40th Anniversary of Elvis Presley's Comeback in Las Vegas

Last week it was the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing we celebrated.  This Thursday, it will be the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley's comeback at the International Hotel (now the Las Vegas Hilton).  Send us your Elvis memories and we'll post them as part of our tribute to the King on Thursday.

In the meantime, our pal Mike Weatherford writes:

In a few weeks, everyone will be remembering Elvis Presley on the day he died, Aug. 16. On Thursday, Las Vegas should pay more attention to the day he was reborn, one that changed things around here for keeps.

Thursday is the 40th anniversary of Elvis' debut at the International Hotel, now the Las Vegas Hilton. If you take Elvis seriously, cue up "Suspicious Minds." If you goof on him, make yourself a peanut butter and banana sandwich. Just don't ignore it.

At the time, the Elvis comeback took a back seat to the lingering euphoria over the moon landing. But this giant step for Vegas-kind still echoes all around town, from wedding chapels to the next big Cirque du Soleil, due at CityCenter in December.

Ken Sharp, a Los Angeles writer and producer, first called me a year and a half ago for contacts on a book about Presley's live comeback in Las Vegas. Last week, he was excited to have received his first copy of "Elvis '69," which has its formal release during "Elvis week" at Graceland next month.

"This was a guy who was able to come home again," Sharp says. And not just because Presley was treated like an oddity during an ill-advised New Frontier showroom run in 1956.

In the bigger picture, Presley had shaken the diminished returns of his movie career with his 1968 comeback TV special. In the recording studio, he regained his credibility with hits such as "If I Can Dream" and "In The Ghetto."

The last component was to sing again in front of a ticket-buying audience. When the curtain went up at the International, "He looked great, was in great shape, energized and confident," Sharp says.

Well, maybe not as confident as he looked. Comedian Sammy Shore was the opening act, and he distinctly remembers a clammy palm when he shook hands with the star backstage.

Elvis won't be back in the building, but Shore -- a Summerlin resident and father of comedian Pauly -- will be at the Hilton on Thursday as part of a fan gathering.

Shore's book, "The Man Who Made Elvis Laugh," generates "e-mails from all around the world," he says. Still, when reminded it has been 40 years, he's a little surprised. "That's amazing."

Cirque is giving the Beatles "Love" treatment to the King with its still untitled Elvis show set for Aria. Cirque's Web site now carries three short promotional videos, revealing it will be the company's first with "acting moments" spoken in English.

In a video clip, director Vincent Paterson notes that after staging tours for Madonna and Michael Jackson, "It seems sort of appropriate that Elvis is next in line."

He says that as though Elvis is still alive. And in Las Vegas, that's probably the way it should be.

Las Vegas, in the 20th Century

Zula Beauty Shop, Main Street, 1930s

The Mint, Walter Zick and Harris Sharpe

Come on, Baby needs a new pair of shoes

A Quainter Time

Young Love, Las Vegas-Style

The Hotel Beauty Shop

Frank Sinatra and Lauren Bacall, the late 1950s

The Moulin Rouge, 1955

Showgirl Kim Smith

Fremont Street, 1955

Just one more gambler, please Lord.

Thanks to Allen Sandquist and Life Magazine for use of the photos.

Las Vegas Neon Memories

Somerset Shopping Center

Cactus Motel

Desert Rose Motel, sign is in the Neon Boneyard

El Sombrero on Main Street

Ted Weens Firestone

Fremont Street, 198

Hill Top Supper Club, closed

Pair-a-Dice Motel

La Concha sign, in the Neon Boneyard

Starlite Motel in Northtown

Tacos Mexico, formerly a Denny's

The Moon Landing, Las Vegas Memories

"But the world all stopped to watch it, yeah, on that July afternoon,

They watched a man named Armstrong walk upon the moon"  John Stewart, "Armstrong"

Has it really been forty years?  It doesn't seem that long ago.  But the calendar and the television specials all say that forty years have passed since that fateful day on July 20th.

On May 25th, 1961, President Kennedy had said "First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."

America rolled up its sleeves and got out its slide rules.  We had put Alan Shepard into space and John Glenn was slated to go next.  The Mercury Astronauts caught not only the imagination of the country but of the world.  Every little boy and girl it seemed wanted to either be the Beatles or an astronaut.

I wanted to be an astronaut but slide-rules and math confounded the crap out of me.  And they still do.

We rolled out of bed in the early, early hours of the morning to watch the launches, breaths held as the countdown went down to zero and the button was pushed.

Televisions were rolled into schoolrooms around the country, including Las Vegas, so that we could track their progress.

The Mercury astronauts gave way to the Gemini Project and Ed White became the first American to walk in space.

Each step brought us closer to the goal of going to the moon.  All of this during a decade of turmoil and conflict the likes of which this country hadn't seen in a hundred years.  The Civil Rights movement, the loss of JFK, the Vietnam War, the youth movement, free speech, the anti-war movement, the silent majority are part of our history of the 1960s.

But through it all, even in the dark days (and we had our share of dark, dark days back then), the resolve to complete JFK's dream of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade stayed strong. 

We lost Mercury astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom, the beloved Ed White and Roger Chaffee on the launch pad in the  Apollo One fire in 1967 and for a brief moment our resolve wavered.  But instead of scraping the idea, NASA and the country moved forward determined to solve the problems and hold the course.

In December of 1968, Apollo Eight with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Williams Anders became, not only the first Americans, but the first ever to orbit the moon.  That Christmas Eve they read Bible passages to the world from outer space.

As the 1960s were coming to a close, the decade seemed to be imploding on itself.  What had once seemed like a shining, optimistic beacon had become the very opposite.  Death, violence and drugs had taken over and the decade seemed like it was spiraling out of control.

But on a July afternoon in 1969, that shining optimism was recaptured and reborn as the Lunar Module with Neil Armstrong and "Buzz" Aldrin landed on the moon.

Around the world, people stopped what they were doing to watch history being made.

In Las Vegas, it was a Sunday afternoon.  At our house, we stopped and watched.

In the casinos on Fremont Street and on the Las Vegas Strip, gamblers were doing what they do best, gambling away.

Televisions had been set up around the casinos on both Fremont Street and the Strip so that patrons could watch if they wanted to.

Growing up in Las Vegas, we all know how difficult it is to get gamblers away from the tables and we know the stories of how it is next to impossible to get people to leave slot machines.

But on the Sunday afternoon up and down Fremont Street and up and down the Strip, they did just that. 

They stopped gambling to watch Neil Armstrong descend from the lunar module and "take one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" before erupting in applause and tears.

It was a shared historic moment felt the world over and that included Las Vegas.

I know what you're thinking.  They could have gone upstairs to their rooms and watched.

But it was one of those moments in history when you wanted to be with other people and share the experience.

The Space Race which had begun twelve years earlier with the launch of Sputnik One by the Russians ended with Americans landing on the moon.

We had completed the dream that President Kennedy had set forth eight years earlier with slide rules, mainframe computers and American ingenuity.

And the world held their breath and then cheered with delight as Neil Armstrong set foot upon the moon, July 20th 1969.

The 1960s would all but officially come to a close two and half weeks later with the Manson Family killing spree in Los Angeles.

But, for a brief shining moment on that fateful July afternoon, we reminded ourselves and the world of what the best of America could be.

Turner Classic Movies will highlight the anniversary of the Moon Landing this evening with Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin as guest programmer with TCM host, Robert Osborne.

Films include "For All Mankind" and my personal favorite, "The Right Stuff".  You know where I'll be.

A historical footnote:

The only other time that televisions were rolled into casinos and bars on the Strip and Downtown was in the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in November, 1963.  Like the moon landing, patrons could have gone to their rooms to watch the coverage.

Instead they huddled in bars, lounges and around televisions in the casinos following the reports.

Chester Sims, general manager of the Flamingo that fateful weekend, always maintained the Flamingo closed its casino.

On September 11th, 2001, television screens were the norm in bars and in the sports bars so that televisions didn't have to be rolled into casino areas.