Article on black & white "Elvis In Concert" tapes by Wade Williams

[elvis4life]

https://www.thethings.com/elvis-presley ... rformance/

Elvis Presley's Last Recorded Performance Never Aired

By Jessica Tucker
Published Mar 13, 2024

Elvis Presley's death took the world by surprise. But for his inner circle, no one was aware that Presley was using illicit substances, nor did they know the ailments that he was suffering from — and no one knew about Elvis' secret room in his mansion, either. After years of battling glaucoma, vertigo, back pain, insomnia, an autoimmune disease, and more, and using prescription and non-prescription drugs to battle them, Presley's body had enough. At the age of 42 years old, Presley passed away.

The last concert that Presley had was in Indianapolis on June 26, 1977. While there were some bobbles in the performance and the fact that he appeared bloated from his vital organs shutting down, Presley sounded like the same, soulful self he did when first starting out in the music industry. It would be just several weeks after this concert that Presley would die from cardiac arrest.

Before the Indianapolis performance, a South Dakota concert on June 21, 1977, that CBS recorded for a special about Presley took place. The special was aired after Presley passed as a tribute to The King. What was not known was that there was footage of Elvis Presley's performance that was kept private long after his death. Footage that showed Presley behind the scenes gave a peek into the life Presley lived. It also shed light on Prelsey's private life, which was not so glamorous, and had never before been seen.

Hours Of Video Was Shot Of Elvis Presley's Final Performance In South Dakota
The sound engineer/recorder, Wade Williams, recorded four and a half hours of footage showing Elvis Presley

When Presley performed in Rapid City, hours of footage was shot. Everything from what Presley did to get prepared to go on stage to the performance itself. Interviews of those in Presley's inner circle were recorded to splice together to create a piece for fans to enjoy who could not see Presley in person.

That is the footage that CBS got. What the network did not get was what went on when Presley was talking candidly to those in his inner circle. CBS did not get what happened in the dressing room. The network did not get intimate details of what Presley was like before a concert. There was a great deal of footage that painted Presley in a different light than what fans saw.

This footage was not done without Presley's consent. It was standard for television vans to view on monitors what was being recorded by the cameras. However, instead of being in color, it was in black and white. There was the option to record or not by the recording/audio engineer and the engineer, Wade Williams, chose to record.

In most instances, the black-and-white footage would not be used for anything because the quality was subpar. But, after Presley passed away, Williams recognized that he had something in his possession that would be valuable to collectors.

He took the four and a half hours of film and put it in a bank safe. It was not discovered that this footage existed until 1986, when Williams tried to sell it to pay for medical bills after suffering a string of heart attacks.

The asking price was $500,000.

Unfortunately, Williams passed away before the film sold, and no one but Williams had seen the film in his possession. This was of interest to fans in the years after Presley's death, contrary to the backlash that CBS received for airing Presley's final taped performance just two months after his death.

CBS Received Backlash For Airing Elvis Presley's Final Performance Two Months After His Death
CBS' Elvis Presley special was seen as controversial for showing Elvis Presley in poor health in the weeks before his death

In the weeks after Presley's death, CBS moved quickly to splice their footage together so that they could put out their special. In addition to what was filmed when Presley was alive, CBS also filmed Presley's father, Vernon, for an interview at the end of the special. It was intended to be a tribute to Presley, but was instead met with backlash and seen as controversial instead.

"It was shot on Elvis’ final tour for a one-hour CBS-TV special, Elvis in Concert," author Alanna Nash, who wrote, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley, Elvis and the Memphis Mafia and Baby, Let’s Play House: Elvis Presley and the Women Who Loved Him, explained.

"The special, which aired two months after Presley’s death in August 1977, was immediately controversial, mostly for the ethics of shining the spotlight on a man so shaky and obviously ill, whose performances ranged wildly from embarrassing and sad to brilliant and triumphant. Elvis Presley Enterprises chose not to release it on home video, though footage has been available on bootlegs for years."

Priscilla Presley even felt that a later film tarnished Elvis' reputation, something fans have long worried about.

To date, many people have seen the 1977 concert special. However, what has not been seen is the footage that Williams recorded. The footage was eventually auctioned off not just once but twice, without the names of those who purchased the footage being revealed.

Elvis Presley's Final Performance Was Put Up For Auction
Wade Williams' footage was placed up for auction in 2008 and 2013

After Williams died, his widow decided to put the footage up for auction in 2008. Instead of going to an auction house, however, Williams' widow took to eBay. The reserve on the auction was $200,000, despite the footage having an appraisal valuation of $418,000 in 2004.

It is unclear what the final purchase price was for the footage. However, it would not be the last time that the final recorded Presley performance would be put up for auction.

In 2013, the footage again went up for auction. At that time, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the auction house Mecum Celebrity Items Auction out of Santa Monica was responsible for facilitating the sale.

While the auction made headlines, what did not is who purchased the footage or for what price. Since 2013, it has remained a mystery as to where the four and a half hours of footage has gone that shows Presley in the last weeks of his life.

Presley fans from all over the world would be interested in viewing the lost footage to gain insight on the singer who has been admired for decades.

[rockinrebel]

Black and white VHS copies started to circulate before the colour tapes. Quality wise they were not much better, although at least the colours weren't dragging. Whether these were from the source discussed above is anybody's guess, but I don't recall seeing anything that wasn't included in the colour tapes that we now see in sets such as The Final Curtain etc.

[elvis-fan]

Footage of Elvis on stage (from both shows) has been available to the fans for years... as awful as some of it is. Beyond that, I can't imagine what would be worth seeing. Rest assured there is no additional footage of Elvis in his dressing room aside from what has already been seen because the camera's simply weren't allowed in by Joe.

What was not known was that there was footage of Elvis Presley's performance that was kept private long after his death. Footage that showed Presley behind the scenes gave a peek into the life Presley lived. It also shed light on Prelsey's private life, which was not so glamorous, and had never before been seen.

When Presley performed in Rapid City, hours of footage was shot. Everything from what Presley did to get prepared to go on stage to the performance itself. Interviews of those in Presley's inner circle were recorded to splice together to create a piece for fans to enjoy who could not see Presley in person.

.
If there's even a shred of truth to either of those two statements, I'll eat my hat...

[Johnny2523]

I believe there was a clip of this on youtube once right? With the black and white version of my way with a timer on it?

[Alexander72]

I don't believe there is anything of Elvis In Concert we have not seen before in the footage floating around and released by bootleggers. Apart from that, the dressing room footage where Elvis received the Sioux Nation Award from then-Mayor of Rapid City Art LaCroix, Sharon Brave and Monique (the 10 year old girl) shows Elvis in such poor condition – bloated, sweating profusely and barely able to speak – that I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea that more of this footage exists. I love some of the performances in Rapid City, but the backstage footage is just not how I wish to remember my hero.

[elvis4life]

I believe there was a clip of this on youtube once right? With the black and white version of my way with a timer on it?

[elvis-fan]

I believe there was a clip of this on youtube once right? With the black and white version of my way with a timer on it?

.
Funny how there's absolutely nothing on there we haven't seen before... I wonder why he never got his $500k...

[elvis-fan]

After Williams died, his widow decided to put the footage up for auction in 2008. Instead of going to an auction house, however, Williams' widow took to eBay. The reserve on the auction was $200,000, despite the footage having an appraisal valuation of $418,000 in 2004.

It is unclear what the final purchase price was for the footage. However, it would not be the last time that the final recorded Presley performance would be put up for auction.

In 2013, the footage again went up for auction. At that time, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the auction house Mecum Celebrity Items Auction out of Santa Monica was responsible for facilitating the sale.

.
There is also no evidence to support any of this nonsense...

[rockinrebel]

There was definitely a b/w video dub. I had a copy before the colour tapes started to circulate, but there was nothing on there that isn't circulating in colour now.

Also, I agree with Elvis-fan that aside from the medallion of life presentation, there's no way they would have allowed cameras into the dressing room.

The idea that Elvis would engage in interviews etc. is also wide of the mark. The contract Elvis signed stipulated that he wouldn't have to do anything beyond his regular stage show. Which was probably a major factor in why he signed it, as he clearly didn't have the motivation (or the required levels of physical health) to do anything else.

Let's not forget that whilst Rapid City is a very good show for the period, Omaha was a disaster - so with 50% of the concert film in the can, the idea of whether CBS would have enough footage suitable for broadcast was very much in the balance...

[dougkapp]

I don't believe there is anything of Elvis In Concert we have not seen before in the footage floating around and released by bootleggers. Apart from that, the dressing room footage where Elvis received the Sioux Nation Award from then-Mayor of Rapid City Art LaCroix, Sharon Brave and Monique (the 10 year old girl) shows Elvis in such poor condition – bloated, sweating profusely and barely able to speak – that I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea that more of this footage exists. I love some of the performances in Rapid City, but the backstage footage is just not how I wish to remember my hero.

I think this excerpt is one of the most disconcerting and terrible parts of Elvis In Concert. You can see that Elvis is completely out of it, he can barely focus his eyes. I think if they had put a bed in the dressing room, he would have laid down and never gotten up again.
Reading Peter Guralnick's book, I get the impression that he spent the year of 1977 in this state of medication/intoxication.

At the end of the video, we see Vernon and Ginger just smiling. Did they not realize the seriousness of the situation?

[lechersteve]

It was 1986 when Wade Williams first attempted to market his B & W tapes. If you’ll go back in time, no outtakes floated around the Elvis market until the later 90’s, so Williams did have a desirable item to sell. Problem was he asked way too much for them, especially since they could not be used for any commercial purpose.

I contacted Wade at the time and offered my opinion that he was seeking too much and that I couldn’t pay that for them nor would I if I could. Still, I offered to pay him a fee to just watch these tapes together and he agreed.

Amazingly, it turned out he didn’t have the complete concerts. He didn’t start taping the Omaha show until about Fairytale so he had the rest of that concert. How Great Thou Art featured a couple of alternate angles and I enjoyed seeing and hearing the Omaha versions of Hurt, Now Or Never, and I Really Don’t Want to Know. I thought they were pretty good but inferior to the Rapid City versions.

Next, he had a lot of footage of the crews setting up the stage in Rapid City. We watched for awhile but it was boring and we advanced to the footage of Elvis getting out of the limo, walking to his dressing room, meeting up with the mayor and Monique, and then coming out of the dressing room and walking to the stage. Of course this was thrilling to see and Wade was certain that the producers of the show did not have some of it. He also believed that Elvis was caught in the act of taking drugs when the door opened and Elvis was using an inhaler. I didn’t argue with him.

Obviously, this was the first time I saw that Elvis stopped See See Rider mid-song or watched him perform I Gotta Woman, Love Me, If You Love Me, and the highlights Tryin’ To Get To You and Now Or Never. I was really enjoying this and couldn’t wait to see and hear Unchained Melody. I saw My Way, with a couple alternate camera angles, and then into the introductions. Unbelievably, the tape stopped and Wade explained that at this point he ran out of videotape. No Hurt, no Unchained, no alternate version of Can’t Help Falling In Love. As much as I had seen, I was still disappointed in how it ended but I was gracious and appreciative.

Wade died within 6 months of our visit and his wife told me he enjoyed our visit. I did not become aware of any bootlegged versions of this material until color copies of both concerts showed up around 1998/99.