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'68 Comeback Special, 1 of 2
In honor of the 36th anniversary of the filming of
Elvis' 1968 TV special and the much anticipated release "Elvis: '68
Comeback Special - Deluxe Edition DVD," we will take a look at the
people behind the scenes of this milestone in Elvis's life and career.
Elvis's manager Colonel Tom Parker began negotiations
with NBC in October of 1967 to produce an Elvis movie and a Christmas TV
special slated for the 1968 Christmas season. The agreement
was announced by NBC vice-president Tom Sarnoff on January 12, 1968.
Elvis's first television appearance in more than eight years would be a
Christmas special for which NBC would pay $250,000 and they would pay
$850,000 to produce an Elvis movie and an additional $25,000 for the
film's music. The movie "Change of Habit" was a product of this
agreement as well as the TV special "Elvis", also known as the "'68
Comeback Special."
Bob Finkel was the executive producer of the special.
He had produced the successful variety series "The Andy Williams Show"
for which he had Emmy nominated three years in a row. He won two -
one in 1966 and one in 1967.
None of the principals involved except Colonel Parker
wanted to make a typical (stale) Christmas show. They wanted to
use Elvis's innate charisma and energy to tell a story. By early
May 1968, Bob Finkel finally persuaded the Colonel to allow them to
change the concept of the show. NBC had acquired the Singer
Company as the special's sole sponsor of the show. Issac Merritt
Singer invented his version of the sewing machine in 1850 and by 1851
began his company. Over the years the name Singer would become
synonymous with sewing and innovations in that industry. By 1968
they had also branched out into other small appliances. Singer
executive Alfred D. Scipio was all for the new concept of a
semi-documentary featuring Elvis as an "innovator" in music.
A concept that complimented his product.
By mid-May Finkel hired 23-year-old Steve Binder to
direct and his partner Bones Howe to produce the music. Before the
love of music took over Steve Binder's life, he was a medical student at
the University of Southern California. After meeting some members
of the music industry he became interested iand found he had a natural
talent for directing musical productions. He directed the TV
series "Hullabaloo" which, along with the show "Shindig," were "must see
TV" for most all teenagers at that time. He had also directed the
1965 T.A.M.I. show which stands for "Teenage Music International,"
a foundation devoted to providing music scholarships to teens. The
two-hour documentary featured an array of musical talent that included
The Supremes, The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore,
Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Rolling Stones, Smokey Robinson & the
Miracles and James Brown. (Elvis had seen this show and was
impressed with it and especially the performance by James Brown.)
Binder had just finished producing and directing a Petula Clark special
and was fast becoming the hottest young director/producer of musical
specials in Los Angles. He went on after Elvis's special to be
nominated six times for Emmy Awards and received one for his work on the
1977 "The Barry Manilow Special." In recent years he has produced
and directed numerous Disney on Ice specials.
Dayton "Bones" Howe was the musical producer, an area he specializes in.
Having been a recording engineer at Radio Recorders in Los Angles, Mr.
Howe had worked with Elvis before.
When he first found out that NBC wanted Steve Binder to direct the
project, it was Howe who told him he would hit it off well with Elvis.
Bones Howe has since worked on such projects as "Back To the Future",
"National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation" and "A Walk On the Moon" among many
others.
The last two weeks of May, Elvis and his family and
friends vacationed in Hawaii. While he was away writers Chris
Beard and Allan Blye wrote the script which concerned a young man
leaving home, searching for happiness and a career, the obstacles
encountered and the eventual journey back home.
The song "Guitar Man" was decided upon as the theme link between
scenes.
The show would end with Elvis singing a Christmas song to appease
Colonel Parker as the show would air during the Christmas season.
Chris Beard was born in England and grew up in
Australia. He was a writer for the popular TV series "Laugh-In"
for which he won an Emmy Award in 1968. After Elvis's special he
produced a number of TV series including "The Sonny and Cher Comedy
Hour" for which he received four more Emmy nominations.
He also produced shows such as "The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle
Show", "The Gong Show", and "Sherman Oaks."
Beard worked closely with writer Allan Blye over the years .
Allan Blye has received 8 Emmy Award nominations of
his own.
He won two of them, one for "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and the
other for "Van Dyke and Company."
On June 3, 1968 Elvis began working with Binder and
Howe at their offices. As they got to know Elvis better and saw
how deeply he was affected by the June 6th death of Robert Kennedy,
Steve Binder was inspired to ask songwriter Earl Brown, who was writing
arrangements for the show, to write an inspirational song for the
finale. That song would become the much loved "If I Can Dream."
("...if I can dream of a better land where all my brothers walk hand in
hand....").
On June 11th, Elvis met costume designer Bill Belew.
Mr. Belew graduated from New York's The Parson's School of Design.
He served in the military in Korea and began designing for salons in
Japan. He worked in retail until he got involved in designing for
TV in the 1960s and would also eventually design for a number of
theatrical productions as well including operas and ballets. He
had worked previously with Steve Binder on the Petula Clark special.;
When Mr. Binder asked him to design for Elvis, it was the beginning a
relationship that would last for the rest of Elvis's life. Belew
designed Elvis's famous jumpsuits of the 1970s as well as much of his
personal wardrobe. It was Bill Belew who envisioned Elvis in black
leather with the high Napoleonic collar. As chronicled in Peter
Guralnick's book "Careless Love": "Elvis listened, nodded, and agreed to
virtually every suggestion that Belew made. The designer was
dumbfounded. He had never encountered such a lack of ego in a big star
before. The one subject about which they had any disagreement was the
gold suit that Belew designed to symbolize success, in homage to the
suit that Colonel (Parker) had had made up for Elvis in 1957. Elvis
never explained his opposition but was clearly embarrassed by it, and in
the end they worked out the same compromise solution that he had agreed
to in the fifties: he would wear the gold jacket with a pair of black
tuxedo pants."
Bill Belew has designed for many stars including Lena
Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Gloria Swanson, Lynn Redgrave, Florence
Henderson, Brooke Shields, Jaclyn Smith, Joan Rivers, Gladys Knight,
Dolly Parton, Gloria Estefan, Milton Berle, Doc Severensen, Mac Davis,
Ronnie Milsap and The Osmonds among others. His work garnered him a 1980
Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Costume Design for the "The
Carpenters: Music, Music, Music".
He recently has worked on the TV series "Your Big Break."
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