerned about remembering the lyrics and asking them to be placed on a stool on stage.

It would have been much better if the special edition had left the original version intact with new additional unseen footage added, and been reworked as an "Extended Cut" version for DVD and Blu ray instead of theatrical. Obviously the perfect version would have been a "Director's Cut" but as Dennis Sanders passed away in 1987, that wasn't possible.

Personally I prefer the original 1970 version from a nostalgic point of view and although many fans wouldn't agree, l think it has a better vibe as that was how it was released and cut for theatrical release, and is long overdue for a remastered 4K version!  Yes there are some cringe worthy moments and scenes but feel the continuity, pacing and editing is better and despite the cringe moments, it has a better feel to it! And above all that is how we all remember it! When ever I watch That's The Way It Is at home, I always go for the 1970 version because of it's time piece value, its more of the period and  has in my opinion, a better feel and vibe to it! Above all else it gives us an idea of what it must have been like to see Elvis in person in 1970!

Although the one day cinema presentation of the film in August this year was a #1 box office hit in the UK, l still feel it should have been the original 1970 version that was shown rather than the 2001 re-edited special edition! If the one day presentation was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the movie, then surely it should have been the original, not the recut version.

Postscript

For those interested to know what happened to Elvis' tandem bicycle, pictured above, it was purchased by Ian Baily in 1974 from the second owner, and according to Ian, it was in a sorry state (wheels rusty, spokes missing). Ian had it for 20 years where it was housed at the Heanor Record Centre in Derby, but in the end decided to give it to his son Scott who was setting himself up in business. But before that, after Ian had it refurbished at a great cost to restore it to its original condition when Elvis owned it to ride around movie lots during his Hollywood years, he decided to put it up for auction in Las Vegas with Bothams after he offered it to Graceland, who offered him peanuts for it. It now belongs to a collector in Texas.

Special thanks to Tony King for the header photo, adapted from the 

original dust jacket of the 1971 Jerry Hopkins biography