Elvis Talks About His Career

I'd like to talk to you just a little
Bit, ladies and gentlemen, about...
Whatcha gonna do? Oh, got a match?
About how I got in this business and when, a lot
Of things that happened from my side of the story
Uh, there's a lot to come out about what
Happened, but never from my side, you know
Be still, be still
Uh, so, uh, I started out as a child- no, wrong, wrong
I started out when I was just out of high school
I was driving a truck and I was training to be an electrician
And I got wired the wrong way, baby, that's what happened to me
I, uh, one day on my lunch break I went into a
Uh, hot dog- hot dog, no, a record company
To, uh, to make a record for my own use, you know
I really wasn't trying to get into the business
So, uh, I cleared my throat and he ran me out
Uh, so, uh, I made a record for my own use and, uh
The guy put the record out about a year and a half later
So just overnight in my hometown people were-
It started getting a lot of reaction
People were saying, "Who is he? What is he? Is he? Is he?" You know
I didn't know, I'm saying, "Am I? Am I?"
So, uh, I had sideburns, you know, long hair
Fourteen years ago it was weird, you know
You think it's weird now, fourteen years
Ago I couldn't walk down the street, man
"Get him! Get him! He's a squirrel, man," you know
So I was going, "Hmph! Hmph!" you know, shaking
In fact, that's how I got in this business, was shaking
Uh, maybe how I get out of it too, heh
So anyway, the guy put the record out and it became pretty
Big in my hometown, Memphis, and, uh, you know, hehe
Uh, and in certain parts of the country it
Got to be pretty big and pretty well known
But nobody really knew who I was, so I was working little
Nightclubs and little football fields and little alleys, you know
And little weird-looking rooms with little things
Crawling around the ceiling looking at you, you know
And, uh, I did it for like a year and a half
Then in 1956 I met, uh, Colonel Sanders- Parker, Parker
So they arranged to put me on television
And at that particular time there was a lot of
Controversy if you didn't see people moving out in public
They were getting it on in the back rooms, but you
Didn't see it, you know, out in public too much
So there was a lot of controversy and I went
On the, uh, the, uh, Jackie Gleason Show first
I did three of the Jackie Gleason Show
And, uh, then I went to the Ed Sullivan Show, you know
And, uh, Sullivan, uh, let me see, they
Photographed me from the waist up, you know
And Sullivan's standing over there saying, "Son of a bitch," you know
Uh, so, uh, you know, I said, "Thank you, Ed, thank you"
I didn't know what he was calling me at the time, you know
Uh, so I did that and I did the Sullivan Show two
Or three times and I went to the Steve Allen Show
And they were gonna tame me down, you know
So they had me dressed in a tuxedo, had
Me singing to a dog on a stool, you know
And I'm singing to this dog, you know, "You ain't nothing
But a hound dog" and he's going "Hmph! Hmph!" you know
So they put the dog away, you know, in another room
And, uh, so then my next move was Hollywood
Uh, that's how it happens, you get a record and
Then you get on television and you go to Hollywood
So I wasn't ready for that town and they wasn't ready for me, you know
So, uh, I did, uh, uh, Love Me Tender and
Uh, Loving You and, uh, Loving Her- no
Loving, uh, Jail- Jailhouse Rock I did, and King Creole
So I did four pictures and I was getting used to- thank you
I was getting used to the movie star bit, you know, pretty good
I was, had a pair of sunglasses and riding in the
Back of a Cadillac, my feet up on the seats, you
Know, saying, "I'm a movie star, hmph! Hmph! Hmph!"
They said, "Watch him, boy, he's squirrely," you know
So, uh, I was living it up, you know
Eating hamburgers and drinking Pepsis
And, uh, then, uh, I got drafted
And, uh, so overnight it was- it all changed, you know
And at first in the service the guys just
Watched me, see what I was gonna do, you know
"What's he gonna do?" you know
I was standing over there going, "Tsk, tsk, tsk"
They saw I was doing the same thing that they were, they started
To come around and talk, you know, and everything went okay
Uh, I've had people ask me, was it harder
On me or was it easier and so forth
It was pretty- it was about the same, they didn't make it any harder
Or any easier on me, you know, it was just like everybody else
The only trouble I had, like I said, was in the
Barracks at night with a rifle going, "Pew! Pew!"
You know, they said, "Well, put him in a garbage
Can, man, he's a stone-cold freak," you know
So, uh, anyway, the guys in the service get awfully
Lonely because they call each other "mother" a lot
And, uh, I picked it up, you know
I came back to Hollywood- I came back to Hollywood
And, uh, it didn't go over too well, you know
I'd go up to some director and I'd say, "Hey
Mother!" and he'd say, "Get him out of here, boy!"
So anyway, I went back to making pictures, I made G
I. Blues and, uh, uh, let me see, what else did I do?
Uh, Blue Hawaii, yeah
Blue Hawaii, Viva Las Vegas and, uh, Viva
Las Vegas and, uh, Girls, Girls, Girls
And a little 8mm black and white underground film that
Hasn't come out yet, you know, they're still editing it
Uh, and anyway, I got into a rut in Hollywood
You know, I was making picture after picture
And, uh, I got into a rut, which was just
Off Sunset Boulevard, I had this big rut
I was down there and I said, "Get me out of this rut!"
They said, "Stay down there, you got long hair anyway, you fool"
So, uh, Lord have mercy, uh, poke salad
So anyway, uh, the whole point of telling you the story
Is that I was missing contact with a live audience
And, uh, it's really, uh, really great to be back
Working again, I just wanted to tell you, that's all
Uh, I can't play this thing, a little bit
They've crippled me, man
They told me to clean up the act, so I gotta clean up the act
That's it
Just, heh, and it starts off slow and tapers off to nothing, you know
Took me a long time to learn that, boy, I'll tell you for sure
Uh, missed it, missed it, missed it
Go back, go back, do it again, do it again