The Roadshow Begins

1969, 1970, 1971 tours

Was the 1969 Las Vegas comeback to be a route into performing live on tour, was Elvis going to turn into a cabaret performer - strictly for after dinner entertainment. In January 1970 he went back to Vegas for another month worth of shows, and then decided to test the waters out there in the big wide world. He took his travelling circus to Houston, Texas on February 27 for a scheduled six concerts in three days. These were to be his first live shows in a real auditorium if the Astrodome can be described that way for eight years. He'd had a lot of practice in Las Vegas but the Houston shows were a different ball-game. For one thing he would be playing in front of over 30,000 people every night.

One Billion Tune In

The Hawaii TV Special and the 1973 Tours

By 1973 Elvis had played his way around most of the major cities in the United States. Ever since his return to live touring in 1970, there had been rumors and expectations that he might play abroad. Fans in Britain and the rest of Europe Australia and Japan had been faithful to him for many years. And for many years they kept up the pressure to try to get him to play concerts in their countries. The Colonel’s answer to this was to arrange a television show that would be broadcast all over the world simultaneously, via the new wonders of satellirte transmission. The result was one of the biggest audiences in world television history and a failure to satisfy Elvis's overseas fans.

Live shows January to August, 1977

On the surface things seemed fairly well on track for Elvis. During 1977 he to time for a couple of vacations in Palm Springs and Hawaii. He had gotten I weight down, and there were a string of sold-out tours to take him through 1 year. CBS was going to film one of the concerts for another TV special. In his personal life he had found a new companion, and he was enjoying making records at his home studio in Graceland. But this all masked a harsher reality. Before each tour Elvis was being prescribed large quantities of stimulants a tranquilizers. He refused to attend a recording session in Nashville. He was hospitalized half-way through his second tour, and his output of new music h declined to zero.